So, there’s nothing servers love more than RCs explaining the menu to us! Or better yet, correcting the menu for us. “Honey, you must be new. Trust me, you guys have potato skins. I don’t know when they took them off the menu, but you have them. We had them here about two months ago. You must be new.” I have personally been working at my restaurant for over three years. We’ve never once offered potato skins in the whole three years. Not only that, my chain has been around for quite some time, and the managers assure us that we’ve NEVER had potato skins. But I’ve had an RC get absolutely hostile with me for refusing to get the an order of the potato skins that they know, without a shadow of a doubt, that we offer as a regular appetizer.
I’ve also had a customer indignantly insist that I remove a signature dish from the table immediately and fetch a manager because the cook added bacon to it. I explained to him that the item in question has, in fact, always had bacon in it. The customer haughtily explained to me that I must be new (why do they always say that?) because this particular dish never, EVER had bacon in it. There happened to be a menu on a nearby table because the server had neglected to remove it, even though their table was eating their meal. I’ve never been so thrilled that someone didn’t do their job properly! I asked the other table if I could borrow the menu, and showed the RC at my table that he was in fact, mistaken, because the menu clearly listed bacon as an ingredient in the item he ordered. “THESE MUST BE BRAND NEW MENUS!” he roared at me. I turned without another word and got my manager, who, of course, explained to the man that the dish he ordered had always contained bacon.
Look, I know the well-known adage states that the customer is always right, but that’s just not true. Sometimes RCs are dead wrong, and you’d think they’d have the decency to admit it, to say, “My bad, I must have missed that on the menu, is there any way I could get this remade, I don’t eat bacon,” or “Oh, it must have been a different restaurant we had the potato skins at a couple of months ago. Well, do you have any appetizers that are similar by any chance?” I’m just saying.
You know, everyone once in a very great while somebody will point out something I'd forgotten or not noticed, but 99% of the time I just want to throttle them!
"Well, this special included dessert last time we were here!" (no it didn't)
"You had Coke last time I was here!" (if that was seven years ago, maybe)
"They let us substitute more meat for the fries last time!" (no, no they didn't)
My favorite is probably when they claim that a manager told them they could have something/sub something, and then they describe a person that clearly doesn't exist. I had someone one tell me that our "black manager" said they could have a free appetizer; we didn't even have any black employees at that place.
I thought of this post tonight when I overheard somebody telling their dining companion that we used to serve potato skins. Not in the last ten years!
I´ve been working in the family bussines for 26 years and some folks come with the new guy quite frequently…"last week we ate that dessert here! you must be new…well sir I have been working here since 1983, but let me check if we have one of those…LOL"
happens all the time! i helped open the restaurant i work in and we just opened on September 1st. but last week, i had a table INSIST we used to have a cheese tray. ummm, no, we didn’t. after “debating” it with me for a good 5 minutes, i asked them when the last time they dined with us was, and they informed me it was “a couple of summers ago” well, that explains it, since we have only been open for 6 months!!!!! of course, they didn’t aknowledge their own mistake with any discernable apology, just a hrmph.