Once a clumsy waitress spilled some soup on me, and I sued the shit out of her and the entire establishment. Those Levi’s weren’t just going to replace themselves! I called my attorney, dragged the entire staff into small claims court, and was able to win the replacement cost of my used jeans, along with court costs, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages for gross negligence. Her wages are garnished every month, and that establishment is no longer in business.
Don’t fuck with me.
Ordered the troublemakers to leave, of course. And then stood there with folded arms until they did.
So? They couldn’t have followed through on such threats.
If necessary (if they refuse to leave, and thus become trespassers), the manager should call the police.
If the shift manager is only “manager” there, he’s the manager. Customers’ expectations of him are legitimately the same as of any other kind of manager.
If you have a problem with that, talk to your boss, or quit. If you accept the job, damn straight I expect you to do the job.
I think there was just one.
No. But my expectation would be that the store manager would offer to make amends. If he didn’t, I’d write a letter of complaint to someone above him, and expect redress that way. Properly executed complaint letters over minor (but not immaterial) damages have a very good success rate.
So that’s what a polyester mumu goes for these days, eh?
I really thought about what I did later on that evening, and while I doubt I will start carrying around a fire hose so I can let loose on unruly children 1963 Birmingham style, I really don’t regret what I did. When he hauled himself over the back of my booth and in next to me, it wasn’t just the last straw, he had crossed the line. I wan’t meek in telling him to stop; he, his parents and other patrons heard me quite clearly. The fault for his behavior lies with his parents, but the water worked as far as putting a stop to what he was doing to me at that moment. If he hadn’t been screaming about his racecar driver crash fire, dousing him probably wouldn’t have crossed my mind.
Up until that point where he got in the booth, I was annoyed but not angry. I wasn’t sitting there thinking of how to get back at the kid or his parents, I was trying to block the kid out and read my paper and praying they would hurry up leave already. When you live in a city, it’s easier to learn how to block things out. If you don’t, you will drive yourself crazy. This family was way over the block it out until they go category.
I wasn’t eating in a 5 star restaurant. It was a local diner. Yes, I expected the manager to do something, but there is no corporate office to contact and I’m presuming that family owned and family operated means he is the owner’s nephew or something. I just don’t see getting anything but frustrated by hounding the diner. Getting comped in a diner around here isn’t a normal thing. Yes, it would have been nice if I got something for free, but I didn’t and I’m not going to devote a week of my time to try and get a free bowl of oatmeal and some toast. When the waitress told me he was “busy”, I thought she meant he was in the bathroom. I didn’t think he was ignoring the complaints, but I do think that now. I was fully expecting him to show up and handle the situation. That’s part of his job.
My meal wasn’t miserable, after they left anyway, lol. It was coffee, whole wheat toast and oatmeal. Under $10. It was easier to stay and eat after they left than to walk to another newstand, get another paper and walk to another diner in the cold and ice. Too much effort to relocate myself at that point. It was over and done, so eat, pay and go and get on to other things. I didn’t want to turn getting breakfast into an all day adventure, I had other things I had to do. If I let every little thing that ever happens ruin my day, I’d have few happy days. Not that this was so little, but I have the ability to get over things that are not a regular part of my life or a recurring situation are move on. Paying or not paying wasn’t a personal challenge to my ego.
I was wearing gym clothes, so while the jelly hands on me were unacceptable, it’s not the worst thing that has ever made it on to my velour sweats by far.
I love that response. “Just get another job.” Ain’t that easy these days. Trust me, if I found a better opportunity I’d take it. Right now it’s paying the bills and that’s what matters the most.
As I said before, part of the problem is that we’re not really free to do our job - we’re stuck doing so much other shit that it’s pretty much impossible to be out on the floor at all times. It’s probably different with restaurants that have more overhead and can afford more labor, but in my case, well, that’s not the case. Don’t know what the case was with the OP.
And I didn’t so much accept my managerial position as get forced into it. It was either that or lose what paltry benefits I had. :rolleyes: (Long story.)
But I will, as I have before, state that the OP’s meal should have been comped along with an apology. That was most certainly a faux pas on whoever was in charge. There is unfortunately not much more that could have been done though. It’s easy to talk shit about how you’d throw 'em out and call the police but really, get real. :dubious:
Not unless I was severly burned (& even then only if the restaurant didn’t pay my medical bills), but I would expect my meal to be comped.
You don’t need to “hound” them. Just let them know what happened in their place of business. If I was the primary owner of such an establishment, you better believe I’d want to know if such things were going on. As it stands, nephew is hurting my business.
Ah, that type of diner.I’m from NY also, used to live around Princeton, and my daughter now lives around Edison, so I know exactly what you mean. I wonder if they look at their on-line reviews or have a website. Dinging management for not controlling patrons, while saying some nice things, might be helpful if only to get the owner to develop a policy about this kind of thing.
Well, I’ve had a few such enquiries. No, I don’t take their cases. I don’t say as much, but I tell them I’ll be glad to act for a huge (compared to $50) retainer. And no, I won’t work on contingency in their matter. That usually dissuades them from hiring a lawyer. Well, from hiring me, anyway.
