Posted: 10/15/2007 7:20:54 PM EDT
 So Mrs. Killswitch and I go to a local ice creamery/restaurant for dinner. We get there and the place is fairly dead. There is one family of 7 and one couple. There are three waitresses, one cashier, and two cooks. We wait for probably 4 minutes before someone even looks up long enough to see that we are there.So waitress #1 walks up. Waitress #1: Where do you wanna sit? Mrs. Killswitch: Anywhere over there is OK.(motioning to the empty area so we can have a little privacy) So we get sat right next to the family of 7 instead of by ourselves like we wanted. Great...  So we sit and look over the menu, decide what we want to eat, and chit-chat about our day. And wait.....and wait.....and waaiiiitttt.....you see where I am going. So waitress #1 brings in another family and sits them NEXT to us...so now we are sandwitched between two families....wonderful....  So waitress #1 goes back over and resumes her conversation with waitress #2. Talk talk talk, bla bla bla...I'm getting mad. I catch her eye a couple of times and she hastily looks away so she doesn't have to aknowledge that I am ready for her to stop talking and take our order. So I finally get mad and wave her over. She rolls her eyes and slouches over to us. Waitress #1: Waddaya wanna order? Mrs. Killswitch: What is your soup for today? Waitress #1: *dramatic sigh* We have cream of broccoli or corn chowder. Mrs. Killswitch: OK, I'll have the corn chowder, cheese fries, and a small caramel shake. Oh, and can I please have extra caramel in that? Waitress #1: *Sigh*....Sure. Waddaya want sir? Me: Yeah, I'll have the Baron of beef and a strawberry banana shake please. Waitress #1: OK, that'll be right out. She slouches away from us and resumes her chit-chat with waitress #2. So our food comes out, but our waitress doesn't deliver it to us. Oh nooo...waitress #2 delivers it to us while waitress #1 is leaning against the counter looking bored. OK so she's lazy too...  So we eat and while we are eating our water glasses run dry...and never get refilled. Family #1 is done with their meal and are chatting it up while their three children are running around and knocking chairs over, bumping into us, making all kinds of noise while the folks just go on like they are in their own private little cafe. So after I shoot some dirty looks over in their direction mom kinda gets the hint and does of a half-assed job of trying to calm her anklebiters down, but then seems to give up and goes back to being in the conversation. So one of the little kids falls over a chair and starts SCREAMING bloody murder. I mean like a friggin' fire alarm! So dad gets up and is saying "What did we tell you? Huh? We told you to stop!" Uh, no ya didn't slick, you were ignoring the goings on of your seed and being a shitty parent. I'm sorry, but people need to watch their damned children in public places. If they are running arround and knocking things over you either need to: A. Get your kids OUT OF THERE! Or.. B. Pick up your kids and hold them on your lap so they aren't causing a scene! Why is that so fucking hard? Keep your fucking spawn under control. If you can't, DON'T FUCKING GO INTO PUBLIC!! If you are a shitty parent, please don't fucking make everyone else suffer!  So Mrs. Killswitch and I are done, so we wait for the check. And wait....and wait....and WAIT....AND WAIT....you can tell where this is going, O fellow ARFCOMer, can't you? So after a while I get tired of sitting there while Waitress #1 and 2 chat it up and ignore me staring holes into the back of their vacuous skulls! So I get up, walk over, and they both get this "oh shit" look on their G.E.D. faces. Me: Excuse me! But when you two girls are done chit-chatting, I am ready for my check! Waitress #1: *sigh* Sorry...(sarcastically)  (Oh no you DID NOT just roll your eyes at me little girl!)Waitress #2: Yeah... So now, Killswitch is PISSED OFF. The kids are screaming from Family #1 and Family #2's kids are starting to act up. Time to motor or I'ma stab someone! Waitress #1 slouches her way to our table, drops the check from over a foot above the table, watches the check flutter into our leftovers, then turn away and leaves. I'm fucking red in the face now! I am about to tear this place a new asshole! I grab my check in the only spot not covered in fry sauce, and walk over to the register. Now I'm behind grampa from Family #1. He is wearing red and green flannel pajama bottoms, a tan and beige Hawaiian shirt, socks, and sandals. He stinks and has the farts. Great...fucking marvelous!  Grampa leaves and I walk up to the cashier. Cashier: How was everything for you tonight? Mrs. Killswitch: It was good. Me: It was merely ok. Cashier: Alrighty...that'll be $23.52. Hand him my credit card. Me: Oh, and by the way, you may wanna have a talk to your wait staff about spending less time chit-chatting and more time actually SERVING.  Cashier: Uhhh....yeah, ok. I'll be sure to do that.  Me: Yeah....sure you will. Cashier: Would you like to leave a tip? Me: NO! I don't think I will! Cashier: Here's your receipt sir... We walk out to the car and get in. We look up and Cashier, Waitress#1, and Waitress #2 have their heads together pointing at us and chit-chatting away while Family #2 waits at the register to pay their bill. I was so fucking pissed off! I have NEVER had service that lousy! And the thing is, the place is one of hose family owned and operated jobs, so they can basically do whatever they want an get away with it!
