May 29, 2023

"A customer complained that the portion of her scrambled eggs was too small. Her friend admitted to eating said eggs while she was in the bathroom."

"The customer then demanded that we make her new eggs since we placed her plate too close to her friend, causing the friend to be confused as to which was her plate. The friend had ordered a hamburger."

From a TimeOut collection of anecdotes about bad customers at restaurants, quoted at Facebook by jaltcoh.

31 comments:

gspencer said...

Always someone else is to blame: The Democrats Playbook,

"since we placed her plate too close to her friend, causing the friend to be confused as to which was her plate"

RideSpaceMountain said...

Conservatives: "Who in their right mind has a burger for breakfast?"
Liberals: "Who in the hell would have eggs for lunch?"
Libertarians: "Why didn't she kill her friend for eating those eggs?"

Gator said...

Definitely call BS on this one.

re Pete said...

"It ain't my cup of meat"

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

A friend of mine worked as a waiter all the college. I heard all the stories. One that stands out - the couple who ate everything on their plates and then complained they didn't like it and refused to pay.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

The argument is unconvincing but the customer should have been brought more eggs. For $1 worth of eggs, the customer was left with a bad experience.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Do these really help his traffic? Yawn.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Also, I think the argument is convincing if the “friend” was part of a group that was seated for the Essex Brunch:

PARTIES OF 1 TO 7 GUESTS: Choice of Entrée with 1-1/2 hours of Mimosas, Bloody Marys, Screwdrivers & Narraganset Draft Beers $44.95
PARTIES OF 8 OR MORE GUESTS: Choice of Entrée with 2 hours of Mimosas, Bloody Marys, Screwdrivers & Narraganset Draft Beers $54.95

The a la carte brunch is $25.95. Bring the customer more eggs.

n.n said...

It's a yolk on her. Alas, the message was scrambled.

mikee said...

Any experienced waiter would respond, "May I take you order for additional eggs? And will your friend be paying for them?"

Problem solved.

tim maguire said...

My first wife was a waitress when we were dating and she had plenty of stories like this--someone eating nearly all their meal and then sending it back because it was inedible was not as unusual as you might hope.

cassandra lite said...

I'd love the know the age of the aggrieved customer.

stlcdr said...

But did they cook new eggs, though?

I get that some restaurants can be 'bad', but from what I've seen, it's mostly bad customers. Some restaurants need to take a page out of the Soup Nazi handbook.

Lilly, a dog said...

Kevin James tells a story that when he ate at a restaurant with Ray Romano, James ate so fast that he would soon be eating part of Romano's food. So Ray would order extra food to be placed in between them as a "Rodeo Clown." These ladies need to use the Rodeo Clown.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Big deal. As a kitchen managed, I did not play judge and jury about whether a complaint was justified. Customer service requires accommodating the expectations of the customer, which is subjective. She wants a couple eggs, so what? If someone becomes a regular nuisance, which is rare, then I'd politely refuse.

I did not tolerate rudeness to staff or other customers. That is not the same thing.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Arguing with a person who cannot admit being wrong in front of witnesses will cost a lot more than a couple eggs. They're crazy and will feel humiliated and want revenge. It's not worth the drama. We had enough to do Just get them out the door and maybe save the server's tip. I'd listen to server's vent about idiots, but the job is the job.

Gator said...

Wow, have you seen the price of eggs recently?

Also I think this is a made up story. Few people go to the restroom at brunch when their meal is about to be served, and the restaurant has a burger but it isn’t a hamburger.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The apparent scam on the rideshare is to order a ride and once they are picked up, they change the ride to a one stop ride. Suddenly, a ride that was calculated based on a short distance is now longer, but, because the ride is capped, the original charge $ still holds. (Rides are capped so as to hold drivers to the route judged by the GPS.)

People abuse it of course.

I say "apparent" because, there might be some other explanation I'm not considering, that would make it not a scam.

RideSpaceMountain said...

Communist: "From each plate according to its quantity, to each according to their need."

Socialist: "That's too bad. The state will compensate you for her eating those eggs."

Fascist: "We are adding the cost of the eggs stolen to her bill and charging you double."

Capitalist: "The eggs she stole are an egg loan, that she must repay to you at an annual eggtrist rate of 6.7% amortized over 30 years. If you play your cards right you'll get 100x those eggs back with interest, and if she defaults you can cut her belly open and take whatever's in her stomach as collateral."

walter said...

Some sort of excercise re "equity".

readering said...

My dad's server job college summers led to his romance of my mom. Still, I determined never to work in that industry.

Wilbur said...

I'm good with sharing food with a table companion, but you eat my food without asking ... we're likely to tussle.

The Godfather said...

@NotWhoIUsedToBe has it right. And always tip HIGH at Breakfast (WTF is 20% of $4.95 pp?).

The Vault Dweller said...

Those eggs were an attractive nuisance and the server should have been more careful with their placement. We're all lucky something worse didn't happen.

PM said...

Friends are always welcome to my garnish.

gadfly said...

Where I eat breakfast, any complaint offered is addressed and fixed, eggs overdone, too brown, too runny, bacon not crispy, not enough American fries . . . whatever. "The customer is always right" works every time and talking back to customers will promptly end their visits to your store.

A dollar's worth of eggs delivered promptly to solve the complaint is nothing compared to losing a regular $10-$15 paying customer.

gilbar said...

again.. the accepted thing to do (this is from Server101), is:
Graciously get the customer another plate of eggs.... AND SPIT ON IT

Bad Customer => SPIT

Rosalyn C. said...

Maybe the friend was a dog? In that case the customer was correct and the server shouldn't have served the food until the paying customer returned.

Tina Trent said...

Waffle House problems.

rwnutjob said...

Allowing ambulance chasers to advertise has encouraged this behavior

Interested Bystander said...

I worked in fast food for a few years as a store manager. Every single day someone tries to hustle you out of some food. They bring in a receipt they found in the dumpster behind the store and claim the food made them sick or whatever. Or they claim there was a bug in the food. The worst were the gypsy families who would wait until there was a long line at the registers and they would start complaining about something, with the intent of holding up service until you would just give them something to get rid of them so you could serve the real customers. They have it down to an art. You think I’m making it up? It was all real. Citrus Heights, CA in the early 80s had some gypsy con artist families, are there any other kind, preying on small restaurants, chiseling them out of a few meals here and there. Never enough to make much of a difference in the bottom line but always a pain in the ass.