SWA - Server With Attitude

Posted on Tue 09/13/05 in South Florida

Tonight, Beth and I went to our favorite local pizza joint. We’ve been going there for over a year, almost weekly; they know us by name and greet us like we are family. Until about a month ago, there were three lovely servers from Minnesota; they were always chipper, friendly, and gave excellent service. About a month ago, they all moved out of South Florida because the people are generally arrogant.

Since their departure nearly a month ago, we’ve had one of the replacement servers. I don’t even know her name, but each of the three times we’ve had her, she was extremely RUDE! She makes us feel like we are inconveniencing her; she makes us feel stupid for asking for red pepper to go on our pizza… like we did the last three times we were in there (you’d think she’d bring it with the pizza after the first time). Her short responses to our requests are tiresome, and today I let her know. And note: We are never in a rush and always tip above 20%, despite the horrid experiences.

Today’s experience when like this:

After we politely requested a replacement for our cold, stale garlic rolls, she told us that they are fresh; they just came out of the oven.

We said that we still wanted a replacement—they aren’t good (which they usually are).

As she rolled her eyes, she said, “Well, fine, but they are going to be the same as these are.”

As she turned to walk away, I could resist no longer. I called her back to the table. I asked her why she gives us an attitude every time we come in.

In her irritated, raspy voice, she said, “I don’t.” I argued back, “Yes you do. You act like we are bothering you by coming in here. But, usually by the end of the meal, you become nicer.”

She offered her explanation: “Well, in the beginning, all I can do is serve you drinks or the guy in the back yells at me. So, I can’t really do much—and later, I can do more.” A bell dings in the background… “Oh, that’s my ding—gotta go.”

It was obvious that she didn’t care what I had to say. Beth and I laughed it off. Needless to say, each interaction that followed during the meal was a bit uncomfortable. I hope for the sake of the restaurant, she is deported back to the Dimension of Negativity she came from. We won’t be eating there again until she is gone.

Something to add?

# Unc wrote on Wed 09/14/05 at 12.27 PM:

You handled it nobly. Here’s something that I do, which won’t change the way things are done, but, I feel better.
A movie, at the Sony theatres, costs $10.25. Whassup with the $.25??? If it were 10.50, I probably wouldn’t even think about it. But, 25 cents? So, I say to the ticket seller (who I know has nothing to do with the price, and I let them know that I know that they have nothing to do with the price), “Gee, Sony just has to get that extra quarter out of us, don’t they?” If the ticket taker is polite, I go ahead and pay. If they give me attitude, here’s what I do…I make sure that they see that I have a $10 bill and a quarter, or a $10 bill and a $1 bill. BUT… I give them a $20 bill. They say, “can I have the $10.25 or $11.00? At which point, I say, “No. If Sony wants to gouge us (and gouging is EXACTLY what that is…those quarters add up to MILLIONS for Sony), then Sony can make change!”

Case #2. I’ve been food shopping, and have actually quite a bit of merchandise. In the middle of being checked out by the cashier, another cashier, who is on her break, comes over to my cashier, and starts telling her about this wonderful yogurt that she’s eating. My cashier stops checking my stuff out, and begins a conversation with the other cashier about this wonderful, low fat yogurt. I say, “Excuse me, please, can you finish with my stuff?” Immediate attitude from my cashier…first a look, then back to conversation with the other cashier. I was livid. What did I do? Even though she had already processed over half of my groceries, I simply walked out of the store. Granted, I then had to go somewhere else to shop, but SHE had to then void ALL of my groceries that she had processed up to that point. And you know, they can’t do that without calling a “manager” over.

Just because someone “thinks” they have a low-paying, menial (and quite often, they are) job, is no excuse for attitude.

# Tony wrote on Thu 09/15/05 at 09.45 AM:

Bad service always irritates me and it always reflects on the tip. I know they have a shitty job, but I worked in the restaurant business and I always wore a smile.

# DW wrote on Fri 09/16/05 at 07.26 PM:

My Dad taught me at an early age to put an imaginary stack of money on the table at the beginning of the meal. This stack equals roughly 20% of the estimated bill. Each time the server is rude, messes something up without promptly fixing it, or just doesn’t care at all you simply take away from the imaginary stack of money on the table. At the end of the meal whatever is left is what they get for a tip.
I have recently become a pretty fair tipper…but as you know I am also an asshole, another trait I proudly took from my Dad…so this “money stack” method always works well for me.

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