Being a member of the waitstaff is a challenging job. You’re on your feet for long shifts and on top of that, you’re barely paid anything aside from tips. Even though it’s a difficult and unrewarding job, you still have to try your best. These waiters didn’t, to say the least.
All content has been edited for clarity.
That Definitely Wasn’t The First Incident
“My friend ‘Cathy’ and I used to dine frequently at a Southwest-style restaurant that served a variety of foods from steaks to Tex-Mex. The service was always friendly and polite.
When we went to the restaurant (our last visit as it turned out), they had new items on the menu, including a small tasting sample of guacamole plus a larger appetizer size. We decided to try the small-sized taste sample, as we were both ordering entrees, and the regular appetizer would be too much food.
Our waitress was new staff, young, probably mid-20s. She was curt with us and answered our question about the size of the guacamole sampler with an exasperated tone, including an eye roll. She first brought the guacamole and we were shocked at how large a serving it was. We only ate part of it. The waitress arrived with our entrees, slamming the plates down, then flounced off. Cathy stated maybe she was having a bad day, as we noticed she treated other customers the same way.
When we received our bill we realized we were charged for the more expensive guacamole appetizer rather than the sampler size. We called over the waitress explaining the error, that we ordered the sampler, not the appetizer, and had even asked her about the size of the sampler.
The waitress loudly replied, ‘Yeah I know you ordered the sampler, but I looked at the two of you and knew it wouldn’t be enough. So I ordered the appetizer.’
We both gasped, and couldn’t believe her rudeness. We weren’t the only ones surprised, nearby diners also were stunned. After she walked off, I went to the hostess and asked to speak with the manager.
The manager came over, we explained what happened and he had a despairing look. He profusely apologized and asked that we not take her insult personally, because she was rude to most customers as that was her attitude. Cathy asked why on earth is she still employed by the restaurant if she was so rude?! The manager replied the owner is her dad, the manager had spoken to the owner about his daughter’s attitude and the owner said to deal with it. The waitress/daughter had been fired from every other job she’d ever had, and her dad wanted her to work.
The manager comped our dinner and of course, we left no tip. Six months later the restaurant went out of business.”
Being “Short-Staffed” Seems Like An Excuse
“Our family was eating at a restaurant and I asked for butter. They brought 4 rolls for 6 people and the only butter on the table was in front of my son Marc who has put his tongue on each small swirl. I’ll get more kids, don’t worry.
3 hard stale rolls and one flaky soft beautiful croissant that the 3 children are now fighting over and crying about. It gets cut into 3 pieces. Daughter crying for butter again. ‘I want three butters daddy.’ My son was hitting her under the table.
I asked for water. It never arrived. I asked for an extra napkin and a new fork. It never arrived.
‘Daddy I want butter, three butters in a little white bowl like Marc has. Can I have it?’
I asked for a coke.
The waitress barked, ‘You’re drinking 7-up! You can’t change drinks or share!’ I said it was for my son.
It never arrived, but now I wanted a coke also for me.
‘Sir, you ordered a glass of bubbly.’
‘Yes, and I drank it fast because I’m a parent and I’ve learned coping skills.’
I asked again for all these things a second time. No luck. Third time. No luck.
30 minutes after ordering, the waitress came to the table, ‘Hey, no catfish, you gotta pick something else,’ dropped the menu, and walked away.
Meanwhile, the staff was standing in the kitchen doorway, laughing, using foul language, and staring at cell phones.
I asked for a manager. The annoyed-looking woman arrived at the table with arms crossed.
She said, ‘Sir we are short staffed and you are not allowed to share one soda with 5 people just because they are free refills!’
I showed her that we each had our own drinks except my youngest son who decided he wanted 7-up which didn’t arrive. I was angry at this point and told her we had waited for bread, butter, water, silverware, refills, and food. She sighed deeply and left.
My wife said, ‘I’ll just get a Caesar salad with chicken.’
The food finally arrives and everyone’s meal was cold. My chicken burger is now beef. My daughter’s meal didn’t even arrive. The waitress blamed it on us saying we didn’t order a meal for her. Are you kidding me?
