Pushy Waitress

Alex W

Alex W

Pork and Beans connoisseur
I had a bunch of errands to run today and after we finished the wife decided she wanted seafood for lunch. In central Ohio your options are pretty limited. We ended up at Red Lobster.

The waitress takes out drink order and then says "I'd like you to look over the appetizers, I'll be back in a couple minutes to see which one you'd like." She comes back in a couple minutes and asks which appetizer we'd like. None. We rarely do appetizers and I'm on a diet, trying to get my summer body in shape. I thought her phrasing was odd but I just shrugged it off. I swear to God she sighed when we ordered water instead of soda or liquor.

She then says that she waited on us just a couple weeks ago and asked if we remembered her. We haven't been to Red Lobster in months. I politely tell her we haven't been there in quite a while. She argues with me. "No, I definitely remember you two in here a couple weeks ago." I assured her that she did not remember us and she said "well I very clearly remember her wallet," pointing to my wife's wallet. ( No my wife isn't cheating on me, I've been off work for a month)

Eventually she brings the bill. Under the total there's the part where the bill tells you what 15%, 18%, and 20% of the total is. She wrote "20%" next to this part in pen and drew a smiley face under it.

I did not give her 20% which is ironic because I almost always tip 20% unless the service is horrendous.

Ever get a waitress/waiter like this? I've had plenty of bad ones but I have never had one that was so aggressive.
 
My wife is a server. A new management company, called Spectra recently took over the restaurant. They have been ordered to talk far more to patrons and develop "friendships" with them. They also have been ordered to "upsell". Secret customers are going to come in to check on them. It sounds like Red Lobster is doing the same thing. The server may have been ordered to do this. Soliciting tips however is not tolerated. She may have gone rogue on that.
 
Rick 381 said:
My wife is a server. A new management company, called Spectra recently took over the restaurant. They have been ordered to talk far more to patrons and develop "friendships" with them. They also have been ordered to "upsell". Secret customers are going to come in to check on them. It sounds like Red Lobster is doing the same thing. The server may have been ordered to do this. Soliciting tips however is not tolerated. She may have gone rogue on that.
Click to expand...
That would totally explain it. It will just push me to eat at the local ma and pa places where the wait staff actually knows me and isn't trying to "sell" to me.

On a side note I had to run into Wal Mart (I know, I know) to grab a couple things before I picked the kids up from school. Immediately got hit up for family portraits. Right inside the entrance. This really isn't unusual here.

Walking past the food aisle I got hit up by one of those companies that asks who your electric company is, and tells you they can save you money, and lock in a rate, and how public utilities are socialist and how "they" are the free market at work ( 100% not joking). It's not even a bad tactic in this part of Ohio. It's super conservative. Normally these people walk door to door around here and drive me absolutely insane. They canvas the neighbourhood about once a week.

Next I go to the electronics and some dude stops me and asks me what my internet is. Tells me he can save me 50 bucks a month and triple my speed. It's bullshit. In this area we have DSL which is basically as slow as dial up, and spectrum. That's it here. Pick your poison.

This all happens in one 15 minute visit to Wal Mart. These people aren't rogue salesmen. They have tables set up. They have the store's blessing.

Is this capitalism gone off the rails? Are people younger than me desensitized to this kind of stuff because of internet ads? It blew my mind. I won't go back in there to buy anything.
 
Rick 381 said:
My wife is a server. A new management company, called Spectra recently took over the restaurant. They have been ordered to talk far more to patrons and develop "friendships" with them. They also have been ordered to "upsell". Secret customers are going to come in to check on them. It sounds like Red Lobster is doing the same thing. The server may have been ordered to do this. Soliciting tips however is not tolerated. She may have gone rogue on that.
Click to expand...

Shit like this is why I refuse to eat at chain restaurants. Well, that and the awful food at chains.
 
jp_nyc said:
Shit like this is why I refuse to eat at chain restaurants. Well, that and the awful food at chains.
Click to expand...
Thing is, it's not a chain restaurant. It's a breakfast/lunch place in a hotel. If you went in there you would believe it was run by the hotel. The hotel decided they did not want to run any of the food service places anymore so they hired a management company to do the work and pay them for the rights to operate there. The management company operates all over the country and have a operations manual they inflict on all ythe places they take over.
 
