This is topic Restaurant Service in forum Rewind Social Club at iRewind Talk.


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Posted by Pittsburghgirl (Member # 7514) on :
 
I don't go out to eat that often, but when I do I 'd really appreciate getting some decent service. Have any of you gone out to eat lately, and what type of service have you gotten? Last night we took our friend out to eat. It was a going away dinner, he is moving to Florida. There were 10 people in our party. By the time we were seated, around 8:00, the restaurant wasn't very busy. But we still had mediocre, at best, service. Everyone got their drinks,except me, right away. I had to wait another 10 minutes for the waitress to bring mine out. Then she took our order, and we never saw her again until our food came out. Then it was another 10 minute wait after that for me to get a re-fill. Plus she didn't even notice that we didn't have silverware, I had to inform her of that as she started to serve our meals. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I used to work as a server/waitress, and I just got used to getting screamed at all the time. If I worked breakfast, the old farts would literally stand up and scream that they needed more coffee, or they would wave their cup in the air. Like we didn't know to come around with pots of coffee for refills! They all wanted immediate private service. We had one man who used to come in for breakfast, and he would literally chug his coffee down. So we had to start giving him extra coffee in those little tea pots. One girl, who had only worked breakfast on the weekends and hadn't ever waited on that jack ***, got screamed at and berated by him because she just took him out a cup of coffee but no teapots filled with coffee. Plus he used literally about 8-10 sweeteners per cup, so we'd have to take him a bowl filled with sweeteners too. I don't make a stink when I get bad service, but I just don't feel that that lady deserved an 18% tip, which was automatically added on since we had a party of 10. I'm sure that a lot of you are thinking "she deserved to get bad service". But I only said one thing to her, and that was that we all needed silverware, duh.
 

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Posted by ISIS (Member # 1780) on :
 
Who would think you deserve bad service for asking for silverware?

I actually don't believe that they should ever automatically add a tip on to anyone's bill.

First of all, I think they should pay waiter's and waitresses a decent wage to begin with- the restaurants are making a ton of money- and yet we pay their employees wages.

Think about that.....as customers your paying the salary of their employees.

They should pay their employees at least minimum wage- so that they don't have to run their butts off for demanding people...and large groups, and they should never automatically add in tips- you should tip based on the service...because that is what a tip is...it's like getting a nice little bonus for going above and beyond what is required. If the server knew they wouldn't get any money for doing bad service- then they might make sure there's silverware on the table and that your drink is refilled, otherwise why should they do anything they don't have to...because either way- they are getting paid- and they don't own the restaurant, so why should they care.

All they are doing is bringing your food and sitting it on the table...that is their job. There are very few jobs that you tip people for doing their actual job.
 

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Posted by Sammy Reign In Blood Hain (Member # 3150) on :
 
I've worked as a busboy in a restaurant before but never as a server but I know how easy it is for a server to get sidetracked away from their tables even during slow times in the restaurant.

What I hated seeing was people who would stiff the servers or give them a lousy tip when they received good service but the food wasn't up to their standards. If they have a problem with the food they should either ask to speak to the chef or the manager of the restaurant and try and get a discount on their meal. It's unfair to take it out on the server who wasn't responsible for the quality of the food and they should be tipped on their service.
 

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Posted by Sammy Reign In Blood Hain (Member # 3150) on :
 
I also want to add that I do believe in tipping my waiter/waitress. I usually tip around 20% or so.

I tip the pizza delivery person around $3.

I tip the cab drivers who bring my drunk *** home $5

When I used to go get my haircut before I started shaving my head I'd tip my beautician $5
 

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Posted by Ronnie (Member # 465) on :
 
my b/f and i go out a lot. as far as service goes.. i can't complain. in this economy, customer service has been better, IMO. i think businesses such as restaurants, want people to come out and spend money so they've stepped up the service as far as i can see. there are so many places struggling to stay open these days.

we always tip 20%. always. we tip for our food to be placed in front of us..our refills on drinks, or anything else we order. i'm sure i've had to wait longer at times for certain things we request, but i don't make a huge deal if someone forgot 1 thing. it happens. besides, we always try to be pleasant to the servers because we want good service in return. the last thing i need is someone spitting in my food because i complained over something small. if the entire experience turns out to be disastrous, i'd wait until the end and say something to a manager.

if there is only 1 server for a party of 10.. i don't see what's wrong with a pre-added tip. that's a lot of people to serve for one party. i guess it depends on the place you go to.

i have never worked as a server, ever. but i can imagine the frustrations that come with that line of work.

i'd like to think i am a generous tipper. i always tip my delivery guys nicely, my waiters, my beauticians, repairman....etc.
 

