Originally Posted by
CMK10
The Old Spaghetti Factory in Phoenix, AZ. It's the place I left my smallest ever tip.
I'd been twice for lunch and each time had been ok at best with poor service and mediocre food. About 18 months ago I went with my then girlfriend (this may be why she left me) and the experience was terrible.
The waiter took a long time to serve us.
He forgot drink orders
When my food arrived it was cold. Not just cool but absolutely cold
My girlfriend's order was wrong
We had to ask for silverware
Every time he came over he stared down my girlfriend's shirt
The aforementioned food was terrible
When the bill finally came he threw it on the table and walked away and didn't leave me with a pen to sign it with.
The check was $24.31...I left $25.
That's about $25 more than I would have left (and would have called for the manager long before the check "arrived").
I don't understand most of my fellow countrymen, and their unwillingness to "create a scene" in the face of bad food and bad service. Management certainly doesn't want the other diners to see and hear the plaintive wails of a really dissatisfied customer standing up for his principles that bad food, bad service or a combo thereof is essentially a violation of the "contract of carriage"..
Will a manager call the police? I actually had one once start to do so, then at the encouragement of some of the staff, desist. Obviously, threatened with arrest, I guess I would have paid, but surely would have made a scene.
I rarely attempt it, a dozen or so times in memory, but only that once did I ever face the threat of a legal challenge. Why are a people quick to take back clothing, return gift items, and claim refunds buffaloed similar tactics in the face of an unsatisfactory dinner. It's far better thing to alert management than to simply "cut" your tip. After 5 years of writing resturant reviews for a "medium circulation" newspaper (back in the early 80s) anda fair amount of domestic and foreign travel, I'm appalled at what we "Merkins" routinely put up with, not only abroad but at home, and often in "upscale" restaurants.