Sunday, June 20, 2010

Junteenth

As you may or may not know, yesterday was Juneteenth across America.  What you probably do know is that today is Fathers day here in America as well.  Just one of these is enough to make us go on a wait...which usually translates to frustrated customers and servers.  But when you combine two hallmark holidays in the same weekend, the lower echelons of society tend to come out.


True to form, we had one of these groups come in last night.  It all started out peacefully enough, I suppose.  A group of 8 walks in, without a reservation or a call ahead, and asks for an 8 top to be setup for them.  By this time we were already on a small wait, so after informing them of this wait, the server assistants were tasked with finding and setting up an 8 top somewhere in the restaurant.

After what seemed like a few minutes, but was actually around 20, the 8 top was ready to be seated.  Immediately after being seated, the bitching began.  Not even fully seated, they were wanting to be moved because someone saw an ant walking on a window sill.  I'm not saying I work in a trash heap by any means, but our bug guy had been out a few days before and pretty much bombed the place with spray, thus causing all the insects that are within the walls to pickup house and home and move out.  That process, evidently, can take days.

With nowhere else to put them for at least an hour, it was decided by management to put them in the other party room (the other was taken by another party.)  Of course, the party was already livid after their ant sighting (no ants were found on the table, or in any food or beverage), so the manager was sent in to deal with the problem.  After 15 minutes or so, he emerges, muttering under his breath.  Evidently they demanded their meals be completely comped, including their 'dranks'.  In my state, it is illegal to give away alcohol at a restaurant, so  that was never going to happen.  But they still wanted everything free...like they were entitled to it because nature encroached on their first eating spot.  But, with spine still in tact, the manager came out with a compromise....50% off their food order.  And this only because 4 of them bothered to show up.

But that wouldn't make a good story, would it?   Unbeknown  to us, the same effects of the bug spray were taking place here in the party room...except a day earlier it appears.  In the window sill of one of the windows in the corner of the room, evidently a fly carcass was found by them.  Not content to let a grave remain, this group took the fly off the sill and placed it in one of their drinks...another attempt to gain free product.  There was no way that this fly could be as dead as it was if it flew in their drinks.  They proceeded to claim that the fly was in the ice...not possible with the way our ice machines work.  Now, I know that all restaurants have the occasional fly in the food, or some other foreign object, but picking a dead bug up and placing it in a drink to get said drink free is just wrong.  Yet again, the manager was called in to deal with them, as their server at this point was refusing to serve them anymore.

Giving them no new discounts, the manager walks back to the kitchen to expo their food.  Carefully inspecting that no foreign objects are present, and taking a few minutes to make sure the garnish cannot be confused for an insect, their food goes out.  While their food is being delivered, a small waterbug decided to make its move from one corner of a wall to another.  This of course caused this group to go ballistic.  The bug was nowhere near them, in fact, it was at least a good 10 feet away.  The other party in the room was perfectly fine with all this, and even commented that 'you don't see that every day.'  Yet this bunch would not let it go.

Yet again, the manger was brought in to deal with it (by this time, the new server who was taking this group was 2 inches from giving up on them too.)  After conceding no further discounts to them, and giving them our general mangers card, they were left to their own devices...at least until it was time to give them their checks...

After being told numerous times that they were only receiving 50% off their food, each and every one of them threw a fit that their alcohol and other drinks weren't discounted as well.  A few minutes later, two had paid out, stiffing their server (as was expected) and two had their checks combined.  If any of you use Aloha, you know that when you split a check, the comps get removed.  The server forgot this when he delivered this check and the guy went OFF.   Thinking that we neglected to do anything for him, he moves into the bar area where myself, the manager, and a few servers were discussing the evenings events.  Explaining that this was a simple mistake, the manager reprinted his ticket with the appropriate comps.  But it wasn't good enough for this guy.  He was entitled to his free dinner...so he thought.

Giving no more ground to this guy, the manager finally said 'sir, i'm sorry you were not happy, and I wish I could do more for you, but I cannot.  If you would like to call my GM in the morning, you have her number.'  During this, his friends were trying to get him to give up and leave, and he finally gave in reluctantly, but not without causing a minor scene in front of a few other diners.

Under normal circumstances, some folks can be difficult to deal with in the best of times.  On days where certain people feel that it is their day and should be entitled to free or discounted stuff...especially when the day has nothing to do with them personally, people can be downright hateful if they don't get exactly what they want.  I'm sorry what happened 100+ years ago happened, but you weren't there.  Get over it.

2 comments:

  1. I worked in the industry for over ten years and can totally feel ya on this one. One similar experience on New Year's Eve ended with my telling the four couples to please feel free to leave and not let the door hit them in the *ss. After a night of total mayhem tolerating every rude drunk mofo in the central AR area, I stayed over for my shift to clean up the mess. And as you know, overtime at wait-staff pay isn't worth much if you aren't waiting tables, but I felt I owed it to the incoming shift. I left work driving home at 8 am on New Years Day. No traffic at all and managed to get a speeding ticket on I-430. I think that was the day I said screw it and decided to get the hell out of the industry.

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  2. i absolutely detest people like this who have the balls of steel to make a mountain out of a molehill and treat people like shit...baby u dont even want to know what i would have done to the assholes...but #1 i wouldnt have given them shit as far as a discount...reason why more than obvious and #2 i would have been fired on the way to the hospital after taking them all on! dont let these mofo's walk all over you like that...stand up for common sense...those dicks obviously are pieces of trash who don't know what that is to begin with.

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