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wow, there's so much to address here.
first off, boog, i love you and all, but you are TRULY a cunt. there is no excuse in the world for not leaving enough money to pay the check. that is ldo theft, and what i infer from your story is that A) you got your food served to you by a servicewoman and B) you got a bill that properly represented the amount you owed, regardless of how disorderly and unpleasant this process took place, not paying for that service, much less TAKING MONEY from that server is inexcusable. underpaying or ditching a bill to spite a server is not being "cheap," it is indisputable theft.
let me put it this way, servers are paid (except for ~2 bucks an hour which is taxed so heavily that pay checks are sometimes literally negative anyway) through tips. if you went to a restaurant, had a server bring you drinks and the food that you ordered and brought you a bill that properly represents the amount that you owe, you were provided a service (regardless of how terribly it was performed) that you are expected to pay for. if you were truly served poorly, then you can dock them a few bucks and only tip them 15% (if you really wanna get them and they were truly terrible, then i guess 10% is somewhat understandable, but that's pretty low). people like to stiff servers when they believe (and i emphasize the word believe) that their server did a bad job because it makes them feel high and mighty and like they accomplished something or "showed them" or did it on principle or some stupid shit, but as wuf pointed out, it accomplishes NOTHING. riding their ass or, best off, complaining to the manager is going to do much much more than stiffing a server. and if you've stiffed a server, then you've robbed service and neglected your obligation to employ someone who at the very least showed up for the job and did the bare minimum (i sincerely doubt that any of these people that any of you people stiffed literally didn't even take a food order). if someone did a horrendous job, you should tip less than 20%, and if the server did something very obviously and indisputably wrong like get an attitude with you or something, then tell the manager, hope that he/she gets fired, and then never go to that restaurant again, or request a different server next time you go in. if you tip any less than 2 on a 15, then all you're doing is making yourself look like an asshole so that the shitty server can just self-justify by going "man what an asshole" and not learn anything from the experience. all this being said, i've never been stiffed for bad service
as for all of this stuff about what constitutes a bad job and all, boost has it right. i can attest to the fact that 90% of all servers at all chain restaurants are just like that chick from Waiting who's been working at Shennanigan's just a little bit too long. they have very short patience, blame their customers for everything, likely get an attitude with a customer here or there, etc. i am not one of those people and the worst attitude i've ever had with a customer/guest is the rare occasion when i've had a bad day or am stressing at work (it is a really stressful job) or something and i have a hard time being smiley and chit-chatty, so i'm just neutral and kinda personality-less. i've never ever ever been sub-neutral, though, so i can't really speak for this, or defend it or anything, and i think it's a pretty inexcusable trait in a server. if a server has a bad attitude, you should tip less than 20%, and if the server was truly god awful (not just like distant or didn't say all the right things or anything, but like truly getting an attitude with you), then tell the manager, hope that he/she gets fired, and then never go to that restaurant again, or request a different server next time you go in.
as for all of the other stuff that has been classified as bad service in this thread, boost is correct in saying that it's just kinda stuff that happens and it is actually the server's fault FAR less often than the customers/guests give credit for. kitchens fuck up, busers fuck up (food gets sent to wrong table so a whole other dish has to be made) and yes, guests fuck up. little known fact, but studies show that when person A says something and when person B recounts to person A what they had said, and they're in disagreement, it's person A who either misspoke or misremembers what they said far more frequently than person B "mishearing." in the service industry (especially in fine dining) when someone says "i didn't order this," the server is supposed to just say "oh i'm sorry, that's my mistake" and take it back and fix it, so that the guest thinks that it's the stupid little server who made the mistake. of course when you say "i'll take a cheeseburger with no pickles" and the burger comes out wtih pickles, that's just usually because the server forgot to put no pickles into the computer. also miscommunications happen between server and guest that's not really either side's fault but it's the server's duty to make it seem like it was their own. a common example is i work at a tapas bar, so people order a lot of dishes and share a lot of things and all, so oftentimes (especially with old married couples) two guests will be having a conversation with each other while both simoultaneously putting their order in and often contradicting each other, etc. for example:
wife: i'll take the gambas, and frank did you want that octopus?
husband: well i don't know, i thought you wanted the calamari, in which case i wouldn't need
wife: {unintelligble chatter amongst themselves}
husband to me (i think): i want octopus
wife is simultaneously shaking her head no.
they proceed to order 4 more tapas.
i had a hard time of thinking of a good example, but you get the point. sometimes this means that they're getting the gambas and the octopus, sometimes it means that they don't agree at all and i'll have to give them more time, sometimes it even means that they're scratching the gambas and getting calamari AND octopus but relayed that info to me poorly, sometimes the husband is being tongue in cheek and gave me a wink that i missed because i was distracted by the wife nodding her head no, and god only knows if i'm supposed to give the octopus to the husband or if they're sharing it and same goes for the gambas, etc. two of orders of the same thing coming out because both members of the married couple ordering it is a common result of this banter too. obviously i ask a lot of questions when confusing banter like this goes on, but things inevitably get misinterpreted every once in a while and some guests get annoyed when you ask too many questions or you come off stupid, etc.
i didn't mean to spend this much time on miscommunications 'cause it isn't the most common thing that goes wrong, but i think it's something that people who haven't worked in the business don't understand because it's obviously always the other asshole that's wrong. it's probably most important to realize that food (especially entrees) taking a long time to come out is almost never the server's fault. especially since nowadays pretty much all restaurants expect all servers to take all food in the window to all tables immediately, the idea of food sitting up in a window getting cold because the server's on a smoke break or something is pretty much a complete myth. sometimes it takes a server a little longer than they should to put it in the computer but it's easily in the minority of cases (a LOT of shit can go wrong in the kitchen, especially when 4+ dishes all have to go out at the same time and especially at a chain restaurant where most cooks aren't smart enough to have a high school diploma). even when the chef/cooks aren't retarded, you'd be amazed if you came to realize how much can go wrong in a kitchen and realize that it's like 10x's more likely something got fucked up there than someone pushing some buttons at a computer.
as for wuf's comments on clientele's attitude having a direct correlation with a server's attitude, i'm guessing based on your experience and the fact that you call people "guests" that you worked in fine dining. since i've started working in fine dining, i've found your comments to be completely true, but at chain restaurants, customers have the capacity to be dicks to you before you even introduce yourself.
jkds, if you've ever stiffed a server just because an order came out wrong or because they spilled a drink on you, then you're an asshole. you got the service, now pay for it, even if it means that you're only gonna pay like 2 on a 15. i actually spilled a drink on a customer before (luckily it wasn't in fine dining 'cause my boss woulda put his boot up my ass), and it's a shitty thing to have happen, and one could maybe argue that it's the worst mistake i've made as a server, but to say that it means that i don't deserve to get paid for doing my job makes you a self-justifying asshole.
cliffnotes: A) when you receive a service, pay for it. fuck you pay the god damn cable guy for coming out even though they're the worst fuckin' customer service reps in the world. get off your high horse, you're not saving the world by stiffing servers.
B) 99% of the time, you have no clue who and how someone fucked up when something gets fucked up, yet your first reaction is going to be to blame your server. even when i'm off the clock, eating at my own workplace, getting service from someone a know, when something goes wrong, there is almost always 100 potential explanations for it, and there's no way for me to know what happened.
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