Wait Staff Disappointment

[Disneytam]

Our worst service was at the CG for our anniversary dinner. We were seated at a lovely window seat just as the sun was setting and I thought what a perfect night this is going to be. It went down hill from there. Our male waiter came over and asked us about our drink order with my husband ordering a beer and I mentioned what I thought I would be ordering and what did he recommend for a Riesling? He never asked what I liked but just rattled off the most expensive one they had and said would you like a bottle? Ah no, I said a glass would be just fine. He poured 2 glasses of water and left coming back with my husbands beer. We decided to split an appetizer and he was very pushy telling us they were small and we should each get our own. I declined and asked about my glass of wine as we placed our order as I hadn't received my drink yet. A runner brought our app and then our meal and I asked again about my wine and mentioned that my husband would like another beer as his glass had been empty awhile. Our waiter never checked on us and he must have figured one beer was enough for my husband as he was never offered another.

The meal was very good but we never saw our waiter again until he dropped off our bill. My glass of wine was on the bill and I had to practically yell to our server as he basically dropped the bill on the table while flirting with the young women at the table beside us. I asked him to take the drink off the bill as I had never received it. He seemed surprised and offered to go and get it even though we were completely done and waiting to leave. I had to say no a couple of times and he took it off the bill but didn't offer us a discount at all or even much in the way of an apology. It was by far the strangest service we ever had at Disney. To be fair most of the time the service is good and sometimes outstanding but with the prices that Disney is now asking at most of the sit down places the service should be top notch.

 

[Ellie Webbs]

Thank you, it's a little confusing for us Brits.

Lowest we ever left was 10% for a non Disney restaurant which started clearing our table while we were still eating. Hubby was furious!
We have also left a higher than normal tip to compensate the server when we have been comped for a meal. This happened at Wolfgang puck cafe. The food was truly awful the evening we were there (not saying that the food was always bad, just our experience) but our server was excellent, attentive, cheerful and even got the manager for us without us asking as we are shy complainers! Wait staff shouldn't be punished for a mistake in the kitchen, and imho because we only ended up paying for our drinks, tipping on that was unfair because she was so amazing.

 

[Boopuff]

The worst service we ever had was at the Big River Grille. We were seated, our waiter came over, took our drink order, ok so far so good, came back gave our appetizer and dinner order. Never saw him again (no kidding) our food all came out in one fell swoop (stone cold). We stopped another waitress, and she was very sweet and told us she'd get the manager. A manager came to our table, apologized and told us that our waiter had been "dismissed" and comped our meal. Bizarre.

 

[cobright]

But that passive aggressive comment to your server threatening the amount of the tip was not a joke, funny or otherwise.

That's true enough. But then, as I said, it wasn't primarily meant to be a joke. It was primarily meant to point out that they'd made an error. The quip, is added to indicate that the transgression is important enough to me to mentions but not so much that I would need to spell it out in formal language. The sort of situation where you know they made a mistake, they seem to know they've made a mistake, and just pretending like it didn't happen seems more offensive than saying nothing.

I reject the notion that all criticism of a server should go through their manager. It puts the guest in the position of saying something to the person who decides if this employee remains employed or saying nothing and letting minor service deficiencies normalize. Maybe it seems more polite or professional, but it misses a crucial point in the customer/waitstaff relationship. The waiter or waitress works for the customer first. Don't believe me? What do they say when they first greet you? "Hi I'm _____ and I'll be your server this evening." Not, "... I'll be the Narcosee's server assigned to your table..."

I prefer to interact with waitstaff, bartenders, or housekeeping or whatever the same way I interact with anyone. If I had a carpenter working on my house and he was doing something in a way I didn't like, I would talk to him about it. If it's a minor thing, then I make it clear that it's not a serious discussion. "Hey, my daughter's just learning to drive ya know, you keep parking there and one day she's gonna clip your bumper pulling in..." Ha Ha, yuk yuk. Yeah not really a funny joke, but it's not meant to be.

Service jobs are a profession like any other and to treat them like they are made of glass instead of real people doing a job is disrespectful.

 

[kaytieeldr]

That's true enough. But then, as I said, it wasn't primarily meant to be a joke. It was primarily meant to point out that they'd made an error.

I'm confused. Is there a reason the person to whom the payment card is issued can't say, "I'll take that."?

