Maybe I'm just one picky beeeyatch but I guess if I'm paying for a service I expect it to be satisfactory....at least!
Pat and I went out for dinner tonight. I am a stickler for good service. Maybe it's because I was once a waitress or because I think that in the area of customer service, the customer should be treated right.
So our dinner. Well, from moment one, I didn't like the waitress. We went to a place that we are very familiar with and one that we have always been treated exceptionally well. The service has always been fast and the waiter/waitress have been more than attentive often sparking up conversations or joking around and spending the time necessary to make an out-to-eat adventure memorable. A restaurant that we have grown very fond of just because of the service in fact.
Tonight though was much different. The waitress was very curt and rushed us and seemed less than interested in the answers to the questions she was asking us as she would walk away when we were barely finished answering. STRIKE ONE. She brought us our drinks with barely a glance and said she would be back to take our orders shortly....as I was about to ask a question, her back was already 5 feet away....STRIKE TWO. I don't even think she looked at us when she dropped our drinks off...So, she comes back to take our order....not very patient yet smiling.....her answers to our questions were short and disinterested. STRIKE THREE!
Pat ordered his usual....steak and with that comes a salad....only he never did get the salad. I must point out that the place wasn't all that busy either. After our food came and we were half done, the waitress stops by and says, "He didn't bring you your salad sir?" which of course was a big fat no....so Pat asked to simply have it boxed up to take home......STRIKE FOUR! It wasn't bad enough that she never served Pat his salad then she pinned the blame on another....at that point I told Pat she'll be lucky to get a tip from me....
After that visit she stopped by to see if everything was ok....while we were shaking our heads yes, she is already leaving the table....I had to literally hold up my hand and raise my voice just to get her to come back to the table. STRIKE FIVE!!!! I wanted a pop to go with my dinner...I'm not one to drink alcohol and eat really, I like pop. After deciding what I wanted, she shook her head, she she'd be right back and proceeded to the booth directly behind Pat and dealt with them. Rather nicely I might add after thinking about it but I'll get to that....
So, we waited, and waited, she returned a couple more times to the table behind Pat....walked by 2 or 3 times....AND NO POP! Instead, she came to take Pat's plate and cleared his side of the table and left the check on her way out..............I was still trying to finish up my own dinner. STRIKE 6!!!!! In my experience, NEVER leave the check until you are sure everyone is done and no dessert is required and make sure that you ask if one would like to have dessert. Or at least that is what I am used to in all sit down restaurants....perhaps it's just me.
So....I finished up my really scrumptious fajita and had oodles of food left that I wanted to take home........but there sat the check and the waitress seemed to be done with us at this point....I needed a box for my food but by this time I was one unhappy person.
In the end, I decided that I didn't want to tip this person simply because we paid a good solid chunk of money for this meal and a service that I believe should rightfully be geared towards a paying customer.
However....Pat being the nice guy that he is talked me into leaving something. My mind was screaming...'leave a penny, leave a penny...' (us women can be nasty) but because Pat wanted to leave something more than a dollar I deliberately counted out the exact change and wound up leaving exactly a $2.00 tip. For what? I don't know. Perhaps she had a bad night, perhaps she was still in the learning phases of her job....either way, it was very frustrating to walk out of one of our favorite restaurant feeling rushed, ignored, unwelcome, and mostly let down. We've decided that we'll go back again and hope that this was just some freak thing. If in fact we end up getting the treatment that we received tonight a complaint may be in order and perhaps never return....I do hope it doesn't come to that though because the food there is out of this world!
Sorry, just needed to vent..................................
No comments:
Post a Comment