Eating out is one of our favorite forms of entertainment, and, we usually eat out way too often, shrinking our wallet and increasing our waistlines!
However, lately we seem to have had a run of bad service. Different restaurants, different times. Note I said the service was bad, not the food. In all cases, the food was quite good and we ate all of it. However, we felt we had to actually get into a confrontation with the waiter/management just to get our meal served right. I'm really not the type who goes to restaurants looking for a fight--I just want to have a good time. I'm even tolerant of simple mistakes. I feel its sometimes better to overlook a simple mistake rather than get everyone upset by arguing about it. I've often accepted errors on the part of the waiter, such as a coke instead of iced tea, or refilling my flavored iced tea with the "regular" kind, or bringing a baked potato with "everything", rather than just the sour cream and cheese I ordered. Really, its not a big deal. I also try to teach my kids to treat waiters with respect, ma'am or sir, please, thank you, etc., and not to jump all over them for an honest mistake. However, honest mistakes are one thing, flat out bad service is another.
Last night I was out with just my children. The restaurant wasn't crowded. The waitress had a surly attitude from the beginning. She brought an incomplete order--missing several essential items. My daughter wanted steak sauce, son wanted ketchup, and I needed a refill on tea, plus, none of us had water, and we didn't have any silverware! In short, we couldn't proceed with our meal. I shouldn't have had to point out all the mistakes and ask them to be corrected, serving the meal properly was her job! Well, I mentioned the silverware, she literally growled "sorry" then flounced off and proceeded to take a new order at another table! We got up and found silverware at another table. I tried flagging her down several times. By now our food was getting cold and we proceeded to eat without the condiments we wanted, and nothing to drink. The waitress passed our table several times, but never stopped. She proceeded to take another new order at a table next to ours. I interrupted her and asked that she finish our order before taking new ones. She just glared at me and walked off. In short, she was refusing to serve us!
I found a manager and asked that another waitress be assigned to us to complete our meal. We again waited several minutes. By this time, we just wanted to get out of there. We weren't interested in eating. Finally a manager came over and asked what the problem was. I was so upset I didn't even want to explain--I just wanted out of there. She kept insisting we tell her the problem, so she could "correct" it. I kept asking for the bill. She insisted we wouldn't pay, and she would bring us a free dessert. I insisted on paying--we had eaten the food, we pay for it. Finally she brought us a bill, which I paid minus a tip, of course.
I feel if the food is bad, the offer to take care of the bill is valid. However, I really don't feel comfortable eating a meal and walking away without paying because the service is bad. I feel that is what the tip is for. That's also why waitresses work for less than minimum wage and essentially depend on tips for their income. Bad service=no tip, hence, they earn their pay. Otherwise, they could just treat everyone like we were last night and still get paid, there'd be no incentive to treat the customers right.
Well, if you just received bad service, but the food was at least adequate and you ate it, would you feel comfortable with the offer just to not pay the entire tab? Or would you feel it was enough simply not to leave a tip? I know some people deliberately find fault with something just to get a free meal, and I certainly don't want to look like a bum.
Well, what can you do when a waitress just stops serving you, like what happened to us last night? Bring an incomplete order, then proceed to wait on others, and just ignore our repeated requests for the same thing? I tried to handle it in a gracious manner, asking for another waitress, but it just reached a point where I couldn't put up with the lousey treatment anymore. Would I have been justified in taking their offer of a free meal? Or was it better just to not leave a tip, and, of course, never go back there? Like I said, it seems we have had a run of bad luck lately with restaurants lately. Kind of makes me dread our upcoming trip to Hawaii-its for 16 days. That's 16 days of eating in restaurants! We are staying in condos with kitchens and plan to eat in at least part of the time anyways to save money. I just hope we don't run into such service while on our vacation. Really, you're at the mercy of the wait staff for every little thing and your only recourse is to not leave a tip. However, you walk away hungry and pi$$ed--hardly a vacation!
