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1k91js5
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TalesFromYourServer
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Ran into a former customer-
|
It’s been a while since I left this industry!
But since I still frequent the area I used to work in I run into many former customers.
Yesterday - I bumped into a man who used to eat at our restaurant frequently.
He was rude, would click his fingers at me to get my attention, seat himself and then yell he was ready to order immediately, even if I was in the middle of serving someone else.
Send food back constantly, telling me the noodles were not fresh enough. Soup was not hot enough, not enough veggies, too many veggies!!!
We indeed made our own noodles!! And they were fresh everyday!!
One time even trying to confront me in front of other customers accusing us of lying, he said “your noodles are definitely not fresh but frozen, I can tell! You should stop lying to your everyone. I’m not gullible!! Like the rest of your customers-but I don’t mind. You should just be truthful”
No but seriously, we made our own noodles as noodles and dumplings were what we were known for and had been for more than 20 years.
He would turn up with his colleagues, a group of 10 or more in the middle of our busy lunch rush and get offended we couldn’t seat them.
“Uh - but I’m a regular, it’s kind of rude that you’re not prioritising me?” He would say.
Lunch time was our busiest, we were a small family run place with about 50 seats. Since there were a lot of offices near us, we were always completely full.
He would not tip but also if he was eating with others would say “there’s no need to tip them! I come here all the time!”
When he ordered, he always made sure to tell me that he was in a hurry - “I’m very busy you know”
But proceed to sit for hours until we were closing.
Sometimes he would even bring his wife to the restaurant in the evenings and she was equally horrid.
Anyway, I saw this guy yesterday while I was having a coffee with my friend.
He recognised me straight away and come over to say hello.
He is now in a wheelchair.
He told me he had a cycling accident with a car and was now paralysed from the waist down.
It feels weird. I feel bad for him but also not bad because just seeing his face sort of gave me PTSD from when he would yell and snap his fingers at me.
The feelings I felt were so strange.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1k91js5/ran_into_a_former_customer/
| 262 | 27 | 1,745,752,372 | 5 |
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hot
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1jrxzg2
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
A man at one of my tables told me he was going to spank me for being a bad girl.
|
It's my (21F) first post here, I needed somewhere to vent because I am DISGUSTED. I work in an itty bitty family owned sushi restaurant btw.
***The names I use are NOT their real names***
Like always, Fridays are INSANE. I was closing out one of my tables towards the end of the night, I picked up 2 handfuls of plates off their table, so my hands were full. It was 2 adult men (i'm guessing over 45 years old) and 1 woman. They told me they were ready for the check. I let them know I was going to go drop off the dirty plates and come right back with the bill. One of the men, we'll call him Bob, proceeded to hand me his credit card, despite BOTH hands being stacked full of dirty dishes. Bob wedged his card it in between 2 of my fingers. The other man, we'll call him Jeff, says "her hands are full she can't take ur card yet". Then Jeff takes Bob's credit card out of my hand and put it in his pocket. Well...BOB DIDNT LIKE THAT. Bob said, "Oh no you need to take MY card, I'm paying for dinner." I apologized and said "i'm sorry my hands are full I'll be right back with the bill so we can figure it out." Bob opens his mouth yet again, and says "I'm going to spank you for that.
You're being a bad girl." I did not say a word, I stood there in shock, and finished bussing their table. The couple sitting at the table, Jeff and the woman, just quietly laughed, as I walked away. And to top it all off, he followed up on that comment with "You are no longer getting a tip".
I would think that the lady at the table would have some sympathy for me and maybe apologize to me on his behalf??? Like a half hour later, she was standing next to me while I was running someone else's bill, while that man was using the restroom(so she was alone), and just awkwardly smiled at me. I was honestly expecting her to say something about it.
TLDR: A man at one of my tables told me he was going to "spank me for being a bad girl" because I took his friend's credit card instead of his. And then told me he was not tipping me anymore.
Edit: I don’t care if he was “joking”. Literally disgusting for a man to say that to a a 21 year old girl.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1jrxzg2/a_man_at_one_of_my_tables_told_me_he_was_going_to/
| 1,865 | 219 | 1,743,837,820 | 5 |
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hot
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1j3j5iy
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Reminder: this a is a subreddit for tales from servers
|
This subreddit is for current or former restaurant service (from anywhere from fast food, care homes, to fine dining) staff to share their stories from work. This isn't a subreddit for asking questions for waitstaff, asking if you tipped someone enough, asking "has anyone ever worked at (x) restaurant chain? How were tips? Can I have tattoos," nor a place to post polls to survey restaurant staff about your new product, etc.
If you're posting a new thread, it should be a story. Feel free to ask questions in comments of story posts of course, but there has been a recent influx of content better suited for other subreddits that are purely not tales from servers.
Please also note that if you’re a customer, you’re still welcome here! Read our stories and engage! But please respect that this is a platform for and by restaurant employees. If you had an exceptional experience at a restaurant, share it too!
I’d also like anyone who’s read this far to review our subreddit’s rules and remember to be kind and respectful to each other.
if you have any questions about what sort of posts are and are not allowed, feel free to reach out to the mod team. Thank you for being a member of our community!
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1j3j5iy/reminder_this_a_is_a_subreddit_for_tales_from/
| 473 | 46 | 1,741,116,379 | 5 |
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hot
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1j1irbh
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Cried in front of a table as a server
|
Has anyone ever had a rough serving shift and cried in front of a table? I want to hear from others as this happened to me. The restaurant I work at unfortunately was very short stuff with only two servers, one cook and one supervisor. When there is not staff it is more work for the servers to do everything else for the restaurant such as host, buss tables, run food and ofc just serve your tables! Anywho,I felt extremely bad because I wasn't giving good service I usually do, on top of that lots of people complained of the long wait time of the food. I had a lovely couple, who waited a while for me to even grab their beverages and I apologize sincerely about the wait time and my service in general! Luckily, they were very nice couple left me a great tip but I told them I cant accept it! And then I started to get teary, I felt embarrassed and apologized again. They got up and said "don't apologize you were lovely we see your busy please keep the tip" and gave me a big hug. I just felt so bad on my part and couldn't help my emotions. This is the first time it has ever happened to me, I usually push through and do my job lmao but hey we all got rough days.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1j1irbh/cried_in_front_of_a_table_as_a_server/
| 57 | 13 | 1,740,890,185 | 5 |
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hot
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1ikv4u0
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Rude Tourists insulted my coworkers
|
I'm American and work in a chain restaurant that also attracts tourists due to its location near some popular tourist spots. For background, I helped at the host stand and as a server during a morning brunch rush.
While I was helping the host stand these three people came in a girl and two guys in track suits. The girl spoke in a British accent and was confused when we told her that there was a wait because we all our servers had full sections and we told her that she could give us her number and text her back.
She looked like we just insulted her and one of the track suit guys came up to my colleague and asked what the problem was and insulted her for giving poor service along with his other track suit friend. I don't know what country they were from their accents were a mixture of Eastern European and British. A manager came and defused the situation offering to seat them at the bar which was open seating and just glared at my coworker and would complain every minute that they weren't seated (the wait time was like 5-10 minutes).
I just told a buser to clean a table and we eventually sat them after they started complaining about the service while they waited, particularly the track suit guys. I led them to their table and they were surprisingly polite to me but when their server came they were super rude to her especially since they wanted a drink we didn't offer (it was some kind of coffee that we didn't have I don't remember what it was but even the experienced baristas didn't recognize it). They would call her a stupid monkey when she couldn't understand their accents.
Me and a food runner helped and they were polite to us but the server they were just rude to her and would talk to her like she was stupid and didn't know anything. Eventually they paid and surprisingly they left a tip but with a note calling the girl at the host stand a bitch among other slurs (she was black).
Side note but we all talked about them after the shift ended and we noted that they were only hostile to the server I was helping and the girl at the host stand who were both black and were ok with me, the manager, and the food runner who weren't. But hey at least they tipped.
Is it not common to put your name down on a waiting list in the UK/ EU? Other European tourists I've served never had an issue with it and while they can be curt I usually find Europeans to be low maintenance. I just find the situation a littler hilarious looking back on it, they were so pissed that they had to wait 5 minutes and that we didn't have this super specific coffee.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1ikv4u0/rude_tourists_insulted_my_coworkers/
| 212 | 35 | 1,739,042,223 | 5 |
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hot
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1ilje4v
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Super Bowl Sunday, I’ve had 0 training. I need advice!
|
So I started working at sports bar recently, and I’ve been doing online training up until this point.
I’ve asked multiple times when I would start actual, in-person training. But, they haven’t been adamant in training on me, due to what I can imagine the preparation for the Super Bowl.
I attended the meeting for the Super Bowl that we had a few days ago, at the managers behest. And I spoke up and asked if I could do in-person training on the days prior to the big game…as they wanted me to work that day.
And so they stated that they would train me in 2-3 days before today, and would get back to me. Spoiler alert, they didn’t even after reaching out.
So I called them today, and I said “I was wondering if you all still wanted me to come in today? I’m a bit concerned as I’ve received no in-person training and don’t have a uniform.”
The manager replied, that they have a shirt for me (which is funny because they don’t have my measurements). And that they wanted me to come, and today they would train me.
I’m so worried because as stated in the meeting (and as you would expect from a sports bar/restaurant), the place is going to be overfilled. Every seat, table, and airspace is going to be filled with people. We’re going to have to put extra chairs up against the walls so that people can still enjoy the game and be served.
I don’t know the menu, I wasn’t taught the table sections. I literally don’t know anything (besides what I’ve grasped from the online training). I’ve worked in the restaurant industry before, so I can handle high volume and a fast-paced environment.
But if working in a restaraunt has taught me anything, being a server is not easy.
So, I just wanted all the advice that you could possibly give me. So that I can perform decently and not cause issues.
I have to head in at 3 pm (currently 12 pm ET). So I have three hours to mentally and physically prepare myself.
UPDATE:
I didn’t know whether to do this in the actual post or the comments.
But, it went well! Learning tables was an issue for a bit because management had switched things up for the Super Bowl...and forgot to let the servers know. But after asking a heinous amount of questions, and begging my coworker to test me, I got them down.
Training was a bit difficult in the beginning as my coworkers were kind of messing around (I kept a smile on my face but my frustration clock was TICKING). And so I got an entire crash course of the job. It was definitely a lot to take in at once but my coworker was good in answering any of the questions I had.
To avoid difficulty, they just had me run food all night to tables and help with to-go orders.
I think my biggest issue was with holding the food up. At one point, I ended up using two hands because the balancing just wasn’t there 😭😭😭. It got even more difficult when I had to hold the tray with one hand + put the food down to serve the guests. I was trying so hard to not put the tray on the table and so my hands were SHAKING.
In terms of everyone else’s performance, it was pretty all hands on deck. Everyone is kind for the most part but the place is just disorganized. In my last restaraunt job, the place was organized but it was a really toxic work environment.
I didn’t receive any tips from customers as I wasn’t closing checks so idk if I made money??
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1ilje4v/super_bowl_sunday_ive_had_0_training_i_need_advice/
| 16 | 27 | 1,739,120,632 | 5 |
tip
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hot
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1ii91kq
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Question about gift cards
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I received a gift card to a restaurant for an amount way more than I typically would spend. Can I use the gift card to also cover the tip for the server with the gift card, or should I tip separately? I want to make sure the server get's the money.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1ii91kq/question_about_gift_cards/
| 19 | 26 | 1,738,759,230 | 5 |
tip
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hot
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1hsnygg
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Getting taxed on money I don’t take home.
|
Is there recourse for working somewhere where I’m paying taxes on money that goes to support staff and into tip pool? My reported cash tips this week were almost double what I took home.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1hsnygg/getting_taxed_on_money_i_dont_take_home/
| 84 | 40 | 1,735,915,376 | 5 |
tip
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hot
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9uyg08
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Walk in 75 top. That’s right. 75 top.
|
This happened a couple weeks ago at the very busy restaurant I work at. A woman came in saying she had some people from a jujitsu club wanting to come in for dinner and drinks and do we take reservations. My manager asked for how many, and she said about 75, but maybe up to 100. My manager started laughing, but was soon stricken by horror as she realized the woman was serious. We have a large restaurant, but a very small kitchen, and have a strict 20 top cut off. When told about this, the woman still insisted that they were already here and pretty much refused no for an answer.
We ended up allowing them to come in as it was around 8pm and things were slowing down. They sat outside in our big patio area, and we had two servers split the group.
People were ordering at different times and many were just drinking, so the kitchen managed to do okay. The worst part was that about 30 of the people never went to their designated area, and instead crowded the bar and stood there. Us servers use this area to walk through and obviously get our drinks. After several attempts at pushing our way through the crowd, we eventually gave up and accepted it as our reality. To get our bar drinks, we would go around to the bar side, every. damn. time. We have a long bar and only entry on each side, so this is huge out of our way.
This group came in around 8pm and stayed almost all night. The people were nice, but damn how clueless are you!!!
EDIT: A lot of people are wanting to know if they tipped. I wasn’t the one serving them, just another server trying to keep the rest of the place under control. I heard MOST of them tipped, although they did all pay separate and we ran out of check presenters obviously. Also, a few of them walked out on their tabs. Not on purpose, I’m sure, they probably just wandered to meet their friends at the bar and forgot to close out. I find this very rude no matter who it is, if you aren’t sure how to pay, ask the server or let them know you are leaving, moving, etc.
Most of all, treat everyone with compassion! Server, customer, whatever. Treat cranky old people like they are your parents, because one day, they could be. Remember rude customers are ASSHOLES, but also probably have a worse life than you do. Know that some people don’t understand “restaurant etiquette” like we do, and if they did, maybe they would act differently. Remember your server is just a human being, not a servant, and being nice goes a long way.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/9uyg08/walk_in_75_top_thats_right_75_top/
| 7,121 | 411 | 1,541,587,970 | 5 |
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top
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oxv4op
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Confused 17 year olds trying their best at a 5 star steakhouse.
|
Had a sweet, clueless young couple come in yesterday to celebrate their anniversary. Both dressed up like hipsters with plaid pants and blazers. I greet them with a cocktail list as it is dark and I can't immediately discern their age.
Now, I normally don't ID people when they ask for a drink unless they look 12 (im joking), but boyfriend of the year says the magic sentence to disqualify them from having anything, "oh were both underage". Oh okay no problem, get them a couple cokes and proceed with the service.
About 10 minutes later one of our bussers tells me that the couple are friends of his. I then take the order and tell them "since you are friends with [busser] I can bring out a gooseneck of some of our fancy sauce for free" (we charge extra for the good steak sauces). Well apparently what they heard was "since you are friends with [busser] I'm going to discount your whole, unexpectedly expensive meal".
[Busser] comes up to me and says "thats so nice of you to discount their check". At this point I'm hella confused and I tell the busser to go clarify with them what I had said (thinking maybe theyre trying to pull a fast one).
End of the meal comes, I drop the check and here's where it gets interesting. Boyfriend looks at the check, perplexed. Me, observing the situation from the bar, wondering what could possibly be going through this young individual's head. Boyfriend stops one of our food runners to ask for a pen. Continues to stare, perplexed at his itemized bill. He proceeds to write on it, then waits, then calls over the busser from earlier. They come and grab me and tell me he needs help (no kidding). I go over and he asks "where's the part where I add the tip?" I had to explain to him how the process worked: "oh so you'll leave your card in here, I'll go run it, and then you'll have a separate slip to add the tip on." "OH! Okay". Throws his debit card in the book and I get them on their way.
I have never before in all my years of fine dining servitude come across individuals so confused and out of place.
Edit: I want to clarify a few things. This post was in no way meant to complain about or otherwise talk down on these kids. They were precious. I tried my best to give them a good experience and help them through the process. I felt as though him ratting himself out for being underage was by far the funniest part of this anecdote. If you have questions about how I do my job and how I make a living thats a separate discussion. You are free to feel how you feel, everyone have a good one and god bless.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/oxv4op/confused_17_year_olds_trying_their_best_at_a_5/
| 5,782 | 418 | 1,628,091,015 | 5 |
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top
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16c68dm
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
I served a family twice today at different restaurants
|
Just a fun story. Long story short my last restaurant I made a ton of money at closed suddenly(we got evicted because our owner is an idiot and opens and closes restaurants constantly).
I started somewhere new but need to catch up and make the same money so they have allowed me to pick up shifts at another restaurant. I'm doing 5 doubles a week between them.
I served this really nice family at my morning job that had never been there before. They didn't spend much but tipped very well. We had fun.
I go to my second restaurant and a family gets seated. A couple of them had on specifically noticable outfits. It didn't register. I was thinking why are they wearing the same clothes every time I serve them?--assuming I recognized them from that restaurant. I welcomed them back. Turns out I served them 7 hours earlier. Mind you there are hundreds of restaurants in this area.
I greet them and they start laughing and say wait, didn't we have lunch with you??
I was like ohhhh shit, that's why they are in the same clothes. They had no idea our restaurants were sisters under the same owner.
The mom said this is crazy, we rarely eat out, and definitely not twice in the same day. How are you here? How did we get the same server twice in a day at different places.
I explained the small locally owned restaurant group with four restaurants and different names and styles. That I was working two of them.
It was such an odd coincidence. These restaurants are like 5 miles apart.
We had more fun and they tipped me really well again.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/16c68dm/i_served_a_family_twice_today_at_different/
| 5,171 | 136 | 1,694,060,744 | 5 |
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top
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9rcdi6
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Two entitled women
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Today at the bakery, so far, since it’s still morning here, I had not one but two entitled women come up to my counter. The first lady asked for a “venti psl”. I gave her that slight head title while I tried politely say “this is a bakery not Starbucks, I don’t have pumpkin spice lattes here ma’am”. She huffed and left while telling me we need to step our game up. The second lady tried to pay with money out of our tip jar. When I tried to politely say “ma’am, that’s my tip jar”, she glared at me and said “I always take money from here”. “That’s stealing ma’am” “Well, you’re just a rude little girl aren’t you?” I just sighed and said “yes I am”. My area is full of rich entitled women. It’s driving me crazy.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/9rcdi6/two_entitled_women/
| 4,792 | 331 | 1,540,488,408 | 5 |
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top
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1ig5o3r
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Is it legal for hourly managers to earn tips?
|
If they are also servers and bartenders.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1ig5o3r/is_it_legal_for_hourly_managers_to_earn_tips/
| 0 | 12 | 1,738,525,335 | 5 |
tip
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new
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v9bo4h
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Who ordered “the gratuity”
|
Had 2 people out of a table of 9 ask about this last night and insist they didn’t “order” it and didn’t think they’d have to pay it. Have any of you had this happen to you?
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/v9bo4h/who_ordered_the_gratuity/
| 1,674 | 409 | 1,654,878,672 | 5 |
gratuity
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relevance
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znrs7o
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
No gratuity on banquets
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We have 700-1500$ banquets and my place doesn’t add autograt because “it is illegal”. Do you have autograt? Does it bring more trouble or people are chill? Any rage quit stories?
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/znrs7o/no_gratuity_on_banquets/
| 13 | 28 | 1,671,231,815 | 5 |
gratuity
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relevance
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te0544
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Cheap father makes family wait for dinner for his well-done steak (repost)
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TLDR : At bottom, sorry its long.
This happened at a west coast (imagine colored special cow) steakhouse. Every year on Thanksgiving we would have a turkey special, which came wth all the sides and desert at one flat price. Most people came in for the turkey dinner, but some still ordered steak from the menu. As a server, I would let the guests who did order steak that it would just be few minutes longer than the turkey dinner (being that the turkey/sides were just plate and serve, which came out under 5 min) and most was fine with that. One table was a 10 top, where everyone at the table ordered the turkey special, but the father of the family wanted a T-Bone steak and well-done. I informed them it would be a bit longer than the turkey, and if it was OK to bring the rest of the meals out first while he waited for the steak.
"No, we are family and we all eat together!"
So I immediately, punch up his steak, and the 9 turkey dinners.
Low and behold after 10 min this father is demanding his steak, while the rest of the family is just staring at each other waiting for their turkey.
"Sir, you asked for a well-done T-bone steak, and its a full house right now, it probably will be another 10 - 15 min for it to come out."
"This unacceptable, my family is starvng, and they want to eat already."
"Then maybe you should have allowed me to bring out the rest of the food, and you could have waited for the one steak."
"How dare you speak to me this way, I want to see the manager!"
I had already informed my boss, and was within earshot. Boss told him the same thing, and said he would bring out the steak as soon as it was done, with the rest of the food.
15 min passes, and the all the food hits the table.
"Finally, its about time" the father exclaims. My boss and me say nothing just "enjoy and if there is anything else we can bring you?"
Father says nothing and begins to eat, while the rest of the table is just staring daggers at him.
Fast forward, everyone was finished with desert. I bring the check, and tell them thank you and will pick up the check when they re ready. I had not walked away a few feet, when father is demanding why is their gratuity on the bill. I inform him tables 6 and more get auto-gratuity.
"I WANT TO SEE THE MANAG....."
"JESUS, would you shut-up already" chimes in the grandmother at the other end of the table. "If you had not made us wait, we would have had a nice family dinner" turns to me asks me to bring her the check, he wasn't going to pay anyways. She looks at the bill, hands over her credit card and thanks me for everything. When I come back, no one is talking to father and just ignoring him.
TLDR: Father makes everyone wait for their food, wants well-done steak. Too cheap to pay, and gets shutdown by grandmother.
THANK YOU for the Silver Award, kind stranger!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/te0544/cheap_father_makes_family_wait_for_dinner_for_his/
| 1,788 | 135 | 1,647,271,911 | 5 |
gratuity
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relevance
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4o28gv
|
TalesFromYourServer
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This customer within a 7 member party got mad for charging gratuity
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/4o28gv/this_customer_within_a_7_member_party_got_mad_for/
| 192 | 34 | 1,465,921,690 | 5 |
gratuity
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relevance
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1lu61s
|
TalesFromYourServer
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Getting rid of gratuity for large parties. How do you guys feel about this? Believe me, I have my own strong opinion, but I'd love to hear yours.
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1lu61s/getting_rid_of_gratuity_for_large_parties_how_do/
| 19 | 76 | 1,378,446,003 | 5 |
gratuity
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relevance
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1qv6a2
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
"EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: No more gratuity for parties of 8 or more"
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1qv6a2/effective_immediately_no_more_gratuity_for/
| 122 | 50 | 1,384,740,981 | 5 |
gratuity
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relevance
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16fe79
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
The restaurant I work for is a national chain and is no longer allowing automatic gratuity due to this recent law by the IRS, is anyone else aware of and affected by this?