Of course, nobody put in the Caesar salad either. Apparently, we were annoying and demanding and they were highly skilled workers unable to read our minds.
I asked for the check and told them I would pay for the drinks and we would go elsewhere.
The manager came back and brought to-go boxes for the uneaten cold wrong food and said, ‘You still need to pay for your food, but I’ll give you a free piece of cheesecake because someone, not saying it’s us, messed up.’
Now my wife was furious and she is the calmest person on planet earth.
The manager was standing there and my wife said, ‘Ma’am, my kids are hungry, we are a little tired, can we just get this fixed and eat?’
The manager growled, ‘I see they liked the free bread.’
I slammed down my napkin and stood up. I was furious.
I told her she was acting insane and inappropriately. She relented after a long discussion where I raised my voice enough for others dining to hear me.
She brought a check with everything but drinks removed and said, ‘Yeah, okay. Tip your waitress for what the actual amount of the bill should be because she was put through the wringer by you, and you can take your free food to go, but in the future, we will refrain from serving you folks because you are too demanding and looking for freebies obviously!’
I tipped 2 cents. I left the food on the table, untouched. My son Marc scarfed his grilled cheese down in 12 seconds and dumped the fries in his hoodie pocket. I did get a chuckle out of that when I found out and smelled them in the car.
Let’s all try to be more like Marc in these situations.”
Was She Trying To Be Funny?
“When our daughter was about 8 weeks old, we went out for lunch with some friends.
Our baby was dealing with colic at the time. She would scream for hours on end so getting out of the house sounded like heaven. We chose to go when our baby was asleep. She was a good sleeper in the sense that noises did not wake her.
We had a good 2 hours to eat lunch with our friends while she slept. We decided to try a new place. When we sat down we all immediately noticed the table needed to be wiped off. It was gross. Coffee cup rings and sticky food all over it. There was no one else in there either. Bad sign.
A woman came over and asked if we wanted to start with coffee.
She then said, ‘Oh I bet you would be really angry if I woke that sleeping baby up,’ and leaned forward as if to poke my baby.
I said, ‘Please don’t touch her.’
She threw her head back and laughed.
My friend then asks if they could wipe the table down. This woman walks over to another table, picked up a rag, threw it across the room to our table, and said, ‘There you go picky.’
Yeah, my husband and I stood up and left.
Our friends stayed and the woman said, ‘Oh your friends left,’ and then laughed her head off again.
Very strange. The place closed shortly after.”
A Little Empathy Would Be Nice
“My father was a diabetic. He needed a glass of orange juice. I asked our server, who I would quickly learn was a sixty-something white trash piece of work, for a glass of orange juice to be brought to our table as soon as possible.
Five minutes later, she came back to take our order.
I again asked for the juice.
She lectured me on how busy she was doing side work.
I went to the manager and asked again for the juice.
The manager, seeing a medical emergency, literally ran to the table with a big glass of orange juice.
She then dressed down the server.
The server came to our table and ‘accidentally’ dumped a cup of hot coffee on me. Her language was atrocious.
The manager took our order and served us. She apologized for the server’s actions. The meal was free. I gave the manager a tip equivalent to the cost of the meal. I’m grateful for the manager and her kindness.
A second event happened in a diner where my wife and I ate at least three times a week. We often met with friends at this diner and ordered expensive meals.
Well, my wife suffered a mild heart attack and literally collapsed face-first into her meal. An ambulance was summoned and thankfully, it came very quickly. I was going to ride in the ambulance with her. I saw the server speaking to the manager and approached her to ask for my bill.
The manager said, ‘You can’t leave without paying. Also, I’ll have your car towed if you leave it in the lot past 11 pm.’
The server gave me the bill with her tip included. I paid for the meal but not the tip because she was basically responsible for these problems. I was a customer at this diner for well over 15 years. The manager pretended to be our friend. I knew the owner, a very entitled woman. I told her of the things that happened that night.
The owner just shrugged her shoulders and said, ‘So I am letting you know, I do not care if you or your friends ever return. The manager was looking out for my business.’
Ironically this same manager was stealing money from the cash register. Oh well.”
