Let me preface this rant by saying that the waiter we had last night seemed to be a nice guy, he just needs to choose a new career. So we go to a popular "italian" chain restaurant last night, I won't mention it by name. Cool, moving on. We sit down and wait for a little too long before the server comes to get our drink order despite the fact that they are not busy at all. We have plenty of time to figure out what we want to eat before the server brings us the bread, complete with a dirty plate. Then the server brings the drinks and a side of dressing that another table needed. Server leaves the drinks with a side of ranch on one of glasses. Nice. Finally takes our order (we decided to share) and the server keeps saying "so split it, right?" We calmly say "No we'lll just do it ourselves if we can just get an extra plate." Since we have both worked for restaurants we know that they often add a split charge. While the kitchen does add extras when they do that and is usually a good deal, we just wanted to do it ourselves. But he is pretty insistent that we are splitting it. "So split it right?" "No we can do it, just bring an extra plate please." "Oh no, I can split it." "No. Please that's OK, just an extra plate will be fine." "No It's no trouble" [writes split on the ticket]. "Please. Do NOT split the entree we will do it if we want to. But do not split the meal." "You sure?" "YES." "And add a salad?" "Yes, with X dressing." /under his breath as he writes.../ "split salad..." "NO, don't split it." [REPEAT of the coversation above.] Finally completes the order. Table next to us sits down. That's two tables, so now this server is "busy" according to whaat he says later. Note: If you get weeded with two tables that are right next to each other, especially when you have already gotten a complete food order from table one, pick a new JOB. They must have been thirsty because two of them finish their drinks within a few minutes of sitting down. Coincidentily so has a person at our table. They ask for a refill, he takes the glasses. As he walks by, I say "when ever you get a chance can I get a refill also?" Allow me to expand on this a bit. When I say "whenever you get a chance" I really mean that. It is not code. I'm not being sarcastic. Just sometime fairly soon. In the near future. He panics. He places the other tables empty glasses on our table and walks off. He brings back the tea and proceeds to spill it all over the table. It doesn't get on anyone... until he starts trying to wipe it up and just slides it off the table onto one of us. It also spilled inside one of the glasses from the other table. He gets the mess cleaned up on our table (sorta) and then goes to REFILL their glasses. YUK. Our appetizer comes out. No plates. We just sit there hoping he will notice. We are eternal optimists. He turns the plate around and says "what's wrong?" One of us says "plates?" He scampers off and returns with wet plates that smell like bleach. Stomachs turn. He leaves before we can say anything. Another waiter walks past the table on the other side of a divider. I ask if we can get some dry plates as I hand him the wet ones. He just laughs and hands us new ones. After we havee almost finished our appeetizer he coems back to fill my glass again. He reaches OVER my plate dragging his shirt sleeve through the food and gets my glass. No, pardon my reach, can I have your glass, nada. OK now I am done with that plate. Then he says "I just turned in your dinner order. I didn't want you to be inundated with food." So that means one of two things is happening. Either 1. He forgot or 2. the kitchen is so inept that they can't see a line of asterisks that separate the appetizer from the main course. I am going to go with # 1 here. So we wait and wait for our dinner. During this time another person has been seated in his section. Same time table except he was smart enough to nip it in the bud. He was late greeting him and late with his drink and that was enough. he called another waiter over asked how much he owed for the wine and was out. After the guy left the original server delivered another glass of wine to the empty table, seemingly oblivious to what has occurred. By this point we are ready to go as well. He delivers the food and we immediately ask for a to go box. He says "what can I pack up for you?" We say "No, pleae just bring us the containers and we will do it. he starts to grab the dishes. I repeat "Please just bring us the containers." He gets it. As he is rounding the corner another employee starts giving him the third degree about the guy that walked out. I am beggin from a far for him to shut up so we can get out. He returns with the containers only to drop one of the lids on the ground. he leaves to get another lid (we hope). He brings it back. "Would you like the check now or would you care for dessert?" (Ya.) "Just the check." He brings back the check and hovers... for way too long. We pay and he says "you need change?" One of our group says "of course!" We tip him and leave. (Yes we tipped him. He sucked but he is also making 2.09 an hour. A lot of us have been there and we aren't complete jerks.) Here's the kicker: "Come back and see us and ask for me. I'll be happy to wait on you again." I really wanted to say something to the manager at that point but there were some in our party that would have gotten pissed if I did. I truly believe he thinks he did a good job. Wow... just WOW.
You should call the manager and read him your post or send it to him via email. As your parting shot indicates, he may have thought he did a good job. If no one tells him otherwise, he'll never know.
mulder, i applaud you for being so patient and understanding. it could have just been he's learning the ropes. even so, i think he could have used some constructive criticism.
Whether it's a restaurant or a movie theatre, I hesitate to go out as often as I have in the past. It's obvious customer service is not what it used to be in restaurants and going to the movies is a gamble. I refuse to go to a restaurant when it's busy because the service turns ugly, and there is no guarantee the service would be adequate if the restaurant was not busy. And the movie theatre. A lot more people treat the theatre like their living room at home. Commenting and talking through the entire film. Has anybody seen how bad it gets at Willowbrook 24 on a Saturday night? I used to enjoy going out and grabbing dinner and catching a movie, but things are different now.
Sometimes you get the worst service when it's really slow. Management doesn't want servers just hanging out in the dining room doing nothing so they make them run food, roll silverwear, etc. And if a server already has one table you don't want to hover around them, so you stay out of your section to avoid bothering your table. The consequence of that is you don't always know when you've been sat. The rest of your experience sounds absolutely inexcusible, though...
As someone who has worked at the OG for nearly five years (Wednesday is the five year mark, lord help me), there are clues that make me pretty sure it wasn't an OG he was at...
Write a letter to the management. One time, my family got screwed by the service at Pappasito's on 610. My old man wrote a letter complaining about it, and received a $75 gift certificate good at any Pappas restaurant.
No and No. He mentioned he just finished training. I have been through waiter training. Apparently he didn't learn anything. I would have liked to say something but some in our party asked me not to and just let it go. Absolutely true. Except he saw us sit down...
Yeah, I now find myself heading over to Alamo Drafthouse whenever I want to hit up a movie. All of my experiences there have been really good.
Best time to see a movie is Sat or Sun first showings. Obnoxious movie-goers are usually still at home. Most likely smacking their gums trying to perfect their annoyance levels.
I was awful when I first got out of training, absolutely awful. I was a double my first day and spilled raspberry lemonade all over a teenage girl during my lunch shift and a glass of water all over a guy during the dinner shift. I screwed up orders left and right...but I stuck it out and got better. Sometimes it just takes a while for people to catch on, but I will admit that it sounds like the guy you had needs to learn a LOT more before he qualifies as a competent server...
Oh yeah (since the thread is moving in this direction), and theaters suck these days. Teeny boppers need to shut the hell up and EVERYONE needs to turn the ringers off on their phones. I'm also amongst the group who hardly ever goes to the theater anymore because of all the annoyances...
I was recently at an Applebees and ordered a long island iced tea, but they gave me an apple juice instead.
I now go to Star cinema in Clear Lake. Under 18 has to be with parents and no kids under 5 (allegedly). Plus they have waiters, ok food and alcohol. Why go anywhere else?
