Service in restaurants

valleyoftheunos

Ok this is a long into to a short question

Went for Lunch with My GF on my break this afternoon, Its fairly busy so I only had 30 mins, we order take a seat and wait, coffees arrive ok, we wait and wait some more. 20 minutes later no sandwiches and we both have to go back to work. I call over the waitress, turns out she forgot our order.

This sort of thing really annoys me, its a pet hate. She apologises a lot we pay for our coffees and as I'm leaving the manager and owner catches my eye, I tell him briefly what happened he is not happy but thanks me and says he's sorry.

now about an hour later I really wish I hadn't said anything, I overreacted a little and its not such a big deal really. I'm afraid that I'll have got her into a bit of trouble with the boss which isn't something I wanted to happen at all. It was busy and I'm pretty sure she has just started. I'll be back there on Monday morning for a Coffee, and I think I might just tell the manager that I over reacted and not to pay any attention to me (not that I expect him to remember me).

should I just leave it or should I say anything on Monday? Would people have siad anything in the first place.

Redpunto

You did what you felt right to do at the time,,,thats a problem here, people dont complain to the people who can do something about it. Id say by the time Monday comes around whatever the manager was going to do he/she has done it now and itll be all forgotten by then. I wouldnt bother saying anything else.

syklops

Dont think this is really a PI. However, I would not say anything to the manager on Monday. It is your right to complain, and I dont think you over reacted at all. Raising your voice at the waitress would have been an over reaction. Complaining to management over bad service is not.

Due in part to the celtic tiger, the level of service we get nowadays has diminished to a very low level. If we are to get quality of service back we have to complain, and if nothing is done, vote with your feet and go elsewhere.

valleyoftheunos

Sorry if this in't the right forum, Its a PI in that I feel bad about it now.

think is she was quite clearly having a very bad day and it was obvious that she felt awful about it, she didn't me giving out aswell.

AARRRGH

By going back to the restaurant on Monday to retract your complaint, you're just going to reinforce what happened in the manager's mind and possibly get the waitress into even more trouble.

Just forget about it and move on.

markpb

dublindude wrote: »

By going back to the restaurant on Monday to retract your complaint, you're just going to reinforce what happened in the manager's mind and possibly get the waitress into even more trouble.

+1

If we was going to do anything about the incident, it's already done. There's no point bringing it back to his attention.

vote4pedro

I do agree that you seemed a bit out of line. I'm sure you can understand how someone new at the job could mess up something like that, and her own embarassment/nerves would be punishment and lesson enough, rather than risk getting her in what could be relatively serious trouble.
If I were you though I wouldn't bring it back up with the manager, but if she happens to be your waitress again I'd maybe mention to her that you're sorry if you came across annoyed the other day.

Sherifu

The service was bad. You were right to complain. Now leave it so.

Keano

Too right you were to complain we as a nation don't do it.

I for one don't and went out with herself for Valentines, over 40 mins waiting for our main course, what did I do? Just said ah it's ok these things happen.

valleyoftheunos

Believe me under normal circumstances I have no problems complaining if its warrented, as I said its a pet hate and I dont tollerate it. I complain plenty.

In this case however I think I just made a bad situation worse. ah well its done now, the Manager is decent bloke, I'm sure he wont go overboard. I think if I see her again I'll apologise to her in a low key way, (maybe just a smile and a particularly loud thank you).

Keano

It all falls back to the manager, he would have hired her and should have ensured she was fully capable of carrying out her duties.

Dudess

The waitress was incompetent for forgetting your order. Could she not have taken a note? Very bad form to "forget" to do an integral part of your job.

Abi

valleyoftheunos wrote: »

should I just leave it or should I say anything on Monday? Would people have said anything in the first place.

I've only read your post, so Im going to shoot from the hip. Im sure that they know their customers have limited time for which to have lunch.

• The owner didnt go blindly into this business, they know when their peak times are
• It is up to the owner / manager to recruit competent staff
• It is the owner / managers responsibility to ensure that their are enough staff

You as the paying customer are entitled to good service and good food. You have every right to complain, so long as it is done in a respectful manner.

Dont give it another moments thought.

useful_contacts

You shouldnt feel guilty, i worked in a cafe before and yes it is very busy during lunch time but that comes with the job and she knows that. The fact is you had a half hour for your lunch you ordered food and it never came and you had to go back to work hungry

You can rest assured if you were working at whatever you do, and she was a customer and you forgot something she would be complaining, Dont feel guilty at all, you didnt get the service you were ment to.

Overheal

Im with Redpunto on this. It was your gut reaction at the time and in business you always have to be ready for people at their worst. Anytime you mess up with a customer you run the risk of them getting a bit postal or upset or vengeful.

Most of the time nothing too bad will happen to you. Even my last boss who was a bit of a hardass - I let words fly at a customer and he let me carry on after a firm warning. Decent staff are hard sought - if she was one of them, she's in no harm. Mistakes happen all the time.

Dudess

I went for lunch recently and experienced similar nonsense. It was with a work group so it wasn't up to me to complain but if I was in the position I'd have done so without even thinking about it and wouldn't have felt bad afterwards. And I'm certainly not a complaining type.

axer

OP: You were 100% correct to complain. Due to the waitress's incompetence you left the restaurant/deli hungry thus going back to work hungry. If it was a once off mistake then the manager would only receive one compaint and all will be fine for the waitress but if she does it regularly the manager would hopefully receive a number of complaints thus he can deal with the problem instead of losing customers.

People in Ireland have that "feel bad for them" mindset that has resulted in bad service in many places because people don't complain - they just accept. How do you know but she forgets orders from customers regularly?

