When I first started off as a waitress I was shy, gave in a lot and would be scared at the first signs of conflict. The truth was I always thought that in fact the customer was always right. Now I know better, customers are not
Friday-Regulars are a group of these customers. They are four couples. They demand to have separate bills, pay separately, and all waitresses must remember the couple's names and what they ordered so that when the meals come out they must be taken to the right person. As if the demands were not high enough, they always have something that is 'wrong' and on occasions we might actually have a good night with them. Yet they come back almost every Friday night. So somewhere, I'd like to think we are actually doing something right. And most likely its because we are the only restaurant that seems to tolerate such 'royal' requests.
One of the Friday-Regular's sister complains tonight that the Cantonese Steak being too salty. Another waitress had already checked on this table before she complained and there didn't seem to be a problem at the time. By the time that she finally does voice out her opinion she has a quarter of the original dish on her plate. Of course this would be the moment where she decides that indeed it is too salty. The rest of the Friday-Regulars straight away jump onto this complaint and say that they indeed have tried it too, and it is definitely too salty. A waitress asks her if she wants a replacement meal, which in fact is quite a generous response. She does not.
The problem only arises again when it comes down to paying the bill. Customers who complain ultimately strive for this part. The truth is that they just do not want to pay for the entire meal that they have ingested.
The actual customer who ate the meal is not the one paying, but her sister, Friday-Regular-SB is paying. Now everything is actually going along okay until one of the other Friday-Regular, MG, decides that they shouldn't have to pay for the Cantonese Steak at all. This has nothing to do with her bill what so ever. Yet she just can not help herself.
Friday-Regular-MB tells the waitress that she doesn't think that they should have to pay for a meal that was too salty. She also points out that everyone had a taste of it and also thought the same thing. The waitress calmly tells her that by the time anyone said anything, there was FOUR pieces of meat left on the plate. Most of the dish was definitely consumed.
All of sudden none of the Friday-Regulars want to pay for this now. Once one starts they all jump onto the bandwagon. Peer pressure?
Finally it is decided because the fact that they have consumed the meal, they would receive 50% off the meal. They seem to be satisfied with this. After it has all been settled Regular-Customer's sister then says that it was only getting salty towards the end of the meal.
You have got to be kidding...
Cantonese Steak is cooked in an Oyster Sauce. This was the first complaint in the four years that I have worked there about this particular dish. The sauce can be a little salty but most Chinese dishes, especially main course ones, should be eaten with rice, no matter Fried or Steamed, and most people do. In this particular case, the customer who consumed the dish only had a small amount of rice spooned onto the steak dish. This would also explain why she complained about the saltiness of the dish later on.
The one thing that I cannot understand is the fact that Friday-Regular-MB had nothing to do with this complaint at all really. It was not her dish, not her bill and not really her business. Yet she has no problems causing a fuss over something that she forcefully involves herself in. Just so that we make this quite clear, she is a main offender to complaints, on every occasion that she can possibly find.
I have not always liked every meal that I have eaten, but I feel that if I wanted to complain about it then, yes, I would do so at the very beginning, not right at the end where I have eaten most of the dish. My logic and understanding is that if it is so unworthy to eat then you should not have consumed it at all. If you want to place a legitimate complaint, do so at the start of the meal and not at the end.
Why would you really force yourself into eating something that you disliked? And if it was consumed, really was it that bad after all?
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2 comments:
Some people are too much. I mention that you should have told me earlier and we could have fixed it for you or got you something different. But all they want is a discount , bottom line. Sucks.
I agree Waiter Extraordinaire, all they want is a discount. Of course after they have eaten most of the meal.
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