# Waiter/waitress rants **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 31, 2010, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357 "2010-05-31T06:07:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/21 "2010-05-31T19:26:03Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > A potential customer asking a representative of a place of business about the products and services they have to offer? > > Nooooo! When will it end? The horror! How dare they! Has anybody else noticed the signal to noise ratio around here dropping recently, or am I just in a bad mood? I mean, WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/22 "2010-05-31T19:36:46Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Has anybody else noticed the signal to noise ratio around here dropping recently, or am I just in a bad mood? I mean, WTF? I’m actually quite shocked at the level of civility in this thread. When I read the OP, while I sympathized completely, I was absolutely certain someone would come in and go, “Oh my god, _doing your job_ made you cry? Maybe you better find another line of work, honey. :rolleyes:” That there’s only been one sneering post in 20 is absolutely astonishing. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/23 "2010-05-31T19:46:50Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > I’m actually quite shocked at the level of civility in this thread. When I read the OP, while I sympathized completely, I was absolutely certain someone would come in and go, “Oh my god, _doing your job_ made you cry? Maybe you better find another line of work, honey. :rolleyes:” That there’s only been one sneering post in 20 is absolutely astonishing. Yeah, fair enough. I’m in kind of a pissy mood, so I should probably just stay out of the Pit. Plus, I made my living for a long, long time as a waiter/bartender, so I sympathize utterly with the OP. Many has been the night that I have worked so hard on the floor that I went home and waited tables in my sleep. Ick. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/24 "2010-05-31T21:44:53Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > I have an in-law with whom I always dread dining out because I have never been to a dinner with that person that food was not sent back at least once. Even when neither this person nor this person’s spouse is footing the bill, this person simply has a need to call attention by claiming poor cuisine and generally being less than pleasant. > Some people are just like that. Grr, yes. I know someone who when we go to a restaurant, damned near every time she’ll bitch about food not coming out hot enough or otherwise not be to her taste. It feels like she pulls that stunt just so she can feel special and catered to. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/25 "2010-05-31T21:59:26Z")
> [@Mississippienne](#): > > The french fries thing took me aback a little, because, well, this isn’t a restaurant you’d walk into and reasonably expect would have french fries. Customers ask me all the time what we have for kids, but we don’t really have any ‘little kid food’; chicken nuggets, french fries, that sort of thing. I might could cut up some avocado or sell you a slice of tiramisu, that’s about it. If your kids won’t eat ‘grown-up food’ or don’t like ethnic food, this probably isn’t the restaurant for you. Just out of curiosity, what type of ethnic food does your restaurant serve? Also, what is the average tipping rate in your city? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/26 "2010-05-31T22:43:33Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > I have an in-law with whom I always dread dining out because I have never been to a dinner with that person that food was not sent back at least once. Even when neither this person nor this person’s spouse is footing the bill, this person simply has a need to call attention by claiming poor cuisine and generally being less than pleasant. When dining out with my mother, the various members of my family have taken to leaving something extra on the table, as she is a truly terrible tipper. ---
**Author:** ![atomicbadgerrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/27 "2010-05-31T23:26:09Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Where I work, 18% gratuity is included automatically, and it’s calculated before deducting for any discounts. Y’all can add me to your list of rants too 😛 No need to rant about that, as long as it’s stated up front. 18% is my low-ball tip anyway, so if you just do your job, you get at least that on any given day. If you suck so bad that I’d give you less than that, I have no problems letting the manager know I’d like it removed from the bill. So far, no manager has refused to remove it. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/28 "2010-06-01T00:14:40Z")
> [@atomicbadgerrace](#): > > No need to rant about that, as long as it’s stated up front. 18% is my low-ball tip anyway, so if you just do your job, you get at least that on any given day. If you suck so bad that I’d give you less than that, I have no problems letting the manager know I’d like it removed from the bill. So far, no manager has refused to remove it. Just what I came in to say. I’m cool with auto gratuity, but you better tell me that. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/29 "2010-06-01T00:26:01Z")
Why else do you think they call them Restau **rants**? ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/30 "2010-06-01T01:04:55Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Why else do you think they call them Restau **rants**? Because “restaurcockroaches” did surprisingly poorly in the focus groups. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/31 "2010-06-01T01:59:23Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > There are some people who WILL NOT be made happy by anything you do. Once you accept that, and realize that they have to live with themselves, but you only have to interact with them for an hour or two, you’ll be happier. Right. My (admittedly limited) experience in jobs dealing with the general public says that a small percentage don’t want to be pleased and will go out of their way to be disagreeable. The employee’s job is simply to do her best, and when a customer isn’t happy with that to shrug and say “Well, can’t win 'em all.” IOW, you do well not to get emotionally invested in any particular outcome. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/32 "2010-06-01T03:45:05Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Grr, yes. I know someone who when we go to a restaurant, damned near every time she’ll bitch about food not coming out hot enough or otherwise not be to her taste. It feels like she pulls that stunt just so she can feel special and catered to. See now, tonight I had a lady flip out at me because I wouldn’t give her party of 7 a 15% discount (my boss would rip my still-beating heart from my chest if I did something that stupid). She rants at me and says she’s never eating here again, etc. etc. while her tablemates sit there silently. One of them slipped me six dollars for a tip, presumably because she felt bad for me. What I don’t get is why none of these people speak up and say, “Hey, cool it. You’re being unreasonable.” I’ve seen this happen before where someone flies into a rage at me, and the people with them squirm uncomfortably. If I’m out with my friends and one of them showed their ass like that, I have no problems telling them, “Cut the crap, you’re embarassing yourself in front of everyone.” I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again. I don’t associate myself with assholes and I won’t be seen in public with someone who makes a spectacle of themself. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/33 "2010-06-01T06:44:33Z")
