A restaurant question for you

[bif]

I was in a diner yesterday and ordered a side of onion rings. When the waitress brought them she dropped a couple on the floor, which she threw out. So I end up with maybe 4 onion rings. Should she have brought me more? Should I have complained? It seemed petty to complain, but I was definitely short-changed.

[BlondieK143]

1. If she was a good server -

she would've given those rings to you and then went to the back for another order. However, management is different everywhere so who knows if the manager would've taken that order out of her paycheck. The only one I worked for was all about customer service and never made employees pay if they had an accidental dropping.

[giant_robot]

2. She should have brought you a side dish with more onion rings,

imho. In terms of food cost it's not much, it keeps the customer happy, and keeps the door open for repeat business. Just $.02 from a guy who bartended in restaurants during my college years.

[Maddy McCall]

3. Kinda like when I used to go through the drive thru at McDonalds...

and I ordered a large meal, and they gave me half a large container of fries. Pissed me off, too.

I always wanted to say, "Hey, you gave me a half-full container of fries. If I'd have just wanted this many, then I would have ordered a regular meal."

But, I was afraid that if I complain, they'd spit in my coke the next time I drove through.

(Reformed McDonalds Customer now.)

[hyphenate]

4. I would have asked her

to replace the ones that dropped. Most restaurants will do that. On the other hand, she might have simply gone to the back, taken a few that might have been in the garbage there, and put them on your plate. OR spit on them before putting them on your plate, or any one of a hundred different options if you had been impudent enough to ask.

[sam sarrha]

5. Yes...Yes... No...Yes... ALWAYS COMPLAIN..JUST SAY, no tip when she puts

the plate down.. if she doesnt respond SEND IT BACK !!!!

[BlondieK143]

7. Isn't 'no tip' a little extreme for an accident?

I'm sure she didn't purposely spill onion rings on the floor so she'd have to eventually bend over and pick them up. Maybe she should've offered to bring another out, but maybe her head was so filled with "okay, more coffee at table 6, ketchup and 10, ring in 5's orders" that she didn't think about it. I don't think one accident constitutes in no reward for service that was otherwise excellent.

[sam sarrha]

10. not resolving the 'accident' is BAD service..I worked YEARS n food service

I would have made it up in spades.. i would have brought in a double order and come back a couple of times and asked if they needed anything.. not for the tip, but make sure they were happy, you don't need someone telling this kind of shit to everyone if you want to stay in business.

Service is the effort to make a satisfied customer..

[BlondieK143]

11. I agree that service is the most important thing..

All I'm saying is, accidents happen. It was her responsibility to make things right, but the customer didn't speak up either. If it were me, I would've done the same thing as you (not to mention apologize several times).

[tibbir]

6. You can get more repeat [and referral] customers

by owning up to and fixing mistakes than you can save money by ignoring them.

If it had happened to me, though, I would have kindly pointed out that part of my order had landed on the floor and asked her to bring out some replacements. It may just not have occurred to her.

[dajoki]

8. should have not charged you for them

:shrug:

[El Fuego]

9. Definitely!!!!

You should have complained to the manager.