Biggest pet peeves about servers in restaurants?

Question

It's my personal belief that customer service - especially in the waiting/serving department - has gone down the tubes...

What could a server do to guarantee NO tip from you?

What could a server do to give you the highest quality experience possible?

BE HONEST - please no jokes

Answer 1

Heck yeah they expect a tip, this is what they are supporting themselves and a family off of.  I deal black jack, and feel I have excelent customer service 99 percent of the time.  If it wasn't  for the tips I make I would be screwed.  After insurance and 401k, I owe about 250 dollars a week.  Unfortunatley I am human and I have bad days, and it definitely reflects in the tips I make.  Keep this in mind when you go out to eat.  How do you know that the waitress serving you, forgetting to refill your drink, isn't thinking about her electric bill that is going to be shut off, or her broke down car needing repairs, or kids that need jackets....etc!  More than the lack of customer service these days is the lack of compasion.  My sister is a waitress, a single mom of three, and recently had her car stolen from the parking lot at work with all her x-mas presents inside.  She was waiting on an elderly couple, forgetting his soup, he called her over.  After questioning he asked if she was okay.  She told them she was sorry and explained what had happened to her.  This couple had their car stolen out of the same parking lot a year before.  Instead of "stiffing" her because she was stressed out, they left a hundred dollar tip.  they made her day, her week, her month.  Sure there are service people out there who simply could care less what you need.  But before you are quick to judge someone, think about it.  They are only human right?

Answer 2

Ive had servers spill liquid on my table and walk off eithout claening it up. bring me a rack of ribs and only one napkin.

i went to a seafood place and after 30 minutes of waiting on tea and someone to take our order, my friend who was a waitress for her teenage years and in her 20's got up and went to the kitchen door and said hey ive been waiting 30 minutes on my tea, do i have to brew it myself, no one has even taken our order.

i went to another seafood restaurant and the food was lousy and the waitress handed the couple behind me thier bill and asked if there was anything else they needed and they said yes, our food, 22.00 is a lot for tea and salad, which is all you ever bought us, of course thier food was ice cold and hand to be recooked.

my friend ordered a certain cut of fish and it was all you could eat night and it was 30 minutes from closing time, the waitress said we have to save some for the other customers.

i really hate when my drink goes dry and they are chatting up the bar tender.

or when i take a bit of food and they run up and say howiseverythingokay?good! and leave before i can swallow. i just say under my breath, you are so not getting a tip.

i hate being told what to order, i wanted a ceratin dish and the waiter said no thats awful, order this instead, its to die for, i said if i wanted that , i would order it but since i cant tolerate that, then im not .

Answer 3

never refilling the drinks...nothing is worse than eating something spicy and not having a drink to wash it down.

I always tip 20%..and round it up...just me, my boyfriend says that's too much...but if the food comes in a reasonable amount of time, the glasses are filled, the server is friendly and smiles, but isn't too overbearing, and leaves us alone so we can talk...then I consider that top service and a job well done.

you're right, some places they act like you owe them something for just showing up...so even more reason to 'over'tip the ones who really try and show they enjoy their job ( or at least are really great pretenders!) :)

Answer 4

Take forever to take your order....take forever to give you your drinks or respond to your request, mess up on a bill. I once had a waitress who brought us out food and we had to wait another 10 minutes to start eating because she never brought us any silverware....i agree, customer service is pretty much dead!

Answer 5

To get definitely no tip from me he or she would have to take forever to refill drinks, barely check on me, have a bad attitude, or keep forgetting and mixing up my orders.

To get a tip have a nice attitude, refill my drinks frequently and check on me at least twice during my meal.

Answer 6

The worst is when the resteraunt isn't busy, you get seated and they take forever to take your order, then they forget your drinks or something from your order. The server who spends a lot of time complaining. What ever happened to the never ending cup of coffee. I used to go to breakfast and the server would always come around periodically and refill your coffee. Now you have to flag them down, even when its slow. The highest one is one who gets my order promptly. serves my promptly and then stops by once in the middle to make sure I have everything. I also have a problem with servers who come to your table every 5 min., not really giving you a chance to relax and enjoy.

The worst service was at an Olive Garden  The server was irritable, rolled her eyes at me at a request, then proceeded to complain about her job. Oh, and what is this thing with the servers sitting down at your table to take your order???? Not comfortable with that at all

Answer 7

I like a server to keep my drink full and let me eat my meal with only necessary interruptions.  My pet peeve about restaurants nowadays is that no matter what kind of service you receive, people expect a tip!  Some places even just tack one on without asking.  That in my opinion doesn't reflect the true meaning of giving a tip.

Answer 8

I was a waitress for a long time, so there's a long list of things that peeve me.  But I also will say that people expect tips because they are paid a very very low wage.  I think now here in florida they make $3.36 an hour or something.  That's $134.34 (before taxes) on a 40 hour workweek.  Then consider that they have to claim the tips they make and their paycheck is also taxed on that amount.  They don't work for their paycheck, they work for tips. (Seriously, I've had $15 paychecks before...)  Don't blame them, blame it on the restaurant industry.  

But still, there's a lot of servers that just suck.  If they just flat out suck, then fine.  But try to bear with servers when you can see that they're very busy, or that the kitchen is really making the hold up, or the bartenders are being douchebags and ignoring (or too busy for) your drink order at that moment..  Stuff like that is just out of their control.  Can't tell you how many times I got lousy tips and irritated customers cuz the kitchen wanted to d**k around and s***w up, or the bartenders where being jerk offs..  Too many.  

And also, most places make you tip out a percentage of your tips, regardless of how much you make.  Everywhere I worked made you tip out 3% (to tip out to bussers, hostesses and... bartenders, which pissed me off when they wouldn't do their part for us...)  So when you stiff a server completely, you actually cost them money.  Seriously don't do that unless they were complete jerk offs.

But I hate when they don't keep my drinks full or pay attention to napkins, silverware, condiments, etc.  The basics.  Servers that don't care about that stuff get 10% from me.  10% sucks