You complained. You were right to complain. Leave it at that.

Enii

OP - you were right to complain. You didn't go OTT, you were right to talk to the manager and not go off on the waitress.

kowloon

You wouldn't get anyone in any real trouble over a single complaint.
There would need to be a history of it, in which case you are one of many.

TequilaMockingBird

I think the issue you have here is that you felt the person serving you had just made a human error, as opposed to genuine lazy bad service (which is all too common) as you say yourself you will complain about generally if you receive bad service.

But this particular complaint felt uncomfortable afterwards to you. I totally understand this from the service point of view, mistakes happen everywhere, deli's or operating theaters, its human nature. I think this is what you have detected and feel uncomfortable about. I bet that girl went home and thought "Oh GOD, what a STUPID mistake I made today". And you too, went home and thought "Sh*t, was I a bit overboard with that?". It sounds to me, like two fairly decent people having a bit of a bump during the day!

Don't feel bad about it, its life.

mikemac

Don't feel bad about complaining. Remember Irish people in general are useless about complaining. You should see Americans in action, they take no **** but at the same time they tip heavily for good service.

A good manager welcomes complaints! They would rather the OP complains to them and gives them a chance to rectify the situation then have the OP do the typical Irish thing of not saying anything when it happens but then bitches and moans to 20+ friends.

The waitress made a mistake, I've done a similar job and it happens. Don't feel bad about complaining though. The waitress works hard for her money but so do you and neither of you have to tolerate bad service on either side.
There is never a need to raise your voice but always talk to a manager if you are unhappy

spinandscribble

if it only happened the once then theres very little chance she'll get into big trouble. if its a regular thing then she really needs to get better before shes fired.
don't make excuses for her she doesnt need them. i've worked in the customer service sector as a receptionist before and believe me if i 'forgot' to book a room for customer its serious enough. maybe not the same thing but business is business.
bosses know when customers overreact btw otherwise they'd have no staff at all. The amount of guests who complained to my boss about me because a bulb wasn't working in their room (housekeeping?) or they'd lost their key during the day (how on earth is their forgetfulness my fault)... I was in fact a very good employee who receieved large tips.
Don't worry about it.

zuroph

you shouldnt have paid for the coffee

[Jackass]

Go back, but don't say anything about the incident.

If he took it seriously and gave her sh*t, he'll probably remember you, but by going back and having a coffee and sandwich it'll show it wasn't/isn't a big deal to you so the manager mighn't be as freaked about her lack of experience or whatever costing him business.

I wouldn't worry about it though and wouldn't say anything about it again, just leave, mistakes happen.

miss no stars

zuroph wrote: »

you shouldnt have paid for the coffee

I'd second that. You went in with a limited time for lunch and that time ran out. That was their fault. Did you want to go for a coffee or did you want your coffee with your lunch? Unless it was the former, the cafe/deli/restaurant should have offered you your coffees on the house as a goodwill gesture.

Recently I was sitting having lunch with my mother. At the table beside us was a lady who had arrived before us. We waited quite a while but according to my mother that's standard for the place and it's fine once you realise it's not fast food. However, our food arrived before this lady's did. She waited and waited and eventually someone came over to tell her that her order hadn't been forgotten, sorry about the delay (no explanation given). So she waited some more. Eventually (about 30 minutes after I entered the establishment), she stood up and walked out. The manager came over to her to try persuade her to stay, saying that it was almost ready and would be out shortly. She still left and I don't blame her. They didn't even offer to let her have the meal for free. I mean, this lady had spent 45 minutes or so (judging by the time it took for our drinks to arrive) of her lunch in there waiting. And then they want her to pay?

Service in Ireland is desperate. Just a moot point really about the american habit of tipping. Tips are for exceptional service, not standard service. A lack of tip doesn't mean bad service, a complaint does. A lack of tip means the service was acceptable but not exceptional. Which is how I would class most service in Ireland. Over tipping is as bad as not complaining. Proper etiquette people!

another world

If she gets fired over that (presuming you said exactly what happened and didn´t over exagerrate) then it wouldn´t be your fault if she got fired, it would be the managers. It obviously doesn´t merit a firing if this isn´t a normal occurance.

Would this be a personal issue because you´re over reacting to what in reality is not of any real importance? Do you over worry about what other people think about you normally? This seems to be a typically Irish trait, thus the lack of complaining!

AngryBadger

I disagree with posters who are saying "oh she was having a bad day, how could you?".

If I go into a shop/restaurant/whatever I expect to get a service commiserate with the amount I'm paying. If I go into a coffee shop and pay €5 for a coffee, I don't want to be waiting 20 minutes. That's BS.

Rest assured she'll make more of an effort not to forget peoples orders in future.

And I seriously doubt the manager would be inclined to take serious action over one instance of this happening, unless there's was a hstory with the employee in question and this was the most recent episode.

valleyoftheunos

Thanks for all the replies folks,

I went back for Coffe this morning before work, The Manager was there, we said good morning to each other but I left it at that, I decided that what is done is done.

In response to some of your points, I think it was this particular waitress' first or second day and she was clearly struggling, a conversation with a colleague later in the afternoon revealled that there had been a mistake with his order too. As well as that she was really apologetic and I think a bit worried. My complaint to the manager was somewhat, "in the heat of the moment" and when I cooled down I regreted it, because simply put I felt bad for her.

I'm over it now of course, If managers fired every member of staff who had a shocker on their first day, there are plenty of us (myself included) who would have lost a job or two. He's a decent bloke, shes a nice girl, I'm certain he'll give her another chance and she'll get better.

And even if he doesn't, thats his decision to make, it really has little to do with my complaint.