was I a butt?

[nofearengineer]

As a tribute to you, Kevin.

[pro reel]

LOL, Well, the toast didn't look quite that bad, but one side was close. It might have been edible if they had scraped it with a knife before they put the butter on it.

[lilmule]

Ah life couldnt be better treated you like a god,offered burnt offerings.
Like all the rest or many feel something should be said when delivered,yet also feel wasnt out of line.
I raised cain once my wife and I wanted a cup of coffee each,they delivered a decanter and charged 5 bucks.( about 7-8 years ago)(we had asked for 1 cup each) whole can didnt cost that,let alone two cups.
Another time steak was super rare,in mid meal they got me another steak so got 1 1/2,and yes had to flag another waitress down and had mgr at table.
So not out of line,possibly out of timing,in order to feel ok about it.

[TN_Bassin]

When deciding on the tip I give I look at a few things.

-Ticket Price I give 20% no matter what and take off from there depending on
-If I had to ask to get my drink refilled/replaced
-whether or not they were nice and courteous

I'll check and see if they have a lot of tables, if they do I'm not as picky. If they're just chatting up the other waiters I get a little irate. Never rude, but I make my point.

In your situation I would have found somebody to take my food back, but since you were under time constraints I guess that was out of the question. IMO she wouldn't have deserved a tip if the food wasn't burnt for letting your glass go dry. Very annoying when you run out of drink at a restaurant and your waiter is nowhere to be found. Kind of puts the whole meal on hold. Just my 2.5 cents

[66KingFisher]

My wife and one of my daughters have worked in the restaurant service industry for the past 10 yrs roughly, and just a few months ago my wife became head manager at a newly opened restaurant. The owner is my wifes best friend and a former head waitress that convinced my wife to help her open a new place. So needless to say I have the vantage point of seeing that industry from both sides of the fence so to speak....as a customer, and as someone in the background listening to the restaurant personel talk about the day to day activity of the restaurant. And I won't even go into how each time my wife and I go out to eat, that meal time chatter inevitably becomes a "Pick apart the bad things we see going on in the restaurant"......Meal time has a whole different meaning when we eat out. It can get so bad that I will make them seat us so my wife has her back to the bulk of the restaurant, so she can't see whats going on behind her back, and we can eat a meal and talk about NORMAL stuff, not restaurant related....lol.

But to get to the original question of "Where you a butt", I had my wife read your story and most of the replys and she and I discussed it and we tend to agree with the others for the most part. First off, your time issues are one of things that make things like this a tough call...do you complain and wait for another meal or do you bite the bullet and eat what you can. or do you just shove it to the side and refuse to eat or pay for it and just skip this meal since there was no time to wait for another....Something I've done more then once.

As for the food being being burnt, thats the cooks fault, but ultimately it falls upon the wait staff that takes the food to your table to catch a plate of food that doesn't look correct....In this case over cooked. We tend to think that since the waitress dropped the plates and split that she was fully aware your meal was not right, and thats why she took off so quickly....she did not want, or know how to deal with the situation so she ran and hid.....Not evening returning within a couple of minutes to see if everythings alright or check for drink refills. So NO, we don't feel she deserved a tip, even though your wife got a meal with nothing wrong with it....She failed to do her job correctly.

I personally think its rude to ask for a tip, as the cashier did with you....I'm guessing she's trained to ask that question, and did it out of habit. I also believe that seldom does the situation arise that requires us to "Make a scene".....There are very few problems that can't be handled in a sane civil matter that does not involve raising our voices, yelling or screaming. I fully believe that throwing a tantrum in a public place just to prove a point or in some cases get a free meal does not give off the message intended, and only shows how big a jerk you can be. And believe you i've seen some folks throw tantrums to get free meals....some seem to make a habit of complaining about every meal they are served with the intent of gettin a free or discounted meal. So "NO" I don't think you needed to make a scene either.....even raising your voice to say your meal was "HORRIBLE" was probably not really called for if you stop and think about it......You could've very well got the same point across that you were dissatisfied with your meal, and why without raising your voice....Not to mention that I think that wives tend to be more accepting of complaining about an issue, if they know your not going to make a big scene.....I know mine does...lol.

As for tipping in general.....I've gone from being a generic $1 or $2 tipper, no matter the cost of the meal, to someone that tips like a wealthy person.....Its sad really because we are far from wealthy, but it pleases my wife and daughter....lol. No, seriously, we do tip alot more then the average person, and I think its because we see that profession from both sides. I for one never knew wait staff didn't get minimum wages like the rest of the world....but thats not the way it works in the restaurant world....Average wages in our area are $2.20 hr plus tips....so if the waitress wants to pay her bills that month she better bust butt and make some tips....Problem is the bulk of the general public are terrible tippers, and probably think as I always did that "why tip"?, when they are getting paid an hourly wage...I just didn't know it was bottom of the barrel wages and not even close the "Standard minimum wage".....And asking for a tip is just wrong, unless your dealing with a large group and even then adding a customary 15% tip can be touchy, as most say they already left a tip on the table.....Yeah, they left $5 for a group of 20, and they took up 2hrs of that wait staffs time.....an hour of which they just sat around drinking tea and keeping several tables tied up that could be used to seat other folks that might tip better....lol