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/16fe79/the_restaurant_i_work_for_is_a_national_chain_and/
| 46 | 61 | 1,357,973,516 | 5 |
gratuity
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relevance
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5cfoyb
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TalesFromYourServer
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Strangest gratuity you've received that's not monetary?
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Years ago, I was a manager in a bar/restaurant and we had a guy that was a local artist, he'd give his work as a tip sometimes, another used to give extra $$ in the tip if he could massage their feet. He was a bit of a freak, but was a regular and everyone knew about him.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/5cfoyb/strangest_gratuity_youve_received_thats_not/
| 41 | 39 | 1,478,885,406 | 5 |
gratuity
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relevance
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106vsya
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TalesFromYourServer
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40 top table
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(It’s long and I’m on mobile bare with me)
I and a coworker ( the only two on the floor atm) got a 40 top party for a birthday, scheduled around 1:30. A few show up at 1 but only to drop their cake off and then leave again… like uh okay? They don’t show back until almost 2, that’s whatever. Then we have two huge tables put together from smaller tables, they each sit 20 because other wise they’d be in the walk ways. Blocking us from doing our job. Well when more people showed up they decided to break apart one table to add to the one they were sitting at, without asking or at least letting us know, that ticked me off.
They were all separate tabs but kept rotating chairs, I explained that if they continue doing this we can’t promise that there won’t be mistakes from our end. Then continued, at this point I hate this table but we do gratuity and that’s all I’m looking forward to. Now thankfully I didn’t have to deal with their complicated ass drink orders, drinks were my coworkers job and their food was mine. After almost 40 mins only every other person was actually ready to order, we started that and people were just pointing to random shit on the menu without words being spoken. I’m now thinking these people just don’t want a good experience as I can only do so much with them doing nothing.
Food came out and of course some were wrong, we have similar named entrees and they were just pointing to one’s with the same/similar names. I’m fucking stressed now because I have literally 30 ppl staring me the fuck down as I explain to people that the food in front of you is what you pointed to. People eat, I had other tables this whole time so now finally I could give them the service they deserve.
When it came to checks some were fucked of course, I got cussed out by a lady, and she constantly interrupted me and told me the gratuity was unfair. It wasn’t. Saying since everyone is paying separately it’s not a party. I showed her to my manager, she continued to yell at me, all while I’m trying to fix checks.
Sometimes I really hate serving
Edit: formatting, I didn’t use paragraph breaks and seeing it made me wanna throw up
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/106vsya/40_top_table/
| 86 | 31 | 1,673,215,485 | 5 |
gratuity
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hot
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olaq08
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TalesFromYourServer
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My abusive ex showed up at the restaurant tonight
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I had an abusive partner well over a year ago. We broke up. Restraining order. Stopped hearing from him. Rumor was he’d gone to jail for something else. That part of my life was over and done with.
Until tonight when he showed up at my restaurant.
He’s quite a bit older than me so had the advantage when I was in a vulnerable place. It took a long time to convince myself he was 100% at fault. He was king of gaslighting and playing victim.
He showed up right in the middle of the dinner rush. Of course he had to pick a night when a large group of girls I know from school were at a centrally located table. And the place isn’t even that big to begin with.
I spotted him right away. I think I saw him subconsciously before I even fully realized it because something felt chillingly off a few minutes before I first spotted him.
We’re still cutting back on staff to recoup lost income during the pandemic so I was the only one out on the floor.
At first I hoped maybe it was a coincidence — that he didn’t realize I worked there so would just eat and leave. But no. He was drunkenly asking random patrons where to find me by name almost immediately.
I wanted so desperately to ignore it and have him just leave of his own accord because these girls from school were right there and I did not want to be part of a big scene. But it became evident that he was not lucid, maybe something stronger than just the booze, and his behavior was escalating fast. Could not be ignored.
I went in back and let the owner know what was going on, but just didn’t feel totally comfortable sharing the whole backstory with him. When things first turned sour in the relationship news got out to my family snd friends before I was ready to discuss it and that fiasco is still an open sore.
So I just told the owner a guy I used to know has showed up drunk and belligerent and I know him to be violent so I was going to call the police.
The owner said no problem, he would call, and even offered to tag me out and handle my tables until the guy left. But I didn’t want to let this guy chase me out of my own job or stop me from living my life ever again, even just for a few minutes.
And our owner is a much older guy in not so great health. The restaurant is one of the only places his wife lets him go post-covid (he’s vaccinated but she’s afraid of variants) and even still he has to stay in his office when it’s busy.
I kept working and the owner came and sat at the bar, keeping an eye on my ex. He was calling out my name and saying some pretty rude things and trying to get within arms reach.
The owner is pretty paternal towards me, I’ve worked in this place a long time and we’re a pretty small staff. So he wasted no time chesting up to the guy and telling him, “Hey, the police have already been called. Do yourself a favor and get out.”
But my ex took that as a challenge and shoved this brittle old man. Hard.
Patrons stepped in right away because it was so obviously not a fair fight between this big young guy and a little old man. But my ex can be scary and (understandably) no one was considering physically confronting him or getting between him and the owner or anything like that. So he was undeterred.
He started to scream obscenities, demanding I leave with him, and tried to run at me. He actually had me by the shirt for a split second but I fled behind the bar. (There was no clear path back to the office, the only place with a locking door. The bathrooms are stalls that can be easily overcome.)
The line cooks heard the commotion going on and a couple came out to see what the trouble was.
Most of our cooks are scrappy, but small, and I think despite their egos they knew from one look they’d need reinforcements.
It had only been about 5-10 minutes since we’d called the police and in this busy city area it takes them 20 minimum to respond to anything that isn’t imminently life threatening. And all the owner had known to tell 911 at the time he called was we had a drunk and belligerent patron who *might* become violent. So we were definitely low on the priorities list.
The line cooks went back and got one of my only real sort of “work friends,” coincidentally also the biggest guy on staff, Lenny.
Lenny moonlights with an industrial moving company so stays in superb shape, and is also super heavy, so he’s become kind of our defacto security ever since everyone forgot how to act in a restaurant during the pandemic.
I really don’t know too much about where he comes from but I know it’s very difficult to rattle him.
So Lenny comes out and quickly assesses the situation. Someone tells him what my ex did to our poor sweet owner and Lenny wastes no time. He tells this guy,
“You’re leaving. You leaving on your own or…?” With the silence implying what the alternative was.
At this point all Lenny knew was some drunk guy showed up and shoved our boss who we’re all fond of.
So my ex told him some slurred drunken crap I couldn’t really understand — but it was clear from his tone that it was not complimentary.
Lenny went up to “escort” him out and my ex freaks and tries to break the nearest glass in reach to use as a weapon. Fortunately the nearest glassware was a thick beer mug and he couldn’t break it, ahaha.
Lenny shrugged this off as a sloppy drunk overestimating himself and tried to go in and get him in some kind of arm bar, but the owner warned him, “Hold off. Tamira says he gets violent, careful.”
Lenny didn’t know who this was yet so he was like, “This fucking guy put hands on her?” And was ready to charge him. But the owner’s like, “No, no, it’s her old boyfriend.”
Lenny doesn’t know the whole story with my ex — no one at work does — but he knows more than anyone else there, so instantly put together who he was dealing with.
Without even hesitating, Lenny swung at him like a piñata, and cracked him right in the skull. My ex’s lights were out. He dropped onto the floor.
A couple patrons who’d wanted to get involved but didn’t see an opening were emboldened to step in now that my ex was unconscious and got on top of him to make sure he wouldn’t be able to leap back up when he regained consciousness. Which is good because he was back almost immediately. Still groggy, but more than able to have gotten up and retaliated had these men not stepped in.
Someone else was behind the bar looking for something to tie him up with. He found a role of packing tape, and right in the nick of time, because my ex was quickly getting his strength back and really fighting the guys restraining him.
Lenny wanted to go launch back in on him but the owner was talking him down, insisting it wasn’t worth an assault charge. (Lenny knows more about my history with this guy than the owner so had more reason to hate him, but still, I agree it’s not worth catching a charge.)
The good Samaritans tried to tie packing tape around my ex’s hands and feet but the roll was nearly out so it wasn’t doing much.
I was watching the whole situation unfold from where I’d gone to hide behind the bar, just mesmerized and paralyzed with terror, almost like an out of body experience.
Because it sounds like a long time when describing it, but at real life speed, this entire encounter from the time the owner came out to confront him couldn’t have been more than three or five minutes.
The police got there not too terribly long after they tried to tape him. It took three people to hold him down, one of whom got socked in the mouth in the process, but they kept him secured until cops got there.
The police arrested him — my restraining order expired a year after it was granted but I’m guessing they got him for the assaults or drunk and disorderly conduct or something — and as they were cuffing him and going through the whole process he was screaming that someone had assaulted *him* and should be arrested as well.
His face was visibly injured and there was a little blood, so the cops couldn’t ignore that. They asked who assaulted him and he fingered Lenny.
One of the patrons who’d helped restrain my ex started to speak up saying, “No, no, look, he did it in self defense, this man was out of control,” but his buddy cut him off and basically said, “This mother fucker was banged up when he walked in. I’ve been here the whole time and didn’t see anything.”
Then his friend who was initially offering Lenny a cover of self defense realized the play and backtracked saying, “Yah, yah. We restrained him to defend ourselves but no one hit him. That other man just works here.”
Which was a relief because Lenny is a gentle giant but he’s also kind of a mystery so for all I know he has priors that would’ve made proving self defense difficult.
The police dragged my ex out and took him in. I went home at that point but I learned from the owner at the end of service that they also impounded the motorcycle he showed up on. That was a nice bonus.
So, it was all very scary. I’m glad to know my coworkers and customers have my back, but I still think I’ll take a couple days off. Ultimately just feeling grateful that I’m finally in a place where the good people in my life far outnumber the bad!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/olaq08/my_abusive_ex_showed_up_at_the_restaurant_tonight/
| 4,736 | 193 | 1,626,414,800 | 5 |
service charge
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relevance
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emtlvl
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TalesFromYourServer
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To the regular who decided to berate me last night
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I get it, buddy. Maybe things weren't up to your usual standard of service. After all, 90% of the time you come in at breakfast when it's basically dead. The girls working at that time have nothing better to do than dote on you for the hour and a half to three hours your alcoholism and love of fatty food keep you at our restaurant.
I know I wasn't as attentive as I'd usually like to be, but I had six other tables come in, in rapid succession and with less than forty minutes left in my shift. Some were really chill, a couple were fairly demanding, but everyone was taken care of in short order, and every time I came to check on you, you waved me off or verbally dismissed me. I kind of figured you were good, especially since you spent half an hour shooting the breeze with my manager about how you needed someone to keep an eye on or live in your vacation property for tax and insurance purposes.
You enjoyed your food, which is good. I'm sure you didn't even notice that I didn't charge you for your various substitutions or that I verified that, since you're in the restaurant on average twice a day, we would allow you to buy a bottle of wine that night and then finish it the next day if you so chose. Sounds weird, maybe illegal, but sure. We already let you walk out and come back hours later to pay on the regular, so that's pretty consistent at least.
I'm sorry your Manhattan took so long as well. Nothing I could have done about it, I'm afraid; the bartenders had already changed shifts and the one working the overnight shift is a real talker. Took him fifteen minutes to make an espresso shot for another table. They were surprisingly cool about it.
All of this kind of makes me wonder how and why this was the worst service you'd ever received at this restaurant. After all, I know how the breakfast servers work. I serve circles around them for the most part. My manager, who was maybe ten feet away the entire time you were there, said I did a great job as usual and is very confused as to why you laughed in my face after I asked how I could improve in response to you loudly berating me.
I don't care how much money you have, or how old you are, or how much you spend at the restaurant. You're an entitled jerk and a miserable human being.
Also, for what it's worth, over 99% of my customers would vehemently disagree with you. Especially last night.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/emtlvl/to_the_regular_who_decided_to_berate_me_last_night/
| 2,156 | 116 | 1,578,675,002 | 5 |
service charge
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relevance
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dg0aqe
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TalesFromYourServer
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Anyone work at a place with a service charge/no tip model?
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Not sure if this is the right place to ask about this.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/dg0aqe/anyone_work_at_a_place_with_a_service_chargeno/
| 3 | 3 | 1,570,723,992 | 5 |
service charge
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relevance
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fbstc4
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TalesFromYourServer
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Asshole Table Yesterday
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Eight hungover college students. One didn't like her food, so she got a remake. Sorry that a medium-well burger ordered AFTER the rest of your party already had their food didn't come out instantaneously. We boxed it for her and of course didn't charge for the original uneaten dish. Nothing wrong with it.
They all ordered coffee and soda at different times. You know, everytime I brought a soda back, someone else wanted one. I was very good about refills. I forgot one person's soda one time, and she got it as soon as she reminded me (she had water in front of her, she was not parched lol).
One told me she could only have Heinz ketchup (we recently switched to off-brand), so I actually took the time to go back into dry storage and look for (and find!) a bottle of Heinz for her. Only because they were a party. I knew I was getting my automatic 18%.
After all that? They asked for each one to have a separate check. No dude. Managers have told us repeatedly that when it's busy, we are allowed to refuse to split more than 4 ways. I have no problem splitting a party individually if I'm told at the beginning. But these "ladies" all wanted to shout their food and drink orders and order out of turn. It would have been a mess.
Under additional tip, they wrote "Be mindful. Awful service."
What nasty, nasty bitches.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/fbstc4/asshole_table_yesterday/
| 1,107 | 78 | 1,583,062,075 | 5 |
service charge
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relevance
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3ia0fa
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TalesFromYourServer
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How common is it to put the service charge in the middle of the bill?
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This is an x-post from /r/houston, so I don't know the details. Seems deceptive.
Is it a programming issue?
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/3ia0fa/how_common_is_it_to_put_the_service_charge_in_the/
| 7 | 6 | 1,440,466,560 | 5 |
service charge
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relevance
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6s7tmw
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TalesFromYourServer
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(xpost from r/London) Tightwad proposes a "discretionary discount" in protest of discretionary service charges
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/6s7tmw/xpost_from_rlondon_tightwad_proposes_a/
| 7 | 0 | 1,502,133,148 | 5 |
service charge
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relevance
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1xoj29
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TalesFromYourServer
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Petition: Amend Revenue Ruling 2012-18. Gratuity should not be considered a "service charge" since it is not mandatory.
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1xoj29/petition_amend_revenue_ruling_201218_gratuity/
| 31 | 3 | 1,392,179,242 | 5 |
service charge
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relevance
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1ekxw9p
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TalesFromYourServer
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Door Dasher/Server Drama I thought you might enjoy
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# Waitress/Bartender here. Had to block a Dasher. Thoughts?
So, set the scene, I work graveyard at the only place in my town that's 24/7 besides a Denny's. Grave yard is 10pm to 7am me and one cook. We are also kinda unique- our building is an old converted house- half is 8 booths, then the other halfish is 15 bar tables- so we're a diner with some special cocktails and we do everything locally, smoke our own meat, etc, huge portions. There is a half wall dividing the two sections that we stock a big pile of napkins and a water pitcher on (important later) We have a main entrance and then a walk up window because we also have picnic tables and do ice cream and milkshakes the window has a door bell for dashers or walk up folks, during the day the waitresses won't deal with Dashers, they have a busser that specifically does all the Dash/Uber/Grubhub- at night the doorbell is awesome since I'm cleaning/stocking etc. so I can hear you immediately. We also have a huge sign in the lobby that says "Please wait to be seated" with a side note that says "Delivery Drivers and Togo orders please wait here"
Anywho, we got a rush at like 1am last Tuesday, I've got a 6 top, five two tops and two guys at the bar. We also get 11 DD orders, which are labor intensive for me- milkshakes, flavored milks and lemonades, desserts, etc, plus my tables are drinking, so I'm making Margarita's and Bloody Mary's and Martinis and Old fashioned
Doorbell rings, twice, it's two DD I've seen before I tell them it'll be out in a minute it's just me and the cook, they're cool, everytime I walk by the window I say "just another minute" "coming soon". And they're cool but I know time is money and we're all in the service industry so got each other's backs ya know?
On to the point. First DD order is up, so I have the two bags in one hand and go to the bar to make the strawberry lemonade to go with it- I dont make it ahead because even tho I don't make any money off these orders I still have pride ya know? Anyhow, there's a dude standing there , so he'll be DD and I'll be M
M: Hi there how can I help you?
DD: (shoves phone in my face) I have an order for Daniel
M: Um okay I told you guys I'd bring it out as soon as it was ready, I've said that like three times please be patient
DD: You've never spoken to me! You don't have to get an attitude with me, I'm just asking a question! There are two other drivers out there so I came in
M:(in my brain- why didn't you ask the other dashers??? also your order is like 5th in the queue but whatever) So out loud I say "well sorry its just me and one cook so we're going as fast as we can and I'll bring it to you as soon as it's up but I also have people here I have to take care of"
DD: Continuing his rant about my attitude ( dudes I'm a bubbly blonde ray of sunshine but don't come at me like that all I'll use my mom voce on you right quick)
M: "Okay" then I walked away because I had like 18 other things to do. So I deliver the order to DD #1 and then go into the dining room to take an order from one of my booths. The dining room is COVERED in napkins so I'm thinking one of our fans ( our AC isn't the best) got moved or something. Nope this dude knocked like 400 napkins off the ledge as he exited.
So, I discovered I can block drivers that night. My two regulars at the bar asked for his name so they could complain to DD on my behalf so I know I did the right thing but like seriously it just made me sad. Like we're all in the service industry together?
Anyhow TL:DR I know DD is hard, and there's shitty customers and DD itself tries to screw you out of stuff- hell our menu is 20% more expensive and they charge my owner a fee. Please keep in mind the waitstaff makes nothing on what you're delivering. I get my restaurant is unique, most chains have a to go person or similar, but still we are all in this together just trying to make a living.
Upvote1Downvote13commentsShareWaitress/Bartender here. Had to block a Dasher. Thoughts?
So, set the scene, I work graveyard at the only place in my town that's 24/7 besides a Denny's. Grave yard is 10pm to 7am me and one cook. We are also kinda unique- our building is an old converted house- half is 8 booths, then the other halfish is 15 bar tables- so we're a diner with some special cocktails and we do everything locally, smoke our own meat, etc, huge portions. There is a half wall dividing the two sections that we stock a big pile of napkins and a water pitcher on (important later) We have a main entrance and then a walk up window because we also have picnic tables and do ice cream and milkshakes the window has a door bell for dashers or walk up folks, during the day the waitresses won't deal with Dashers, they have a busser that specifically does all the Dash/Uber/Grubhub- at night the doorbell is awesome since I'm cleaning/stocking etc. so I can hear you immediately. We also have a huge sign in the lobby that says "Please wait to be seated" with a side note that says "Delivery Drivers and Togo orders please wait here"
Anywho, we got a rush at like 1am last Tuesday, I've got a 6 top, five two tops and two guys at the bar. We also get 11 DD orders, which are labor intensive for me- milkshakes, flavored milks and lemonades, desserts, etc, plus my tables are drinking, so I'm making Margarita's and Bloody Mary's and Martinis and Old fashioned
Doorbell rings, twice, it's two DD I've seen before I tell them it'll be out in a minute it's just me and the cook, they're cool, everytime I walk by the window I say "just another minute" "coming soon". And they're cool but I know time is money and we're all in the service industry so got each other's backs ya know?
On to the point. First DD order is up, so I have the two bags in one hand and go to the bar to make the strawberry lemonade to go with it- I dont make it ahead because even tho I don't make any money off these orders I still have pride ya know? Anyhow, there's a dude standing there , so he'll be DD and I'll be M
M: Hi there how can I help you?
DD: (shoves phone in my face) I have an order for Daniel
M: Um okay I told you guys I'd bring it out as soon as it was ready, I've said that like three times please be patient
DD: You've never spoken to me! You don't have to get an attitude with me, I'm just asking a question! There are two other drivers out there so I came in
M:(in my brain- why didn't you ask the other dashers??? also your order is like 5th in the queue but whatever) So out loud I say "well sorry its just me and one cook so we're going as fast as we can and I'll bring it to you as soon as it's up but I also have people here I have to take care of"
DD: Continuing his rant about my attitude ( dudes I'm a bubbly blonde ray of sunshine but don't come at me like that all I'll use my mom voce on you right quick)
M: "Okay" then I walked away because I had like 18 other things to do. So I deliver the order to DD #1 and then go into the dining room to take an order from one of my booths. The dining room is COVERED in napkins so I'm thinking one of our fans ( our AC isn't the best) got moved or something. Nope this dude knocked like 400 napkins off the ledge as he exited.
So, I discovered I can block drivers that night. My two regulars at the bar asked for his name so they could complain to DD on my behalf so I know I did the right thing but like seriously it just made me sad. Like we're all in the service industry together?
Anyhow TL:DR I know DD is hard, and there's shitty customers and DD itself tries to screw you out of stuff- hell our menu is 20% more expensive and they charge my owner a fee. Please keep in mind the waitstaff makes nothing on what you're delivering. I get my restaurant is unique, most chains have a to go person or similar, but still we are all in this together just trying to make a living.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1ekxw9p/door_dasherserver_drama_i_thought_you_might_enjoy/
| 60 | 18 | 1,722,888,899 | 5 |
service charge
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hot
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1drtnqn
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TalesFromYourServer
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Lit into my manager today, and the GM took my side
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I work as the bar manager for an upscale sports bar. So I bartend, but also do inventory/ordering, menu creation, and drink specials. When the offer was made to me I was told I have free rein over the bar, and alcohol. At that same time we had a FOH manager brought in to oversee the servers/hosts, floor manage, basic manager stuff. This manager has had beef with me ever since, because she feels my position should have been under her purview. The week my promotion became official she cornered me saying “If you’re doing inventory/ordering, how am I going to do that?” I was confused. “I don’t know. This is what I was told my job was. I don’t know what was told to you, maybe ask J(GM).”
