Yeah, they know the system.

I knew a guy (who I will not refer to as a 'friend') who had a scam going. If he was short on cash, he'd eat out somewhere then in the next day or two go back, claiming he had had food poisoning. He had a slick line; he'd generally walk out with not only a refund for the meal but usually $300-$500 in cash as well. He saw nothing wrong with this, his reasoning was the restaraunt would file an insurance claim to get their money back. Not bloody likely. He would do this about every other month so word wouldn't get around. Dirtbag.

In reply to Curmudgeon:

Karma will get him.

He'll probably have the kind of food poisoning that makes you glad the bathtub is really close to the toilet.

I point out any complaints about my meal to the server. I then allow the establishment to determine what should be done. I'm always 100% happy to just have whatever is wrong corrected, but I won't turn down a gift card or a free appetizer, either.

The main we wind up complaining about is my wife's steak. She likes it well done, as bloody beef makes her nauseous. I have no idea why this happens; she can look at it in the display case, but if the blood is on her plate touching her other food, she can't eat. When she orders steak, she makes sure that the person taking her order understands that she wants it well done- no pink, cook it until they think they ruined it, then leave it for another minute or two so it starts to burn. Last year we were at a Lone Star and we had to send her steak back FOUR TIMES to keep them cooking it before it was correct. You know what we got? Aggravated looks from the manager and waitstaff. We never went back to that place.

Everyone who eats out should be required to wait tables at least once.

If I leave no tip, it's because despite giving you several opportunities and the benefit of the doubt a few times, you are failing miserable at your job and and should be doing something else.

If you are doing your job well, but the kitchen is screwing up and the manager is an idiot and the food sucks, your 20% tip is safe.

To the OP.

My daughter used to work at OG and Longhorn. Here are many people who specialize in this behavior.

MadScientistMatt wrote:

iceracer wrote: Rent wheels ?

I once walked into a place like that and asked how much it would be to rent a set of Hoosiers on Kosei K1s for a weekend. They looked at me like I'd grown an extra head.

LOL!!!!!!

I'm definitely going to try that.

My favorite time waiting tables was a nice sunday lunch hour, large group of folks getting together after church for a meal. Maybe 1 or 2 people order the salad bar with their meal. Keeping an eye on the table (thats what you are supposed to do right?) I proceed to watch about 8 of the 10 people go partake in said salad bar.

So naturally when it comes time to present the bill, I added the appropriate amount to the tab. Commence complaining to the manager on duty, that they didn't order the salad bar. He looks at me like I'm the shiny happy person. And of course I got a E36 M3ty tip.

I guess they knew how the system worked too. berkeleying shiny happy people.

Years ago I had a house mate who was waiting tables and bartending. I also took in another house mate-- guy who was on a "trail run" working for GRM.

The new guy's girlfriend comes to town and he takes her to the nice restaurant that my "paying" roomie works at....and asks for him as a server.

She was a horrible beeactch during the meal, actually telling the server (and housemate) that she knew he had Stoli strawberry because she saw it behind the bar. He (who actually bartends there) brings out a similar looking bottle as a "did you mean this?"

They then both complained about their meals, got them comped......and then asked for boxes to take the food home! Of course the server (and housemate) also got a crappy tip!

The most amazing thing was the kid had no idea what he had done wrong. For him this was just standard operating procedure.

Yeah, it didn't work out for him at GRM

I was waiting for, "and that kid was Per/JG/David/etc"

I went to dinner with my ex-girlfriend to an Corrino's. She ordered pepperoni bread or sticks or whatever and a chicken artichoke salad. The bread came out late and the salad had no artichoke. No problem, I don't complain, I just kinda question politely.
The server said, "Oh man, sorry, tell ya what, take this bread crust and throw it at that cook right back there."

I looked at him and smiled, "Seriously?"

He handed the bread crust to my girl and she leaned over and chunked it at him and then ducked back into the booth. nailed the dude RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES!! The server said, "I SAID ARTICHOKE ON THE SALAD!!"

I was laughing so hard, she was almost pissing herself, the cook was cracking up, server was on the floor. It was awesome! The cook came out and explained they were out of artichoke and he was really sorry. He made us a desert and said it was on him because he had NEVER had a customer knock him in the head with a piece of bread before. We tipped them VERY well for the entertainment. Went back there countless more times.

I could NOT find 'hot wings' anywhere when I moved to Chucktown circa 1991, what they called 'hot' were like they were covered in ketchup. So I went to T Bones on the Market downtown where I was friendly with some of the servers and ordered hot wings but I said: 'tell the cook he's a wimp'.

Yessir, I had hot wings that night. Sent the cook a tip.

The difference between a 15 percent tip and a 20 percent tip on a $50 dinner check is $2.50. If someone can't afford the extra $2.50, they shouldn't be eating out.