There’s your problem. You were wearing sweatpants IN PUBLIC! 
Just kidding. I’m making fun of all the best-dressed-in-the-supermarket types who think wearing sweatpants while running errands is some kind of fashion faux pas. Personally, I thought your “putting the fire out” response to the situation was awesome. I’m glad you didn’t let the clueless parents and apathetic manager ruin your day.
That last bit? Not necessary. Sounds like she enjoyed it a bit too much.
Just as an alternative to throwing water on the kid…
“Excuse me ma’m? Can you please remove your son. You see, I’m undergoing treatment for being sexually attracted to children and having him here in my booth is…tempting.”
(Note, I wouldn’t recommend actually DOING this, but I wouldn’t have dumped water on the kid either. I would have spoken to the manager and when it wasn’t resolved, left the restaurant informing the manager he would be comping whatever I had already ordered.)
Yeah, I have the same problem with my three year old.
Fortunately, he doesn’t laugh at a time-out.
The parents are scum and their kids will almost certainly grow up to be scum themselves.
Is the situation described in the OP not one of those “most extreme circumstances”? Sure sounds like it to me. Complaints from three different customers, kids running all over the place, including diving into the next booth and spilling that customer’s coffee all over the table…it damned sure seems to be a situation that, at the very minimum, calls for the manager’s personal attention, regardless of what she feels she can do.
And I’d say the bar for kicking the customer out is considerably lower, once they’ve finished their meal and have been given the check. I’ve been in restaurants where customers whose behavior is perfectly civilized have been gently pressured by restaurant staff to vacate their table because they’re done, the restaurant is full, and people are waiting to sit down.
A customer who is wreaking havoc and ruining other customers’ dining experiences after they’ve gotten the check can certainly be hustled out of there. If you’re not going to do it then, then when are you going to do it, short of someone engaging in fisticuffs in the dining area?
Just wanta make a point.
Walking out (even for good reason) without paying can get you charged with theft/robbery/whatever the exact name of the charge is. Raise holy hell if you think you should be comped, but do not walk out without paying. I know someone who spent a night in jail for that.
Well, I don’t have a ‘teacher face’, so I developed a ‘Mom voice’; out in public with my kids (and since my youngest is 11, this isn’t necessary so much anymore, but when they were young. . .) if they were starting to act up, I’d give them a warning; if they continued, my ‘Mom voice’ would come out. It wasn’t screaming and shouting, which, not only do kids ignore quite easily, but it disturbs the people around you; it was quiet and serious. When I got very quiet, my kids new they were ‘this close’ to being in big trouble and had better calm down right now. I’ve even used it with other kids. Most of the kids who are bratty enough for me to have to pull it with are used to being yelled and screamed at. Being talked to quietly and sternly makes them really stop and think!
Yeah, I do the ‘very quiet with an edge to it’ voice, but for whatever reason, the Firebug often fails to take it seriously. I think it may be partly him, and partly the age he’s at.
I used the quiet and serious voice on a kid I was babysitting once. My stepmonster had volunteered me to babysit; I would never have agreed to watch this kid on my own free will. The family attended the church and the mom had something to do with her older son, so she dropped off the toddler at our house for me to watch.
I had watched over this kid in the nursery during Sunday School so I already knew he was a screamer and a temper tantrum thrower. Completely spoiled rotten. Things were going pretty well until he asked me for a drink of water. I said yes, in a minute, and took more than 0.03 seconds to move toward the kitchen to get it.
So the kid threw himself down on the dining room floor and proceeded to scream and wail as if I’d just punched him in the face. (My stepmonster was ignoring me and the kid, oblivious to all this.) I do not like this kid at all, so I did not hesitate. I picked up the little dude by his arms and set him on his feet, and stayed down on my knees so I was looking him straight in the eye. I took my hands off him and got right up in his face, so our noses were maybe two inches apart.
In a very low, quiet, but very menacing voice, I said, “Stop that right this instant. Maybe screaming works in your house, but in this house, we don’t act like that. If you want a drink, you may ask for a drink. I will get you one. Do not scream in this house. Ever. Got it?”
Eyes big as saucers, the kid nodded his agreement to not be a bratty little shit for the rest of the day and we got along just fine. He even said please and thank you for the water.
In this instance, I think we had a case of harried, crazy-busy mom who doesn’t necessarily have enough time to give the kid the kind of quality attention he needed. So he’d throw down a tantrum to at least get some attention, even if it was negative. I straight up let him know that he’d get plenty of positive attention from me (I attentively played with him all day) but I wasn’t having screeching, screaming toddler tantrums stomping up and down on my last nerve.
When the mom showed up, she was shocked to find her kid quietly playing with our collection of babysitting Legos. IIRC, we were building a racetrack or a rocket ship or something and he didn’t even notice she’d shown up to pick him up.
I think there’s sometimes an appropriate time and place to put your hands on someone else’s kid. All I did was pick him up and put him on his feet and then went to The Voice.
Hmmm. They seemed to be having money problems - perhaps they were hoping to get kicked out without paying? Just a thought.