Poor Service

[auntdot]

Usually we get good service. But if there are two things that really tick me off it is an extended wait from when we sit to when we get a menu. a glass of water, and our drink order taken.

And when I am done with a meal, and want the bill, and I find I have become immediately invisible to the waitstaff, I become annoyed.

The latter situation is one in which I start deducting from the tip.

 

[Maverick2272]

The only thing I hold the waitperson responsible for is taking my order correctly, keeping my drinks filled, and getting my food to me all in a pleasant and friendly manner. In some places also presenting me with the check and what-not.
If the food is bad, well I let the cook know that usually thru the waitperson or the manager if it is bad enough. But I make sure the waitperson knows I am not holding that against them.
I do take into account if they are busy. If the service is poor I make sure to let the waitperson know exactly what they did wrong so they know why they are only getting the minimum 10%. If it is absolutely horrible I will also let the manager know and reduce it to 5%.
My standard is 15%, 20% if you are great. For some reason, I always seem welcomed back to the places we frequent, and remembered by name at many of them as well.
The way I figure it, if we can seem to afford to support Big Business' and help pay for their billions in profits why can't we afford to support working class people as well? That is where I would rather place my money, especially since they seem to appreciate it much more...

 

[Fisher's Mom]

Show a little more cleavage. If that doesn't work, leave.

(But here's a tip - this only works if your cleavage is somewhere near where it started out! In this case, gravity will not work in your favor!)

 

[Andy M.]

Show a little more cleavage. If that doesn't work, leave.

Amy, if I followed this advice, I'd never eat in a restaurant again.

 

[Corey123]

In this situation though Corey, how do you know they have done nothing to stop the problem? How do you know that they are not currently fighting with the pump maker to get a new pump or whatever or yelling at their supplier because they were sold bad beer?

It has happened too many times - I'd say the last 4 or 5 sittings there. The owner was very appoligetic, but that does little or nothing if the same problem keeps on popping up all the time.

Maybe he should can that vender and get a more reliable one.

A friend and myself once went to a pizza place in Las Vegas. We waited at least 10 minutes, and no one even bothered to come over to serve us, so we got up and walked out.

I got absolute zero tolerance for stuff like that! When that happens, then they must not want your business.

 

[Loprraine]

Bad service will never change if you do not make them aware there was a problem.

I agree totally.

Show a little more cleavage. If that doesn't work, leave

Sorry, that's just wrong.

 

[Corey123]

Regardless of how much they are being paid, if they are not performing the service they are paid to perform, tipping sends the wrong message.

Yeah, I base the tip on the service;

If it's good, then they get a generous tip. But if the service is insulting or sour, then they'll get an insulting sour tip.

 

[Dave Hutchins]

Being a chef and later a restaurant owner. As a Chef I went into the dinning room every night and checked on my guest's and got to know there likes and dis likes and my business all ways was good later as a owner I was all ways training my staff on good service. to be unobtrusive and look as they went by a table and if thier water was low fill it with out being asked to. I have been in this business for most of my adult life and poor service will kill a restaurant quicker than poor food

 

[Corey123]

Probably the main reason why a BBQ restaurant in the Providence Place Mall bit the dust.

For two Christmas Eves in a roll, they lied about the closing times. One year, they closed at 6pm after they posted a closing time of 7pm. The following year, they posted a closing time of 7pm and was closed before 5pm!!

They weren't even there in that spot for two years. Last summer, a friend and I found out that they had packed up and moved out. Didn't miss them at all! Serves them right! Good riddens to bad rubbish!!!

 

[Maverick2272]

Being a chef and later a restaurant owner. As a Chef I went into the dinning room every night and checked on my guest's and got to know there likes and dis likes and my business all ways was good later as a owner I was all ways training my staff on good service. to be unobtrusive and look as they went by a table and if thier water was low fill it with out being asked to. I have been in this business for most of my adult life and poor service will kill a restaurant quicker than poor food

Explains why you did so well. That is interesting about poor service killing a restaurant quicker than poor food. I would have thought it would be equally as bad.
I know in Chicago there are a billion of each type of restaurant around, so the best way to distinguish themselves, IMHO, is service. That is not to say taste isn't important. I rank them first by taste, but that still leaves me many choices, so then it is service that sets them apart. The ones that make me feel special or at home get my repeat business as long as the quality stays up there.

EDIT: Re-reading that, I just affirmed what you stated, LOL.

 

[Fiona]

On one visit stateside, teh service was appaling so no I didn't tip & the waitress had a stand up row & no I didn't back down, However, i did eat at a Ramsay restaurant yesterday (new one in Versailles) and both the food & service were a credit to his empire!

 

[AmericaWestCMH]

All I care is that my order is correct and my drink is refilled in a reasonable time frame. If the service is bad once, I don't really care. If it's consistently bad, I just avoid the place in the future.

Not worth getting worked up over...