When I was a waitress I had a woman tell me that her husband wasn’t going to get a second beer, and since she was paying the bill, I should ignore him and listen to her. Her husband appeared perfectly normal and sober, and he laughed when she said it, so I assumed she was kidding. I served him the second beer he’d ordered and they ate their dinner in apparent good moods; she did indeed pay the tab with cash out of her wallet, I brought her the change, and they left. When I went back to the table, she had left a paper napkin with a quarter on it, and the capitalized words “I TOLD YOU I WAS PAYING THE BILL. MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU’LL LISTEN, LITTLE GIRL.” I’ve had plenty of bitchy cheap awful nightmarish customers–some of which made me cry–but this incident has always stuck in my head as one of the most puzzling and bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/34 "2010-06-01T07:01:35Z")
> [@Audrey\_Levins](#): > > When I was a waitress I had a woman tell me that her husband wasn’t going to get a second beer, and since she was paying the bill, I should ignore him and listen to her. Heh, I had a similar but opposite experience once. This man was there with a large party of his friends and family and he kept ordering shots of Patron Silver (which we charged something ridiculous like $11/shot for). At some point their party was getting moderately loud and obnoxious, but they were racking up quite the bill so I wasn’t about to say anything to them. The man’s wife pleaded me to stop serving her husband shots but he told me to ignore her and assured me he was paying and would “take care of me”. I took his word for it and kept serving the shots despite his wife’s protests. Lo and behold, he left a huge tip at the end (he was so drunk at that point how could he not?). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/35 "2010-06-01T08:05:35Z")
> [@Audrey\_Levins](#): > > When I went back to the table, she had left a paper napkin with a quarter on it, and the capitalized words “I TOLD YOU I WAS PAYING THE BILL. MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU’LL LISTEN, LITTLE GIRL.” > > I’ve had plenty of bitchy cheap awful nightmarish customers–some of which made me cry–but this incident has always stuck in my head as one of the most puzzling and bizarre. Anyone who would put a waiter in the middle of their spousal disputes like that is a Grade A Asshole. If they want to argue about how much he’s going to drink, they should sort it out between themselves and then, when they’ve made a decision, either order a drink or not. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/36 "2010-06-01T08:09:37Z")
> [@Audrey\_Levins](#): > > When I went back to the table, she had left a paper napkin with a quarter on it, and the capitalized words “I TOLD YOU I WAS PAYING THE BILL. MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU’LL LISTEN, LITTLE GIRL.” Did you get a call from INSIDE THE HOUSE that night? Seriously, that is most bizarre reaction I’ve heard of. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/37 "2010-06-01T09:21:41Z")
Disclaimer: While I _have_ worked in customer service, I have never been a waitperson! However: I am _always_ polite to the person waiting on me unless I have a _really_ good reason not to be. I tip well; not obnoxiously well, but well. If service is really borderline-poor, 15% is customary. If it’s pretty good, 20%. Better service gets more than 20%. Customers who are complete assholes should be forced to _work as a waitperson_ for six months, so they understand exactly what it is they are doing. I feel the same about people who don’t tip the pizza delivery guy (or girl)! ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/38 "2010-06-01T14:09:59Z")
> [@norinew](#): > > \ > I feel the same about people who don’t tip the pizza delivery guy (or girl)! Call me an asshole, but I’ve never understood this practice. To me, it’s like one notch above tipping the girl who scoops your ice cream at Cold Stone. Yes, I’ve a decidedly Mr. Pink-ish take on _that specific kind_ of tipping. Nevertheless, the pizza delivery guy still gets a few bucks on the rare occasion when I actually do order delivery. (The barristas/scoop girls, etc., get exactly _bupkis_.) Since the topic of ethnicity/tipping was tentatively broached earlier on in the thread, I’ll throw this anecdote out, for what it’s worth: A friend of mine waited tables at the local TGIF for several years, and always said that, without fail, the absolute shittiest tippers were African-Americans. He said that they’d make you jump through a shit-ton of hoops (my friend’s caucasian, by the way), and that after all that, he’d consider himself lucky it he got anywhere near a 10% tip. And he said that, strangely enough, they were even harder on the black servers. (Incidentally, his nomination for a very close second place in the shitty tips contest? Christians who were eating out after their Sunday morning service. Evidently, their douchiness-to-tip ratio was almost as abysmal as that of the African-Americans.) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/39 "2010-06-01T14:56:20Z")
> [@MTCicero](#): > > Call me an asshole, but I’ve never understood this practice. To me, it’s like one notch above tipping the girl who scoops your ice cream at Cold Stone. Yes, I’ve a decidedly Mr. Pink-ish take on _that specific kind_ of tipping. Nevertheless, the pizza delivery guy still gets a few bucks on the rare occasion when I actually do order delivery. (The barristas/scoop girls, etc., get exactly _bupkis_.) You don’t understand why a guy who drives three miles to bring you a nice hot pizza should get a couple of bucks? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357/40 "2010-06-01T15:05:54Z")
There have been several threads here about tipping delivery people (which I don’t have time to search for right now) and the consensus has been that delivery people (at least in most parts of the US) are almost as underpaid as waitstaff. I always tip when I have stuff delivered, and I’ve noticed that I seem to get my food noticeably sooner than I am told I will when I place the order - I swear one of these days I expect my order of Chinese food to arrive right after I hang up the phone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiter-waitress-rants/541357.md?page=3)