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Im sure the owner would love to hear about it. Tell him you are going to tell everyone you know how shitty their service is and to not go there. Its sad but usually the worst service comes from privately owned resturants. Go to a nice chain place and its usually a lot better because you have multiple managers, and a lot more employees so they wont regret firing one or two here and there. PLus there is corporate and regional managers to deal with as well. Chances are the waitresses at your place are friends or the daughter of the owners... With regards to the kids we have twin toddlers here, and we will not take them into a nice resturant. Before having them we always hated going to a nice place where you are paying 20-30 a plate just to hear some little shithead cry the whole time. We take ours to family oriented resturants or they go to grandmas when we want to get out on the town for the night. |
In all fairness this was a "family oriented" place, being an icecreamery and all, but that shouldn't give people the idea that they can let their children act that way infront of other people. If I had done that I would have gotten a whoopin' out in the parking lot! My parents never put up with shit like that! AndI would absolutely mortified if my kids ever did that.
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1. I would have politely stated that I didn't want seated next to the the Romper room 7 when she led you to THAT table. 2. I would have asked for the manager and explained in quick terms what you just typed here and told him to mail you the check when he wipes the gravy off of the bill and I would have walked out. 3. I may have had a choice word or 2 for the POS waitress on my way to the door. 4. Tell all of your friends to never patronize them as I am certain you will never go back. 5. Enjoy the adventure of finding new digs to dine w/ the Mrs 
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I had a nice one once, short but funny , as I was riding the bike when I went in. I cant remember where it was.... somewhere in town. Anyways, I go in and see "please seat yourself" Good, find me a both rid the riding gear. We are talking about 4pm or shortly before, so I as the ONLY person in there. It takes me about 4-5 minutes to take off a full riding suit. and get settled in. I sit, for about 5 more minutes.... fuck this I am outta here. I re-suit up, and start heading to the door... "sir, did you want to eat?" me: No, I am in the habit of going to an eating establishment, un-suiting, sitting down, have a smoke, and the reverse it.....(with a look like this..  )She starts to get all huffy, and the manager walks on over, "what is the problem, sir?" If you don;t know, you are as bad as the wait staff... have a nice evening without my $$$$. I don't BS around too much in those situations... I just leave, and them to F.R.O. ! |
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I speak as a former waitress when i say.... you are right in your feelings. There are people who work in the food industry that provide good service, no matter what. Then there are those who get their buddies to get them hired, and proceed to sit on their asses the rest of their shift. I worked with a bunch of crybaby alcoholic sophomores my senior year. They showed up hungover every day, pulled up a pickle bucket, and didn't do anything. I was the "make it better" person. I dealt with all the pissed off customers and tried to soothe things over, because the lazy little effers wouldn't do their jobs. So yeah. I hear you.
