Age/Gender: 31, Male
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Job: NG Systems Engineer
I yell... a lot
Newgrounds Stats
Whistle Status: Normal
Exp. Points: 341 / 400
Exp. Rank #: 108,012
Voting Pow.: 4.69 votes
BBS Posts: 104 (0.03 per day)
Flash Reviews: 1
Music Reviews: 1
Trophies: 0
Stickers: 0
Entry #3
The other night, four of us (Chris, Lisa, Ross and I) decided to grab a bite to eat after Comic-Con had closed for the day. As we strolled through San Diego'sGaslamp Quarter, we were on the lookout for an eatery with little or no wait. As such, we figured it would be best to try one of the side streets as the crowds seemed to be sticking to the main drag. The chosen street provided us with two options, Chinese or American Pub fare, and we decided on the latter.
Walking into the restaurant, it was amazingly empty. There were a few people sitting at the bar and two or three groups of 6-8 at the tables, but otherwise were thrilled with our apparent luck. After a brief look at the menu, we decided to take a seat.
There was only one waitress handling the tables but with so few customers we didn't expect any problems. After about 5 minutes she came over to take our drink orders and when she quickly rambled off the beer list I was convinced of her competency. Oh man, was I wrong.
Ten beverage-free minutes went by when Ross decided he'd grown tired of waiting for our drinks and went to get his own. Five minutes of Watching him enjoy his Hefeweizen prompted me to take action. I walked over to another table she'd been visiting quite often and reminded her that we were still without our drinks. She apologized and walked away, promising to remedy the situation. Yet another 5 minutes went by when she returned with 3, not 4, drinks. Of course, the missing Fat Tire Seasonal was mine so I had to remind her once again. When she finally returned with my beer we were ready to order and so we did. This was the beginning of the end.
Over the course of the next 75 minutes, we didn't see our food nor our waitress. Well, that's not true, we did see her, just not at our table. She was busy running back and forth, seemingly aimlessly, getting very little done. Lisa pointed out how she would walk halfway across the room and then quickly walk the other way obviously having forgotten something. This wouldn't be noteworthy except for the fact that she did it 10-20 times, literally. We never got the chance to order a refill on soda or another beer from their decent selection. We saw customers come in, sit for 20 minutes and then get up and leave, all without getting so much as a 'hello' from her. It's important to note that during this whole time, the place was nowhere near 'busy' and she'd visited other tables numerous times, just not ours. Discussions ranged from Comic-Con in general, to how hungry we were, to how poor her waiting skills were, to whether or not we should just leave.
This notion of leaving was finally unanimously agreed upon and we started shifting out the chair/booth when around the corner was our waitress with our food. She set down two plates, asked Ross what salad dressing he'd like, then left to get the rest. After a minute or two, she returned with one more plate leaving me as the only one without food. It was at this point she did the unthinkable. Before going back to get my food, or evenacknowledging the lack thereof, she went to another table to take their order. I was beside myself. My food was eventually brought a few minutes later by someone else and we proceeded to eat our mediocre sandwiches/salad and cold fries, all without any refills or salad dressing.
As we were finishing up our meals, she finally came back and rather than waiting another hour for dessert, we simply asked for the check. While she was busy printing it up, our discussion turned back to her tip. Now, I must tell you that I'd worked in the restaurant/service industry for several years and I'm generally an excellent tipper. I have no problem giving 25-30% for excellent service and won't give below 15% for even poor service, but this had been unbelievable . We immediately agreed that she deserved nothing, absolutely nothing. But we wanted to send a message, and by leaving exact change, she might think we just figured the tip was included. Ross came up with our final plan which was to leave a penny, yes $0.01, extra. So for the first time in my life, I walked out of a restaurant stiffing the waitress with $55.46 on a $55.45 bill.
The People Have Spoken
57 Comments