However, lately we seem to have had a run of bad service. Different restaurants, different times. Note I said the service was bad, not the food. In all cases, the food was quite good and we ate all of it. However, we felt we had to actually get into a confrontation with the waiter/management just to get our meal served right. I'm really not the type who goes to restaurants looking for a fight--I just want to have a good time. I'm even tolerant of simple mistakes. I feel its sometimes better to overlook a simple mistake rather than get everyone upset by arguing about it. I've often accepted errors on the part of the waiter, such as a coke instead of iced tea, or refilling my flavored iced tea with the "regular" kind, or bringing a baked potato with "everything", rather than just the sour cream and cheese I ordered. Really, its not a big deal. I also try to teach my kids to treat waiters with respect, ma'am or sir, please, thank you, etc., and not to jump all over them for an honest mistake. However, honest mistakes are one thing, flat out bad service is another.
Last night I was out with just my children. The restaurant wasn't crowded. The waitress had a surly attitude from the beginning. She brought an incomplete order--missing several essential items. My daughter wanted steak sauce, son wanted ketchup, and I needed a refill on tea, plus, none of us had water, and we didn't have any silverware! In short, we couldn't proceed with our meal. I shouldn't have had to point out all the mistakes and ask them to be corrected, serving the meal properly was her job! Well, I mentioned the silverware, she literally growled "sorry" then flounced off and proceeded to take a new order at another table! We got up and found silverware at another table. I tried flagging her down several times. By now our food was getting cold and we proceeded to eat without the condiments we wanted, and nothing to drink. The waitress passed our table several times, but never stopped. She proceeded to take another new order at a table next to ours. I interrupted her and asked that she finish our order before taking new ones. She just glared at me and walked off. In short, she was refusing to serve us!
I found a manager and asked that another waitress be assigned to us to complete our meal. We again waited several minutes. By this time, we just wanted to get out of there. We weren't interested in eating. Finally a manager came over and asked what the problem was. I was so upset I didn't even want to explain--I just wanted out of there. She kept insisting we tell her the problem, so she could "correct" it. I kept asking for the bill. She insisted we wouldn't pay, and she would bring us a free dessert. I insisted on paying--we had eaten the food, we pay for it. Finally she brought us a bill, which I paid minus a tip, of course.
I feel if the food is bad, the offer to take care of the bill is valid. However, I really don't feel comfortable eating a meal and walking away without paying because the service is bad. I feel that is what the tip is for. That's also why waitresses work for less than minimum wage and essentially depend on tips for their income. Bad service=no tip, hence, they earn their pay. Otherwise, they could just treat everyone like we were last night and still get paid, there'd be no incentive to treat the customers right.
Well, if you just received bad service, but the food was at least adequate and you ate it, would you feel comfortable with the offer just to not pay the entire tab? Or would you feel it was enough simply not to leave a tip? I know some people deliberately find fault with something just to get a free meal, and I certainly don't want to look like a bum.
Well, what can you do when a waitress just stops serving you, like what happened to us last night? Bring an incomplete order, then proceed to wait on others, and just ignore our repeated requests for the same thing? I tried to handle it in a gracious manner, asking for another waitress, but it just reached a point where I couldn't put up with the lousey treatment anymore. Would I have been justified in taking their offer of a free meal? Or was it better just to not leave a tip, and, of course, never go back there? Like I said, it seems we have had a run of bad luck lately with restaurants lately. Kind of makes me dread our upcoming trip to Hawaii-its for 16 days. That's 16 days of eating in restaurants! We are staying in condos with kitchens and plan to eat in at least part of the time anyways to save money. I just hope we don't run into such service while on our vacation. Really, you're at the mercy of the wait staff for every little thing and your only recourse is to not leave a tip. However, you walk away hungry and pi$$ed--hardly a vacation!
& wanted us to change the time, they didn't have the themed party goods set out when they set up the room - then some snotty teenager 
came in & "dropped off" the princess party goods expecting me to put them out, and finally, when they took the cake to the room, it slid into the side of the box so half of of the icing on one side was off! Now I made this cake & spent about 5 hours decorating it, so I was IRATE at this point. 
Luckily, I had brought extra icing just in case, but I made sure I spoke to the girl who carried the cakes up as well as the General Manager & owner about the situations. For a $300 birthday party (I was splitting the cost w/ another mom as we had a joint b-day party) - I expected near PERFECT service. So by the time I got through with them about the cake, they took half off our party - without me even asking. 
I normally am not one who seeks out getting something for free, but there are times when it is justified.
