Monday, August 31, 2009

Really really bad service!

I mean really bad! My mom, my sister, and I met for happy hour last Friday. My mom works right by a shopping area with a few chain restaurants but we decided to go to a locally owned bar instead. We had been there 2 times before and the first time we had great service and met the owner who talked to us for a while. It was a nice local feeling experience.
The next time we went our server (a different one, we will call her Trish) wasn't the best and she was pretty crabby...but it was really hot and there was no ac so we gave her the benefit of the doubt. My low end for tipping is 15%. I have put my fair share of time in as a server and bartender so I know that sometimes you are just having a bad day. As long as you make an effort and don't act blatantly rude to me, you will get 15%. Needless to say, we gave Trish 15% that time.

Now for this Friday. My mom and sister were already there when I got there. I sat down and Trish came over to get my drink order. I asked for the house cab which I have gotten both previous times and she said "we don't have one." This seemed awfully convenient since happy hour was only applicable to the house wine, but alas I ordered a non-happy hour wine. She brought it by without a word and did the same with our appetizers a few minutes later. My mom asked for ranch and she walked away wordlessly, leaving us to wonder if she even heard us. She came back and put ranch on the table. That was the last bit of attention we received the entire time we were there!

We sat for over 45 minutes with not even a look in our direction! Empty glasses, dirty food plates, no water and no bill. Its not like we were even out of the way, we were right next to the bar! Close enough to hear her flirting with the rail customers while we were being neglected. My mom finally went up to the bar and asked to pay the bill. We tipped $1. I literally never tip less than 10% (that is my amount if needed for "bad" service), but this was obscene. She was blatantly not serving us for whatever reason.
Wouldn't you know, I got home and realized that my license must have fell out of my purse at some point in the bar. Awesome. Trish already didn't like us for some unknown reason. Then we tipped her $1 which I know she displaced on us rather than attributing to her own crappy service. I can visualize her finding my license, laughing, and tossing it in the garbage. I knew it was fruitless, but I went in the next morning to look for it and leave a note with my number. Big surprise, no one called.

So now, tomorrow morning I get to spend a good chunk of time at the oh-so-fun DMV and waste $20 that I don't have on getting a new license. Oh well, at least I don't have to serve tables anymore!
Anyone else have a bad restaurant/bar experience to share?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Trish can suck my big fat...

Boycott! BOYCOTT!!!

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

I waitressed for many years, so I have quite a bit of patience for certain things that I know are out of the wait staff's controll. But I do not tolerate that kind of service. especially in a crappy economy!

I usually tip around 20%, but if the experience is bad, I will leave very little because if you don't - they will never learn their lesson. if I gave poor service, I would expect a poor tip.

That is just annoying, though. The quality of service makes such a difference!!!

Brenda said...

Another sad point is that we thought we found the perfect lil Friday nite wind down spot, guess we'll have to have fun hunting for another.

Being one to always try to find a bit of rainbow in every one / situation, bad service does usually keep at least a 10 spot in your own purse rather than someone elses but cheats me of the joy of surprising a waiter/waitress (which is a job I truly give tons of credit for) a hefty tip.