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Posted by ISIS (Member # 1780) on :
 
I am a huge tipper. I believe in letting people know they do a good job....I just don't think it's right to only pay them $2.01 an hour- and that the public is responsible for making up their wages...that really isn't right.

I tip the girl who cuts my hair- a ton- because I am glad that I finally found someone that listens to me when I tell them how I want my hair cut- and they don't think 1 inch = 6.
 

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Posted by Stitch Groover (Member # 2895) on :
 
We were out for dinner at a Chinese restuarant in Melbourne on Thursday night, we had a part of 12. The service was very attentive, almost to the point of being cloying, but we never had to ask for anything!

Wine bottles were replaced the instant they were emptied, as were the water jugs and empty plates.

The funniest thing was that at one point they took all the small plates from our table settings, only to bring them back out again 10 minutes later!

We don't tip here in Australia, I guess our wages are better than those in the USA.
 

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Posted by pettyfan (Member # 2260) on :
 
I tip well IF I am served well. There's only been two instances that I haven't tipped, and that was at the Hard Rock Cafe in Gatlinburg and at one of our local steakhouses. I don't go out to eat that often but a friend of mine had an experience similar to yours, Pitt. She was with two other people, the restaurant wasn't crowded and they still couldn't seem to serve them. She also said that you could hear the waitresses arguing with the cooks in the back. Anyway, they all wound up getting free food because it was such a mess.
 

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Posted by jdocster (Member # 5752) on :
 
I used to work in food service and I know it can really suck at times. You know, waiters ARE people too...

I have a couple of stead-fast rules...

- always start the tip at 20%, more if the service is better, less if it sucks. If the waiter/waitress is new, 20% even if they screw up...

- Always give the pizza delivery guy between $3 and $5 for a pizza or two... 3 or more pizzas $6 & up.

- NEVER EVER, EVER, EVER, send food back to the kitchen!!! If you don't know why, work in a kitchen for a while and you'll find out... I don't care how nice the place is, this rule applies EVERYWHERE...

- ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, be polite to anyone who comes into contact with my food...


 

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Posted by journey (Member # 7316) on :
 
I used to wait tables back in the day too, so I tend to size things up. I always look around to see if it's the server's fault or not. If they're slammed and are stuck waiting way too many tables at once because the hostess sat their section wrong, or because they're short-staffed, then I cut them some slack. That's not really their fault. And I know from experience that speaking to the manager and putting the blame on the restaurant as opposed to the server is futile; it inevitably still results in the server getting chewed out since most managers are jerkoffs who look to scapegoat the little guy rather than question their own organizational tactics.

On the other hand, if the server is discourteous, flighty, or too busy chatting up their friends to answer my requests, then I lose my patience. This happened to me the other day when I had dinner with my mom. We asked the waitress for tartar sauce 4 times before she remembered to bring it, I got one beverage refill the entire 45 mins. we were there, and then we had to ask her 3 times to get a box. And her entire section consisted of three tables. Lame.
 

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Posted by MotleyRulz (Member # 3598) on :
 
I tip based on service. I'll go as high as 30% if the service is excellent. But if we get the teenage kid with an attitude who doesn't wanna be there type then sorry you didn't earn it. Four of us were at a chain restaurant bar one night at the bar drinking mixed drinks mixed extra strong because the bartender was a friend of ours. He only charged us 30 cents a drink so needless to say we left him a huge tip.......
 

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Posted by ISIS (Member # 1780) on :
 
When we went out to eat last Thursday, our service was horrible. We were the only ones in the place. There were people there when we came in, but we got there around 7PM, so the main dinner crowd was gone, and there were 5 of us. We sat there for 30 minutes, after we were done eating, just waiting and waiting for her to come back...we thought we might get dessert, but by the end of everything, we said the heck with it...and we had to go get our waitress and just get our check. My husband left her a $6 tip on a $100 Bill...Usually we would have tipped someone at least $20 for that...and I thought... I wonder if she just thought we were cheap...or if she realized we were unhappy. Because I think she was clueless as to what she was even doing. My friend said we should have told the manager. I actually don't like to complain , unless it is absolutely horrible.

This past summer...this lady that worked at a flower warehouse - that me and 2 of my friends went to...she was horrible to us....my one friend got these little pots for a thing we were doing for the garden club, there were 2 prices on some of them, and we didn't know why, all we did was ask, and she went nuts on us. I was standing in line, behind my friend, and I had a cart full of stuff....

she was so rude, it was unbelievable.....she grabbed my stuff, she never said hello, have a nice day, and she practically dropped my stuff on the floor when she handed it to me.

On our way out, we stopped to find the manager, but the manager was just as big of a jerk- and I asked her who was her boss....because I told them they were horrible to their customers, and that all 3 of us owned businesses and we would never be back again, then they started saying...we are so sorry...I said, it's too late.