I reject the notion that all criticism of a server should go through their manager. It puts the guest in the position of saying something to the person who decides if this employee remains employed

I think anyone who thinks discussing bad service with a manager after the third mistake has an inflated sense of the weight of their experience.

 

[cobright]

Lowest we ever left was 10% for a non Disney restaurant which started clearing our table while we were still eating. Hubby was furious!

Aggressively clearing tables is getting more common and ... I get it. It ups the turnover rate for the table to get it bused before the end of the meal. I don't let it bother me at an inexpensive family style restaurant.

We have also left a higher than normal tip to compensate the server when we have been comped for a meal.

Should always tip on the menu price of the food and drink you've ordered. More than one Disney server have confided that free dining plans are really a mixed blessing for them as many people feel it's okay to tip based on whatever out of pocket charge they end up billed for. On the other hand the dining plan does encourage people to order the most expensive items on the menu so those who do tip on the food bill end up producing a sizable tip.

Likewise, Don't feel obligated to tip on non-food extras. The souvenir Tiki mugs at Trader Sam's or the souvenir glasses at Oga's Cantina is an example. They add to the bill but can really be 'left off' when figuring the tip.

 

[cobright]

Is there a reason the person to whom the payment card is issued can't say, "I'll take that."?

Well if the server takes that persons card and then brings it back to someone else, I suppose they will have to won't they? I'm just saying that they shouldn't have to. If the waiter or waitress takes a card from Person A they should return it to Person A if doing so is possible. That this is the case only about half the time when my wife pays is weird to me. That this is the case 100% of the time, when I pay, bothers me more.

I think anyone who thinks discussing bad service with a manager after the third mistake has an inflated sense of the weight of their experience.

Well you were the one saying that you would get the manager involved if the server made (as in my example) three minor errors during an especially busy dinner service. I only said that it wouldn't be improper to say something to the server to let him know that it's getting to be a bit of a thing at that point.

 

[hedg12]

I’ve learned in years of Disney dining, eating on property is just WILDLY inconsistent from visit to visit. I’ve been dying to go back to places, and then been disappointed, I’ve sworn off a place, returned and it was great. It’s increasingly “luck of the draw”

This.
During our trip this past August our servers at 'Ohana were friendly enough but not attentive at all, and seemed to be in a huge rush. (Not trying to rush us, but they were in a rush.) The "helper" splashed water all over the table, and set our starter/appetizer plate down so fast some of the noodles slid off the edge. We had to wave them down to get any refills, and when my 4yo granddaughter dropped her fork we resorted to getting up and going to their station to get a replacement. I'm not sure if they were short handed or not, but the restaurant wasn't that busy. The food was good though, & we've always had good service there before this.

Our dinner at Boma was HORRIBLE. We'd heard great things about the food, but it was only mediocre at best. We were there later in the evening, so maybe there's some truth to the thinking that buffets get worse at the end of the day. The service, though, was terrible. Our waiter seated us almost without a word and we didn't see him again until he brought the check, even after we flagged down other waitstaff & asked for them to send him to us. On top of that, the server at the carving station ignored/skipped over my wife (who was clearly standing in line to be served) - twice - and was clearly put out when we called him on it. No apologies. Sorry, but the zebra domes don't make up for that kind of experience...

Trattoria al Forno was awesome, though. The servers and waitstaff were top notch, and extremely attentive. We didn't want for anything. (And the cast member who played Rapunzel did an amazing job with our shy 4 year old - it was all she could talk about for the rest of the day.)

 

[marikujawa]

That's true enough. But then, as I said, it wasn't primarily meant to be a joke. It was primarily meant to point out that they'd made an error. The quip, is added to indicate that the transgression is important enough to me to mentions but not so much that I would need to spell it out in formal language. The sort of situation where you know they made a mistake, they seem to know they've made a mistake, and just pretending like it didn't happen seems more offensive than saying nothing.

I reject the notion that all criticism of a server should go through their manager. It puts the guest in the position of saying something to the person who decides if this employee remains employed or saying nothing and letting minor service deficiencies normalize. Maybe it seems more polite or professional, but it misses a crucial point in the customer/waitstaff relationship. The waiter or waitress works for the customer first. Don't believe me? What do they say when they first greet you? "Hi I'm _____ and I'll be your server this evening." Not, "... I'll be the Narcosee's server assigned to your table..."