Customer service is a grind. 99.9 percent of servers I deal with do it well and with a smile. Taxes eat part of their tips as well as the minimum wage portion of their pay. We eat out maybe once or twice a month on average but I'm not looking to make anyone else's life miserable by tipping poorly.

That $2.50 makes a big difference in a server's hourly pay. They earn every penny of it.

When I was serving tables in college, the base hourly pay was far below minimum wage, probably not even half minimum wage. You are supposed to bridge that gap and then some with tips. I worked at a few different places and they were all like this.

And yes, when you cash out you are supposed to tally up your tips and taxes get taken out as necessary.

If its a really slow day, its not even worth your time to be there, at $2-4/hr.

Both of my kids (only one now serving) make $2.13/hr plus tips. There ain't no minimum wage involved.

I could bore you for hours, but my son had one table run up a $78 tab while demanding a lot of his time refilling drinks, sending food back, wanting more salad dressing, and getting to go beverages and left him less than $1. This is usually the Sunday evening crowd that just come from church. Insiders will know what this means.

Funny thing: my ex worked her way through college as a server but she was a hardass when we went out. I had to overrule her more than once.

Totally gonna start my own wheel renting business...

Most of the time I don't have a problem with waitstaff. If we do have a problem, either I take care of it in the restaurant, or my wife finds the website/comment card and writes the letter of complaint. She's very thorough, and has gotten results more than once.

PHeller wrote: Totally gonna start my own wheel renting business...

I'm not sure I really want to deal with the kinda folks who would rent wheels...

Fortunately, the people I hang out with are invariably decent tippers. We typically just take the bill, add 20%, devide by the number people and round up to the nearest dollar or $5. Restuarants we used to go to often knew NOT to add the common 18% gratuity for a large group as the server knew she would get a LOT more than 18%.

When tipping, I usually just double the first number or 2 in the bill. Minimum $5 though.

pinchvalve wrote: If I leave no tip, it's because despite giving you several opportunities and the benefit of the doubt a few times, you are failing miserable at your job and and should be doing something else.

having waited tables for several yrs I/we usually looked at a "stiff" ( i.e. no tip ) is just ignorant ( don't mean you are )....

whenever I want to make a point about terrible service I'll leave something like a nickel or a quarter ... like the time I ate at the bar at an Outback ... the bartender couldn't leave her face time with her BF long enough to get me some silverware ... I had to go to the hostess for some ... she never checked to see if I needed another beer or anything else ... she actually had the balls to act pissed when she got around to picking up my finished meal and saw a quarter under the plate ( I hung around the front door just to watch

spitfirebill wrote: Both of my kids (only one now serving) make $2.13/hr plus tips. There ain't no minimum wage involved. I could bore you for hours, but my son had one table run up a $78 tab while demanding a lot of his time refilling drinks, sending food back, wanting more salad dressing, and getting to go beverages and left him less than $1. This is usually the Sunday evening crowd that just come from church. Insiders will know what this means.

Did they ever get any of that fake currency with the preaching on the back? Friend of mine once lost a job because she followed them out to the parking lot to "discuss" it with them.

friedgreencorrado wrote:

spitfirebill wrote: Both of my kids (only one now serving) make $2.13/hr plus tips. There ain't no minimum wage involved. I could bore you for hours, but my son had one table run up a $78 tab while demanding a lot of his time refilling drinks, sending food back, wanting more salad dressing, and getting to go beverages and left him less than $1. This is usually the Sunday evening crowd that just come from church. Insiders will know what this means.

Did they ever get any of that fake currency with the preaching on the back? Friend of mine once lost a job because she followed them out to the parking lot to "discuss" it with them.

If someone did that to me, I'd 'discuss' it with them too. I put that right up there with any other sort of theft, i.e. they stole my services with fake money.

I had lunch today at a Mongolian BBQ which I visit often.

When it came time to pay, I discovered I forgot to get my credit card back from my wife after she used it to get some stuff she returned to Lowe’s for me credited to my account.

Anyway, the bill was $9.70 and I handed the waiter the $15.00 in cash I had on me and said “keep it”. He looked confused and pointed to the bill and I said “I know but you guys do a great job so just keep it.”

Feeling good about rewarding a well run business I cracked open my fortune cookie to find a cautionary note about the value of frugality and the need to minimize expenditures.

Bhaha, you just can’t win.

BTW, has anyone else noticed that most fortune cookie messages today provide advice rather than make predictions…what’s up with that.

Back to the OT, yes, people most certainly do suck which adversely affects the rest of us. I recently noticed a sign in a gated condo complex that was as profound as that found in any fortune cookie…it simply read “Only You Can Prevent Speed Bumps.”

Always add "in bed" to the end of fortune cookie statements.

Trans_Maro wrote: Always add "in bed" to the end of fortune cookie statements.

How about to gated condo complex signs about speed bumps?