"pgluth1" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:Quoted message said:
Sheldon
OMG, I find myself agreeing with Sheldon.
Allow me to throw a few ideas out from 20 years of restaurant experience:
1. I have never met a server who deliberately played games with their
tips - "gee - I bet they'll give me the big bill!" However, I have met
many new, poorly trained, and yes, "dim" servers, who didn't understand
the point. What if everyone got their paycheck deducted for making
mistakes?
I've known peope who've deliberately done all sorts of stupid things, but I
was giving this waitress the benefit of the doubt. I gave her the bigger
tip, wheras most people said they'd go for the 5 or nothing.
On the other hand, last time we had this same waitress, she screwed
something up, told us she'd give us a free round of drinks, but the drinks
were on the bill anyway. Every other waiter/waitress we've ever had has been
much better than this one. She's relatively new (but not a youngster,
btw) -- in fact, *waitresses* here are relatively new -- up until recently,
they only had waiters at theis particular restaurant. I figure either she'll
get better or quit.
Quoted message said:
2. Training is now non-existent - it is now almost entirely "on the job".
This isn't a problem with an experienced server, but restaurants often
hire many who have never had experience with not only serving, but with
customer service. (Often, cooks with only moderate english skills will be
asked to wait tables.) Years ago, servers received menu instruction, bar
instruction, and customer and cash / handing procedures. For two reasons,
this has been condensed to as little as 2 days of training and 2
"follows." Reason 1: restaurants don't wish to pay more than they have
to, and Reason 2: if you tell someone today they would have to work for
minimum wage for up to three weeks, they would laugh and leave.
I think there might also have been a bit of a misunderstanding when I said
"change." The return should have included coins, but she brought back no
coins, just the five and the ten. Maybe she thought I wanted coin change for
a vending machine or car wash or something.
To be honest, I think she may not completely understand what we're saying
sometimes. Which is why I gave her the benefit of the doubt and gave her the
better tip. I'm also hoping we'll get one of the old waiters next time we go
there.
Quoted message said:
3. Many places have standing policies against letting servers get change
for anything less than a $20 - period - even if you get three $100s in a
row. You are expected to get it from another server rather than "bother"
the bartender, manager, or cashier. I always thought this was asinine but
the penalties could be as stiff as a write-up or as bothersome as having
to do extra / or the worst closing duty. I even worked one place where
the servers lost a table rotation if they asked for change more than
once.
I've never had a problem with asking a waiter/waitress to break a bill for
me. It doesn't happen all that often, because usually I've got more singles
than I need, but this particular day I'd been to the bank and didn't ask for
singles, and when I went to the grocery afterward, the change didn't end up
giving me any singles, either. I didn't hink that much about it until I
looked in my wallet and there was nothing smaller than a five.
Quoted message said:
4. Sheldon is right. Restaurants are not a bank. If you only have big
bills, ask the bar or cashier first. (Though as a former bartender, I
have been given a $400 bank and STILL been cleaned out in a matter of
hours.)
I don't consider a $5 bill a "big bill." I just needed enough singles so I
could give a decent tip. It's not like I was asking them to break a hundred.
And BTW, why are you saying it's okay to ask the cashier or bartender to
break a bill, but it's not okay to ask the waitress to bring back your
change in smaller increments? The waitress is the one who's going to reap
the benefits from that change.
As for my dearth of singles, by the time we went out for dinner, the banks
were closed, so I couldn't have gone there to ask them to give me change for
a five, even if that had been in my mind. Which it wasn't. My only other
choice would have been to go to some retail establishment and either ask for
change or buy something small with a larger bill so they'd be forced to give
me the 4 singles back. It seems kind of silly to expect a retail store to
have change available, yet imagine that a restaurant wouldn't be able to
break a five.
Next time I'll make it a point to have singles. It's for my convenience
too -- I usually like to leave the bill plus tip without waiting for change.
Donna
