Waitress drops tray of drinks on me;opinions?
 

I'm having a business dinner at a well known NYC restaurant 2 weeks ago. The waitress loses her grip (without being bumped) on a tray holding six cocktails for another table. The tray falls in my lap, soaking my suit, tie, shirt...and even socks and shoes !
The waitress apologizes profusely, offers napkins and club soda. The restaurant manager comes over and offers to pick up my cleaning cost.
Here is my problem. 1) Rather than allowing me to take the clothes to the cleaners of my choice and send in the bill, they insisted on taking it to "their" cleaners. So, I had to haul in my soiled suit the next morning to the office in NYC. (It's not like I was going to stick them with charges for the rest of my dry cleaning).

The next morning, the very same waitress shows up at my job to pick up my clothes. She then runs to a cleaners in the area, and presents me with the ticket showing that this has been paid. The cheapskate restaurant made her pay the $27 tab out of her own pocket ! :td: I felt really bad for her (and offered to pick up the cost of this myself), but she refused. (It really was an honest mistake).

My second issue: When the dining bill arrived, nothing had been deducted ! Now, I wasn't paying, but I was really amazed that they had not comped anything! No drinks, no dessert....nada.
All of which really makes me reconsider ever setting foot in this establishment again.
I will not name the restaurant because given their attitude, I'm sure that they would fire this poor waitress.
Given the same situation, what would you do? It was a business dinner, so demanding a freebie would not have looked cool.
Opinions?

Don't go to the restaurant again as it seems that the place doesn't have protocals in place to deal with upset customers.

How sure are you that the waitress had to pay from her pocket? -I'm a little unfamiliar with how that works in general to be honest.

I wouldn't go to the restaurant again for sure, and I wouldn't appreciate the waitress trying to guilt-trip me after she dropped a tray of 6 drinks on me either. I would probably write a letter to the owner of the restaurant describing exactly what happened, including the nuisance of having to go to "their" dry cleaner and the waitress presenting me with "proof" the money came out of her pocket. Tacky, tacky, tacky.

It doesn't sound like the waitress showed the receipt to guilt him, but rather to show that it was paid so that he could pick it up when they were done without having to worry about convincing the dry cleaner that the restaurant (or waitress) was picking up the tab. In any event, I agree that the restaurant handled things poorly and I just wouldn't go back. Not sure I would write a letter if you're concerned that the waitress may be fired.

What would I do? Laugh it off and move on. A lot more egg could end up on your face by acting like a jackass in front of customers or coworkers than the effect of a scotch and water on your tie. I personally would be impressed if someone kept their cool because it means I could trust them to keep their cool in other challenging situations. Just my two cents.

Accidents happen...but....
 

This actually happened to me once....in New York as well coincidently. Had three drinks fall onto the floor right next to me and as a result there were cocktails and shattered glass all around me & on me!

I wouldn't eat the food on our table and asked to be moved to another table but the restaurant was completely full. The manager on duty then said that he will get me a table at one of the other restaurants in the hotel and then had one of his staff escort me to the new table.

Within a minute of being seated the F&B Manager was at my side apologizing and understanding that it was a mistake - i let it go.

When it came to paying the bill, i was told that it was taken care of already. I went up to my room and there was a nice bottle of wine and some amenities with a note from the F&B Mgr. When i checked out two days later - i noticed that all our laundry charges were also comped.

Thats service recovery.

May we know what restaurant this was in?

I wouldn't let them take it to their cleaners. I would just rather pay myself especially in that situation.

Also I was a server for quite a long time in college and yeah if I screwed something up the boss made me pay for it. If I was short at the end of the night or something I took it out of my tips.

If I messed up an order I had to buy the whatever myself.

Please state the name of the restaurant so I know to avoid that place.

Thanks for the opinions....keep them coming ! ^ I really don't want to name the restaurant because given their attitude towards the entire thing, I'm sure that the waitress will be fired. That is not my intent here.

Just to clarify, the waitress didn't try to guilt me into paying the cleaning bill. She simply handed me the receipt and said that it was paid. I asked her if it was coming out of her pocket. She told me not to worry about it...but after a while she told me that it was.

I didn't realize that making a waiter/waitress pay out of their own pocket was a common practice. In my industry (and most others), if an employee screws up, the company eats the cost. I'm just amazed at how poorly this was handled.

I'm with the other posters and would not return to the restaurant. You handled it the right way, as it was a business dinner but the manager was clueless if he thought this was an acceptable approach.

- It's nice that the waitress came to get your suit but that means you had to carry it in - that inconvenience is not an acceptable to me. From the perspective of the inconvience as well as the fact that they wanted to take your clothes in (I'm sure your suit is worth far more than any cleaning fee)
- The manager blew it entirely. The appropriate thing as you mentioned was to offer dessert for the table, a gift card to you or something else to show his apology for the mistake
- It is not unusual in the service industry that the worker would have to pay for the cleaning bill, but I'm surprised at the other poster's note that if they messed up an order, they had to buy that dish (could be extremely expensive in some restaurants and the kitchen's fault, not theirs) :o

I too wish you'd share the name of the establishment.

You may not get an overpriced cleaner, but some would.

odds on, the waitress at a famous brand name restaurant makes more money than you do. I'm surprised she did not send your driver.

when you screw up(if ever) what do you give away free?

between dining and airplane service, I have had my share of lapfills. I don't think I ever got anything free.

I would let the guest decide how they want to take care of the cleaning bill. The guest normally takes it to his own cleaners and and sends the bill to the establishment. This is more the normal practice in my 35 years in the industry. I have never seen a server pay for a cleaning bill but then again I have never worked in NYC. :D
The management should have made some other compensation to the customer. I would have not comped anything that evening if he was with a large group but would have rather handed him a gift certificate to return based on the damage caused to him. Example would be one drink spill maybe $20 a full tray $50.I would also include my card asking him to let me know if there is any damage to his clothes that will not come out.

The first thing you should have said was "The drinks are on me".

Apparently you worked for someone who was either ignorant of the law or had no respect for it.

Huh? What exactly does her salary have to do with taking care of the customer? PS - As an FYI, I'm reasonably confident that as a senior executive for a Fortune 50 organization, I make a little more than she does. And probably you too. I'm just not pretentious enough to enter it into this discussion.

Money. I'm in the financial services sector. Yes....we screw up. Then we make our customer whole. And sometimes that calls for going beyond saying sorry.

You don't say?.... Did you ever stop to think that maybe the spills were not all "accidents"?

I have had better treatment at restaurants without anything being spilled. I was at a Hyatt in Kauai having breakfast before leaving for the airport. The breakfast had been shifted to another restuarant that day and the setup was a little different. My wife ordered something a la carte (as opposed to the buffet) and there was a significant delay -- they thought they would be able to make whatever she requested but discovered that they had not moved a key ingredient to the other restaurant. The manager came over to apologize, found something else she would eat, and then comped both of our meals. Nothing spilled, just a delay that made us a little anxious.