Here you shop at Wal-Mart or basically don't shop. The photo studio closed years ago. We have an electric monopoly so we pay whatever they want. Sometimes Dish or Cricket (or whoever that phone company is), pops up in the electronics area. The store puts up with them because they pay Wal-Mart to be there. Mostly it's clear sailing through the store.
 
She'd have got nothing from me.

Good service imo isn't asking for much - take my order in a reasonable time frame,

bring the correct stuff,

if you need to ask how everything is or what I've got planned after I eat that's fine but I don't want to have a conversation with you when Im eating

Don't annoy me


Do that and I'll tip you well. Unfortunately that's not always the case.

Service on Friday when I was out with friends and picking up the bill was mediocre and slow. I ended up going to pay at the restaurant till because they were so slow getting the bill out and we had a taxi waiting.

Waitress did the old 'ill just get your change' spiel which I told her it was fine, just keep it.

It must not have been up to her expectations (and bear in mind we have a much less formal expectation of tipping here than the states...) because I come back from the toilet and she'd droppedthe bill and my change on to our table. Her tip went from about £8 for pretty shit service to £0 for being obnoxious about the tip.
 
jbj said:
Service on Friday when I was out with friends and picking up the bill was mediocre and slow. I ended up going to pay at the restaurant till because they were so slow getting the bill out and we had a taxi waiting.
Click to expand...

We had to do that in France once. That rude French waiter was PISSED. Shame they don’t tip in France so we couldn’t stiff the bastard.
 
Rick 381 said:
My wife is a server. A new management company, called Spectra recently took over the restaurant. They have been ordered to talk far more to patrons and develop "friendships" with them. They also have been ordered to "upsell".
Click to expand...

This is exactly what is wrong with the service industry. ‘Form customer relationships’ is a load of bullshit I have come across loads of times, and is nothing more that ye olde sweet talking the customer to be able to get more money off them. I have left jobs where I was forced to upsell under the guise of ‘delivering excellent service’.

I feel for waiting staff having to do this. This does not mean they get away with rude behsviour
 
Mark Wein said:
I’m a pretty generous tipper because I’ve been on the other end of the service industry in a few different ways. But I would never eat at that Restaraunt again if that happened to me.
Click to expand...
This. I always tip well, because I’ve been on the other end. I don’t think I ever tip less than 20%, I just never go back to a place where I’ve had a bad experience.
 
You know, you can always just talk to someone.

"I know it's not your intention, but you're making me very uncomfortable. I would like it if ______________ ."
 
Danhedonia said:
You know, you can always just talk to someone.

"I know it's not your intention, but you're making me very uncomfortable. I would like it if ______________ ."
Click to expand...
yeah, and don't punish the waitstaff for dumb management policies (and at a big corporate chain like red lobster, those are definitely dumb management policies, not something the waitstaff came up with)
 
I always leave at least 20% or $5, whatever is larger, unless the service is just unbelievably bad. I figure they're working hard enough that they deserve it even if they don't give me "stellar service". I'm not a fucking king.
 
A few years ago my wife and I went on vacation to Maui. Right after we arrived on the island the first thing we did was stop for dinner at a restaurant. We had literally just been seated at our table when the waitress plops this big drink in front of me. I told her that I didn't order the drink, and she proceeded to argue with me insisting that I had ordered it. This went on for about 5 minutes when the table next to us spoke up and she finally realized she was wrong. I think the sun fried one too many brain cells on that one.
 
TomcatMF said:
A few years ago my wife and I went on vacation to Maui. Right after we arrived on the island the first thing we did was stop for dinner at a restaurant. We had literally just been seated at our table when the waitress plops this big drink in front of me. I told her that I didn't order the drink, and she proceeded to argue with me insisting that I had ordered it. This went on for about 5 minutes when the table next to us spoke up and she finally realized she was wrong. I think the sun fried one too many brain cells on that one.
Click to expand...
i imagine parts of Hawaii have quite a meth problem
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top