How to Cope With Bad Food Service

Quite simply, there is no excuse for bad service in a restaurant.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Keep in mind that you, the customer, are always right. Note that anyone who thinks you are wrong should read the prior sentence.

2. Send back food that is either undercooked, overcooked, too cold or not fresh. Remember that a problem with your food may not be your waiter's fault; be polite, and give your waiter the opportunity to fix the problem.

3. Send back wine that does not meet with your requirements. Return any wine that you did not order.

4. Complain to the manager or owner, during or after the meal, if the waiter gave consistently shoddy service.

5. Take your money elsewhere if the restaurant doesn't adhere to your demands.

6. As a last resort, write a letter to the local newspaper that reviews the restaurant.

Tips & Warnings

• The waiter or sommelier may think that another wine is suitable if the wine you ordered is not available. They must consult with you before they bring it to the table.
• Your power to affect service in a restaurant is the power of your wallet.
• People make mistakes. One or two errors in service are not the end of the world, particularly in less expensive restaurants. This eHow pertains to consistent and negligent bad service.

on 6/30/2006 I absolutely agree that good staff should get good tips and bad staff should get minimal compensation, but I think that the server's situation should be considered also. It's one thing if the person serving you has one table, and is just not attentive to the needs of the table, as they agreed to be when they took the job as a server as a means of making a living (or tuition...as so many do), but it is quite another thing when the server has 8 tables when a standard section is 6, and one table is complaining to the manager that they had to wait. Truthfully, if a customer can see that it's busy, and that other people are having to wait also, and they feel they have to stop their server in the middle of what they are doing...to find the manager, who is busy running food or taking money, to stop them to talk to them, and all they want to say is "We had to wait for our food." I just want to say, "Of course you did! So did they! I am not holding your food hostage, I promise!" Really, it just makes the wait that much longer for that customer, and every subsequent order after that. I worked in the business for a long time and was good at what I did, but something like that derails even a great server, because it disrupts the flow.
Oh, and don't make your server run for something else every time they come back with your previous request. That really sucks.

on 11/22/2005 Unfortunately, if you think being a customer makes you automatically right about everything, you are arrogant and mistaken. The only reason you should ever send anything back to the kitchen or the bar is if the item is defective: the wine has 'turned' or gone bad, the food is grossly over or undercooked, burned, cold, or obviously not what you ordered. If you want to send it back because you don't like it or it's not what you had in mind, that's too bad, because it is what you ordered. Don't eat or drink the whole thing before you decide you don't like it. Somehow people have formed the impression that complaining to the management will get you free stuff, and shame on managers who have propagated this theory. There are people who go so far as to get physical with restaurant employees who aren't giving them what they want. I personally was grabbed by both arms, shaken, pushed down, and spat on by a furious customer who was tired of waiting for a table in a popular restaurant. Can you really tell me that customer was right?

on 11/22/2005 Having been in the food business for over 15 years please listen to what I am about to say; stop mindless tipping! I've seen terrible waiters make almost as much as really good waiters because people think that they have to tip a certain amount whether the service is good or not. They think that if they don't tip at least a certain amount it will make them look cheap. Who cares what a bad waiter who didn't have enough respect for you to give you good service thinks of you! What you are doing is encouraging a bad waiter to continue to be bad. Remember the word tip means "To Insure Promptness". By the same token, if your service is excellent, by all means tip your waiter more than the standard amount. In time, the bad waiter will see how much more the good waiter is making and in time try to change his lack of service. When you tip (let's say 15%) to a bad waiter the only person you are hurting is the good waiter! I've even have gone as far as leaving a note instead of a tip. The note reads something like. "Considering your lack of attention, slow performance and total disregard for our enjoyment this evening, I leave you this tip: Find another line of work!

on 11/22/2005 The customer is not always right. I can't make my manager give you a free steak because you don't like the iced tea in my restaurant. Just like an accountant can't change the tax law if you don't agree with it. It is a business and there is nothing your server can do to change policies and rules regarding how it is run.

on 11/22/2005 If you visit a certain restaurant, and the waiter gives you great service, always ask for him or her when you return and you will receive better service and food.