While she was doing her server, and bar training with the senior staff(myself included) all she did was second guess her trainers in front of guests, go off to handle something else, and then complain when her trainer wouldn’t follow her claiming we were trying to ditch her. You are on salary we can’t abandon our guest to follow you on a side quest. That’s how we pay our bills. Her night bar training we had a party of 30, and a party of 20 that we were not prepared for. I had to step off the bar to take the 20, leaving a new bartender to handle the whole bar, and the well by herself(she did great btw), and the FOH manager in question(we’ll refer to as B) had to take tables, and our GM(J) on the line in the kitchen. Now, the large parties were on our patio. I spent the next 45 minutes running back and forth taking care of the 20 people I had( a little league team, and their parents). I had to make a pitcher of Shirley temples to keep up with the kids. My food, and drink went out fine. The 30 top(also a little league team and their parents) did not. Their server(A), who isn’t a very strong server, couldn’t keep up. It took the poor girl 10 straight minutes to put in their order, and even longer to organize, and separate their tickets. So the party cornered a host, and demanded to speak to a manager. J was on the line, and B was caught up with tables inside so being the only available manager I went to talk with the table. I apologized for our poor preparation adversely affecting their dining experience, and I offered to comp their drinks they had to wait on. The party was satisfied with this solution. B was not however. She lost her mind over how much money that was, and she needed to talk to J, and our director of operations(V). I said it didn’t matter what they said, because we were stuck doing it now. Afterwards B came to me telling me that that should've been her decision to make, and I was over stepping my authority, and I can't make those kinds of offers to guests. I said "You are correct, that was your call to make. In the future I will leave those decisions to you. Under the circumstances I felt that as the highest ranking FOH employee available it was the right thing to do." I fully admitted my fault, but B wouldn't give it a rest no matter how much I agreed with her after the fact. The truth is I knew B wasn't equipped to handle the situation.She had no context of the issues the 30 top was having, because she didn't so much as set foot on the patio that entire night. And I didn't trust her not to lay all of the blame on A, and completely throw her under the bus. When he was done cooking J agreed with how I handled the situation.
Things went on like this as B took on more, and more responsibility. Second guessing everything I did, attempt to micromanage my work, and when she was called out for this she attempted to gaslight me into thinking my responsibilities were actually hers. She's been antagonizing every server that has been there longer than her over small disagreements about service. The kicker is that the GM has been taking the senior employee's sides in all disagreements. J trusts that the senior employees know how best to treat our guests, and that we are mature enough handle small issues without his involvement. He even told the staff with his manager number so that we can handle comps, and discounts ourselves when its appropriate. B takes all of this as a personal slight. Thinking that we are trying to mutiny against her. J deserves alot of credit in his dedication to getting B to see things our way instead of firing her outright, and replacing her. Valuing exactly how much she can take off his plate if she could get with the program, and stand on her own two feet. He's blown up on her on several occasions in front of V, and our owner(N).
I have gone to great lengths to remain professional, and let certain things go when I don't want to waste my energy on them. B will corner me with vague "Customer complaints" about certain small things relating to the bar. Cocktail recipes, garnishes, prices, etc. Small things that fall under my job description. I attempt to explain why we do things the way that we do, but B just ignores everything that comes out of my mouth. I can tell she's waiting for me to say the words "Yes ma'am" or "You're right", but I'm not going to do that, because I know I'm right. I give valid reasons why it's the way that it is, but her rebutle always boils down to "Because, I said so!" I told her "You should know me well enough by now to know that I have a very good reason for every thing that I do. If you aren't going to even attempt to listen to those reasons I'm not going to waste my breath." All of the other senior staff have lost their temper on her. They have had sit downs with her, and J where J observes as they let out all their frustrations on her. B spends more time crying in the walk in than the servers do. She attempts to come to me to try, and evoke sympathy. I've let B, and everyone else know that I don't approve of her managment philosophy, and not to mistake my composure for complacency.
Last week J was on a much needed vacation. On top of that our Chef had a death in the family, and had to fly home for a week as well. Leaving B in charge of the FOH, and BOH. It was a very long exhausting week to say the least. B asked me everyday if I'd heard from J. I told her "I tend not to bother people when they're on vacation. I don't know that J even cares about what's going on here, and if he did what could he do about it." B had started to ask me my opinion on scheduling, and what we should do with having a bartender out for 2 weeks. I told her that I have 100% confidence that the staff we have availible will be able to handle the business we're expected to get as it was projected to be a slow week. B panicked, and went crying to V. V made her over staff on servers, and bartenders, and then proceded to spend all week glued to our hour by hour sales, texting B to make agressive cuts the second they started to drop. So, the exact opposite of what you had B do?
There was an incident that week where I was working on a cocktail recipe for an upcoming special so I had our of age employees all taste it. B doesn't drink so I attempted to explain to her my inspiration for the drink, and how it tasted. She made a comment about the ammount of liquid that was actually in the glass. I explained that this particular drink had been sampled by several staff members. That is why it is lower than usual, and that if a guest ordered one it would be much fuller. She then said "Well, I have gotten guest complaints that OUR cocktails weren't full enough, and WE need to be putting more in the glass." I began explaining that our recipes were written in a way that balances the ammount of liquor, and mixer the guest recieves, and that I've trained all of our bartenders to use a jigger when making the house cocktails to ensure a consistant product. Again, I could tell B wasn't listening to what I was saying, and as I was saying it V walked in, and made a beeline straight for us. B snapped her head to V and said "I was just telling HIM that HIS cocktails aren't full enough." So now it's just me that's the problem? It's like I could see her put on the second of her two faces.
Things finally hit the breaking point today. The day started with B making a very rude comment about my recently deceased pets. "Hey, was everything alive in your house this morning? Hahaha." I literally bit my tongue. The morning progressed slowly, and almost uneventfully. The enciting incident was when I told one of our hosts about how to sit a guest with a pet, and how they should lead them to our patio seating outside so the animal doesn't go through our dining room as it says in our state's health code. I also explained how a service animal was a special case, and there are different regulations for a service animal. B cornered me saying that I should stop citing laws at people, and that we never say no to a guest. I defended myself by saying that I never actually said anything to the guest with the dog. I told the hosts so that they know next time. B said "Well that's not your decision to make. When it comes to something like that me, V, and N will have a meeting about it, and then WE will tell you what to do." I walked away, because I knew the ensuing conversation would be pointless. I told another server B had a history of beefing with that my patience has officially run out. I tried to move on. I had no desire to fight with anyone today. But about 45 minutes later B came up to me and said "Are you annoyed with me?"
"Yes, I am." I replied.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not going to be nice about it"
"Say it!"
I let it out. "If you have to sit around waiting for V, and N to tell you what to do, then why are you here?"
"Because it's how the chain of command works. They tell me what to do. I tell you what to do."
"I've been doing this job for a long time. 10 years in the industry. 9 of those behind a bar. I don't have time for you to micromanage, and nitpick every goddamn detail, all because of your insecurities about your job, and your fear of looking incompitent to your bosses."
She lost it, and tried to gaslight me into believing that because she's my boss she's always right, and that her judgement is beyond reproach. Culminating in her yelling to "Stay away from HER front of house." I gestured to all of my guests she just raised her voice in front of, and said "That's going to be pretty fucking hard." I stepped off the bar, and went back to the walk in to cool off. I texted J saying "Hey, I'm thinking I'll head home early considering B just told me to 'Stay away from HER front of house. What do you think? Since you're capable of making a decision without V, or N telling you what to do?" He texted back "I'm putting my pants on now. Can you at least wait until I get there?" I said "Let the record show I made every attempt to let this all go.
The night ended with everyone hearing J yelling at B in the office, and B leaving in tears. I don't take pleasure in seeing a grown woman at least 15 years older than me cry. I just wanted us to drop it. I've made it clear that I don't want B's job, and if B was gone, and the offer was made to me I wouldn't take it. I've done every single job in a restaurant except cook. I've been at it a long time. I go in everyday and give it all the blood, sweat, and tears I can spare to it,and leave it all at the door when I go home. But I'm getting old, and I can feel the enthusiasm leave slowly as the weeks, months, and years go by. I fully intend for this to be my last job in the industry. Hell, I was already looking for another career when the position was offered to me. I want see things through and see my recipes, specials, and beer selections bring joy to my community before I go. And I'll be damned before I let some woman-child on a power trip kill that desire over the need to force a building full of people half her age respect her authority. So I clock back in for my next shift in 9 hours head held high, because I know that the service I provide is more important to my hometown than one manager's ego.
UPDATE!: Almost a week to the day of me writing this post I was fired/suspended. Today I was forced to sit down with HR, and J today, and was told I was being let go, because our owner’s father was in town, and didn’t like me. J wasn’t aware anything was happening until 5 minutes before it did. HR told me I had the right to appeal the decision, and that if I did I’d be moved to suspended without pay, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. J called me as I was driving home, telling me he was sorry that all went down, and he didn’t know it was happening, and he’s pissed about it. He advised me to request a meeting with HR, and V, and that I should take all blame for what happened, and ask to be placed on probation. I have that meeting planned for this week, and I’ve compiled a collection of positive online reviews about the bar staff, and all official communication I’ve had with the staff to show that I’m always professional, and encouraging with the front of house staff. After I scheduled the meeting I got another call from J. After I left for the day B asked him who should cover all of my shifts. J told her not to talk about the situation as the decision was being appealed, and hopefully I would be back to work soon. B started saying a bunch of nasty remarks about me, and J asked her straight up if she had anything to do with me being fired. B admitted to having meetings with V all week to get me fired. J was furious and left her to handle dinner service by herself. On his drive home was when J called me. J says maybe it’ll all come down to V having to choose between him, and B, and he’ll be sure to let me know how it all works out.
It’s good to know I’m not paranoid. I thought who could possibly be that petty, and hypocritical. To go on about chain of command, and then go over her bosses head to get an employee fired? What bullshit. I don’t know what to expect from my meeting, but I do know if J leaves most of the staff will go with him, and B will sink on her own. That’s something I guess.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1drtnqn/lit_into_my_manager_today_and_the_gm_took_my_side/
| 116 | 26 | 1,719,722,761 | 5 |
service charge
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hot
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w3h59j
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TalesFromYourServer
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Corporate drinks event complained about bad service?
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I work in a small members club in the UK, in a smallish town. A local company held a drinks and canapees event, and yesterday we received an e-mail after our manager reached out for feedback complaining they did not get good service. I was the main person there, with 20 years experience, but new at this place. According to the information I had, they wanted white and red wine and a soft drink option. In the e-mail they complained that no other drinks were offered or we did not highlight to the attendees the bar was open for other drinks. Going back through correspondence, they did request it, but my not-up-to-the-job (promoted to the position as he has worked there for 5 years and is the only one with enough experience after a lot of staff had to be cut due to lockdowns) had not put that information on the function sheet! It was about 25 people, as usual all standing in 25% of the space available to them (in the garden). We did go round to top up glasses, and I served the canapees. There was no need to be two of us squeezing through them to go round and prop our plate under their noses. After about 45minutes, we left drinks on the table and the last canapees. In my experience, people do not want to be appear greedy when the canapees are being served and do not take one, but if I leave them conveniently dotted around tables, they disappear quicker than you can say canapee! We checked on them from time to time, offering more drinks.
One complaint was that I was wearing a name badge written with biro! At least I did wear a name badge! Their complaint is totally unjustified, and luckily I have the managements backing that we did everything right. We are surprised about it, and wonder what they want to gain from it? apparently they were looking for a person in charge that day to complain, but never approached me, who was clearly the leading member of staff!
One thing at these functions, I do not want to stand by the drinks station or constantly roam the room, pretending not to hear their conversation. I think it is acceptable to leave them to themselves at one point and just check in. Especially at it was such a low number. Many people did not want to drink much, as they were driving. **I** was the one circulating, **I** had an overview what was happening! Otherwise they would complain I was pushing drinks on them to get them to spend more!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/w3h59j/corporate_drinks_event_complained_about_bad/
| 13 | 3 | 1,658,305,805 | 5 |
service charge
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hot
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s5w1qf
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TalesFromYourServer
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I finally had enough and quit, pretty sure I've been punished for it
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I worked at what is probably one of the busiest restaurants in my hometown, we see about 300-400 customers a night booked in with very tight 2-hour turnovers, as well as tons of walk-ins late into the night. After a year and a half of working there, I finally couldn’t take it anymore and quit. I wish I’d done it sooner tbh.
We got our rosters two days before the start of the week and they would change at random, so one week you’d be working 5 straight closes in a row and the next week you’d only have two shifts, both day shifts. Trying to plan a life outside was impossible. I was in charge of the biggest section by myself every night, except on weekends when they’d “graciously” allocate another waiter to look after the booths and the walk-in spots. I would have to look after, by myself, 19 tables. 19. Fucking. Tables. This included 3 booths that could each fit 8 people, as well as 5 walk in spots that were constantly being filled by new people. I also had the fun task of making sure people stuck to the 2-hour limit and were out before the next tables came in, which wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that people suck and my restaurant would schedule it so that a 6pm booking had an 8pm booking straight after it, technically giving that 6pm booking only 1.75 hours instead.
I could always tell that the owner didn’t like me very much, and because he worked 5 days as the head bartender, it made for really uncomfortable working conditions. That, plus his obviously blatant favouritism. After so many times crying at work or crying after shift, after getting an angry text from the owner telling me that I’m not allowed to just change my availability without talking to him, angry texts when I’ve had to call off sick or have been sick at work and needed to go home, and just generally feeling mentally exhausted, I handed in my two weeks and offered to work them out. My reward was being taken off the roster immediately and told that I’m banned for the next 3 months as a “cooling off” period, something I and my fellow hospo friends have never heard even heard of. Also am 99% sure I am the only ex-employee who's ever had this cooling off period applied to them.
Sorry this turned into a bit of a rant but I’m just so angry at the way I’ve been treated after giving 1.5 years of hard service to this place and letting it physically and mentally beat me into the dirt. It just feels petty and insulting and personal. There's even more stuff than what I've typed but I didn't want this to get too long. Has anyone else ever had a “cooling off” period before? I’m curious to see if maybe it is common elsewhere. Thanks for reading.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/s5w1qf/i_finally_had_enough_and_quit_pretty_sure_ive/
| 218 | 37 | 1,642,397,356 | 5 |
service charge
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hot
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uwd1gw
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TalesFromYourServer
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Petition: Can we ban the trolls who only come here to tell us that we don't deserve to be compensated fairly for our work?
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On Saturday night I had one such asshole at my table. I was upselling drinks, and managed to get everyone to order doubles and top shelf liquors. Asshole comments on my service, and actually compliments my upselling skills, so his next comment gave me whiplash. I made a joke about how I have a baby at home and diapers aren't cheap, and he got this ugly look on his face and told me that I was upselling their drinks, not my tip.
First of all, my restaurant slaps an 18% autograt on every check. So I am, actually. Second, why the fuck would you actually say that to my face??
Cue an awkard silence from the rest of the table, and I just looked at him before deciding to just walk away, albeit very annoyed.
Why do we have to put up with these assholes in our venting spot, too? I'm not saying anyone who says anything against tipping should get an automatic ban at the first off-color comment, but the repeat troll offenders have no place here as far as I'm concerned.
It's always the same song and dance. I come here to vent about shitty customers and hear my fellow food service workers vent, and in response some idiot who's never worked in food service starts listing all the usual bullshit arguments against tipping. You know the ones. Enough of us have to deal with this bull at our actual places of work, why do we also have to take it on our own sub?
And to the trolls who will inevitably pull the "bUt It'S mUh RiGhTs" card, why don't you just start your own sub about how much you love fucking food service workers over because you're a cheap and/or selfish person. We deal with enough of you at work. We don't want you here.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/uwd1gw/petition_can_we_ban_the_trolls_who_only_come_here/
| 2,425 | 298 | 1,653,347,596 | 5 |
restaurant tip
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relevance
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1hf5wqg
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TalesFromYourServer
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It's a people problem
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I worked (briefly) in a small café two years ago, was away on an exchange student programme, got a job when I got back as runner/busser in an izakaya-like restaurant, so it's my first real experience in service. My colleagues are amazing people including a great friend of mine I knew from before, the food is great and I can try new meals, but this week I started taking orders as well and ohhh my goddddd.
98% of people are usual customers and not rude at all, but I forgot I asked specifically to be a runner cause I didn't want to deal with people. I usually have no problems with talking in public but when it's at work I feel like I'm an idiot. And people treat me so even before I've spoken to them.
So far the biggest problems were:
- people who do not realise that izakaya-style means no one gets served every dish at the same time (though we try our best but soup and fried food do not take the same time!) and that you can re-order (explained at the start of the meal)
- 6+ tops who decide to pay separately and they all stand inside so the bar is crowded and we cannot go to tables
- people who order to-go, pay, and then order more things, pay again, and order more things, pay again, etc.
- people who think I've forgotten a dish because God forbid I can't carry more than 10 or so dishes on a large plate for big parties, I just cannot physically bring it all in one trip (at least not safely lol)
And last night I had a table of old people who called me by snapping their fingers at me. Hurray. Huzza. Super. It sucks so much because I only had two awful tables (them and a table that just complained all the way through) when all the rest of the tables and customers were nice and respectful, and sometimes stacking up plates for me to grab more easily. But these two tables ruined it for me. The finger snap is awful, but to be honest it's still my training period and I didn't know what to answer at all on the spot. It doesn't help that because it's a bilingual kitchen I speak way more japanese with the cooks than anything else and when I take orders not in japanese I start stuttering...
Next time I hope I'll grow a spine. In my country I don't get tips and I'm not "the help" so I hope to come up with passive-agressive ways to reply.
Oh well! Hope you all had a great week despite the Saturday rush.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1hf5wqg/its_a_people_problem/
| 39 | 7 | 1,734,306,724 | 5 |
restaurant tip
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hot
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f87jf6
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TalesFromYourServer
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We allow outside cakes, we will serve them, but we don’t cut them or candle them.
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We are a celebration style restaurant. We get a lot of birthday cakes people bring in. We have great deserts to buy though...
When I started I was specifically told, we will bring the cake to the table but we don’t put candles in it or light them, and the guest serves themselves, we don’t cut outside cakes, the guest does that.
i thought that was crazy...until I had my third cake while working there that they said they wanted 21 candles, which when I took the cake from the cooler I placed the 21 candies, brought the cake out lit it for Happy Birthday,....and was bitched at that the candle placement “‘ruined the design.”
so nope, never again, as per policy we don’t cut, package leftovers to go, apply candles, or light candles on outside cake and we don’t sing. It’s not our product.
​
Tonight was doing a 12 top they had a cake, I brought out a large oval tray with cake, serving plates for # of guests, silverware, knife and serving utensils.
my partner was not happy I was 100% against cutting and serving...he‘s new.
I asked him...”are we getting tipped off that fucking cake? Is it going on our sales? Do we charge a cake-age fee? Will we see a dime over the autograt in it if we do that?”
Took everything out, told the guests ‘We leave outside cakes up to the guest so they can control both it and the piece size, if you need boxes to take slices home let me know.”
They were ok with that answer.
about 10 minutes later my partner comes up to tell me “The cake is a disaster”
”What?”
”I guess the middle layer was hard (it was carmel supposedly, they had told us to fridge the cake) and when they cut it they couldn’t get through and the layers separated and moved around and one layer slipped off to the side.”
my response: “Aren’t you glad we didn’t cut that fucking cake?”
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/f87jf6/we_allow_outside_cakes_we_will_serve_them_but_we/
| 3,714 | 208 | 1,582,451,663 | 5 |
restaurant tip
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top
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i9cadi
|
TalesFromYourServer
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Just Because I’m A Male Server Doesn’t Mean I’m Hitting On Your Girlfriend.
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Stop leaving me 0-10% you insecure piece of shit. It’s literally my job to be nice to my customers.
edit: This got kinda popular I wanna clarify it doesn't happen often but when you can tell it's why you got stiffed it's just a little annoying.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/i9cadi/just_because_im_a_male_server_doesnt_mean_im/
| 2,542 | 210 | 1,597,366,757 | 5 |
waiter tip
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relevance
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86ky1l
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TalesFromYourServer
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The time a customer tried to fake an allergy to make me feel bad
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I was working as a waiter in an upscale casual dining seafood place, and whenever someone says they have an allergy, I take it seriously. We get people all the time, allergic to fish, celiacs disease, allium allergy, etc. Sure maybe they’re being an idiot and they just say they’re allergic to something because they don’t want it, but if they say it’s an allergy, that’s how I’m treating it. Anyways, these 2 guys come in, and my boss warns me one of then comes in every now and then, and he’s kind of a dick, but that’s fine, I can handle him.
I also had 2 other tables at the time (we were a low volume high price kind of place, I could have 7 tables all night and make good pay, but we serve bread, salad, intermezzo, entree, and dessert individually), and I could tell that this guy was getting angry that all my time couldnt be spent on him. I litterally had a 5 min conversation with the guy when he called me over, and had to excuse myself to get someone else’s food.
Eventually, I bring him his food, and he says everything looks fine. And I overhear him saying to his friend “no this is unacceptable, I don’t like onions. Well I don’t care if I didn’t ask he should have told me there was onions in it”
(It wasn’t onions, but it was something innocuous like that)
So I go to check on them after 2 minstk see how their food is, and he says “it’s good, but I wanted you to know that I’m allergic to onions, so I can’t eat the potatoes or it would trigger an allergic reaction, you really should have told me about that”
So of course I offer to return it and get new sides, apologize profusely even though it’s the customers job to inform their server of all allergies etc etc but he goes “no no it’s fine, I’ll be fine, I just wanted you to know.”
As I walk away he says to his friend “well how else is he going to learn if I don’t do that?”
So I tell my boss, who has served Mr Onions before, and he says “I’m 100% sure he’s not allergic to onions, we’ve gone out to dinner and he’s ordered French onion soup, he’s probabaly just mad you can’t spend all your time at his table”
😡
So I go back to the table and make a big deal of “oh sir I’m sorry, i talked with my boss and the chefs, and I’m gojng to need to take your meal back to remake it. Since you didn’t tell me about your allergy I can’t garuntee that it’s safe for you to eat. I don’t want you to get sick or anything. We may have cooked it with something that has come into contact with onions, and there may have been some cross contamination in the kitchen with other gods that are cooked with onions. Please I insist”
So he gets all flustered and says “no uh no I’m fine. I’ll be fine. That won’t be necessary”.
I feel bad for the other guy he was with, because he was super nice the whole time, and I think he knew what the rude guy was up to.
