Passing the Buck

[editor’s note: In reaction to our recent waitress post, one of our regular readers sent us this great tale of their own awful restaurant service. Thanks for sharing!]

Years before I was a mystery shopper, I was in a group of ten eating at a national restaurant chain. The hostess took us to our table, and she motioned to a server to help us. 

The server copped and attitude and told the hostess that she was about to go on break, and to have “Lisa” cover her section.

Lisa, another server, heard this and said it was the first server's responsibility to cover our table.

They argued for 2 minutes about who wasn't going to serve our table.

Great start, people.

Miss Attitude came to our table with a big chip on her shoulder, and her service reflected her attitude. Our drinks were not refilled and we never had enough silverware for everyone.

One of the few members of our party to not get the salad bar had an entrée tossed down in front of her with a little spin and an indignant, "There you go."

Worse, we quickly discovered it wasn't the meal prepared for our table; the server just grabbed it from the pass.

I had had enough!

I found a manager and asked if I could have a moment of her time. Instead of yelling and complaining, I just told her what had been happening. The horror and embarrassment kept growing on her face as I described our experience to that point.

The manager said she was truly grateful that I had brought this to her attention and said she would personally be taking care of us for the rest of our visit.

She picked up the entire tab and offered everyone a heartfelt apology at the end of the meal. 

As a customer, the way to handle dissatisfaction is just as important as the way management fixes the matter.