 

[kitchenelf]

On one visit stateside, teh service was appaling so no I didn't tip & the waitress had a stand up row & no I didn't back down, However, i did eat at a Ramsay restaurant yesterday (new one in Versailles) and both the food & service were a credit to his empire!

Surely bad service isn't confined to "stateside" And Ramsay's restaurant better have both good food and good service.

 

[miniman]

We went out today to a Beefeater resturant. We booked in for 5pm, knowing we had to be at the ice rink for 6.20 (just around the corner). We we were seated OK, debated the menu choices and had an order in by about 5:10. 5:35, the starters arrive and we demolish them and wait, wait, wait for the plates to be cleared. We mention at this point we need to be gone by 6:15 to get to the show. The mains will be 5 mins - 10 mins later we mention it again and another 5 minutes till the meals arrive. We have to bolt them - shame because it was good food. The waitress was good and bought the bill while we were eating so I could settle quickly. She suggested that we should have said at the beginning but I feel an 1hr should be sufficient time to enjoy a menu at a run of the mill eatery and she was not in evidence when we did start to be concerned, in fact no where to be seen for most of the meal. Another family sat nearby said it was common to wait and they had once had to wait for an hour to get their food. I didn't leave a tip.

The question is how much does the appreciation of good food set against bad service. Do you keep going for the food or give up and say that you are not willing to wait for that length of time.

 

[Essiebunny]

A problem with the food does occur in the kitchen, but when a server brings something which is clearly bad and is surprised that you refuse it, that is the servers responsibility, as well.

We recently visited a local family restaurant for breakfast and my dh ordered steak and eggs. When it came out, the steak actually smelled spoiled so he refused it. The waitress was very upset that he didn't want it and was actually rude. She must have had no sense of smell.

Needless to say, we will never return to that restaurant and she got no tip.

 

[KitchenScrapbook]

Here's my opinion: Training good waiters/waitresses is SO important to a restaurant... for me, the eating out experience has as much to do with the atmosphere, how friendly and relaxed the server was, and how well you were treated as much as, if not more than, the quality of the food does. Ha, maybe this shows I'm a woman as opposed to a food critic... atmosphere is important to me.

We (as in my husband and I) tip 15% minimum for bad service, more for good service. They get such low pay per hour and yeah, maybe the bad servers don't 'deserve' a good tip, but we tip anyway and are just more likely to not go to that restaurant as much again. THAT is why I think a training program is so important... bad service and unfriendliness makes people tend to not go back or at least have a negative thought when they think of that restaurant, I think.

 

[babetoo]

Here's my opinion: Training good waiters/waitresses is SO important to a restaurant... for me, the eating out experience has as much to do with the atmosphere, how friendly and relaxed the server was, and how well you were treated as much as, if not more than, the quality of the food does. Ha, maybe this shows I'm a woman as opposed to a food critic... atmosphere is important to me.

We (as in my husband and I) tip 15% minimum for bad service, more for good service. They get such low pay per hour and yeah, maybe the bad servers don't 'deserve' a good tip, but we tip anyway and are just more likely to not go to that restaurant as much again. THAT is why I think a training program is so important... bad service and unfriendliness makes people tend to not go back or at least have a negative thought when they think of that restaurant, I think.

pretty much one can get decent food anywhere. good service is not so easy to find.

when i managed a hallmark store up north in ca. service was what i taught the most. it struck me that people could buy a card or gift , even in the grocery store. we had to make their experience in our store good enough to be the place they chose.

we did what we called "the hallmark jerk" meaning whatever u were doing even running the check out, u were to jerk your head to say hello to each and every person, that came in the door.

often older people would pull up in a car and we would go out to their cars and get the list of cards they needed. we then picked them out , rang them up and took back to the customer in their cars.

food is even more personal and bad service ruins the experience.

babe

 

[Corey123]

Right!!

If you're going to pay them for good service, then you should get it.

If you don't get it the minute that you walk through the door, then just walk out even before you are seated. Eateries come a dime a dozen, and there are too many fish in the sea!

 

[Maverick2272]

Right!!

If you're going to pay them for good service, then you should get it.

If you don't get it the minute that you walk through the door, then just walk out even before you are seated. Eateries come a dime a dozen, and there are too many fish in the sea!

I would at least give it a chance. I can't count the number of times I have gone to a restaurant and had a snotty unpleasant hostess but a great waitress and great food.
If I had walked out right away I would never have had the chance to tell the manager that his hostess needed more training or a new career but his wait staff and chefs/cooks were great.
Now he has the chance to do something about that, of course if he doesn't then that is a different story altogether as he would more than likely loose my business.

 

[Barbara L]

Around here, except in family run restaurants, servers don't seem to stay very long. So it would be especially silly to not go back based on the service of individual servers. If we received consistently bad service (which has not happened) I would figure that maybe management was behind it (policies that cause the servers to come across as rude).

Barbara