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Killswitch, I feel your pain. Can't tell you how many times i've sat with my kids being respectfull and polite at a restaraunt while we watched some hellions tear the place apart. My kids have asked me "Why do their parents let them get away with that, daddy?" While not as bad as your experience, on saturday night, I took my kids out to dinner after my daughter and I got back from a "Daddy/daughter" dance, and the chinese restaraunt we went to had waiters that ignored us, rolled their eyes at us when we asked for tea refills, etc. And, while most would consider it a small thing, I was pissed when I paid my bill because of what the waiter did. He gave me the check, and it was for 44 bucks and like 28 cents. I got out the cash to pay, AND put the tip on the table as well, in plain sight. The waiter comes along, sees the tip, and takes my $45 for the bill, goes to the till, and then comes back and thanks me without the change. I already had the tip on the table and was planning on letting my kids use the change to get somthing out of the little gumball machines at the entrance. I watched as he looked at the tip, he knew it was there and still decided to keep the change even though I did NOT say "Keep the change". I know it's just a few cents. I just think that it's shitty that he thought he was entitled to more then I already decided to give him. So, I said fuck it and took half of the tip that I was going to leave. If he's not going to have the courtesy to let me decide what to do with my change, then fuck'em. He just lost half of his tip. Which unfortunatly, because of his shitty service, wasn't that big to begin with. |
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Eating out is one of my pet peeves. I hate having to deal with highschoolers working for minimum wage when you're paying out the ass for a decent meal. Being sat is one of the worst parts. A friend and I walked into an On the Border a few months ago for a late dinner at around 10 pm on a weeknight. The place is pretty empty. The bar is full of course, but there are about a dozen tables with people at them. The 16 yr old hostess says "It's going to be about 10-15 minutes." "What?" I say. She repeats and I tell her "There are tons of empty tables open, why do we have to wait to get service?" "These sections are closed" she says pointing to everything but the bar area. I start flipping out. "What do you mean they're closed? You don't close for 2 more hours, why have you 'closed' almost the entire restaurant?" Meanwhile people are sitting in these "closed" areas eating dinner. I ask her why any resturant would make someone wait 10 minutes to sit at a table when there are dozens of empty tables in the place. Not a great way to run a business, making people wait for no reason. She's 16 and a hostess so she looks at me and gives the "Don't ask me?" face. I understand if it's a slow night and you sent some servers home and cleaned and closed their areas, but seriously, it's not like I walked it with a football team of 9 yr olds. One more table of two people isn't going to kill a server. I promptly left and went to a resturant that would sit us anywhere we pleased. Another thing that pisses me off is when I always go to a Hooters or similar wing house and it's pretty full, so I stand around waiting for one of the girls to come tell me what the table situation is, or to help find one and they all just stand around doing nothing while I'm standing 10 feet in front of them, obviously waiting to be seated. I understand the "seat yourself thing" when there are plenty of tables open, but when the place is packed, I'd appreciate a little help. When someone is standing at the podium, you should go help them, not look at them and then walk off. It makes my blood boil when there are 5 girls standing around, one of them whose only job is to sit people and they ignore you. |
Oh I will and if I see any other charges I will be getting MANY free meals from that particular establishment. I will be calling the manager and they will be getting a full ear full + change about these employees. I'm still hot in the face about all this.
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+1 even better, if you dont want to be bothered by other people, dont go out to eat :P |
I could understand if the place was packed wall to wall with humanity, but there were only two tables out of the whole joint in use. Where she seated us was in the exact OPPOSITE direction of where my wife pointed. If she had plans to seat us there then she shouldn't have asked "Where do ya wanna sit?" But it's getting more and more that Mrs. Killswitch and I don't go out due to all the idiots, morons, meth heads, and shitty parents with lousy kids everywhere we go.
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I should have, and hind sight is 20/20. But they have damn good ice cream! So I wanted to give them a chance. It's kind of like when you see a movie that sucks, but you keep watching hoping that it will get better... 
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You have to be able to eject when you see things are just going downhill, with little chance of a turn around. Your intuition was talking to you from the beginning... and you didn't follow up. What works for me is I do not wait for dinner to be served .... if the wait staff is doing a shit job and the dining experience is lacking, I will just send my gf to the front lobby to keep her from any embarrassment ( girls are funny that way - they never like to be part of any scene or disturbance ). If we have had any drinks ... I walk to the bar to even up with the bartender, whom is typically one of the more level headed persons to deal with ( not to mention male vs female ). I'll ask him if the manager is close by, if so I explain the guy in charge what just transpired ( complaing to the server / waitress is a complete waste of time ). usually this is what happens ... they waive the charge on the drinks - appetizers etc ... apoligize and inform you that the next dinner is on him when you return. I never create a scene that bothers other patrons ( the mgmnt respects that and acts accordingly ). I smile and exit after a quick hand shake and a "no hard feelings" thing and walk to the front door lobby where my gf is waiting and hit the parking lot and cruise to a new place. This is quite rare. typically maybe 1-2 times a year out of 50-100 dining out experiences. The rate is I would say 1-3%. To continue to sit there and be mistreated when you are giving them your business and hard earned dollars is just plain stupid. It takes approx 1-2 minutes to expedite the above mentioned scenario and it works every damn time. You gotta show the shit bag wait staff that not only will you get up and walk away ... you will also drop the dime to their boss on what a loust job they are doing. |