[rusticgal]

Many years ago when my first son started school, my husband and I found ourselves with an opportunity to pop out for some lunch. We went to a mexican restaurant in Virginia Water. The waiter took our order but did not write it down but he said we were not to worry as he had it in his head. The Restaurant was not busy either.....lo and behold the wrong meal was served and we had to wait for a new order then having to rush the meal to make it back to pick my son up from school....a rare date opportunity ruined.
On Thursday last week we treated ourselves to Pizza Express in Farnham...I love their Pizza's. The Waiter was charming and helpful....then he took our order. My husband has various additions to his Sloppy Guiseppi...I just add mushrooms to a Margarita. The Waiter used the method of 'taking a mental note' of the order much to our horror. Unbelievably he got my husbands order correct but failed to add my one topping of mushrooms to mine...so back the order went. Another drink later and the new pizzas appeared...mine had two toppings this time, Mushrooms and red onion. Now I like red onion but I simply didnt want it on my Pizza...I tried taking them off but all I could taste was onion and there were lots of them.... So third time lucky and another drink later the Pizzas arrived pretty much to our satisfaction (albeit my husbands was slightly burnt)
The Manager was very good and refused any kind of payment...although we were happy to pay for the drinks.
So in future I will NEVER let anyone take an order unless its written down...

Anyone else had this experience??

[Alf]

If these people were payed more for the work they do then maybe they'd produce better standards.

As a customer, you will always be right to them. So just let them know that they got the order wrong and I'm sure they'll go out of their way to make it right.

As someone who works in a similar position, I know that they're under staffed and work hard for sh!t money so will make errors from time to time. But they usually will always want to make sure you get the best service.

But If the waiter didn't write your order down then you would be in your right to politely explain to them to write it down because you've recieved the wrong order in the past. They will always agree with you because they work on a "customer is always right" policy

They do have to deal with all different kinds of customers all the time. Some lovely and some very rude. But they always have to grin and bear it.

I get that when you've paid your money for something that you want what you've paid for. But they will make mistakes. If you let them know politely when they've made an error then they will go out of their way to redeem themselves and will be full of apologies.

Obviously I can't speak for everyone but I know I do. I will just give people freebies on the house when mistakes have been made. It's not coming out of my pocket. I'm like a modern day Robin Hood.

[Oliver_W]

Waiters have their own methods:

Youtube video

[Dogeatdog]

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a restaurant where they’ve memorised my order, mind you when I go to restaurants their tends to be a big group of us so unless the waiter or waitress has Patrick Jane memory skills there’s no way they will remember everything.

At least the manager was nice and helped you’s both the best he could and tbf you and your husband done the right thing by remaining calm after sending the food back twice because that would aggravate a lot of people especially if you’re hungry .

[Cherie]

We have been in situations before where the order has been memorised rather than taken down, I always find it facinating that they trust their memory.. I have the opposite situation now where we go into a place regularly this is in Spain and they have started bringing us the order we had previously its done in a nice way to make us feel like they know us as customers but sometimes I dont want an alcoholic drink or want a different drink but I just grin and drink it because I dont want to offend them

[rusticgal]

Originally Posted by Alf

If these people were payed more for the work they do then maybe they'd produce better standards.

As a customer, you will always be right to them. So just let them know that they got the order wrong and I'm sure they'll go out of their way to make it right.

As someone who works in a similar position, I know that they're under staffed and work hard for sh!t money so will make errors from time to time. But they usually will always want to make sure you get the best service.

But If the waiter didn't write your order down then you would be in your right to politely explain to them to write it down because you've recieved the wrong order in the past. They will always agree with you because they work on a "customer is always right" policy

They do have to deal with all different kinds of customers all the time. Some lovely and some very rude. But they always have to grin and bear it.

I get that when you've paid your money for something that you want what you've paid for. But they will make mistakes. If you let them know politely when they've made an error then they will go out of their way to redeem themselves and will be full of apologies.

Obviously I can't speak for everyone but I know I do. I will just give people freebies on the house when mistakes have been made. It's not coming out of my pocket. I'm like a modern day Robin Hood.

…and they did go out of their way…and the Manager was extremely generous to not ask for ANY payment…as we were more than willing to pay for our drinks.
We noticed our waiter using a machine to take orders from other tables…had he done this with us it would have been plain sailing. But he didn’t for some reason and his error pretty much ruined our meal out. As I said he had been very good up to that point and I’m sure he will have learnt not to do that again.
It’s not cheap eating out anymore…and believe me we will insist in future that our order is recorded in future.