He tipped poorly too ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/86ky1l/the_time_a_customer_tried_to_fake_an_allergy_to/
| 283 | 35 | 1,521,814,569 | 5 |
waiter tip
|
top
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1bu4aan
|
TalesFromYourServer
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Breakfast Server Tips
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I’ve only worked at a small restaurant with about 12 tables. It’s not anything fancy or expensive but we’re able to dress fairly comfortable. I’ve worked here for 3-4 years and our hours are 12PM-11PM where some shifts are the whole day..
I just got a new job yesterday and I start training soon. I’ve never worked at a breakfast spot before and I’m not much of a morning bird either. This spot sells alcohol too but my old place didn’t so I’ll have to get my proserve soon. I haven’t had to deal with drunk people before plus, this spot is in the busiest area in my city. The hours are 7AM-4PM
Are there any tips you guys can give me? I’m actually incredibly nervous for some reason. I feel like it’s because the two places are very different.
TIA!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1bu4aan/breakfast_server_tips/
| 69 | 54 | 1,712,078,242 | 5 |
server tip
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relevance
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1gfxu7s
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TalesFromYourServer
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"I WILL F#(K1%G KILL YOU"
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Many years ago I worked as a server at out favorite pepper restaurant that rhymes with Willys. One day in the dining room during lunch a couple with their toddler and one of the couples father were sat in my section in a booth. The toddler was in a high chair at the end of the table. The parents got standard meals, the toddler got a kids meal, and the grandfather of the child for the unlimited soup and salad combo, lets call him Kevin.
Its maybe 130 pm, lunch rush is over but I and the other 3 servers each still have 3 to 4 tables that are eating. Kevin has a caesar and is crushing cups of clam chowder like its going out of style. The couple are finishing their meals, the toddler has finished but is restless.
Here is where the fun begins.... and let me preface the rest of this story with this, I had been serving for a few years at this point, by no means am I an expert, but i have a pleasant personality and can be charming and can usually read my guest well, all that and to be clear, *I know not to put hot soup within arms reach of a baby*.
So I am bringing Kevin his *fourth* serving of chowder to the booth they are sitting in, and this is your typical booth that could fit 4 adults comfortably, and 6 if you wanted to be rubbing elbows the whole time. Kevin was sitting about three quarters of the way into the booth on his side, with the couple across from him, and the toddler in the high chair at the end of the table in the isle.
Not wanting to lean all the way over into his personal space, I placed the cup of chowder half way down the table, easily 2 full feet away from the toddler, within inches of Kevin's right hand, and I probably say something to the effect of 'how is everything'. This gosh darn kid performs a herculean gymnastics maneuver, leaning forward, pushing herself all the way up out of the high chair onto the edge of the table, then proceeds to continue leaning forward, fully extended, reaching out her left arm, and plops her left hand into the hot soup.
It was one of those, 'it all happened so fast' moments. I am thankful for many of my other experiences in life that trained to me to act quickly in times of trouble such as recognizing someone choking and quickly performing a successful Heimlich maneuver (same restaurant) or being able to recognize the difference between someone flailing around in the water and someone who cant swim.
So myself and the three other adults at the table (im standing to the left the toddler) all see this happen, the little girl lean over further than anyone could ever expect and dunk her hand in freshly microwaved clam chowder. It took about one second for me to realize what happened and without permission or anything i just reached out with my right hand and grabbed her by the wrist/forearm to remove her hand from the hot soup. I remember having the conscious thought "no time to get a napkin or towel" and i just used my left hand as best I could to wipe as much soup off her hand as I could as quickly as possible.
As one would imagine, even though I was not directly at fault, and neither Kevin or the couple across from him lifted a finger, I began apologizing. After what felt like an eternity (maybe 10 seconds) the mom snapped out of it and i passed off her daughters arm to her and gave her a napkin and she continued where i left off with cleaning her daughters hand.
This is where Kevin comes in, and up to this point, no one else has noticed. Kevin looks at me and says, with his voice raised so that, while he wasnt yelling, everyone in the dining room could hear him, "**Boy you must be fucking stupid**." I am of course dumbfounded and dont respond. A child in need I will jump to it but when a grown ass man with gnarled hands, what looks like a 20 year old faded John Deer baseball cap, overalls, and a healthy southern accent speaks like that to me i just kinda stand there.
# "You never put hot soup in front of a baby. Boy, if you hurt my granddaughter I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL F#CKING KILL YOU"
Everyone heard it. He wasn't yelling, but everyone heard it, he did not care. Meanwhile, this kid **DID NOT MAKE A SOUND**, not one. Carefree as ever. The skin on her fingers were red, thats it. She was smiling throughout as if it we were just playing.
So I immediately say, "ill be right back." and I turn around and high tail it into the kitchen to get my manager. I find him talking to someone on the line, so i interrupt with "Chris I need you to go to table 26 right now." as matter of fact as i can. He turns to me and says "one minute", and starts back into it with one of the cooks, then I gently place my hand on the clipboard he is holding and interrupt again, "Chris, I need you to stop what your doing and go to 26. right. now." and thankfully he could tell that I was serious and he quickly headed to the table.
I did not speak to the table again. My manager comped their meal, took their info, and walked them out a few minutes later. They said they would be taking the toddler to the hospital to be checked out. The parents, I did not know which of the two of them was the progeny of Kevin, were relatively understanding. They were not outwardly upset, they said that while going to the hospital was as a precaution, they were also going to reach out to corporate.
All of my other tables were great about it, even a couple of them ave me extra tips saying they were sorry i had to deal with that. Afterward, my manager brought be into the office to look at the security footage, and right then and there, he laughed watching it back seeing this amazonian child practically crawl across the table to dunk her hand. Corporate called a few weeks later to talk about it but with the footage and my managers report, no further action was needed. Never saw Kevin again... but we sure talked about him for a while.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1gfxu7s/i_will_fk1g_kill_you/
| 441 | 54 | 1,730,323,703 | 5 |
server tip
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hot
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1fzseht
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TalesFromYourServer
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Toast tablets
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I’ve already posted about this but just for reference we got the toast tablets a little over a month ago. They literally just threw us into it starting on a Friday🙄🙄🙄I knew they were gonna tell us that we can’t use paper anymore so right off the bat I started trying to use them at the table. For a month now I have struggled with these fucking stupid things. We all hate them. I’m one of the older girls so I was really trying to get used to them so they couldn’t blame it on my age and say I’m just not tech savvy. But even the younger girls are struggling.
I have been in this industry for 30 plus years. I’ve served, bartended, and cocktailed. I have gone from hand written tickets to every POS system you can imagine. I have never had any issues. Until now. In fact, I have worked with toast before. Just not the tablets. And I found it pretty easy to pick up. But all of us are really struggling with them and don’t like them at all.
First of all toast didn’t program it properly so my bosses daughter spent countless hours trying to program them to be more user friendly. She’s put in a lot of hard work but there’s just still so many kinks.
I work the party section on the weekends and it can get pretty hectic but I’ve never had issues keeping up and have always given friendly and efficient service. I find these tablets to be super impersonal. I don’t even look up from it while I’m at the table because I’m trying to figure out how to put in the order properly. And I absolutely hate the tipping page. But eventually I think all the little kinks can be worked out.
However last weekend we were super busy and I threw my hands up and had enough of struggling and switched back to paper. It was making me forget things that I would NEVER have forgotten before. And I was making mistakes and I have never made very many of them.
The biggest flaw I’ve found in using these is something that absolutely cannot be fixed. And I would say this happened with 75% of my tables that weekend because people are dumb and that’s never gonna change. But I was using paper so it wasn’t an issue.
The flaw is that if I were to be using the tablet at the table and the customers finish ordering and I ask “anything else?” They say “no” and I press send and turn away and almost immediately after pressing send and turning around to go do something else inevitably some dumbass customer says “oh can I get cheese on my eggs” or “I don’t want green peppers in my skillet”. Now I’ve already sent it to the kitchen and I have to run from one end of the restaurant to the other to verbally tell the cooks. And if this is happening to me then it’s happening to other servers and how many things can the kitchen remember on a busy weekend day with 8 girls running back and forth to tell them to prep the order a different way?
That is a super big flaw in my opinion. And I’ve since then switched back to paper and am doing much better and that’s the way it’s gonna stay for me.
It seems like whoever thought of these dumbass things never waited a table in their lives. I don’t know. Maybe I am getting old. But I’ve always been a damn good waitress and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna stand in front of my customers looking like a fool because of these fucking things.
Sorry. Long rant. Thanks for listening. I’m just super frustrated. I’ve never experienced this sort of frustration even when starting a new job.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1fzseht/toast_tablets/
| 219 | 75 | 1,728,483,236 | 5 |
server tip
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hot
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pzzn9u
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TalesFromYourServer
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I had the AUDACITY to charge her for the food she ate...
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It's a standard Friday night, just getting started when my manager gives me a table (normally the host's job) and tells me that this couple gave them a really hard time at the host stand, and to anticipate their bad attitude. No problem. I'm usually the go-to guy in these situations and 9.5 times out of 10 I'll turn it around and end up with 20% in my pocket.
Well not today. I greet the table (husband and wife, mid-late 60's by the look of it) with bread and a drink list. Immediately the wife (who has like a psychotic resting bitch face by the way) is complaining about the temperature and the lighting. Both things I can adjust so I oblige and get the air and lighting for the whole fucking restaurant to her optimal levels. I come back with her tap chardonnay and ask her if everything is to her liking. With a resounding "meh" I ask for their entree orders. Hubby gets a ribeye and mashed potatoes, wife gets a lobster crunch roll as her entree.
Fast-forward a few minutes, food has gone out, I drop by to check on them. Wife says her lobster roll is terrible (she had eaten 1/4 of it) and wanted to know what I planned to do about it. I told her she wouldn't be charged for the sushi and that I would be happy to bring her a menu/get something else started. She gets all fussy over the fact that her husband's food is out and she doesn't want to wait and the husband (who was a trooper by the way, kept complimenting me and the food) interjected "just bring a menu". The moment I dropped the menu I made a recommendation that she try our short ribs as its a dish we generally can have ready in under 5 minutes. Again she gets all fussy and the husband says to her "you love short ribs, you get it all the time". Finally and with great reluctance, she asks for me to bring the short ribs, BUT ONLY if we modify the ingredients to her liking. Well of course, were the type of restaurant to wipe your ass if you asked us so sure its no issue. I bring it out for her while her husband still has most of his steak. First reaction? "What is all this shit?!" "Oh miss thats a beef based gravy (as it says on our menu). I can have my chefs remove it for you if you'd like, its really no trouble". She throws her fork at the table and re-adjusts her plate in front of her, "no its fine" and then starts angrily scraping the gravy off with her steak knife. I walked away fucking laughing under my face mask.
Over the next 5 minutes I watched her absolutely scarf down half of the short rib so I had to assume it was good. I dropped by to check "is this one tasting better than that lobster roll?" She fires back quickly, "well its not what I ordered. Matter of fact, were all done, you can pack everything up" *motions towards her husband's steak which he is literally taking a bite of*. So I took his steak out from under him and packed up the food. Offered desert, no, thank god, here's your check whenever you are ready. I took off the lobster roll but you best believe I was gonna charge for her short ribs considering she ate half and took the rest to-go. To my surprise they put their card in the book so I went and ran their check.
On the drop-off before I could say anything the wife says "I just want to let you know, I'm not leaving you a cent, and here's why: I can't believe you would have the audacity to charge me for the short ribs and for my wine when you guys couldn't make me the meal I wanted how I wanted it, this was ridiculous." And without skipping a beat I snapped back "I completely understand how you might feel that way, but I would just like to let you know that I have very little control over the quality of the food as a server and furthermore I have no control over our policy as far as what we charge when we have to replace an item (I totally would've gotten them drinks or dessert or something if not for her toxic attitude). At every opportunity I tried my best to provide you with a good experience and if you feel that you didn't have one today then I completely understand why you wouldn't want to leave a tip. Aside from that folks, thanks for stopping by and I hope yall have a great night." *mic drop*
Of course she went and chewed my manager out on the way out the door but he came and commended me and agreed that we don't need that type of clientele coming back anyway.
Edit: I feel like this has to be said but everyone felt horrible for her husband.
Edit 2: alright, alright, I don't feel that bad for him.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/pzzn9u/i_had_the_audacity_to_charge_her_for_the_food_she/
| 2,871 | 175 | 1,633,196,159 | 5 |
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top
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1kirg21
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TalesFromYourServer
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Boss sent me this text because I was 15 minutes late. Is this out of pocket or am I overreacting?
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“Honestly that's your warning. I will fire you the next time you don't show up on time and don't say anything. Or sit behind the counter on your phone the way you do. Come on you barely try at this job and wonder why you are where you at. Come on.”
For context, I came to work 15 minutes late without texting my boss. But honestly she’s never there and was there the one time I was late. We open at 730 AM and I always have everything done by then no matter what. Also we are severely understaffed and I have yet to see her help more than 30 minutes during any rush
it’s a brunch restaurant and I bust my ass off everyday and even pick up on my coworkers slowness, especially during rushes. I only sit at the chairs when it’s EXTREMELY slow. Is this text something I should brush off or should I find a new job now??
Also she’s been snapping at everything and I feel like I’m walking on egg shells at work every time I see her. She began being angry when I told her “why are the grits always cold” and she blamed us for not telling her and that it’s our job responsibility
EDIT: okay it seems like the way I worded it is making it seem like I’m debating about me being late. I know it’s 100% my fault and I should’ve told her. My concern is the way she texted it. She first yelled at me in person and started cussing me out in front of everyone and then said “you’re 24 years old and these 19-20 year olds are better than you” then she left the restaurant and texted me that. I really feel like she could’ve handled this way better as my boss.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1kirg21/boss_sent_me_this_text_because_i_was_15_minutes/
| 0 | 37 | 1,746,819,949 | 5 |
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relevance
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12i78qp
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TalesFromYourServer
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100% my fault. I fucked around and found out.
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It's Good Friday, just a few days ago, and I'm the normal closing manager.
It was busy, we close at 11, but everyone's getting ready for the holiday and it clears out early... Almost.
There's 1 table left, clearly a first date, I've walked past several times and caught snippets of their Convo. Seem like nice folks.
It's 11:15 and I get their server to fill up their water glasses and then he can head home. The closing bartender has already packed up and is heading out too.
Just me left, the dishwasher and The Couple.
Dishwasher finishes up around midnight. Sweeps the line, takes out the trash and heads home. Just me and them.
Meh, I'll leave them be for a while. It's an hour after close but they're still chatting. I'll go to the office and do the nightly paperwork. I left the doors unlocked, the lights are still set low, the music is still on. But they're completely by themselves.
I finish up the paperwork and it's now 1 in the morning. I walk out to lock up and am Really Surprised that they're still there. I figured somebody would go to the bathroom and notice that Absolutely Nobody in this 55 table establishment was in the building with them.
Fuck it. I'm off Saturday. Let's see what happens. I've got Reddit I need to catch up on.
At 1:55, I decide that's enough.
I walk up to the table with my keys in my hand and before I can say anything, the guy asks me if he can get another drink from the bar.
I stammer for a half of a second, completely off guard, and the speech about how I'm leaving so You're leaving died in my throat.
Before I can collect myself, the guy says he forgot to order some togo food and needs to put in an order.
So I laughed. Didn't really know what else to do. Hey lady, I shouldn't have laughed at your date, I'm sorry. But I laughed at him.
I said, "I'm sorry my man, but we closed 3 hours ago. There's nobody here but you and me and I'm about to head home."
And he came back with, "you haven't been closed for 3 hours" and he scoffed. I honestly didn't think real life people scoffed.
But I said, "Well, you're kinda right." Looked at the lady and said, "we've been closed for 2 hours and 57 minutes. And like I said, I'm about to lock the doors-so that means you gotta come with me." And then I stood at their table with my keys in my hand until they got up. And we all walked outside together.
Tldr; I fucked around giving people extra time after close to see what would happen.. Found out what would happen.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/12i78qp/100_my_fault_i_fucked_around_and_found_out/
| 5,172 | 319 | 1,681,184,573 | 5 |
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px2wvq
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TalesFromYourServer
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New guy made it through exactly one shift.
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Not a server, but I'm a cook and (very small) part owner at a Mexican restaurant. This story happened about a month ago, but I was saving it for my cake day.
We hired a new guy, DuBois (not his real name), as a server. He comes in, and dude works his **ass off**. Killing it. Gets his sidework done while everyone else is still like 60% of the way through theirs, and he didn't half ass it, it was up to par. So before service even starts, I was feeling good about him as an employee.
The customers start trickling in, and he's just **killing it**. Upselling, making tables laugh, and just generally being great.
Now, where I work, most of the staff will sit at the bar after shift and have a drink or three. We stop accepting customers at 10pm, and we shut down the kitchen at 11pm. So by like 11:15, most of us are at the bar.
Bartender puts on the song "Heartbeat" by Childish Gambino. Little did we know, this would lead to us losing our new employee.
We're jamming out, singing along, generally having a great time.
DuBois pipes up, and decides he's comfortable enough at this new job that he can show his **whole ass**. He goes on an anti Donald Glover rant. I don't remember everything he said, but the part that got him fired was:
"I don't understand why people like him so much. They act like he's so unique. Donald Glover is **NOT** the first house n****r to tap dance for master when he wants some extra food."
I don't care how good you are at rolling silverware, or selling lobster tacos. You're fired.
Edit: Just want to thank the mods for dealing with the nasty comments rather than locking the thread over one bigot.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/px2wvq/new_guy_made_it_through_exactly_one_shift/
| 4,654 | 398 | 1,632,822,625 | 5 |
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12vb7ty
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TalesFromYourServer
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"Ma'am, I think I found a piece of tooth in my coleslaw"
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So this happened yesterday at my job. It's a little mom and pop (but sans the pop) where we make homemade ice cream and good southern/american fare. It's a cute spot in a renovated house and we get a lot of families and older folks. I was serving a
mom and daughter, one was probably in her 80s, the other late 50s. They ordered two catfish dinners with fries and coleslaw. I dropped it off, checked back with them probably twice before the older woman waved me over. She looks at me and all sweet like says "Ma'am I think I found a piece of tooth in my coleslaw." She's holding out this tiny piece of something, I pick it up, examine it, and low and behold, it's a piece of a fucking tooth. I apologize profusely and let them know I was about to grab my boss. Horrified and disgusted, I went to the kitchen to tell her about it. It was just her and the opening cook there and after I told her, their jaws dropped and we all kind of sat there for a second. My boss goes over and talks to them, takes off their food, ladies leave me like 20% of the original ticket and they leave. We still have the piece of tooth and we're tossing the coleslaw out and my boss is stressing about liability or whatever. 20 minutes later, the daughter comes back in and says "I am so sorry SO sorry!! That piece of tooth was my mom's. I figured I should check her mouth out, just in case, and she definitely had one break off! I just wanted to make sure yall knew" then she handed me an extra 15 bucks and left. The relief the restaurant shared after I told them that the tooth did not come from one of our employees. I have had random things accidentally be in people's food that shouldn't be there, as I'm sure we all have, but a fucking TOOTH? If anyone else has had that happen, I'd love to hear that story
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/12vb7ty/maam_i_think_i_found_a_piece_of_tooth_in_my/
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bl0edf
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TalesFromYourServer
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Seventeen-top of vegans who refuse to look at our menus because ‘there’s animal cruelty in them.’
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The ringleader explains this as the party slowly trickles in and orders drinks from the bar. “We only want to see options that are 100% plant based.” So I, the fool, ask for clarification. You want only vegan items, or vegetarian items?
His eyes literally narrowed. “Vegetarian items still have animal products, so they aren’t cruelty free.”
Cool. I can already tell we’re really going to hit it off.
I do care that people get what they want, though, and don’t ruin their diet choices just because they go out to eat. I tell the kitchen so they can prep new utensils and make a note to check every dish that needs the vegan modifications myself.
I clear the menus from the table.
I copy the info for the vegan apps, salads, 4 entrees and a dessert that we offer onto a receipt slip and go to talk to them. The table is too chatty to pay attention to me when I try to announce the options, so I go around (2-3 at a time) sharing the options. They can’t decide right away. I rotate to the next group. All in all, it took me 25 full minutes to take this table’s order.
My other 8-top and 3 3-tops aren’t thrilled. One table had just been sat by the hostess as a i started the order, so they walked out (understandably) after nobody came and greeted them in 20 minutes.
A few minutes later, the leader vegan asks me for a drink menu. Nobody else ordered liquor, so I’m happy to oblige.
I explain, “We don’t have a separated drink menu. The food and drink are all together in a tri-fold. However, I have a full bar, plenty of wine and taps, what are you looking for?”
Nah. He wants to see the cocktails we make. After a full 15 seconds of deliberation where he literally put both hands to his head, his partner touched his shoulder and told him to just look at a menu. I flip it to the drinks only side before I hand it to him.
Vegan options are 30-50% cheaper than our regular entrees, so naturally, this is a small check for the size of the party. I did better off the 8 top celebrating a birthday.
Seventeen separate checks.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/bl0edf/seventeentop_of_vegans_who_refuse_to_look_at_our/
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9vobmp
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TalesFromYourServer
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Let me speak to the manager young man, I will have you fired. The owner and me are good friends !!!
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First let me explain a few things here. This is not my story as such, but I got to witness it first hand. A good friend of mine is from a family that owns 3 very successful Italian restaurants (with a pizza oven that uses actual wood, really top of the line). So he learned the business basically from the day he could walk ;) When he was 25 he had a good business idea: a place in the middle of the city, that sells mostly slices out a window, but also whole pizza, pasta dishes and salad and does delivery. Plus a few small tables inside if someone wants to eat here.
So he created a solid business plan, and had his eyes on a prime location. It is 50 meters away from the biggest parking area in the city, with 400 parking spots, where several times a year we have big city fairs, and anybody who wants to go in the park strolls right by it. So his dad said he would finance him but as a credit to be paid back in a timely manner. They agreed on everything, and a year later he opened up.
The story takes place about 2 years after they have opened and the place is HOT. He already repaid almost 75% of the credit in a mere 2 years. Usually there is a line for the slices, which are from a family size pizza, like 60 cm across, and you get 1/8 for 2.50-3.50 depending on what is on it)
WE are sitting on a table playing chess, while his guys run the shop (he had already worked a full 11 hours that day). IN comes a baby boomer couple, and it was clear as day that the lady with the you know which haircut rues this relationship with an iron fist. They sat down on the table next to us, and after not even a minute she rudely asked us why she has no menu yet, and to get off our lazy asses. I already wanted to tell her I do not work here, but he winked at me and walked over to their table giving them our menus. I call her EL and my friend just friend. DISCLAIMER this was nearly 15 years ago, so the spoken words are not word for word, but represent what was said.