I prefer to interact with waitstaff, bartenders, or housekeeping or whatever the same way I interact with anyone. If I had a carpenter working on my house and he was doing something in a way I didn't like, I would talk to him about it. If it's a minor thing, then I make it clear that it's not a serious discussion. "Hey, my daughter's just learning to drive ya know, you keep parking there and one day she's gonna clip your bumper pulling in..." Ha Ha, yuk yuk. Yeah not really a funny joke, but it's not meant to be.

Service jobs are a profession like any other and to treat them like they are made of glass instead of real people doing a job is disrespectful.

I don't know. You do you, I guess, but it seems most mature adults would prefer that you say something like, "I would appreciate it if you wouldn't park there because [insert good reason]," or "I'll take the check, please," instead of passive-aggressive comments that are thinly-veiled threats. If something is important enough for you to mention it, do so, but own it. Why dress it up as some sort of joke?

 

[James Osborne]

"Say you have a party size that triggers an automatic gratuity (say 18%) and your service is horrible. You can still write down the gratuity. There have been two such cases that went to court and both sided with the diners."
[/QUOTE]
Out of curiosity, and not in anyway intended as a counter to your comment, do you happen to have the citations to those cases?

 

[Srbright]

In both cases you initiate a financial transaction that the employee decides should be finalized by your spouse. That's weird. I mean, it's weird to me. Maybe it's a generational thing. If a cashier or a waiter or whatever took my credit card and then handed it back to anyone else besides me to be signed I would think it pretty flippy strange. To be honest, I don't think it's ever happened. Yet it happens to my wife about half the time we eat out.

I am the spouse in question and I felt the need to weigh in. This isn't a "confusion" issue. Ignore Walt Disney World for a moment; last year I did a short term (3 month) assignment in California at a different location. I moved 1 husband, 2 kids, and 3 cats to California for the summer. During that time we went to Nevada and to Death Valley. Why is this interesting? Because we went to one of the casino's restaurants in the town we visited in Nevada. When we went to dinner 1) the waiter would not speak to me, 2) he asked my husband for my order, 3) he took the credit card directly from my hand, ran the card, and returned the slip to cobright here with a "I hope you and your family enjoyed your meal, sir.". This wasn't V&A, or CG or even Crystal Palace. This was a place with a $25 ribeye and $8 glasses of wine. When we went to the blackjack tables later that evening we were complaining amongst ourselves and the dealer started talking with us once we were the only 2 left at the table. He said that that attitude towards women is common in the area and is even worse for the Native American women in the area where many of them are treated with outright disdain and rudeness.

What if I were with a client or a vendor and I didn't want them to have my card? If I hand someone on the waitstaff my card directly then I expect them to give it back to me directly. If I leave the card in the portfolio on the table and they bring it to my husband I never say anything. It isn't a case of him being a "white knight" or "mansplaining" anything because often times I am much more direct with the waiter than is Chris. I would venture to say that he is correct; it has NEVER happened that he gives the card to the staff and they return it to me but more often than not if I give them they card they return it to him.

Businesses DO believe that wives should consult with their husbands. I filed a formal complaint against Comcast myself 2 years ago because of my interaction with their customer service "gentleman" when I called them to cancel my service. The service is in my name only. It has only ever been in my name; Chris is not even listed as an authorized user on the account. The gentleman on the phone would not let me cancel my own service and asked me if I had permission from the people in my household to make changes to "their" services.

Maybe it is a generational thing. If you've been taught or grown up in a culture where this is acceptable then nothing we say on Disboards is going to change that attitude. My interactions with society are done with the knowledge that one day my daughter and my son will be operating in this society (hopefully successfully). It is our jobs to teach our children to treat people equally and the best way to do that is to lead by example.

Stacy

 

[cobright]

"...There have been two such cases that went to court and both sided with the diners."

Out of curiosity, and not in anyway intended as a counter to your comment, do you happen to have the citations to those cases?

The two cases that I'm mentioning are

• a 2004 case involving Humberto A. Taveras refusing the mandatory gratuity at Soprano's Italian and American Grill in Lake George, N.Y.
• a 2009 case in which John Wagner, 24 and Leslie Pope, 22, were arrested for failing to tip at the Lehigh Pub in Lehigh Valley, PA

Okay, the summary I read lead me to believe that these cases had gone as far as a court docket, when in fact they were actual arrests and charges that were dismissed before getting to that point. Not quite as good. But in each case the 'offenders' were arrested, hauled away in a cop car and booked. Only to have their supposed crime thrown out.