Yeah That Sounds Like An Insult
“Not the waiter, but the lady taking the money at the cash register. I still remember it to this day 40 years later.
We went to our favorite Italian restaurant. My husband and 2 kids. I was six months pregnant.
When I stepped out of the car and went onto the restaurant’s sidewalk, I slipped and fell. Their gutter was leaking over the sidewalk. No problem.
We were seated promptly. I then noticed the table next to us had smoke wafting across my face. I asked the waitress if we could be seated in a different area. The waitress gave a big sigh and rolled her eyes. No biggie.
When it came time to pay. I wanted to get rid of my change. The bill was was like $35.79. I had a bunch of dimes, nickels, and pennies I did not want to lug around, so I gave $3 worth of the bill in change to her.
As I was counting out the correct amount, she said, ‘This isn’t going to break you is it?’
It just rubbed me the wrong way, especially after falling on their property, and then the attitude of the waitress that it was a big bother to seat us elsewhere. I took it as an insult that I was hard-up and didn’t have the money to pay.”
It’s Safe To Say She Had A Long Night
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“20-ish years ago, I was about 8 months pregnant, and we went to a local Italian restaurant to treat ourselves. We were promptly seated, but after that, the waitress proceeded to ignore us. We understood, she was busy, but it took forever to even give our order. Then as we waited for our food, we watched people come in, get seated, eat, and leave, and we still didn’t have our food.
My husband was irritated and flustered about our evening being more stressful than fun, asked for our food to be to-go, and went to pay.
Unfortunately, when we got home, he discovered that in his flustered state, he accidentally left his wallet by the register. So he rushed to go back, while I was tasked with calling the restaurant to let them know.
I tried several times, the phone ringing and ringing, but nobody picked up for like 15 minutes as my anxiety was ramping up. When someone, who happened to be our waitress, finally picked up, I was so relieved, I was like, ‘Oh finally, thank goodness -‘ and she went off on me before I could say anything else! Maybe she thought I was berating her?
But when I hung up, she *69-ed me, and continued screaming about coming to my house and murdering me!
Bad enough, but when I went all Karen and wrote a letter to the manager, she still continued to work there.”
Know Your Audience
“I was dining in an Italian restaurant with my parents and partner. The young English girl who was our waitress was very chatty, a little over-friendly, and talkative, probably trying to get a good tip.
She started telling us about how the Italian chef in the kitchen was loud and shouty sometimes, then leaned in and said in a quieter voice that personally she found all Italian people to be very arrogant.
We didn’t say anything as we were shocked, but I’ve never been back there again. My mother who was sitting right there is Italian. Seems the waitress was oblivious.”
I Completely Side With The Waitress
“I once ordered mushrooms on my pizza. The waitress looked at the people I was with, made a face, and said, ‘Yuck.’
I was a waitress for several years. Since A) I have manners and B) I wanted to actually get tips, I was smart enough to not show my disgust at customers’ menu choices.”
Sometimes Your Face Says It All
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“On our 10 year anniversary, I took my wife to what was supposed to be the best restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin. It was expensive but we knew that. I wasn’t ready for how expensive. We had reservations and still had to wait. We got the smallest table in the place. While we were dressed nicely, the others were formally dressed.
Our waitress took one look at us and I saw that ‘why me?’ look on her face. We ordered soda instead of anything hard. It took her a long time for her to get our order for an appetizer. The appetizer and our main course came out at same time. We could tell the appetizer was sitting around as it was cold. I had to flag someone else down to take back. It took a long time for a drink refill from her. I noticed she spoke to the other tables she waited on, so it wasn’t like she was overwhelmed.
We finally got our check from her. It was about what we anticipated, however the appetizer was not taken off. She claimed not to know anything about it. I had to have the manager and other server involved. They still wanted to charge for it but eventually didn’t. I knew approximately what my tip would have been based on our anticipated bill, however when she finally showed up to take the check, she said she would be back with my change. I told her it was all there.
When we left she was counting the money, twice with an angry look, kind of like ours. The bill was $51.34, in 1987. A lot of money then. I gave her $52.00. This was based on her, how she served us and treated us.”