Hey, just don't get my wife started on this subject or we'll be here all nite....lol

So to shorten up my post, I do believe that all wait staff deserves to be compensated for giving us good service, and in return we'll tip them 30%-50%.......Let my glass run dry when you know I'm eating jalapeno's on mexican food and your tip will run dry just as quickly. Where I have a problem tipping, is when the wife tips the carhop at Sonic for bringing out our meal.....Uh, Really....she deserves a tip for that?.....I mean if I was young and tryin to catch the attention of a hot lookin carhop then YEAH, tip away, but since that ain't happening I don't think we should be tipping the carhop.....Let the young single guys do that....lol

[TN_Bassin]

Lol the sonic thing cracked me up. There I don't "tip", I give an extra dollar and say to hell with the change.

30 to 50%... :O where you eat at mostly I want a job there... request me every time.

[basshunter21]

When i dine out it takes alot for me to complain or say something to them. A lot of you guys will prolly say "eww thats gross!" but if I find a single hair in my food I would normally not say anything, I just pick it out and eat. Its not a big deal to me, theres prolly more germs on that plate than there is on a single hair.

But if I was in your shoes then I would without a doubt complain about it. You were saying you expected it to be free. If you would of said something when you recieved the food or shortly after they would have replaced it or gave it to you for free. But eating half of the meal or whatever and then waaiting until you pay isnt good for your case.

When I was in highschool I worked at Long John Silvers in the inner city. And people would do that all the time, eat all there food then come up and say there food was "cold ect....ect.." just to get free crap. I know that wasnt your intent AT ALL, but to service employees it usually looks much that way to them.

[pro reel]

Originally Posted by basshunter21

When i dine out it takes alot for me to complain or say something to them. A lot of you guys will prolly say "eww thats gross!" but if I find a single hair in my food I would normally not say anything, I just pick it out and eat. Its not a big deal to me, theres prolly more germs on that plate than there is on a single hair.

But if I was in your shoes then I would without a doubt complain about it. You were saying you expected it to be free. If you would of said something when you recieved the food or shortly after they would have replaced it or gave it to you for free. But eating half of the meal or whatever and then waaiting until you pay isnt good for your case.

When I was in highschool I worked at Long John Silvers in the inner city. And people would do that all the time, eat all there food then come up and say there food was "cold ect....ect.." just to get free crap. I know that wasnt your intent AT ALL, but to service employees it usually looks much that way to them.

You should re read my post. I never said i thought it should have been free. Several posts here sugested that it should have. I thought that what was fair given the situation, would have been for my food to be discounted to about half the price and my wifes at full price, hers was fine. The part of my food that was good was about what you would have gotten for half the price to start with instead of the big lumberjack meal I ordered, so I thought I should pay about half the price for mine. The manager did discount mine, not quite half price, and I was OK with that. It was when she then asked if i wanted her to add a tip to my CC bill that I said no, that food should never have been brought to my table like that and I don't want to add a tip. In over 25 years of eating out as an adult, I can only think of 2 times that I didn't leave a nice tip. One was when I had a very rude waitress who seemed to be in a very bad mood and was being short and snappy with everyone at her tables. I left her one penny to be sure that she got the idea. The 2nd time was this episode, which I am not sure if it was right for me to not give her any tip or not. I still don't feel like she should have brought that plate to my table. I think she was responsible to tell the cook that she wasn't going to take a plate of very dark pancakes with crispy edges that could be snapped off like crackers to a customer, let alone the fact that the toast also had black that needed scapped off and the sausage links were totally black. I also think she expected me to be upset and thats why she left and didn't check on us. I was already very short on time so I ate the part that was edible and didn't call someone over to take the rest back, but I just don't think that deserved a tip. I was starting to question myself on that but the more i think about it the more i think that even if she was new, she needs to learn quick that to get a tip, you have to give good service but you also need to check the customers food before you take it to the table.

PS , I have also picked out a hair or 2 and kept eating my food before, as long as the food was good.

[Bubba_Bruiser]

Long enough hair in food = Dental floss...Short & curly = You got tea bagged!

[Handlebars]

LoL on the hair bubba.

Pro you handled it way better then I would have. My wife would have also wanted to go outside. I'd say that you are a pretty good fella because you were content with paying for half of your food I would have demanded a manager and probably asked for it all free just because of the hassle of the entire evening. I know this was a quick stop at Dennys instead of a higher end place but still service is service and it should all be reasonable. The waitress deserved no tip at all.

I have been called an a$$hole many times before but I think its just because ppl don't appreciate when someone is just being honest to their face!