[rusticgal]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

Waiters have their own methods:

Youtube video

[rusticgal]

Originally Posted by Cherie

We have been in situations before where the order has been memorised rather than taken down, I always find it facinating that they trust their memory.. I have the opposite situation now where we go into a place regularly this is in Spain and they have started bringing us the order we had previously its done in a nice way to make us feel like they know us as customers but sometimes I dont want an alcoholic drink or want a different drink but I just grin and drink it because I dont want to offend them

Aawww….I guess they mean well…but they should say “the usual seniorita?”

[thesheriff443]

A few weeks ago went to domino’s pizza
My daughter is very fussy
We get a large pizza with just cheese and red and green peppers no tomato base
I gave clear instructions of wot I wanted
He cooked the pizza but then asked me, you did want just tomato base red and green peepers?

I said no, just the cheese and peppers
So had to wait while he made and cooked the original order

Funny thing he gave me the first pizza, I took just to not cause a fuss
It went in the bin

[MTVN]

Yeah I never really trust it when they do that, ideally I think servers should always write down the order and then confirm it back to the customers just to be extra safe

[LeatherTrumpet]

I think its plain rude and always ends up with something missing

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by MTVN

Yeah I never really trust it when they do that, ideally I think servers should always write down the order and then confirm it back to the customers just to be extra safe

Tbf though any place I've been to where they don't write it down, they've always gotten the order right

[parmnion]

Tbf most of them cant write anyway.

Sloppy customer service, but that's what you get when you allow foreigners to take our customer facing jobs.

[Soldier Boy]

It seems to be a performative? I don't know why they do it. They usually miss something and when they don't, I'm sus that they secretly have a little recording device

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by parmnion

Tbf most of them cant write anyway.

Sloppy customer service, but that's what you get when you allow foreigners to take our customer facing jobs.

If the natives actually applied for these jobs it would help....

[parmnion]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

If the natives actually applied for these jobs it would help....

That's the yoof of today, they've been mamby pambied so much its turned them into lazy, good for nothing, fops!

[Livia]

I waitressed a lot when I was a student. One of my managers told us, a blunt pencil is better than a sharp memory.

[Glenn.]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

If the natives actually applied for these jobs it would help....

This.

Makes you laugh when people moan about ‘foreigners’ but they work like slaves in some sectors.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Glenn.

This.

Makes you laugh when people moan about ‘foreigners’ but they work like slaves in some sectors.

Years ago when I worked in a bar in London there was one woman who was actually English working there all the rest of us were from outside the UK. The bar was near the LWT TV studios and one time they were interviewing English people on their opinions on foreign staff etc and I swear that bitch turned to us and said "no offense but I think jobs should be given to English people over foreigners" etc etc it was so irritating because I worked there a couple of years and only ever worked with 3 or 4 English people and bars have a high turn over of staff, it wasn't because they prioritised foreigners it was literally because they never applied for the jobs and I find it hard to believe she didn't know that as well as I did either

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by parmnion

That's the yoof of today, they've been mamby pambied so much its turned them into lazy, good for nothing, fops!

It's not though, it was exactly the same back in the 90's

[parmnion]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

It's not though, it was exactly the same back in the 90's

Suppose it's all down to the person.. all my nieces and nephews, have taken on **** jobs to see them through college or uni, just like their parents and uncles and aunties did before them in the 80s and early 90s.

Out of curiosity, why did you move to england?

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by parmnion

Suppose it's all down to the person.. all my nieces and nephews, have taken on **** jobs to see them through college or uni, just like their parents and uncles and aunties did before them in the 80s and early 90s.

Out of curiosity, why did you move to england?

I had been aupairing in Boston and while I was there I became very good friends with an Australian girl, She stayed in Boston after I came home but when she was finished she wanted to carry on travelling and working abroad, I was young and carefree back then and she asked if I'd move to London with her so i said yes. So in short just for a new adventure I guess

[rusticgal]

The waiter was very polite…he got us the table we wanted and was attentive..however his decision to not take the order as he should have done pretty much ruined our meal.
I did feel for him…it was a silly error that was avoidable.

[bitontheslide]

there are so many variables in waiter service, and I once had a summer job as a waiter as a student, so i have a little experience.

It has to be a very specific set of circumstances to allow a memorised order. For example, many systems are completely automated these days. The waiter/waitress takes the order electronically, and that gets passed to the kitchen. When the meal is prepared, they wake up the waiter and they deliver. It's also all linked in to their re-ordering and tax systems



If its a family run operation, there is more scope for adhoc ordering, but it's rare these days

[Cherie]

I swear you jinxed us Rusti, Mr C and I went to a small cafe this afternoon around 5pm no one else in there so he wasn't exactly rushed off his feet, and asked for two cheese ham and tomato toasties and two coffees, he relayed the order back to us verbally but never wrote it down, it arrived without the ham