 

[gharter]

The two cases that I'm mentioning are

• a 2004 case involving Humberto A. Taveras refusing the mandatory gratuity at Soprano's Italian and American Grill in Lake George, N.Y.
• a 2009 case in which John Wagner, 24 and Leslie Pope, 22, were arrested for failing to tip at the Lehigh Pub in Lehigh Valley, PA

Okay, the summary I read lead me to believe that these cases had gone as far as a court docket, when in fact they were actual arrests and charges that were dismissed before getting to that point. Not quite as good. But in each case the 'offenders' were arrested, hauled away in a cop car and booked. Only to have their supposed crime thrown out.

Hopefully there were other issues other than refusing to pay a tip.
I'm surprised (without other problems), a restaurant would do that.
The PR out of that alone would be enough to close some businesses

 

[4evryoung]

Do you think people from outside the U.S (as we are) tend to follow the 15-20% or tend to leave a set sum, maybe $10 as a fixed gratuity?

I think a lot of overseas visitors assume the basic pay of wait staff is set at minimum wage levels without realizing that in the U.S. the minimum wage level for staff who receive gratuities is only a couple of dollars, not the normal minimum wage rate. In my country the wait staff receive the full minimum hourly wage rate, so leaving $10 or $20 would seem like a reasonable tip, particularly if they are serving multiple tables

 

[snappy]

Sadly, some wait staff are not trained properly. Sone are. During a trip in September out west we had a special meal to celebrate a birthday. We picked the best restaurant we could find in Grand Junction,, Colorado. The wait staff appeared young but they were professional beyond measure. The food was top notch, lots of locally sourced food and wine. We had a leisurely dinner with drinks, aps, entrees and desert. As we departed we met and chatted with the owner. After we gave our positive feedback on the food and service, she offered that she hold training sessions with the wait staff on a regular basis, I think it was every other week. It showed. What a great dining experience!

 

[Lashed34]

Sadly, some wait staff are not trained properly. Sone are. During a trip in September out west we had a special meal to celebrate a birthday. We picked the best restaurant we could find in Grand Junction,, Colorado. The wait staff appeared young but they were professional beyond measure. The food was top notch, lots of locally sourced food and wine. We had a leisurely dinner with drinks, aps, entrees and desert. As we departed we met and chatted with the owner. After we gave our positive feedback on the food and service, she offered that she hold training sessions with the wait staff on a regular basis, I think it was every other week. It showed. What a great dining experience!

Invest in your staff and the customers will follow- great to hear positive stories like this.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Everyone in this thread should listen to the Side Work podcast.

That is all.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I am the spouse in question and I felt the need to weigh in.

Thank you very much for clarifying everything in such a straightforward way!

 

[cobright]

Hopefully there were other issues other than refusing to pay a tip.
I'm surprised (without other problems), a restaurant would do that.

Reading the newspaper clippings for each case ... that's exactly what was at issue.
I'll link the two cases Here and Here.

In both cases the charges were for theft of service.

In the 2004 case, the diner didn't seem to specify particularly bad service and claims he had left a 10% tip. It also says that their party of 4 adults and 5 children racked up a bill for just $78, which astounds me. I suspect the table was an awful one to serve, with everyone splitting and sharing dinners. And the automatic gratuity of $14 didn't seem excessive ... but "mandatory" or not, it's still a gratuity and that means voluntary.

In the 2009 case the diners said service was atrocious and to some extent even the management of the restaurant agreed that it was bad.

Neither was a case where the disagreement over the bill or tip escalated into some sort of civil unrest. As in a recent case where diners were upset over orange juice refills not being free and ended up starting a brawl. These were specifically cases where charges were sought and then abandoned for the 'crime' of not paying a "mandatory" tip.

 

[marikujawa]

Those "cases" (and some of the attitudes and picayune issues that appear on this thread) just reinforce my belief that whatever servers make - $90,000, over $100,000 - it's just not enough for having to deal with these people. They have my undying admiration for putting up with the kind of petty nonsense most of us would not countenance.