Random thoughts on people, places and things.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

You're a Dick - Here's Your Meal, For Free

We had carry-out for dinner tonight at one of our favorite Italian restaurants. The pickup area was empty with the exception of a man and his son on the bench. I proceeded to check in with our name, pay the bill, and the young woman told me it would be out in a few minutes. Shortly after, the man approached the counter and acted like a complete jerk to the girl, sarcastically asking if toasted raviolis actually take THIS long to cook, etc...

She politely went to check on his order and apologized. When she came back, she had his food in hand and the manager by her side, who comped a large portion of his carryout bill.

I sat there thinking to myself a number of things: a) I'm glad I gave her a tip; b) There are much nicer ways of inquiring about the wait time of your food; and c) Our culture has taught us that we are rewarded for acting like a shmuck. Whine and scream, be a little bit more pushy than you need to be, and people give you something to shut you up.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

And what's worse is when you're with the person that's the dick. My aunt is the biggest bee-otch to waitstaff. And we go eat at a restaurant i used to work at once, and she's pulling the bee-ya-yatch routine after she saw me hugging the waitress and catching up on old times with her like 10 minutes ago. I made sure to throw an extra 25 on top of the 5 my aunt dropped. She was all "that's too much!" I didn't hesitate to tell her that what she had left was an insult. Especially considering we got great service for a full meal for 6. Jeez I wanted to smack her with a fajita skillet.

The D-Bag Daily said...

Joseph, I know what you mean! I have a few family members that have me hanging my head by the end of the meal in embarassment...