How patient are you when you go out to eat?

[AUFred]

My wife and I rarely go out to eat because we have been on a strict budget for a while but when we do we have no patience for long waits and poor service. Usually about 30 minutes for a table is my limit as far as waiting to be seated. Too many other options available.

Poor service is a mood killer for me. We have not been to our IHOP in about 2 years. Not sure if we will ever go back. Last visit we decided IHOP fit the bill after watching a movie. My wife and my son and me were seated rather quickly. The restaurant was not extremely busy so we thought we had great timing. It was a Friday night and the football crowd had not got out of the game yet. Shortly after we were seated a blur went by...our waitress... She said, "I will be right back to get your drink order." A group of about 6 or 8 came in behind us. They needed high chairs & tables re-arranged and other things. Seems they knew our waitress. After tending to all their needs she takes their drink order. She disappears into the kitchen. After a while she comes back through with their drinks. Takes their food order and retreats to the kitchen. By now we have been seated over 20 minutes without so much as water brought to our table. After 30 minutes of being ignored I turn to my wife and son and say, "Time to go." We get up and leave. The first employee to make eye contact with us as we leave gives us a look and I said not a word as we walked out. The register is on the way out and as you can imagine it looked like we were walking out without paying. Not sure if anything came of it that night. I did write a complaint to the manager through e-mail. I got a canned response which told me it was of no concern for him.

 

[Aeval]

What a sin that the first night out in ages was such a poor one!

I'm with ya though, I have zero tolerance for poor service. I'm understanding and I realize that some things are beyond the servers control, but you had a complete and total bitch.

 

[Niamh]

Oh..............I'd be well pissed off if that happened to me, I'd have to have said something there and then though

 

[BleedingBull]

Oh..............I'd be well pissed off if that happened to me, I'd have to have said something there and then though

I would have as well, I'd be fuming for the waste of time. The waitress probably didnt do it on purpose, she most likely forgot that she didnt do it ? no excuse though for a paid worker regardless .

 

[AUFred]

What a sin that the first night out in ages was such a poor one!

I'm with ya though, I have zero tolerance for poor service. I'm understanding and I realize that some things are beyond the servers control, but you had a complete and total bitch.

It has happened to us similarly on a few occasions. The bane of living in a small town. If you are not related or know someone you are not given consideration.

Oh..............I'd be well pissed off if that happened to me, I'd have to have said something there and then though

My wife asked me not to make a scene. I was probably better off than saying what I was thinking.

 

[Niamh]

It has happened to us similarly on a few occasions. The bane of living in a small town. If you are not related or know someone you are not given consideration.



My wife asked me not to make a scene. I was probably better off than saying what I was thinking.

haha, yeah maybe your wife is the more sensible then me!

 

[AUFred]

haha, yeah maybe your wife is the more sensible then me!

She has seen me tear into someone before. She was thinking the scene I was about to make might have been close to nuclear, based on the color of my face.

 

[Niamh]

She has seen me tear into someone before. She was thinking the scene I was about to make might have been close to nuclear, based on the color of my face.

It's soo annoying though, especially when you're hungry, completely ruins the night

 

[Panacea]

I generally am far too patient. I'd win on Boiling Points, I think.
Every now and then I go to the Subway next to work, and it was always filled with decent employees. Fast service, no big deal. They changed alllll of the workers over, and they're loud, rude, stupid, possibly emotionally unstable (glaring, yelling, throwing temper tantrums...I kid you not) so it's been pretty bad.

Last week, there were 12 people in line, and we waited 25 minutes each for our subs to be assembled. eek
It took him around 1 minute to find the wheat bread on the shelf. The other girl was screaming that people were giving her dirty looks.

I wanted to leave, but there was really no other place around I could eat on my diet. and I was hungry. It was ridiculous. I didn't complain out loud because it was pointless, but I plan to complain formally, and I'm never going back. This is incredibly rare for me, but these people need to be fired.

 

[AUFred]

I have struck some restaurants from my list of regulars because of the actions of their managers. When a manager or an employee is acting crazy I would rather go elsewhere.

 

[Darrell]

I am pretty patient, but 30 mins is too long. If you walk past me 3-4 times and never stop, I'll go somewhere else.

 

[Aeval]

I am pretty patient, but 30 mins is too long. If you walk past me 3-4 times and never stop, I'll go somewhere else.

I'm trippin' ya.

 

[HottyToddyChick]

You're nicer than I am.

If I don't have a drink order taken within five minutes (depending on how busy it is), I'm out. I don't have enough free time to sit around and wait. We went one place where I swear we were the only people in there and after about ten minutes the waitress came over to get drinks and we told her we were leaving.

I have never complained to a manager, although I have had one come to the table so they could know how wonderful the server was. It was a Golden Corral, and honestly the best experience I've had eating out.

I did walk out of a McDonald's once because the manager was yelling at customers like they were stupid. Matt asked what I wanted and I looked at her and said "To eat somewhere where the manager isn't a bitch" and walked out.

 

[AUFred]

Being ignored seems far more common here in the Mom & Pop restaurants. Really a shame because you would think in this economy they would try to cultivate new business. Here we are mostly chain restaurants.

 

[Tim]

Maybe they wouldn't walk past you 3 or 4 times if you would just speak up and say something like, "excuse me, you were going to take our drink orders."
There is nothing wrong with politely speaking up

 

[purpledove]

If we see a line before being seated, we normally ask how long the wait is. If everyone in the group is willing to wait, then we all wait patiently esp if we had been craving for that food. Otherwise, if it's too long a wait and we're all hungry, we go to another restaurant and go back some other time to that previous restaurant when they're no longer busy.

 

[hart]

I'm not very patient. If someone doesn't take my order or at least ask to pretty soon, Joe knows I won't be patient unless I have a drink in front of me. But I do speak up. I used to be a waitress and Joe was a manager and we know how hard it is, but we also know what is or is not possible and we tip well.

 

[jassilem]

I will wait for a table.. half hour sometime more depending on the place..

But if I end up waiting to get my drink order taken or food order taken.. I speak up.. I mean.. if you were going to ignore us why did you bother seating us kinda thing.

 

[Hekler]

...I've been in the same type of situation.
Sure, you can complain but if it's a big chain, they don't care.
Someone will come in the door as you leave.

 

[Kyle B]

Just remember that waiters and waitresses are human too. When it gets busy in the restaurant they may forget that they seated you. I'd politely speak up before thinking about leaving.

When I worked as a cashier, there was one instance where I was helping a customer load up her cart with a bunch of 12 pack sodas. I completely forgot about my own register and didn't realize that a customer was waiting to be checked out. Sometimes it just happens. Naturally, I got a lecture from the customer when I returned to my register. Good ol' retail.