EL: it is about time you get off your lazy ass (she has waited a minute). You can't play chess when you have people waiting. What kind of shitty service is this.
So he took their drink orders, and walked behind the bar to make their drinks right away. They had to wait maybe 3 minutes for their drinks (they ordered beer that take a bit to do correctly, Hefeweizen for you Germans, this story plays in Germany)
EL: About time, did you have to brew it first or what is taking so long.
My friends patience is starting to wear thin, but he still stays friendly.
Friend : You saw me walk to the bar and make your drinks right away, then return right away. Those beers take a bit to pour correctly, I am sorry, but there is no way I could have brought those to you any faster.
EL: We are customers and this is how you talk to us ? Ever heard of the customer is always right ? How can you be so rude to paying customers ?
Now my friend really had enough.
Friend: I was very respectful towards you, while you where very rude from the moment you came in here......
The moment he aid that, she got this weird grin in her face , and you could tell this was EXACTLY what she wanted.
EL(Interrupting him): SHUT UP ! How dare you !!! I will have you know me and the owner are old friends. I will have your job over this, now get me your manager.
Friend : PLEASE I need this job.
EL: TOO LATE, you should have thought about this before you treated guests this rude. NOW. GET. ME .THE . MANAGER
Friend : right away miss
to bring out beer to bring our beer
So he went behind the bar and had a short talk to one of the older guys working there. Let us call him OG. Both return to the table.
OG: what seems to be the problem mam.
EL (suddenly playing the sweet old lady, that is soooooo nice): when we came in here, your server sat there with someone and played chess. WE waited and waited, and finally asked nicely if we could have a menu. He rolled his eyes at us and gave us the menu from his table. Then we ordered drinks, and he walked over, made our drinks and then just stood there for a good 10 minutes before he brought out beer. And when I politely asked him to bring out beer he was really rude to me. Since I know the owner, we eat here all the time, and usually the service is excellent. I demand you fire him and comp our meals.
OG(turning to my friend) : Is that really what happened
Friend : of course not, she came.....
EL(suddenly all the mask of friendlyness gone, starts screeching): What are you asking him for, i just told you what happened. Are you calling me a liar ? Wait till the owner hears of this.
At this point my friend and OG could no longer hold it back and they started laughing.
EL : YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY, NEVER EVER HAVE I BEEN SO INSULTED.
Friend : Yea I know, what til the owner hears of this, oh wait the owner already did hear of this. I AM THE OWNER, and I have never seen you in my life, nor have you ever eaten here. You 2 are just trying to scam a free meal out of me, by being impossibly difficult till the server finally snaps or does something wrong, so you can aks for a manager and lie to him about what happened. Now you pay for your beer, and then you go, and do not even think of coming back, you are banned.
Wow, I had no idea people could get that red in the face. She put 10 euros on the table.
Friend : Now GET OUT.
And they shuffled out to never return. BOY that was the most entertaining attempt to scam him I have ever witnessed ^^
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/9vobmp/let_me_speak_to_the_manager_young_man_i_will_have/
| 8,278 | 236 | 1,541,797,849 | 5 |
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1gpau69
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TalesFromYourServer
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Rant I guess. I’m so freaking over it.
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I’ve been working at this place for almost two years, I hosted for a while but I just got into serving. I love it. I love the entire process of it and have fun doing my job and it shows through my work. But I worked this monday morning and my freaking GM is a reincarnation of all things evil. apparently I made mistakes. Stupid mistakes that every server makes when they get busy. But here’s the thing about this restaurant… no bus, no host, no expo, no food runner, and we had two servers today (me included) on VETERANS DAY. we have to do EVERYTHING and I mean everything. So no, I don’t have time to make every single little thing perfect when my entire 15 table section is being taken up and there’s a line of people waiting to be sat.
So my GM sits me down and tells me if I have a bad day like this again, she’s going to take away my serving shifts. ARE YOU SERIOUS??? If I have a day where I MAKE MISTAKES????? That’s not fair???? So now I have to go to work anxious about the fact of “Am i going to be 100000% perfect, make zero mistakes because I may get fired if I do.”
I’m just at the point where i’ve had enough. there was also no second server scheduled tonight so i had to work a double and then by myself on the floor. we got really busy because it’s freaking veterans day. I just have anxiety about finding a new job. This is the first place i’ve ever worked at, so finding somewhere else is pretty nerve wracking. I guess I don’t have a choice? Because i’m a fucking human and I will make mistakes. Anyway, just came on here to rant with people who will understand.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1gpau69/rant_i_guess_im_so_freaking_over_it/
| 55 | 13 | 1,731,379,959 | 5 |
15%
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hot
|
c745v6
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
The time being passive agressive backfired **SPECTACULARLY**
|
(Long-ish)
Years ago (late 90’s) I was working in a mom and pop pizzeria in a small town in Northern California. This particular pizza joint was outside a large, very expensive gated community. Mostly the customers were nice but occassionally you’d get the rich condescending Karen-esque dickwagons.
One particular evening I was on closing with another employee, it had been a relatively calm evening and we were pre-prepping to close, handling sidework etc.
A call comes in for a delivery.
Me: “thank you for calling the pizza place, how can I help you?”
Cust: “hi. I would like a large pizza with sausage, onion and bell peppers. I want extra EXTRA bell peppers”
Me: “OK sir, thats a large pizza with sausage onion and extra bell peppers. Anything else?”
Cust: “I said, extra-*extra* bell peppers.”
Me: “Yes sir. Extra extra. Anything else?”
Cust: “No. Please deliver to (address inside gated community).”
I make the pizza, taking care to add what I thought was literally a ridiculous amount of bell peppers. Easily three times as many peppers as other toppings combined. It comes out of the oven, I brush it down, slice it, box it and put it in the warming sleeve. The other employee goes to deliver it and I go back to whatever I was doing. He comes back about 15 minutes later and I can tell theres a problem because he’s carrying the warming sleeve upright instead of under his arm like most people do.
He comes to me and said the customer was quote “disgusted” that we couldn’t follow simple instructions and add extra bell peppers. Just then the phone rings and it’s the customer.
Cust: “Is this the person I spoke to earlier about my pizza?”
Me: “Yes sir, it is”
Cust: “I thought I had made myself abundantly clear in my original call, but apparently you need things spelled out for you. When I say extra EXTRA, I mean **EXTRA**. Think you can get it right this time?”
Now, I had been spoken to like an idiot plenty of times, and this wasn’t even in the top ten of bitchy customers. However, his insistence that I hadn’t heard his original instruction or forgot when I clearly hadn’t made me quite angry. So I told him I would remake it and he should have it in about thirty minutes.
I hung up the phone and turned to the other employee, “Did you prep bell peppers for tomorrow already?” He nodded. “Would you bring them out from the walk-in? I’ll prep more for you later” If this guy wanted extra EXTRA, well goddammit I was gonna give him EXTRA EXTRA.
At this point I got a new pizza dough, and proceeded to remake this pizza and murdered it with literally a half-days prep worth of bell peppers. I put them in the dough, under the sauce, in the sauce, under the cheese, in the cheese, as well as on top. No exaggeration, there was easily six bell peppers in this pizza. There were so many peppers in this pizza it lost it’s structure and took two spatulas to slide out of the oven, there were so many peppers the box sagged in the middle from the extra weight. I sent it out with a note saying “sorry for the incovenience” and a 10% off coupon for the next time they ordered from us.
Before the delivery guy even got back the phone rang, and to be expected it was the customer.
Cust: “Is this the person I spoke to about my pizza with extra bell peppers?”
Me: “Yes sir it is, were we able to achieve your expectations?”
Cust: “I just wanted to call and say *THANK YOU!* You guys finally got it right!” (I could literally hear the smile in his voice and realized he was being sincere). “This is the most perfect pizza I could have hoped for. Can you always make them like this for me? It’s absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much.” And he hung up.
I literally stood there speechless. This guy ordered from us several times that summer and always wanted his pizza with “extra extra extra bell peppers like that one time” and I always caught a shitload of grief from my coworkers.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/c745v6/the_time_being_passive_agressive_backfired/
| 3,659 | 205 | 1,561,840,042 | 5 |
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top
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7u9s1k
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
This is why I'm going to die alone.
|
Recently started talking with a woman via an online dating site.
We met for coffee and hit it off. The next week we saw a movie together, then grabbed more coffee and talked for hours.
Everything was great so I invited her out to dinner.
She loves craft beer so I suggested we hit a local brewpub. I don't drink, but they have a reputation for great food too.
It's Friday at 6pm. There's a 20-30 minute wait. No, problem. We can totally chat for 20-30 minutes.
After about 5-10 minutes she goes to the host and says "Excuse me, we've been waiting forever. You've sat 3 tables while we've been sitting here. And I'm appalled by your behavior!"
The host, I swear this kid was maybe 18, gets flustered and says "I'm sorry. They were here first. We should have your table in 10-15 minutes."
My date replies "That's not acceptable. Simply because we're two women doesn't make it ok to ignore us and treat us as second class citizens. Are you a misogynist or just a homophobe?"
Yep, that's right. My date accused the poor kid working as host of being a misogynist or homophobe for not being able to make a table magically appear for us. He'd committed the great crime of seating other people who had arrived earlier than we had.
This poor kid turned bright red and noped out of there with a "Let me get my manager."
This woman then had the nerve to smile and wink at me as he walked away. She leaned over and said "It works like 80% of the time. We should get the next table that opens and the manager might give us a discount too."
I was frozen in horror. I swear I just stood there with a dumb look on my face blinking at her for what felt like an eternity.
Then I turned on my heels and walked out.
She ran after me with a "What's wrong? Where are you going?"
Then she sent me a message on the dating site calling me a bunch of names and telling me I'm going to die alone and my corpse will be eaten by a bunch of cats.
At this point, that sounds like a better alternative than going out to eat with her again.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/7u9s1k/this_is_why_im_going_to_die_alone/
| 3,280 | 187 | 1,517,404,344 | 5 |
15%
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top
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b6qou8
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
How dare you show up early 😡
|
This just happened today. Had a catering order on the other side of town. The customer requested delivery by 11:15am.
Not sure of how much traffic I might hit, I gave myself an hour to get there. Luckily traffic wasn’t bad so parked in temp parking and headed up with the food.
I walked into the office and announced myself to the receptionist. Her abrupt response:
“You’re early.”
I checked my clock, It was 10:50.
“Yeah” I said “about 20 minutes. Wasn’t sure how traffic would pan out.”
“More like 45 minutes...” she says tersely. I check the paperwork in my hand. It still says 11:15 delivery. Im a little confused now.
I ask her where she wants the food set up, she points me to the conference room.
I set up the salads, sandwich trays, condiments & utensils. I asked the receptionist if I could walk her through the setup so she would know where everything was. She declined, which I thought was weird. I always walk the client though the set up. It was 11 sharp when I left.
When I get back to the restaurant I read an email from the receptionist complaining that I was: too early, a sandwich was missing, that the sandwiches could “potentially” be soggy AND she was demanding a 50% discount.
The enraging part was, if she had allowed me to walk her through the setup like I asked she would have learned:
A. Where the missing sandwich was ( on one of the trays)
B. All the sandwiches are served dry with spreads on the side specifically so they wouldn’t get soggy
I have done hundreds of caters and this is the first time I had someone get angry that I arrived early, refuse to allow me to explain the order to them and then complain about what my food could “potentially” taste like. Who does that?!?
Anyone else ever get this grief?
PS: I gave her no discount.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/b6qou8/how_dare_you_show_up_early/
| 2,675 | 136 | 1,553,819,543 | 5 |
15%
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top
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gzt73z
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Tales from a Covid-19 positive server
|
I’ve worked in the service industry for 15 years, and I’ve never experienced something like a pandemic. Getting shut down for 2 months when you work in a cash-in-hand job can be devastating. Added to that, I had just returned from a 6 week (unpaid) maternity leave after having my son. The restaurant I’ve worked at for 5 years decided to NOT do carry outs because it wasn’t in their best financial interests. Lucky us.
At first, I panicked. I had just built my savings up for my son, and now I was going to watch it disappear. I broke out my credit cards that had just gotten paid off. I hit up my mom for back up, just in case I needed it. My boyfriend (also in the industry) did the same as we panicked about what this could mean for our family’s financial future.
I started applying for assistance. Unemployment, local server aids, donations, bar employee funds, etc. I calmed down. I realized unemployment would pay my bills, and what would I be spending money on while being stuck at home for the foreseeable future?
I started to enjoy my time off. Our son was now 2.5 months old and was an absolute joy to be around. I got to watch several of his firsts; first time rolling over, first time grabbing at the hanging toys on his play gym, first time he giggled. I landscaped our backyard, started a vegetable garden, and repainted the living room. We got to enjoy time together as a family, something we never got when I worked day shifts and he worked nights. I was actually kind of loving this lockdown.
Then, I got the call back to work. I was not excited. They basically left us high and dry with a “good luck” after the shut down, and now that they’ve received the PPP loan, we all had to go back to make less money than we made before the shut down, all while risking our health. I was given the option, because of my baby, to not come back, but I would most likely not have shifts to come back to once we reopened completely. I had a good thing going at the bar; a great schedule that made great money and worked out perfectly with my SO’s schedule. How could I say no?
Fast forward to being open to a 50% capacity for almost a month. Customers are pissed they can’t do what they want. They wanted to be able to mingle with strangers like they used to. They wanted all the bar stools to be open instead of the 12 or so we had spread out. They didn’t understand why the perfect table under the perfect TV was unavailable because diners had to remain 6 feet apart. They bitched when they couldn’t figure out how to use the QR code for our electronic menu. I got daily remarks on wearing a mask and gloves.
“If I had it my way, you wouldn’t be wearing that stupid thing”
“Are you even smiling at us under there?”
“I can’t hear what you’re saying under that stupid mask”
“Why don’t you just take that thing off and give me a smile”
I went from pissed, to frustrated, to resigned that this was just how things were going to be. As with a lot of industry people, I contemplated a job outside of it. Customers came back from this lockdown rude and entitled; maybe I was different, too, after realizing what it’s like to not work with people everyday.
Then, I got Coronavirus.
I have not done anything but go to work and go home for the past month. I don’t even go to the grocery store. I get everything delivered or do curbside when possible, for the sake of my son. My boyfriend is the same. His bar was too small for the occupancy limit, so they were still doing curbside carry out. He hadn’t even been around customers in 3 months. I had to have gotten it from work, even after all the precautions we were taking.
My job made a Facebook post announcing a team member testing positive and their subsequent closing for 5 days to deep clean. Then came the comments. People absolutely panicking they could’ve possibly been served by someone with the dreaded Covid. We’re these not the same people that demanded to have restaurants and bars reopen so they could be confined in a building with 50+ strangers?
“How could you have let someone work with a fever or symptoms?!”
How can they possibly think they’re not dining out near a table containing an asymptomatic victim of The Rona?
“Can you tell us who it was? When were they serving? What shifts did they work? I was there June 5th at 2:12 pm and out server had...”
Does it matter if I serve them when one or more of my 20+ coworkers could’ve also been infected without knowing it?
I’ve been cooped up at home fighting off a cough, tight chest, and sore throat with my SO (who luckily tested negative) staying with our baby at a mutual friend’s Air BnB, just absolutely festering over the audacity of these people. You wanted restaurants open in the middle of a pandemic and then are clutching your pearls that a staff member (who absolutely did not want the place to reopen) caught it. It floors me that I had yet to see a customer come in with a mask or gloves, and then they’re absolutely gobsmacked that they could’ve possibly caught it by anyone in that place.
One of my coworkers told me she’s been getting texts all day from friends that want to know who the infected person is. Mind you, these are people that haven’t even set foot in my restaurant or seen me since the lockdown begin. Why?? So they can spread it around through our close-knit industry friends?
I feel like I have an STD. Had to talk to the health department and trace my steps. Had to inform anyone I’ve come in contact with for more than 10 minutes. I have one of my SO’s best friends about to start a full on physical fight because SO doesn’t want friend to tell his family members to get tested since SO stopped by their house 3+ weeks ago. My sister can’t work at her job for 2 weeks because she helped watch our son while we were at work. My fellow coworkers are off work (once again unpaid) for the same amount of time because they were exposed to me. This whole thing has made us feel like pariahs.
If I had a “normal” job, I’d be working from home and not risking myself. Why do I have a job where I even feel like I am risking myself? I’m not an emergency responder or health care worker. I’m just a chick that works in a bar.
Does anyone else contemplate finding a different occupation? Is it just me that feels this frustrated with our industry? I knew the risks when I signed up for it. I’ve had injuries where I can’t work and haven’t been able to make money. I used to love the flexible schedule, the quick and easy money, and being able to have such a social job. I think what makes things different is knowing not only do the customers view us as expendable (I think most of them always have) but our government does to.
TL;DR Coronavirus sucks but customers suck more
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/gzt73z/tales_from_a_covid19_positive_server/
| 2,631 | 268 | 1,591,728,161 | 5 |
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top
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gfrviv
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Please don’t drop bombshells in a cafe
|
It was a weekday morning, pretty early, probably 7:30am. A man arrived and sat at the table closest to the door. Sat by himself for a few minutes then a woman walked in with a boy, maybe 7 or 8 years old, in a school uniform, and sat at the table with the man. The woman came up and ordered herself a coffee and a muffin then sat back down. The boy sat between them and they took turns talking to him, very quietly and sympathetically. It was immediately obvious that they were telling the boy that they were breaking up and it was very awkward when I delivered the coffee and muffin to the table. The boy cried silently the entire time they were there. They stayed at the table for another 15 minutes or so, then left separately. I felt horrible, especially considering the boy was wearing his school uniform, so I assume the mother dropped him to school after this. Even if that’s not what they were telling him, though I’m 99% sure that’s what it was, why the fuck would you make any kind of devastating announcement to your child in a public place? Keep it at home guys.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/gfrviv/please_dont_drop_bombshells_in_a_cafe/
| 2,544 | 156 | 1,588,939,103 | 5 |
15%
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top
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zqylul
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Signs of a bad tipper…
|
“Give this server a raise!”
Yep, that was it. You know they have no idea about how much we make and how much comes from tips.
What are some other signs?
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/zqylul/signs_of_a_bad_tipper/
| 480 | 306 | 1,671,567,795 | 5 |
bad tipper
|
relevance
|
29p82o
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Remember to keep yourself as anonymous as possible - Waitress Gets Fired For Complaining About Bad Tippers On Facebook
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/29p82o/remember_to_keep_yourself_as_anonymous_as/
| 116 | 67 | 1,404,348,940 | 5 |
bad tipper
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relevance
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8dl7jp
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
How to handle bad tippers
|
I just got a job at a sushi place near me and I love it so far. Waitressing is a lot more exciting than retail. But there are these two girls who come in every Thursday and no matter how great the service is they don’t tip. How do y’all handle these kinds of people? I’m obviously not going to spit in their food, but it makes me not care about them as a table even though I know I still should
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/8dl7jp/how_to_handle_bad_tippers/
| 39 | 54 | 1,524,201,690 | 5 |
bad tipper
|
relevance
|
st5ahl
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
how did everyone’s valentine’s day go? let’s hear about your horror stories! bad tippers? pissed off people that had to wait? i wanna hear it all!
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/st5ahl/how_did_everyones_valentines_day_go_lets_hear/
| 10 | 18 | 1,644,938,415 | 5 |
bad tipper
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relevance
|
22ycs8
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Saw this on my instagram feed, I understand bad tippers but I told them the note they left was just plain rude.
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/22ycs8/saw_this_on_my_instagram_feed_i_understand_bad/
| 94 | 30 | 1,397,426,478 | 5 |
bad tipper
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relevance
|
7uxpad
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Tax season brings out all the bad tippers
|
On mobile and all
Just have to vent. Yesterday I had a table write “thank you” on the bottom of the receipt. On the tip line they wrote “the struggle is real, no tip”.
Today I got on top of my receipt “sorry I’m broke lol”. On top of that I got 3 on 55 and .26 on 30.
The thing is I know I’m not a bad server, as conceited as that sounds. I’m not even mad about it, it’s just frustrating and I just needed to get it off my chest.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/7uxpad/tax_season_brings_out_all_the_bad_tippers/
| 42 | 18 | 1,517,638,418 | 5 |
bad tipper
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relevance
|
80kkv8
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Does anyone have any thoughts on servers that are bad tippers?
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/80kkv8/does_anyone_have_any_thoughts_on_servers_that_are/
| 9 | 22 | 1,519,716,404 | 5 |
bad tipper
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relevance
|
1ukd5q
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
An Open Letter to Bad Tippers
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1ukd5q/an_open_letter_to_bad_tippers/
| 28 | 22 | 1,389,041,449 | 5 |
bad tipper
|
relevance
|
c5s48u
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Experienced any of these bad tippers?
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/c5s48u/experienced_any_of_these_bad_tippers/
| 1 | 0 | 1,561,567,442 | 5 |
bad tipper
|
relevance
|
inp8pj
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Sudden realization.
|
What if all the good service I have given to bad tippers has only just increased the amount of bad tippers coming in?
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/inp8pj/sudden_realization/
| 23 | 18 | 1,599,410,566 | 5 |
bad tipper
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relevance
|
jo0ws6
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
SA riverwalk server
|
Being on the riverwalk you get to see and talk with a famous person now and then. Served Reggie Bushs dad. Not very friendly and a real bad tipper. Leandro Barbosa at the time was playing for the suns. Cool to talk to but his group were all bad tippers. Got to give adam Jones of tool directions to a CVS, super down to earth nice guy. Same with Dez Bryant he got takeout and was great with all the staff. A bunch Lakers came in to the bar one night but who gives a damn about them. :)
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/jo0ws6/sa_riverwalk_server/
| 4 | 6 | 1,604,511,075 | 5 |
bad tipper
|
hot
|
1bak9c
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
"I've worked in a restaurant before and..."
|
During lunch rush today I had two ladies come in and order a burger and a wrap. Pretty typical but we only had two people in the kitchen so tickets were taking longer than normal to come out. I explained to all of my tables that we were understaffed and ensured them everyone was working to get their food to the table as quick as possible. All of my tables were OK with this and understood as the restaurant was clearly packed... also the only other server on the floor and I were running around like crazy!