I never understand people who have jobs where they deal with the public, and you get nice people in line- and you treat them like jerks.
 

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Posted by pettyfan (Member # 2260) on :
 
Rude managers p!ss me off, too. I won't go to our local Kay Jewelers because of their rude manager. If a customer hasn't gotten rude with you, why should you cop an attitude with them? When I worked at Sam's Club, if we got an attitude even once we got chewed out for it. It just didn't happen.
 

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Posted by Kash (Member # 297) on :
 
I'm from the Steve Buscemi 'Reservoir Dogs' school of tips, I agree the establishment should pay staff a civillised wage to begin with otherwise you're just appeasing their greed IMO.

Comic shop owners are rude, watch the deleted scene on your 'Chasing Amy' DVD, that's exactly what they're like.

Serving is a tough, thankless job so I try not to complain, nor do I deduct money from pizza delivery people: they've got a death wish as it is, 20 minutes late? forgetaboutit, it ain't worth your life, kid.
 

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Posted by journey (Member # 7316) on :
 
I'm usually very generous to delivery guys (unless, of course, they go out of their way to **** me off). I usually tip them $10 on an order, and during the Super Bowl I gave the guy $20 since we ordered from two places and I knew he really had to wade through it (plus he was missing the game). After awhile they get to know you and you get priority service. Last year during the SB they were running over an hour and a half wait and the guy got me my food in 20 minutes flat.
 

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Posted by jdocster (Member # 5752) on :
 
Oh yeah... Tip the pizza guy well and eat sooner... They don't even look for my house number anymore.
 

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Posted by Pittsburghgirl (Member # 7514) on :
 
I was talking with two of our friends who were with us the night of the **** poor service. They came out and said "was that waitress a ditz or what?". So it wasn't just me that thought our service was poor. She had no other tables, we were there at 8pm. Most of the dinner crowd had cleared out already. There were probably 4 other tables in the whole huge restaurant with people still eating. So my guess is that she went into the back and was probably either too busy flirting with the manager or cooks, or she just figured since she was automatically getting an 18% tip, it didn't matter what kind of service she gave us. It won't happen again when I go there. I will inform the manager if we get crappy service. But only after I have gotten my food served, that way I don't have to worry about spit in the food. And after 8 years in the business, if I had ever seen someone do that, I would have told our manager, who would hopefully done something about that.
Oh, and btw, we are always good tippers. My husband even feels bad leaving a lesser tip for crappy service, but I have no qualms about that. I had my fill of getting chewed out for not giving someone the "correct" type of jelly for their toast, even though I was no mindreader.
 

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Posted by Stitch Groover (Member # 2895) on :
 
I have a question -

Because tipping is so ingrained in the American service culture, does it mean that meals are cheaper because the resturant doesn't have to pay the staff so much?
 

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Posted by journey (Member # 7316) on :
 

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Originally posted by Pittsburghgirl:
But only after I have gotten my food served, that way I don't have to worry about spit in the food. And after 8 years in the business, if I had ever seen someone do that, I would have told our manager, who would hopefully done something about that.

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Originally posted by ISIS:


How often do you hear people even say Thank you, or have a nice day?

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Originally posted by Stitch Groover:
I have a question -

Because tipping is so ingrained in the American service culture, does it mean that meals are cheaper because the resturant doesn't have to pay the staff so much?

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How do they tip down under? 20% or less? [/QB]

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Originally posted by Sammy Reign In Blood Hain:
The old saying 'The Customer Is Always Right' is good in theory but doesn't always apply.

Before I ran into my back issues I was a busboy on Sunday's at a restaurant in one of the big hotels here in town.

Every Sunday we had this one customer who would come in almost every Sunday and be a pain in the a$$. This guy owns about 5-6 furniture stores in North Dakota and is on every TV commercial for his stores. Every Sunday he would bitch about this and bitch about that but yet he was there every Sunday. He would run the servers ragged even though it was always very busy. For as much as he ran the servers ragged and put them through his bitching every Sunday he was a lousy tipper. The servers would always be upset when the hostess would tell them that they just sat this guy in their section. On top of it all this guy would bring coffee from Starbucks into our restaurant even though we served our own coffee.

So do you think that a guy who bitches about everything every week, who brings in his own coffee, who runs the servers ragged and tips lousy even though it's obvious he has money deserves good service? I say get somebody like that in and out as soon as possible and hope that the next person to sit at that table isn't such a jerk.

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Originally posted by Stitch Groover:
We don't tip down here, our waitstaff are generally well paid. The minimum wage in Australia is $13.74 per hour [/QB]

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