No Bloomin’ Onion For Them
“We went to a famous steak chain. It was a Wednesday night and the place was empty. We were seated fairly quickly. Then time passed. We could see a man sitting at the bar watching a football game. Another couple were then seated a few tables away from us. We waited. The other couple got drinks and rolls. We frantically flagged down the waitress.
She asked if we were ready to order. We said we had not even seen a menu yet, and would like some water. The waitress said that due to ongoing global events they no longer had menus. We could access their website on our phones for the menu. We asked her for water. And waited. The other couple received food that smelled great. Their website froze up. We received water and a couple rolls, no butter. We explained about the website. The waitress gave us a blurry photocopied page of a menu, with no sides or beverages listed. We waited. When she finally came back we asked to speak to a manager. She walked over to the man sitting at the bar watching football, and they both turned and looked at us. We had been there about half an hour at that point. We got up and left.
We had a gift certificate (still have it) to that chain. We were planning on a meal that cost over $100 for the 2 of us. But part of the dining experience is good service, and it was pretty clear that wasn’t going to happen. Outback, are you listening?”
I Wonder What Restaurant This Is
“I was extremely sick a few years back and at the time didn’t understand why. I was trapped in a wheelchair and had lost the ability to control my legs (they’d spasm and kick out with me powerless to stop it). As a consequence, I couldn’t cook very often, couldn’t drive for a few months, and rarely left my home. On the rare occasion I did leave, it was both a treat and a painfully embarrassing situation as I’ve always been the type to handle my own affairs.
I hate when others have to help me. I hated being trapped in the rolling prison of a wheelchair. This is all massively relevant, I promise.
My mother decided to take my daughters and me to lunch at a restaurant that prides itself on being ‘old fashioned’ despite having to navigate the ridiculously overpriced and over-filled novelty shop in the front first. I was patient at first.
As time went by, I quickly realized that my family and another group (I’m assuming husband and wife, with the older man in a wheelchair also) were consistently being overlooked every time a table came available even the ones that were clearly wheelchair accessible. The other group had been there before us and after we waited 30 minutes, we were still told it’d be another 20 minutes. I looked over and pointed out the four wheelchair accessible tables and the fact there were only two other groups waiting.
The waitress (probably in her 60s or 70s) rolled her eyes and gave no explanation. She only repeated it’d likely be another 20 minutes. Before I could react the man in a wheelchair started wheeling himself to one of the open accessible tables in the front. His wife was hesitant about causing a scene but the waitress? She grabbed his chair and yanked him back! She started to berate him and yell at him about his disrespect!
My family and I left immediately after reporting the assault on the older man to management who ignored it. We filed a complaint with corporate immediately after. They later sent a gift card and a written apology. I will never go back to that chain restaurant since apparently, assaulting customers is somehow acceptable. She wasn’t fired or even reprimanded. I checked into it.
For anyone confused about my calling that assault? It is. If you can’t grab an able-bodied person by the arm to yank them back, you certainly can’t do that to someone stuck in a chair. It’s the equivalent of stealing someone’s crutches.”
The Backup Plan Sounded More Fun Anyway
“I was in my early 20’s and on a date. My gentleman had made a reservation at what was advertised as an upscale restaurant and when we arrived we were promptly seated at the table that had been reserved for us, but after quite some time we weren’t so much as offered a glass of water despite there being a number of other empty tables and staff doing busy work and/or standing around talking. My gentleman finally flagged down a waiter, actually nearly grabbing him to get him to stop, and asked why we were being ignored. He was told that it was because we had just walked in and sat ourselves down at a table with a ’reserved’ sign and that we were never going to be served because of it.
My date asked for the manager and was told the same thing; the manager, who claimed to be the owner, even going so far as to refuse to check the list for our reservation. So, we got up to leave. I guess the hostess who had seated us finally realized what was happening and said something to him because, as we were walking out, he suddenly ran after us and tried to apologize. We did not go back in; the restaurant went out of business soon after.
That night, all dressed up and nowhere to go, we had a fabulous time eating burgers at a local favorite drive-in.”