So these two ladies complained about everything having to do with the food. First it took too long(I did feel bad but I did warn them), then they didn't have "enough" fries (they had our normal amount but I had the kitchen make more for them.. free of charge!), and then one of the brats didn't have enough chicken on her wrap (there was definitely more than enough on there for any normal person..coincidentally the wrap was almost completely eaten by the time she complained).
I had a manager involved from the start of the complaints and the main complainer told me that she thought I handled everything well and she knows that all of these things are out of my control. When I finally brought them their check, it had the wrap and one of her drinks completely comped AND we even honored their 20% off coupon that we normally wouldn't have accepted. (also free fries.. yummm!) I get to my "I really apologize for everything and hope you do come back and visit" speech. Then the main complainer proceeds to say that she has worked in a restaurant before and continues to sympathize with me..
This is the exact moment I know I'm getting a shitty tip. Has anyone noticed that there's a large amount of people who claim they have "worked in the industry," or "are great tippers" but tend to be the biggest pain to deal with and actually aren't great tippers? Do you believe they have in fact worked in service? What do you think makes them decide to include this in conversation? (I personally NEVER tell waitstaff that I am a server when I go out to eat!)
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1bak9c/ive_worked_in_a_restaurant_before_and/
| 70 | 31 | 1,364,628,717 | 5 |
bad tipper
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top
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blla45
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
“I’m a good tipper, trust me!”
|
It usually turns out that this claim, usually, isn’t remotely true ☹️
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/blla45/im_a_good_tipper_trust_me/
| 38 | 15 | 1,557,196,645 | 5 |
good tipper
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relevance
|
3ju9w3
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
"It's *Taken Care* of already"
|
If there's one thing I hate more than no tips, it's this- A table, any table, that has a split bill; First person pays their bill then drops this gem.
"Don't worry about the tip, I've *Taken Care* of it already." -
Like WTF?! You really think your 18% on only YOUR portion for YOUR service covers the amount of work I put into everyone else at said table?
I brought your friends drinks, pre-sets, food, extra napkins, refills, more refills, and one more refill that you barely sipped, generally great service and you simply don't think they should tip me based on what you already gave me?
The best part of separate bills is separate tips(generally) because Jill could be a server and knows the ropes of good service and how to tip properly, or Jack could be a gold star tipper (yay!).
You are literally making my life harder by doing this. Just... Don't.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/3ju9w3/its_taken_care_of_already/
| 133 | 44 | 1,441,530,878 | 5 |
good tipper
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relevance
|
esh2mh
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Wont take checks? No tip for you.
|
So I'm a server at a restaurant and they dont take checks. It's on our front door and on the menu.
Last week I had a table come in, a couple and their teenage son. Everything goes good, they're nice and polite. Until it's time to pay the bill.
I saw the wife pull out her checkbook and get ready to write a check. So I popped over and reminded them that we dont take checks.
Shes immediately mad. Claiming she paid with a check here a few weeks ago, which I'm sure means they wrote the check and took off before her server noticed it.
I explain that its company policy. She (loudly) goes "well how am I supposed to pay for this then??" I can see inside her wallet at that point and I can see at least three different credit/debit cards. I politely explain that we take cash or card only. She ends up pulling out a card. After I run it and drop off the receipts I can hear her complaining to her husband how she wasnt going to tip me because I wouldn't let her write a check. Sure enough, not a penny for a tip.
It's not my policy lady! It's the owners. And if you dont have money in your account to use a card you have no business writing a check here either!
I told the owner about it, turns out we did have a check come in and bounce a few weeks ago. Compared the name to the one on the cc slip and sure enough, same person.
I'm still frustrated about it.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/esh2mh/wont_take_checks_no_tip_for_you/
| 2,124 | 240 | 1,579,722,505 | 5 |
no tip
|
relevance
|
pj95fq
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Villainous scum who order takeout and insist on having a seat in the restaurant, want table service, and leave no tip
|
Yeah, you assholes know full well who you are.
Don't want to tip? That's fine; I guess you figured out a "lifehack" by simply ordering the food to-go instead of dining in. Where you crossed the line is when you arrived to pick up the food, saw there actually wasn't much of a wait and asked to have your name added to the list.
Enter one disinterested manager who lets it slide, "They said they might order some drinks." And tonight, I've drawn the short straw, as my nice booth is being prepared for them. *Oh well, maybe I can hustle a couple cocktails out of them.*
So this family sits down, and having already paid out for their meal at the counter, start unwrapping and unloading their boxes of food. I come by to introduce myself, and before I can get a word out -- "Can you bring us real plates and silverware? Can we get more hot sauce? Napkins?" Pandemonium. Then they ended up ordering all waters. Then more refills, more napkins. I was pretty pissed. "We might order dessert later." They knew exactly what they were doing.
The table was just a pile of debris, and they handed me their used, dirty boxes as I walked by.
They were only there for about 30 mins, but they ran me ragged. I left an empty check presenter on the table when they were about done eating, hoping they'd take the hint. "We already paid up at the counter for our food." No luck.
They finally leave, and the table is a mess. I can't believe what slobs they were. Way to coach your children into being parasitic misanthropes.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/pj95fq/villainous_scum_who_order_takeout_and_insist_on/
| 835 | 67 | 1,630,964,337 | 5 |
no tip
|
relevance
|
1gd4dmv
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
need advice from hibachi servers
|
so i got a new job at indianapolis, its a brand new hibachi steakhouse restaurant, its located in downtown
the tip out is from total sales
10% to hibachi chef
7% to sushi chef
5% to kitchen
5% to bushboy
the restaurant is kinda big so it might be a fine dining, is it normal or its a rip off?
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1gd4dmv/need_advice_from_hibachi_servers/
| 7 | 4 | 1,730,008,678 | 5 |
big tip
|
hot
|
16vxa3c
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
For this restaurants with big tip outs
|
Has anyone ever ended up payingg the resturant money at the end of the day ? basically the tip out was to big.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/16vxa3c/for_this_restaurants_with_big_tip_outs/
| 4 | 3 | 1,696,047,542 | 5 |
big tip
|
hot
|
172rhgc
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Was I right or wrong to not tip in this situation?
|
This is the first time I’ve ever flat out not tipped in years and it’s a place that came well recommended so I would really appreciate some input as to where I stand.
I went to a restaurant tonight, a big name touristy type place but late at night so it wasn’t very busy. (24 tables, 6 occupied.)
When I arrived the hostess was talking to a friend for several minutes before she acknowledged me or anyone in the line that had begun forming behind me. (I know this because when the person she was speaking with left she said, “Sorry, that was just my friend.”)
She asked me if I was the ten top reservation, I said no, I was a two person walk-in. The people behind me identified themselves as the ten person reservation.
They pushed two tables together for the ten top but then seated my party of two at one of the tables and split the group up. I said I was happy to sit elsewhere so the group could sit all together.
They said, pretty aggressively, “We have a system. If you want service then you have to sit where the server put you. You’re not at your house.” I almost left then and there because I was so taken aback by that but wrote it off as stress about the big group coming in.
I sat down and asked how many people a medium pizza would feed. My server said he didn’t know. I asked approximately how big it was. He said “medium sized.”
When the food came it was cold and we hadn’t been given plates or utensils yet. We asked him to take our photo and he said he had a lot to do right now but maybe later. (He was not even close to the only one working.)
The final straw for me was the table next to us pointed out very politely to the server that they’d been given the wrong meal (it contained ground sausage and they’d ordered vegetarian.) Instead of going and fixing it, the server tried to gaslight them saying it *was* what they had ordered. They were visibly clearly Sikh. I am sure they did not order pork.
I asked for my check and a box for my food. The server said he’d be right back with my check but it would be about ten minutes for a box. When the check did eventually come it was a table side credit card reader and when I needed to fish in my purse for my card, he did a lot of sighing and made faces.
Honestly, I was still planning to leave 10%, but the final incidents with the Sikh diners being served pork and his acting like he was doing us a favor by bringing the check pushed me over the edge.
Maybe I am just venting at this point but I really want to know if I’m missing something. As industry professionals do you see something I did to cause this or a circumstance I might’ve been blind to that caused this?
I feel terribly about the whole thing and could really use some insight. Thank you!!
Edit — Sorry I can’t reply to every comment, this got more traction than I was expecting! Thank you for your insight and fun stories. I really appreciate it.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/172rhgc/was_i_right_or_wrong_to_not_tip_in_this_situation/
| 361 | 177 | 1,696,744,183 | 5 |
big tip
|
hot
|
ghkj8t
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Mother's Day - My perspective and small vent as a Restaurant Owner who worked as a Take-Out Server today
|
So we were slammed as I'm sure many of you were today. I solo-manned the front in the evening so I took all orders via phone or in person or tablet/interacted with all customers/drivers/gave them their orders and took payments by myself while my waitress packaged/labeled them in the back.
​
Overview:
Business-wise = Great , high sales with near perfect order accuracy of mods in made-to-orders from my hardworking team.
​
Customers who ordered take out, they were lovely and tipped generously (all this went to my lone amazing waitress who really showed up and proved herself tonight, I don't take tips ever anyway) , these customers and I had nice chats when they were paying, I wished them all a wonderful mother's day and they did the same for me.
​
Then we had the doordash/ubereats/grubhub drivers. Most of them were patient and understanding of course but a select few were so horribly condescending and insulting. One guy came in (10 minutes before the order was even supposed to be ready) and I politely told him, hey it's going to take 10 - 15 minutes more. The dude goes off on a rant about how I'm not smart enough to comprehend what he's going through as a delivery driver and that all of this is "over my head" and I can't possibly understand.
​
Now I can't give you the satisfying ending of me telling this dude to go fuck himself and get out of my restaurant, because as the owner I can because there is no higher up, but I really do care about my customers and that their hot food gets to them on time (especially for their special mother's day), but I always had the choice to do that, my servers (previously didn't).
​
I didn't really give a shit about what the guy said to me because his opinion is meaningless, but the thought that he can say that to my servers when I'm not around and my servers have to feel obliged to take it was unacceptable.
​
Effective immediately, as a policy change, my servers can tell these guys to go fuck themselves if they are disrespectful and I will 100% have my team's back because I trust them. I told my waitress on duty this, and she had the biggest smile on her face! I have reported this delivery driver in question on Grubhub and Doordash, he is banned from my restaurant already, I have spoken to a few other popular restaurant owners who I know will do the same, and I will be relentless until the delivery partners fire him completely. Nobody in this industry should have to deal with that, ever.
​
Thank you all for your service, Happy Mother's Day. Overall, I'm glad I got a little more insight into the bullshit you all have to deal with every day so I can be a better manager. Cheers.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/ghkj8t/mothers_day_my_perspective_and_small_vent_as_a/
| 1,679 | 111 | 1,589,190,087 | 5 |
generous tip
|
relevance
|
rx1892
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Used a meme to combat a creep and somehow it worked
|
Note: names changed for privacy! Also trigger warning for sexual harassment, mental illness, and death of a family member.
A few years ago I worked in a very popular local bakery as a barista. It was a great job at first, but a series of bad managerial hires eventually made it unbearable. This story happens at the end of my time there, when it had all gone to shit.
I was good with the espresso machine, and several regulars always requested me specifically to make their drinks just how they liked. One such regular was known universally in the bakery as Latte Larry. It's been quite a while since I worked there, but I still remember his order-- four pumps of caramel, skim milk as hot as you can get it. Latte Larry was a bit of a problem for us front of house staff. He was good friends with the owners and he tipped very generously, but he'd always call his orders in just before closing. This was annoying because by that time most of the coffee area had to be shut down for the night. We all dreaded the ringing of the telephone at five minutes to five.
Also, importantly for this story, Latte Larry was a MASSIVE creep.
He was in his seventies, but he'd constantly hit on the teenaged cashiers. He barely ever made eye contact, preferring instead to stare openly at girls chests. He'd always try to touch our hands as we passed him his mocha or his change. If a dude was working the register or the coffee counter, he'd joke around with them and make suggestive comments about the girls. It was really fucking gross, and I reported his shit behavior several times to management, but was brushed off and essentially told to grin and bear it. I was younger and less wise and backboned in those days, so I complied, laughing lamely at his "jokes" and ignoring everything else.
This doormat behavior of mine did not last for long, however. By the last month of my employment at the bakery, I basically knew I was going to get fired. I'd missed two days of work because of a flair up of a chronic illness earlier in the month and despite the fact that I'd found coverage for both days, I was written up for it and told us be terminated if I missed another day (I did not know back then that this was very illegal). At that time, one of my relatives was very sick and their health was rapidly declining, so I knew another absence was unavoidable. Like hell was I going to go to work when they died. I was also in the process of planning an international move and I was working another, almost full time job. To say I was stressed beyond belief and 1000% Done is an Understatement.
Enter Latte Fucking Larry
I'm closing alone. There are other people around, but they're all bakers sequestered in a separate building in the back of the property. Latte Larry calls as usual, two fuckening minutes before close this time. Make the milk extra hot, it's cold outside! I make his stupid drink, fervently praying that it scalds his shitty tongue off. He strolls into the store all jovial and skeevy. He decides he wants something sweet with his drink, and orders one of the enormous slices of bobka. I go to get it with a wax paper sheet, but it's awkward and slippery so I switch to gloves. Prone as I am to talking to myself in public when stressed out of my goddam gourd, I make the mistake of muttering "Whoops, this is a job for hands."
To which
Latte
FUCKING
Larry
In his puny, pervy pebble of a brain
Thinks it is appropriate to reply to with
"Hyukhyuk you can give me a handjob any time."
For the first time in my entire life, the debilitating anxiety that has plagued me since birth and which I am now heavily medicated for fucking evaporates like pure grain alcohol on a Saharan sand dune. It is replaced by a cold, hard, scalpel-sharp rage that I have never felt before or since. I forget that I am a young woman alone in the building with this asshole. I forget that I'm a five-foot-two hipster with fibromyalgia standing up to a Vietnam veteran built like a brick shit house. I forget that if I sass him the owner will chew my ass off and fire me. I forget that I need this paycheck for plane tickets. I drop the bobka, stand up straight, and stare dead into Latte F. Larold's stupid face. In a voice that rings with the fury and conviction of Someone Who Has Had Enough, I say the only remotely cool-headed thing I will ever say in my awkward, nerdy existence:
"Maybe think before you speak next time."
For some reason, this not-very-threatening comeback that I stole from a RuneScape meme apparently puts the fear of god into this creep. I think maybe it was just that no one had ever called him on his shit before, and he didn't know what to do. Looking severely freaked out, he throws down a twenty on the counter and quickly exits the store clutching his comfort latte to his chest. He forgets the bobka and his change, so I make the unauthorized executive decision to put the money into the communal tip jar and the bobka into my face. I calmly finish up closing, go home, and have a panic attack.
I was fired a week later after my relative passed and I called out to be with my family, but at least I didn't ever see Latte Larry again.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/rx1892/used_a_meme_to_combat_a_creep_and_somehow_it/
| 1,680 | 60 | 1,641,428,561 | 5 |
generous tip
|
relevance
|
f8491w
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
I was overwhelmed at work, but a lovely group of friends left me this message along with a generous tip
|
"Thank you for being such an awesome server! Hope this makes your crazy busy day better :)"
I truly believe in the power of human compassion. I hope they know how much it meant to me to feel appreciated during a stressful shift. To anyone who writes little notes like this, just know that we love you.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/f8491w/i_was_overwhelmed_at_work_but_a_lovely_group_of/
| 15 | 2 | 1,582,430,367 | 5 |
generous tip
|
relevance
|
24848j
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Bartender gets generous tip to help pay for dog's surgery. (xpost from r/dogs)
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/24848j/bartender_gets_generous_tip_to_help_pay_for_dogs/
| 21 | 1 | 1,398,723,667 | 5 |
generous tip
|
relevance
|
6ogkno
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
"I want you to buy me a new shirt."
|
This happened about 7 years ago, when I worked in a popular local sports bar chain. I remember this man's rage as though it happened yesterday, though.
An older man and his wife come in at the beginning of the dinner shift, before rush. He orders a fried seafood combo platter, which was a piece of cod, clam strips, shrimp, slaw and fries. They were very nice, knew what they wanted right away. I see the runner bring out the food, give them a second, and then go check on them. This is when trouble starts. I will be S, the man will be M.
M: These fries are cold! You aren't even busy, how can you bring me COLD food??
S: I'm very sorry, sir. I'll bring you fresh fries right away.
M: (as he's struggling to open his 2oz cocktail sauce): they better be HOT...I cannot believe you would...
At this point, he has been pressing on the center of the 2oz lid instead of just peeling one side off LIKE EVERY OTHER PERSON ALIVE DOES. Well. That causes the lid to pop off a little and squirt cocktail sauce on his shirt. We all just sat there in silence for a minute.
M: THIS IS A SILK SHIRT...THIS LID WAS PUT ON INCORRECTLY...
S: I am so sorry, sir...let me get you some club soda??...
M: GET ME YOUR MANAGER!!
So, I go to the kitchen, tell them to drop fresh fries, and grab a manager. I give him a quick rundown of the situation and he goes off to deal with it. I peek out while waiting on fries, and all I hear is him demanding the restaurant replace his "very expensive" shirt, while my manager is apologizing but insisting we could only offer to cover his dry cleaning bill (which I thought was pretty damn generous considering it was 100% his fault.)
Fries come up, I go to bring them out right as I see him pick up his seafood platter and throw it at the wall. They were in a booth, so throwing it at the wall at such a close distance just meant more cocktail sauce and random food bits sorta splattered on them.
The man gets up and storms out, the wife attempts to ask for the bill, the man comes back in and demands his wife "get in the damn car!". The poor woman looked to my manager, who told her to just go, and she slinked away, while her husband stormed to the car.
I felt so bad for the woman. I couldn't stop laughing at how childish her husband acted though. It was such an extreme reaction and I knew I wouldn't have gotten a tip regardless of if they stayed or left. All I could do was laugh.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/6ogkno/i_want_you_to_buy_me_a_new_shirt/
| 336 | 24 | 1,500,560,936 | 5 |
generous tip
|
top
|
124q3r
|
TalesFromRetail
|
That ONE table that comes in two minutes before close and is the only one keeping you there. You can imagine the tip.
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/124q3r/that_one_table_that_comes_in_two_minutes_before/
| 383 | 76 | 1,351,270,008 | 5 |
tip
|
relevance
|
1q19rf
|
TalesFromRetail
|
Strangest Valet Tip Yet
|
Small corporate group, assuming some or all worked for Microsoft said they had no cash left. Handed us a copy of Windows 8 Pro.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1q19rf/strangest_valet_tip_yet/
| 302 | 37 | 1,383,757,045 | 5 |
tip
|
relevance
|
13nc8v
|
TalesFromRetail
|
I have never worked retail and I just got a job at a popular department store. I have had one shift of training, and tomorrow is my first shift on the floor. Does anybody have any tips?
|
I am a 17 year old girl. They very quickly tried to teach me how to use the register, and a mobile POS system, and I still don't really get it. I'm terrified about tomorrow. Does anybody have any words of advice?
UPDATE: http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/380/373/03a.jpg
Literally not a single rude customer. Bizarre and not difficult. Good first day! Thanks for everything, everyone! :)
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/13nc8v/i_have_never_worked_retail_and_i_just_got_a_job/
| 31 | 55 | 1,353,637,268 | 5 |
tip
|
relevance
|
34v6jj
|
TalesFromRetail
|
"Don't skim on my order I know chinese"
|
This was back in my teenage years working at a froyo place.
So this guy order a large froyo with toppings. I make the order for him and hand it over to my coworker in the toppings section. He was a nice guy, left a little tip in my tip jar, so I decided to be nice and I say to my coworker in korean. "Give this guy lots of strawberries".
The guy hears this and says "Don't skim on my order I know Chinese. I know you guys are always speaking Chinese to rip customers off thinking we don't know what you're saying."
lol what? This guy also had Chinese letters as tattoos all over his neck and arms. Didn't give the guy extra strawberries.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/34v6jj/dont_skim_on_my_order_i_know_chinese/
| 2,078 | 160 | 1,430,772,610 | 5 |
tip
|
relevance
|
kckgnu
|
TalesFromRetail
|
A Small Kind Gesture
|
I work in a big box retailer, and as you can guess, we've now hit the holiday rush. There are customers in our store from when we open to when we close, adding to the hectic nature of Christmas in retail.
Today started rough. First, I was late... a full hour and a half late, and I'm never late. I pride myself on at least being on time. That didn't happen today. So I trudge through the day as best I can, ringing up customers and helping other cashiers. I'm about to leave for the day when I see a mother and her young daughter in line. They look pretty tired and a bit overwhelmed so I motion them over to my register and begin processing their order.
They were indeed tired, because the lady forgot she had a return that she wanted to process first, which is no big deal on my side of the register (I had only rang up two items before she remembered. Even after that snafu, she was so nice and friendly. We shared a lovely conversation about Christmas shopping and how difficult it is to find gifts for close family. At the end of her transaction, I hand her back her change and she tries to tip me. I repeat, she tries to tip me. I've worked in retail for a little over a year now and I treasure kind moments like this. As per policy though, I couldn't take her money. It was so very sweet of her though. I wish her and all others wading through the holiday rush a very happy holiday!
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/kckgnu/a_small_kind_gesture/
| 68 | 0 | 1,607,898,940 | 5 |
tip
|
hot
|
g2z4qx
|
TalesFromRetail
|
Just when I thought I was home free.
|
Hello TFR!
I intended to post about this tqo days ago but completely blanked and remembered it now.
I work graveyards at a gas station and I get all kinds of weird and rude customers.
I apologise for formatting and any spelling/punctuation errors. Writing has never been my strong suit.
My first customer of the night pulls up in a giant RV that is larger than a city bus and clearly doesn't know how to drive a vehicle of that size. He parks at the sani-dump and starts emptying his waste and I think "that's kind of odd... it's a little late for that." I ask my co-worker and she said he had called and she gave him the ok to use it. My co-worker leaves and I am by myself.
The man comes to the window and looked like Howie Mandel on drugs.
Guy: Do you guys sell chinese noodles and beans?
Me: We have noodle cups and cans of beans if that's what you're looking for.
Guy: Yeah, I'll get that. Do you accept tips from debit cards?
Me: No, I have no way of doing that and I'm not supposed to accept tips
I get the guys stuff and ring him in and he pays then says "now I gotta get a few hours of sleep and I'll be good to go."
After he drives away I go outside for a cigarette and notice he is trying to park at the back of the store blocking an entrance and a fire lane. He gets out to check his parking job and wave to get his attention.
Me: sir, you can't park there overnight!
Guy: come in man, I just need a few hours of sleep
Me: you're blocking an entrance and fire lane. No. You have to leave.
Guy: So, you need me to leave then?
Me: please. Have a good night.
The man struggles to get the RV out of the lot but eventually does.
An hour later I notice a van parked beside our air pump and a lady sleeping in the driver seat. She falls forward and face plants into the horn waking herself up.
She sees me and gets out.
Lady: hey, I have a flat tire and I can't get my spare out. I'm just gonna walk home and get some stuff and I will be back.
Me: did you want me to call you a tow truck?
Lady: no, I will only be a few minutes. I will be back.
Me: ok. but, you can't leave your van there all night. If you can't move it I will have to have it towed.
Lady: don't worry I will move it as soon as I can change the tire.
She was still here in the same spot for at least an hour after my shift...
Lastly, I was 30 minutes before the end of my shift and thought I was home free. When a junkie who had several bags of empties and left them outside the door before coming in. My manager was in at this point.
Me: Good morning, what can I get you?
J: Zigzag whites.
Me: Can I see your ID? (He looks 17)
J: I don't have ID! I'm 30 f**king years old!
Me: Sorry I can't sell you the papers then. Anything else?
J: THIS IS F**KIN' BULL SH*T!
My manager hears the commotion and comes inside.
M: sir, if he asked for ID you have to show him. It is the law.
J: I'M 30 YEARS OLD I SHOULDN'T NEED TO BRING MY ID WITH ME!
M: Sorry, we can't sell you the papers.
The junkie then walks over to the dairy cooler and grabs a 2L of milk and starts walking up to the counter and says "WELL IF YOU WON'T SELL ME ZIGZAGS I'M TAKING THIS!" and heads out the door.
My manager chased after him picking up one of his bags and throwing it at him hitting him in the head with the bottles.
He isn't allowed back anymore.
Tl;dr
Three drug addicts made for a really stupid shift...
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/g2z4qx/just_when_i_thought_i_was_home_free/
| 756 | 61 | 1,587,117,874 | 5 |
tip
|
hot
|
c5qma5
|
TalesFromRetail
|
I am most certainly not a tailor.
|
I’m a manger of a pretty popular store (not mentioning names) for average day wear to somewhat moderately priced clothing. Multiple people have come into my very average store and ask if we do alterations/tailoring on jeans and clothing for them in the store.
My first occurrence was a couple of gentlemen shopping together on a week day. We began with a language barrier so I got lost within questions pretty quickly and we both had a hard time understanding each other. confusion continue, which lead us all over the store with a few choices, until they asked if I would go with them into the dressing rooms and I knew we weren’t understanding each other. They proceeded to show me the pants they picked out and asked if I would cut them into shorts and destroy (make holes and rips) in a new pair of jeans and cut them how ever they wanted into a form of jorts. Needless to say I was taken back and so were they, They were honestly confused we didn’t provide those services even for tip money! I told them where alterations could be done at other stores but not ours, but I’ve never heard of a store making personalized destroyed jeans.
I’ve had a few families since then ask for those services, some to rip jeans but also make alterations to other clothing from stores not our own. I’m curious as to why some people think we do alterations from a very basic store or think I would be skilled tailor?
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/c5qma5/i_am_most_certainly_not_a_tailor/
| 50 | 2 | 1,561,560,001 | 5 |
tip
|
hot
|
ad5sjf
|
TalesFromRetail
|
I need 600ml.
|
Before I moved into apparel I was managing a service station - a gas station for you American readers. We were a busy highway stop for cars and road trains but we also sold a small selection of groceries and such - milk, bread, cereal, magazines, etc. Because it was 2018 we had to have alternative options available - healthy vegetarian choices in the hot box and so forth. Early one morning just before sun up a harried looking woman came in. She had the look - you all know the one, only the best will do, me and mine first, sweeping fringe, activewear top to bottom.
Me - Good morning, any fuel today?
Customer - No, do you sell unpasteurized milk here?
M - (with surprise, because gross) Actually yes we do, it comes in 750ml bottles. Just inside the fridge beside you.
C - [Sighs, turns and stares at the fridge.]
M - Uh... should be third shelf the bottle with the gold lid and label.
C - Yes I see it. But I only need 600ml.
M - ..... Sorry about that, we only carry the one size of speciality dairy.
C - [Still staring at the milk fridge.]
M - Would you like me to grab one out for you?
C - But I only need 600ml.
M - Well... I can tip some of it out if you want but I don't have a measuring jug to be exact....
C - [Gets loud] Well how much is that?
M - I'm not sure sorry, if you can't see the tag I'll price check it for you. [Grab a bottle from the back of the fridge and scan it]. That'll be $X.
C - Is that the price for the 600ml?
M -....What? No that's the price for the full bottle.
C - So what discount for just 600ml.
M - None?
C - So you expect me to pay full price when you're tipping half down the sink?
M - It's not half its less than a quarter and it's at your request. I'm selling your bottle of milk you only want to take 600ml home.
C - Just staring at me.
M - So... No?
C - [Storms out]
I love retail.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/ad5sjf/i_need_600ml/
| 350 | 45 | 1,546,783,249 | 5 |
tip
|
hot
|
8ki6tj
|
TalesFromRetail
|
The ~~Flying~~ Thieving Nuns
|
So, many years ago, I worked for a big box electronics store in the computer department. On one particular Saturday, I wandered in to notice that we were missing three of the display laptops. I went over to one of my coworkers and asked what was up, and was informed that we had to attend a special meeting regarding the theft of the display laptops tomorrow (Sunday).
The annoying thing here is the fact that I had that day off, and I lived in a downtown area, so I didn't have a car at the time, so I had to take the bus in to work. So now I had to pay to come in to work for an hour long meeting for something that happened when I wasn't even there. Great. Thanks, thieves.
Sunday morning rolls around, I head in, kind of grouchy, and hit the smoking area with our manager and a few of the guys. Apparently no one has seen the video yet, or knows the circumstances, and they're going to show us the video. We head in, and the warehouse manager is there with the video, and the sales manager is there to yell at us for being so stupid we let thieves walk about with 3 display laptops. Fantastic.
Our warehouse manager is looking awfully smug for some reason, and the sales manager is kind of a jerk. At this particular moment, he's being an extra jerk, pacing around and chewing us out for not paying attention to what's going on in the department. Now, to be fair, this is kind of weird that the warehouse manager is looking smug, because loss is directly his responsibility. But, everyone hated the sales manager.
So, after being reamed for being so stupid as to not notice the thieves, we pop in the video, which the sales manager has not yet seen. We watch as three nuns enter the department, they split up, corner the two associates working, and pull them to opposite ends of the department, leaving the third completely alone with the display laptops. At this point, it's obvious they're professionals. And, to be fair, probably not nuns.
The third one pulls out bolt cutters, cuts off three laptops and shoves them down the front of her outfit. At this point, the warehouse manager stops the tape, explains that we are dealing with professionals, and gives us tips on how to handle situations where we get split up like that. The sales manager then rips into us for not noticing the third nun, explaining that being pulled away was no excuse. He also pointed out that she was walking weirdly and we should have noticed that, even though the two associates were still pretty far away as the third one was leaving.
It was at this point that the warehouse manager grins, and hits play again to finish the tape. The third nun making her escape walked out the front door, right past the sales manager, and he waved to her and said goodbye as she walked outside.
The sales manager turns bright red, glares at the warehouse manager, and storms out of the room. Our meeting continues in a much more civil fashion with tips on dealing with professionals, and specifics on what not to do and when to let stuff go.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/8ki6tj/the_flying_thieving_nuns/
| 757 | 32 | 1,526,694,486 | 5 |
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hot
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77o69p
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TalesFromRetail
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Happy Birthday, James
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From my phone, sorry for any formatting!!
I work at a print shop within an office supplies retailer. It’s a thankless job so far, and getting yelled at is just part of my daily routine at this point. I was having another tough day last week when an order came in our email for a huge banner that read “Happy Birthday James” (name changed). The banner had pictures of who was presumably James, with everything from baby pictures to pictures of him as a young man.
I got to work on it, printing it and reprinting it, repositioning the photos a little because it wasn’t quite straight and I wanted to get it right. I added an extra reinforced grommet so the banner would be easier to hang up (since it was pretty long). Finally I sent an email back that it was finished.
A few hours later, a middle aged lady came to the counter and gave her name, which was the name on the banner order. I unfurled the banner so she could see. I remarked that I had to tweak it a little, but that I thought all the pictures were wonderful (especially the baby ones), and I was sure James was going to love his party.
When I looked back up at the woman, tears were running down her face. She apologized and started sniffling and wiping them away, smiling and thanking me profusely.
She tells me that James was her son. He died young in a car accident two years ago, and they were holding a party on his birthday in his honor.
She was so happy that I put effort and heart into her banner that she was practically bawling. I couldn’t think of anything else to do but run around to the other side of the counter and hug her. She tried to tip me a few times but I can’t really take tips. I insisted it was my pleasure to make her son’s party a little better.
Just one rewarding moment makes a week of getting yelled at totally worth it!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/77o69p/happy_birthday_james/
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7n2ke1
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TalesFromRetail
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I guess we're both having a bad day
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I had this group come in, middle-aged women all decked out in embezzled kaftans and gaudy jewelry. As soon as they came in the small voice (which hides behind that customer service smile) sighed a long, drawn out, sigh.
I knew they would be difficult.
It was the way their eyes moved, the turn of their lips as they moved around the store, they were ready to be dissatisfied.
I tried my darndest, offering suggestions and asking questions about their day, all met with half-assed answers and "why are you even talking to me" expressions.
So, I left them, I know when to leave a group and when to talk, there are those few customers who you can manipulate into a nice experience, those funny few who will allow you to joke and laugh and transform the idea they had entering the shop.
These women were not that type.
So after leaving them alone for a while I start to tidy up another section.
I'm minding my own business when I feel a wrinkled hand grab my arm. She grabbed that part of your forearm, just underneath your elbow, and lingered there. She had a tight hold on me.
"I just wanted to let you know, I come from a very wealthy area and I go to a lot of high-end establishments and this just isn't up to par. Perhaps you should let the manager know."
Now, I was the manager. In this line of work one would usually suppress that internal voice that wants to scream "AH HA HA I AM THE MANAGER WELCOME TO ME" and instead apologise/subjugate oneself in such a manner so that the customer could leave satisfied they had told a.manager.com and that things would be sorted.
Not today.
You see, my uncle had died that morning. He died suddenly, and young, for reasons I won't go into here. But he had died, and I loved him, and something inside me broke.
"Yes, well, my uncle died this morning. So I guess we're both having a bad day."
I said it with such clarity, such honesty and vitriol that was the product of every idiot that came before her and every customer that would come after. I said it with complete eye contact, with a straight stare, with the welling of tears in my eyes.
She immediately let go of my arm, and I went back to my cleaning.
The entire group was wordless as I continued cleaning. They bought a few items. The woman rushed out the door.
One of the party approached the counter, ironically she was the most sparkly. She left a hefty tip. "For her" she said, and looked at me. And I had never loved a customer as much as that lady, I saw the apology in her eyes. As I looked out the door I saw the complainer slightly apart from her friends on the street, her eyes to the floor, humiliated.
I had never felt so satisfied. Seeing her friends reject her behaviour. For once I truly felt I had hit the point home that customer service people ARE people, with lives and friends and family and death.
Her tip and her look and those women rejecting that behaviour, it raised me out of the helplessness I felt that day.
Tl;dr sparkly girls have bad time with customer service gal who has a dead uncle.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/7n2ke1/i_guess_were_both_having_a_bad_day/
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550bj8
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TalesFromRetail
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But I'm not a cashier!
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A tale from my time spent employed at a popular thrift chain.
It was my first week on the job, and I was initially hired on as a seasonal Halloween consultant (later to be stationed on fitting rooms, trained as a cashier and eventually promoted to management). I was just returning from my lunch break when an angry customer (AC) approached me.
AC: "Excuse me missy, but I'm running late for work and you need to ring me up."
Me: "I'm so sorry, I'm not trained to use a register but I ca-"
AC: "I don't care about your petty excuses! Do your damn job and ring me up! I need to leave!"
Me: "Again, I'm not trained to cashier but I will gladly get someone to help you. One moment."
AC: "Oh so now you're going to walk away from me?! Where is your manager? Who hired you anyway??"
Me: "It will be one moment. If you'd like, cashier [name] can help you on lane X. I'll grab my manager for yo-"
AC: "I'm so tired of your attitude!"
*angry customer tips over their shopping cart*
AC: "Pick that up."
Me: "Excuse me?"
AC: "You heard me. Pick. That. Up."
At this point I looked in desperation at the cashier who was ready to help the customer at their register. The cashier called the manager (M) for me.
M: "Is there a problem?"
AC: "YES. This sniveling little [c---] REFUSED to help me and now I'm late for work! And do you see what she did?? *AC points to me* I could SUE you for assault you know!"
M: "Actually, she isn't trained to use a register and I see my cashier has been waiting for you while you've been harassing my Halloween consultant. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to view the security tapes to see who exactly tipped your cart over."
AC: "That won't be necessary."
AC then put both of their hands in the air, middle fingers blazing, and left the store.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/550bj8/but_im_not_a_cashier/
| 926 | 69 | 1,475,119,660 | 5 |
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1i0pq1
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TalesFromRetail
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Preserved in formaldehyde and removed from the vault
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(Sorry, this one got long again)
Gather 'round children and hear a tale. A tale from a long, long time ago. Back when the Earth was cool(er), no Hybrids roamed the land and smoking inside was still (mostly) acceptable.
So my last story was well received so I thought I would throw another one out there for you guy and gals.
Backstory: I was working as a waiter in a pretty typical restaurant. We had our entryway in the middle and the north side of the restaurant was smoking and the south side non-smoking. On this particular day though, I had been asked to cover the host table.
We were pretty busy, I think it must have been a weekend or Friday evening and (as it usually went) the non-smoking section had a bit of a wait, while the smoking section had immediate seating. I had a younger couple (maybe mid-twenties) come up and the following is a dramatic retelling (cut me a break, it was awhile ago, but I'll do my best to stay accurate) of the following 3 encounters with these people (Man = Chris and Woman = Jennie):
**First Encounter**
Me: Hi, welcome to [Redacted], table for two?
Chris: Yup.
Me: Perfect, do you have a preference for smoking or non-smoking?
Jennie: Non-smoking.
Me: Sure, no problem, it will be about a 5-10 minute wait though, but I can put your name on our list.
Jennie: [Starting to come across a bit bitchy] Are you kidding? Is there any way we can be seated now?
Me: Sure, but the only tables I have open right now are in the smoking area. If that's okay I can get you seated right away.
(They discuss this for a moment before): Chris: Yeah, that's fine, thanks.
Me: No worries, let me show you to your table.
I proceed to go through the normal spiel and return to my counter.
**Second encounter**
Jennie: Excuse me, sir?
Me: [Excusing myself from the conversation I was having with a regular] Yes ma'am, what can I help you with?
Jennie: It reeks by our table.
Me [Genuinely concerned] I'm terribly sorry. Would you like me to come check on what it might be?
Jennie: [Huffy, hand on left hip, right hip stuck out, gesticulating with right hand] I know what it is. It reeks of cigarettes.
Me: [Holding back bewildered amusement] Well, ma'am, it *is* the smoking section.
Jennie: But it smells really strongly of cigarettes!
Me: Ma'am, I apologize again, but I'm confused; what do you want me to do?
Jennie: It reeks and there is smoke everywhere.
It's at this point that I look over to check the area and make sure there's not a fire or something. There was one person smoking. In the smoking section. ONE. I get if you are aggravated by smoke it being a problem, but you **CHOSE** to sit there.
Me: I'll tell you what, if you would like I can put you on the list for a table and we will move you when there is an opening. Is that okay?
I usually wouldn't have offered this with a pretty full house as they were already taking up a table. Typically I would have told them they would have to come back up front and wait then, but I didn't want to jeopardize their waiters tips.
Jennie: Ugh, fine.
After about 10 minutes we get them over to a non-smoking table and we all move on with our days, right?
**Third Interaction**
Chris: Excuse me?
I had no one up front at this point and turn my attention to him.
Me: Yes sir, how may I help you?
Chris: [Gesturing toward his table] Yeah, my girlfriend said her food smells funny.
Me: [After looking where he pointed and understanding the situation more fully] Is there something that I can do? Would you like me to have it re-made? Have you spoken to your waiter? (I was really confused as to why they were coming to me with a food related issue.
Chris: I don't know where he is. She says it smells like smoke.
Me: Is it possible that they smell is still lingering in her nose after being in the smoking section?
Chris: [Looking downtrodden] ...yeah.
Me: Okay... um...
Chris: Look, I'm going to level with you. She's being kind of a bitch tonight. Can I just pay you now and then get boxes?
I am left at this point to assume he wanted her to think he got it for free and just avoid the fight.
Me: Um... sure...
I called over his waiter, got the check from him and rang through his card. He actually left his server a pretty sizeable tip and apologized again. But as he is signing his slip, up comes -
Jennie: What are you doing?
Chris: I'm paying so we can leave.
Jennie: Are you fucking kidding?!
That actually caught me off-guard as even though she had been a horrible patron she didn't look like the "swearing in public" type.
Chris: Calm down, we're leaving.
Jennie: No! You shouldn't pay for this fucking shit! (Quite the mouth on her in my memory) It smelled and tasted like crap!
I was getting ready to start damage control when -
Chris: Shut the fuck up! Jesus. Screw this. [To me] Have a good day man. Sorry about her.
He then took her by the arm and walked out.
I was never more awed/ecstatic about a customers response.
TL:dr Bitches, man.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1i0pq1/preserved_in_formaldehyde_and_removed_from_the/
| 848 | 117 | 1,373,477,098 | 5 |
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79datl
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TalesFromRetail
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Today I Made a Customer Cry
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I work in photo finishing and I was helping a friendly lady who wanted prints off of her phone. She off-handedly mentioned that she recently lost all the photos on her phone so she was only able to get prints from the last few weeks.
I found it odd that the photos would just disappear but the phone was still working. She insisted, despite being a "technology illiterate" that she didn't accidentally delete them. She also off-handedly mentioned that she thought her phone had a memory card in it.
This needed further investigation. I fully expected her to not have a micro SD card, since many older folk call the Sim Card a memory card, but lo-and-behold there was one inside.
I put the card into one computer and it didn't show up at all so I tried our Windows PC instead and it told me the disk was unformatted. Likely corrupted somehow by her cheap off-brand Android.
I didn't want to get the her hopes up, but since Windows was able to see it I thought there might be a chance... So I took a deep breath, formatted it and threw it into our recovery software.
I was able to recover 90% of the photos and video on that card.
The lady had been waiting for her prints anyway so I waved for her to come around to my computer and take a look. She looked at the photos on the screen and literally started bawling. It was all her most important pics - her grandson's grad, her dog that had passed a few months ago, family trips... Years worth of pics that weren't backed up anywhere. In the end she bought a new Micro SD and I gave her a DVD of the pics at no charge. After paying, she ran behind the counter and gave me a big hug.
I later found out that she hand wrote my boss a letter and said it was the best customer service she'd ever had.
Today has been a good day.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/79datl/today_i_made_a_customer_cry/
| 10,744 | 162 | 1,509,232,867 | 5 |
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730rev
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TalesFromRetail
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Customer tried to return something he didn't buy
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So I have a story that I think would work here. I live in Canada and used to work the customer service/return desk at a red shirt wearing store. This story is about how I almost caught someone trying to steal.
I was working the morning shift during the week and it wasn't too busy yet. Probably around 10 or 11am.
This customer comes up to the desk with a pair of work boots, they had the tags on and looked brand new. (Which is what we want all returns to look like). The customer service desk is right next to the entrance and I usually watch the people come into the store. This day I was doing some paper work behind the desk and I didn't see him come into the store but I could have missed him. So first red flag.
I did my usual greeting and asked how I could help. He said he wanted to return the boots but didn't have a receipt. Our store would sometimes take returns without receipts but you would only get a store credit and it would be for the lowest price in the last 90 days as they do not have the proof of how much they paid. But he said he wanted to exchange them so no big deal. I can do that.
I told him to go and look for another pair and I'll do the exchange when he gets back. While he is gone I look on the computer and the last pair we sold of that boot was 9 months ago and we only have one in stock. I call the sports department and ask to find the pair. Bet you can guess where this is going... there is an empty spot where the boots should be and the boots are no where to be found.
I tried to call the owner as he has access to the security cameras in the store and I wanted him to find the guy walking in with the boots. I don't like the accuse people of steeling unless I'm 100% sure. Unfortunately he's not in the store.
The guy came back this is the conversation we had- C for customer. Me for me.
C: I couldn't find the size I need. Can I just get a refund?
Me: No, without a receipt the best we can do is a store credit but it will be for the lowest sale price in the last 90 days.
C: I guess that will work.
Me: when did you get the boots? And which store did you buy them from?
C: I bought them from this store about a month ago
Me: are you sure? The computer shows the last sale we had on these boots was 9 months ago.
C: yeah... it wasn't that long ago.
Me: ok... can I get your phone number and name for the return
C: ..... Actually I think my wife just got here... she has the reciept. I'll go get the reciept.
He reached for the boots but I kept hold of them.
Me: I can hold on to them while you get the receipt.
The customer paused, turned and walked quickly out of the store. We didn't see him again.
We have had people try this before and it has worked. They come in, pick something up from the shelf and take it to customer service. If they are not paying attention they will tell the customer they can't return it with out a reciept and they get to walk out with it.
It's not a very eventful store but makes me smile.
TL;DR: customer tried to return something he didn't buy.
Edit: changed the books to boots!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/730rev/customer_tried_to_return_something_he_didnt_buy/
| 3,254 | 139 | 1,506,611,970 | 5 |
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1q029c
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TalesFromRetail
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Keep yelling, I'm sure that will help. [Tales From a Fireworks Tent]
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**BACKGROUND:** I own and operate my own retail store. It's actually a seasonal fireworks tent, but not like any fireworks tent you've seen before. It’s 2400 square feet of fireworks heaven, where the party, and the insanity, climax at midnight on the 4th of July and New Year’s Eve.
**STORY:** I’m not sure what perverse logic makes some customers think that if they yell loudly enough; they’ll get what they want. If you’re shopping at my store, you’re in for a nasty surprise. The more loudly you yell, the more likely I am to deny your request, even if it was perfectly reasonable.
I heard a woman raising her voice while speaking to one of my cashiers, so I walked over to see what the issue was. A well-dressed lady was berating my cashier and cussing up a storm because we didn’t take American Express credit cards. There was a line of people waiting to check out, but this lady was having a great time making a scene. She was obviously playing it up to the people around her.
For years, i didn't take AmEx, because they charged higher fees than the other cards and they were a pain in the ass. I also didn’t take Discover cards, because of issues I’d had with my merchant services provider. As it happens, I had actually switched providers a few months earlier, and I now took all of the major credit cards. Obviously, this particular cashier didn’t know about the change (my fault).
I walked up next to the cashier and asked the customer if I could be of assistance. She immediately started yelling at me, and this conversation took place.
**LADY:** I can’t believe you don’t take American Express! I’m spending a lot of money here (she wasn’t) and I want my reward points. What kind of shitty store doesn’t take American Express?
**ME:** American Express charges us higher fees. You’re welcome to pay with cash, Visa, your debit card, or Discover.
**LADY:** You take Discover but you don’t accept American Express?!? What kind of discount are you going to give me since I can’t use my American Express?
**ME:** How about 1%? I believe that’s what AmEx gives back for rewards.
**LADY:** That’s only like 45 cents! You’ve got to be kidding me!
**ME:** I know. It’s hard for me to believe you’re standing here making a scene about 45 cents myself.
A couple of people in line actually laughed out loud, and I think she got embarrassed. She paid in cash, snatched her bag, and headed for the door.
The guy who had been waiting behind her to check out, stepped up to the counter. He was obviously trying to make a joke, and he said, “I was going to pay with American Express myself, but I guess I’ll have to use cash.”
I loudly responded, “Oh, we take American Express…just not HER American Express! My cashier didn’t know we had changed our policy.
I have no doubt the loud mouthed bitch heard the entire conversation. The guy paid with a Visa card and was laughing the entire time.
------
If you’re interested, I’ve posted a few other stories [here](http://www.reddit.com/user/FredFltStn/submitted/).
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1q029c/keep_yelling_im_sure_that_will_help_tales_from_a/
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bym8fd
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TalesFromRetail
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Woman gets mad at me for "using" the motorized cart
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Hey all!
I posted a while ago on here about a run-in with a would-be hero. If you'd like to read that story, I'll link it at the end of this one. As for my story today, I had another similar experience happen just a few minutes ago. I figured typing this up would be a good way to spend my lunch break.
TL;DR at the bottom.
I work as a courtesy clerk for my local mega-chain grocery store. Cart collection, clean-up, and customer service are my main work loads.
As with most mega-chain stores, we have a motorized cart for any customers that may have problems with walking. I don't know what the situation is for other stores, but if the user wants to, they can drive the cart out to their car, provided someone escorts them so the cart can be brought back in. The cart sort of works the same way a lawnmower does: even if it's on, it won't work unless a pressure switch in the seat is triggered (someone has to be sitting on the seat). It's awkward walking along side the cart while pressing down on the seat with one hand and guiding it with the other, so most clerks just ride it in, which most people don't have a problem with. Note that I said *MOST* people...
I was called to the front to help a man using the cart with loading up his car. I followed him out, did the deed, received a toonie for my troubles, and proceeded to drive the cart in. As I went in through the doors, I passed a couple who were leaving with their groceries. The woman gave me a confused look as I drove past them, but I paid it no mind. I drove the cart back to its charging station, hooked it up, and began walking off when I heard a shrill voice behind me,
"How dare you! Have you no SHAME?!"
I turned around to see the woman from the couple I had just passed on their way out, walking up to me with a look of malice on her face and a swagger in her step that said, "you're in trouble, and I'm gonna put you in your place!"
"I'm sorry, but are you talking to me?" I asked the woman.
"*Who ELSE would I be talking to?*" she snapped back, "*You have the AUDACITY to drive around in that handicap cart when you can walk JUST FINE!*"
"Oh, no, I wasn't driving around in it, I was bringing it back in after a customer was finished with it." I politely retorted.
"*That STILL doesn't give you the right to drive around on it and WASTE the battery! What if someone who actually NEEDS it comes in???*"
"Ma'am, the cart goes into charging mode whenever it's not in use, and has a long battery life. Me driving it back into the store won't drain it instantly, and I wouldn't be able to use it unless I drove it back in."
"*STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR YOUR LAZINESS!*"
This woman's shrieking had gotten some people's attention, one of which was my department's manager. She walks up to the woman and says,
"Excuse me miss, is everything alright?"
"*NO!*" the lady barks, "*You're employee is dicking around on the handicap cart and trying to lie his way out of it!*"
My manager turned to me and asked me to explain. I told her about the customer and how he took the cart outside, so I was just bringing it back in. At that point, the woman barged back into the conversation,
"*But that doesn't give you the excuse to USE IT!!*"
My manager told her to calm down and reiterated that the cart wouldn't work unless someone was sitting on it, so it was 100% okay for my to drive it back into the store. The woman wasn't having it tho. She still tried to argue that I shouldn't be using it if I wasn't in need of it, that it takes the cart away from those who really need it, blah blah blah.
My manager heard enough and told the woman that if she didn't peacefully leave, then security would be called to escort her out of the store. She let out a loud "*HMPH*" and walked out of the store.
TL;DR: woman gets mad at me for driving motorized cart back into store after use, proceeds to call me lazy for doing so.
My [other story.](https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/b68725/guy_tries_to_get_me_in_trouble_for_damaging_my/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/bym8fd/woman_gets_mad_at_me_for_using_the_motorized_cart/
| 847 | 116 | 1,560,099,028 | 5 |
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mewojr
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TalesFromRetail
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I want it for free
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First post so excuse any mistakes.
In my days of glorious (cough) retail I worked at a well known U.K. electronics store.
In training we were always told to take each customer on ‘the journey’
This meant talking to them, find out what they wanted, what their issue was and how we could provide a ‘solution’ for it
In layman’s terms we needed to find something that they could charge them ridiculous amounts for
90% of the time it could be purchased cheaper somewhere else
In the old days of retail, everything was about giving as much discount to make the sale, often giving things away to sweeten the deal. Making a fair amount of commission
A lot of customers still have this mindset unfortunately
Had a customer wanting a washing machine, a dyson hoover, 40 inch LED tv, cables and delivery
Was not taking the cover (extended warranty) on any product
To the bosses this meant a less desirable sale as there was not much profit in it
At the end of the sale, the customer came to me and said, ‘So, what price are you going to give me for all of this?’
I looked at him and openly said, I may be able to get about £15 off, but that is about all
The man looked shocked and came back with, ‘What!! I expect at least £100-£150 off, if not just give me the Dyson for free!’
In that moment, most people in customer service would do everything to help the customer
Me however, I laughed in his face
He acted confused and I explained that I didn’t get commission just a salary and bonus on performance
He walked out and said he could get a better deal at a now defunct retail chain
So he did, I lost a sale and he went there
Two weeks later he came back in, saw me and said he wanted those products
I did the order again and he scoffed at the price
‘Why has it gone up £35?’
I told him at some of them were preciously on a deal had now ended
He of course complained, but was told to pay or just go away
I happily took the sale with the classic customer service smile
If people like this, I can give many more stories of my working life
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/mewojr/i_want_it_for_free/
| 792 | 50 | 1,616,916,161 | 5 |
service charge
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hot
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gu38bt
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TalesFromRetail
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The Weirdest Customer I've Ever Had
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Hi,
This story took place in an electronic parts retail store.
I am quite proud to have specialized myself in both the parts and house audio departments. This story is in the house audio department.
Two customers approached in the department. Since they had no distinction from each other, I will refer them as... them. Their demand was rather odd:
Them: We have a party in 5 days and need materials... lots of it.
(At this point, I was the new guy and saw the opportunity to make my first huge sale)
Me: Okay what exactly do you need?
Them: Well we want lots of huge speakers all linked together.
Me: Ok sure thing.
I sold them 5 250$ speakers plus 70$ worth of cables.
Them: At some point during the party, we're gonna have a small band playing.
I sold them a mixing table and 2 microphones with stands for a total of 600$ (they wanted the best we had)
Them: We will be playing music from two different devices (laptops). And it needs to switch from one device to the other at the end of each songs.
Me: Why?
Them: Because we want one song to play from my computer, then one song from his [the other guy] computer.
Me: Why don't you put both music inside one device into a playlist?
Them: Because I don't want to be stuck with his music in my computer after the party.
Me: Well you can delete it after the party.
Them: I don't want him to lose his music.
Me: Then make a copy in your computer then delete the copy.
Them: Sir, let me be more clear. You want your sale? You're at my service!
Me: Well of course I am, you couldn't be more right. I am just trying to recommend you the best and cheapest solution but it does require some effort and work from your side.
Big mistake
Them: Sir, right now, you work for me. We ask you stuff and you make sure you get what we want.
Me: Sir, I don't work for you. I work for [store name]. I answer to my boss's demands which is to serve his customers. I am at your service but I do not work for you.
Them: Ok, we're getting side-tracked. How can we make so that when the song on one device ends, it automatically switches to the other device?
Me: You cannot. You'd have to manually switch the volumes of both inputs from the mixing table. Such a device does not exist I'm afraid. The best you could do is have someone stationed there to do it.
Them: Like a DJ?
Me: Yes but since it's just reversing two input volumes, no need to hire a DJ. The best solution, from the information of what you are willing to do, would be to station one of you or your guests to do it.
Them: No, the party is for everyone, including me. I can't be spending all my time at the mixing table just to switch volumes.
Me: Then hire a DJ, my cousin does part-time DJ, he's good.
They actually hired my cousin for this... that's 200$ they had to spend on him. He charges 30$/hour plus transportation.
Them: Ok, how can we know the device from which the song is playing?
Me: Well, you could check directly on the computers, or on the mixing table, or simply by recognizing your music from his.
Them: Well, we'll need to add headphones onto the mixing table. If it plays in the left ear, it'll be computer #1.
Me: Sir, you just need to check which volume is up on the...
Them (interrupting me): Sir, you are at our service. We have a demand, now you find a solution for it.
Me: Sir, what I am trying to say is that is that we can only set the pan (pan is the left-right output to speakers, most of the time, it's in the middle so the left speakers are as loud as the right ones) and the pan is for the output; you could use the pan but computer 1's music will only play on the left speakers and computer 2's music on the right speakers. It's completely ridiculous! Plus you're hiring a DJ, he could fill you in on that.
Them: We do not know this guy and we don't trust him enough.
Me: But you're hiring him! How can you hire him if you don't trust him?
Them: Well he doesn't know the material.
Me: Neither are you, you're buying them right now. You've never used them before. My cousin knows this stuff since he recommended my boss to buy them for the store (not true but I needed a convincing argument).
At this a point, my friend, who taught me all I know about house audio, came in and just started agreeing with everything he said, just so we could move on.
Now came all the audio adapters they needed. They bought 40$ worth of adapters. In this store, an adapter costs from 0.50$ to 1.50$ depending on it. In other words, they bought from 28 to 80 different adapters.
They demanded that we test everything before they pay for it. We plugged everything, and it all worked perfectly.
In this store, they have a special policy: if a product was tested in store, no refund; and if it's audio equipment, no refund. Everything was tested.
Their bill got up to 2400$. My first huge sale. I got patted on the back for that. It was the biggest sale I've made when I worked there.
The day after their party, they tried to return everything. They claimed that nothing worked. I called my cousin. He said that his first hour of work was spent redoing all the cabling since everything was plugged in the most messed up way possible. My boss spent 2 hours dealing with them saying that they could not return anything because of the previously mentioned policy. In a strange fit of rage, they've left all their purchases at the front door and left the premise. 5 Bluetooth speakers, some cables, lots of adapters, a mixing table, 2 microphones with their stands, and nice pair of headphones, all barely used.
My boss looked at me and said: Well since they're considered used, I can only sell them at half the price but since I technically cashed in on them, I can make you a price.
I purchased all this equipment for a quarter of the price with my 20% employee discount for a total of 480$... a rip-off. I was happy, and the boss was happy.
If only they listened when we told them no refund or read their receipt which also stated it; If only they weren't so lazy; If only they weren't so arrogant; If only they would have listened to me; And if only they weren't so weird, maybe they would have paid 50% less and got an even better result.
Sorry for the long story but I think it's a nice one to tell
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/gu38bt/the_weirdest_customer_ive_ever_had/
| 982 | 56 | 1,590,946,628 | 5 |
service charge
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hot
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f1iuau
|
TalesFromRetail
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"Do you check EVERYONE's cart like that?"
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**Background**
I work at a warehouse chain that requires a membership to shop, and I'm trained in a variety of departments. One of them is Front Door Asset Protection - we check receipts at the door of the store. This is not so much to prevent theft as it is to prevent shrink from cashier error. 99% of people are cooperative, even when there is a mistake on their receipt...
**Cast**
>Me
>CS1: Customer service desk employee #1, a close friend of mine
>CS2: Customer service desk employee #2
>RL: Rude Lady, a customer
>RLF: Rude Lady's friend
**The Story**
Today I was scheduled the closing shift checking receipts at the front door. I should mention that the industrial heater we have near the front door of the store is broken at the moment, so it was around 45°F (7°C) at the door all day (barely warmer than the current temperature outside). I was bundled in 3 layers, a hat, and gloves to barely stay warm for five hours, so I wasn't in the best mood.
RL and RLF come up to me from the customer service desk with a receipt and a carriage with three items in it: A case of water and two bunches of bananas. They hand me a receipt, which clearly says **NON-MEMBER** where the membership number and info would usually be. This means they don't have a membership with the chain and aren't supposed to be shopping at all, but someone made an exception and let them purchase a few items.
They hand me the receipt and I start to look it over. There's only one item on it - the water. So I ask, very nicely:
>Me: Do you have another receipt?
This actually happens quite a bit; people forget they did two separate transactions and only hand me one receipt. Also, even if we suspect theft (which I never did throughout this entire exchange), we are required to ask if they have another receipt as a neutral way to start a conversation about a missed item.
>RL: Nope. Why?
>Me: It looks like only your water was charged on this transaction, but not the bananas.
>RL, yelling out of nowhere: WELL I PAID FOR THEM. DO YOU CHECK EVERYONE'S RECEIPTS LIKE THIS?
>Me: Yes, I do.
*I show her the receipt, trying to indicate that only the water is on there.*
>RL: OH, SO YOU COUNT ALL THE ITEMS IN ALL THE CARTS? GO AHEAD, ASK THE LADY AT CUSTOMER SERVICE. SHE KNOWS I PAID.
I page customer service to the front door (They're only about 20 feet away, so it doesn't take long). CS1 comes over.
>CS1: Hi, can I help you?
>RLF: Uh-uh, she didn't help us. That other girl did.
CS2 was with another customer at the moment, so she couldn't come over. I quickly explain the situation to CS1, who relays the information to her colleague at the desk and awaits an answer.
>CS2: (/u/computergeek1100), she paid for those! She must have lost her receipt, but I did ring her out for them!
>RLF: See?
>RL: This is ridiculous. Do you really count everyone's cart like this?
>Me: Yes-
>RL: No you don't. You know how I know? The guy in front of me had a full carriage of items and you definitely didn't count all of them.
At this point, I don't even know how to respond. Obviously, three items is a different situation than 50. When she had cut me off, I was actually about to explain how we are trained (if it’s a small order, try to count everything. For larger orders, it’s more common sense - look for ‘big’ items or items hidden underneath the carriage, and verify a few smaller items in the carriage). The exception is large business orders, where we do have to check pretty much EVERYTHING no matter how long it takes, especially if tobacco is involved.
>RL, glaring at me: YOU CAN GIVE MY RECEIPT BACK NOW AND HELP THE NEXT PERSON.
>Me, starting to lose my patience: Ma'am, I'm just doing my job.
RL and her friend glare at me one last time and leave the store. Later, I found out from CS2 that RL had the receipt for the bananas on her (as in, it wasn't left at customer service when she checked out), but for some reason lied to me and said she didn't. She made a giant scene at the front of the store and backed up the line to get out for quite a while.
Above all else, it's pretty simple: If I can clearly see that there are three items in front of me and the receipt only shows one, of course I'll ask. If I let her go without verifying, I could've been in huge trouble with the asset protection manager. I wasn't trying to accuse anyone of theft; like I said, most of the time mistakes like this are cashier error.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/f1iuau/do_you_check_everyones_cart_like_that/
| 370 | 77 | 1,581,298,351 | 5 |
service charge
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hot
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du0prn
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TalesFromRetail
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Phone charger guy
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This story happened about 2 hours ago, but I will give you a bit of a backstory.
I work at video game shop, we also have a computer class. There is a guy who have visited our shop just to charge his phone for about 6 times already, he is about 30 years old, seems like a kind of persons who likes a drink. Well, the problem is he never buys anything from us, and never uses our services, and there is no service of phone charging, so we just kind of did it for free, because some times people need help you know.. But this time, again, he comes in already with his phone wire in hand and before he even opens his mouth I am pissed off at him. So I said:
Me: sir, you can't keep comming here just to charge your phone, we do not have such service, so I won't charge your phone anymore
He: but look, how selfish people are, I didn't even ask for it and you already say this to me! Maybe I didn't even need that.
Me: sir, you are already holding your charger.. But ok, I am sorry, what did you need?
He: you work at the shop, you shouldn't be this rude... How much does it cost to use a pc?
Me(with hopes he didn't want to charge his damn phone) : oh! It costs 1 euro for an hour, and 50cents for half an hour.. (happy voice)
He: when do you close?
Me: we close after 2 hours.
He: ok... Good bye.
And he just left! After that I face palm myself, he wanted to charge his phone for sure. I just hope he won't be back, because he is kind of rude to my co worker, who refuses to charge his phone, after that she just charges it. I will definetly tell her to stop charging it, so he won't be comming any more. One time he asked me to charge his phone, I was in a good mood so I said alright... He gives me a phone, I put it on charge, it says 100%, he gives me another one, I put it on charge and it says 100%. He gives me third one, I put it on charge and guess what? It says 100%.. Then I have a " what the fuck" look in my face and he says, ok thanks and leaves. Can someone tell me what the damn deal with this is?
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/du0prn/phone_charger_guy/
| 43 | 10 | 1,573,328,816 | 5 |
service charge
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hot
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d2qn3l
|
TalesFromRetail
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Online mistakes
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I was reading a story earlier which reminded me about this experience from about 7 years ago. I used to work in the complaints team for a large, reputable department store in the UK. Being in the complaints team, I would usually only see complaints from customers whose issues could not or had not been fixed by the Customer Services departments. We were well respected within the organisation, as every member of the team had a lot of Customer Services experience and had time and authority to resolve almost any problem. Complaints sent to the Managing Director and other executives within the company would be sent to my team to deal with.
One time I received a call from the Customer Services department. A customer was on the line complaining that we'd gotten his online order wrong. The customer had ordered some kind of face cream, listed as 6x30ml pots of face cream, costing in the region of £400 (I forget the exact amount). He had called a couple of days earlierto say he had received the order and received 6x5ml pots. The call handler at that point replaced his order and wrote off the pots he initially received, meaning that the customer could keep them, free of charge. The customer had received the replacement product but it was the same thing; 5ml pots instead of 30ml pots. The customer was furious and the Customer Service rep transferred him over to me.
After about 5 minutes of shouting about how incompetent our company were (these 5 minutes were the best part of any call - I would never need to pay attention and could let my mind wander as I'd heard it all a million times), I told the customer I would make some enquiries and call him back. I contacted the buyer for this product and learned that it was incorrectly listed on the web. It was 6x 5mls, or 30mls total; not 6x30mls. What he received was correct, and the buyer immediately went away to correct the website.
I called the customer back and explained that there is a problem on the website and we are correcting it now. However the products he has been sent is correct and we do not have the product he thought he ordered. I explained that he has two options: Keep what he has been sent at the price he paid for it (essentially a buy one get one free offer) or send it all back and receive a full refund plus £50 cash (not a gift card) as an apology for the mistake.
The customer refused both of my offers (cue another, longer rant, and me sitting back to enjoy a further 10 minutes of not having to do anything) and said he wants what he ordered. C (customer)- "You HAVE to honour the contract! It's the law".
Me- "No sir. We don't have that product in stock. We can't send it to you. It has been corrected on the website now - look." And, sure enough, the website had been fixed already and the correct volume was shown. "If you send us the products back I'll give you a full refund and transfer £50.00 into your bank account by way of apology. The postage is 100% free or I can even send a courier to pick them up from you tomorrow morning to save you the hassle."
C- "I can't send them back. I've given them away to friends who've already used them."
Me- "Well in that case, feel free to keep the 6 pots sent to you originally. You're quite right, we did tell you days ago to keep them. Send us the other 6 back which you just received an hour ago, and I'll give you a full refund. Or, you can keep all of them at the price you've paid, and I'll still send you £50.00 as an apology for the mix-up."
C- "No, you need to send me the amount of cream I ordered."
I quickly worked out that what he was asking me for was £2400 worth of product for only £400. This was beyone the remit of even my team. I spoke to my manager and explained the situation. We both felt that the customer knew that he wouldnt be getting 6x30ml pots before he placed the order but that he was trying his luck to take advantage of the error. It was probable that he had sold them on Ebay rather than giving them to friends. Even if it had been an honest mistake, which we had to assume it was, I was offering the customer to keep £400 worth of products absolutely free. And still, this wasn't good enough. After a few minutes, we decided that we would refund him the full purchase price of his order and allow him to keep everything that he had received.
Was the customer content with this? Of course not. C-"YOU HAVE TO SEND ME THE AMOUNT OF CREAM I ORDERED!"
I told the customer that was his only option. Processed the the refund there and then and told the customer our address to write a complaint if he wanted to take it up further. He did. Two days later I got an email from the Managing Director with the letter from this customer attached. He asked me to respond to the customer on his behalf, and told me that he felt the offer made had been fair. I gleefully wrote to the customer, enclosing a copy of the MD's email to me, explaining that the offer he had been given was fair and reasonable and that there would be no further discussion on the matter. I never heard from the customer again after that.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/d2qn3l/online_mistakes/
| 120 | 11 | 1,568,210,526 | 5 |
service charge
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hot
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