To think that service in bars and restaurants is abysmal?

Or tip for it. I'd bet happy with that , like the US, as long as the food was decent standard for the price being charged too. Not many people feel like tipping for a meal that was just not good, no matter if the service was good unfortunately.

Yes, happily I can avoid chain restaurants now our kids are older and past the Frankie and Bennies/Pizza Hut stage. I think they are particularly noticeable post-COVID for not giving value for money for what they offer.

I seem to get great service wherever I go. I ate out in London yesterday at an independent restaurant. Fantastic food, knowledgeable friendly prompt service. Then cocktails at a chain place. Again lovely service and great cocktails. Met DP in a very busy wine bar when I got home (don’t judge!) again friendly service, apology fir the slight wait (it was packed!)

Both of my DD’s have done waiting. Both are polite, friendly and hardworking. They both said that customers are rude and demanding, and managers, in chain restaurants, are poor.

I used to think that, till I went. Now I think it's fantastic. It doesn't matter as a customer if they are just being great because they want a tip. The outcome is what I went in there for, tasty food and friendly, professional and helpful service. So a tip is fair. To be honest, even in a shop or a petrol station where tipping doesn't come into it, the customer service on the whole there is far far superior to most places in the UK. The non-waiting staff at visitor attractions are usually great too. Just really professional and well-mannered. I absolutely adore the American positivity and their polite manner. I'm fed up of surliness in the UK.

Some Eastern European staff in the UK in hotels on Reception etc are outstandingly professional and helpful, when you can find them (Brexit didn't help). There is no way to tip them, they just want to give customers as a nice experience as that is their whole raison d'etre and it's part of professional pride.

And if the untrained manager had anything about them they could get themselves on the internet and do some free training about customer service and staff management. Or buy a second hand book on it, or get it from a library. It just makes for a miserable experience for everyone, staff as well as customers, if nobody cares how good a job they're doing.

There is no career at what I'm doing, I barely get paid above living wage, yet I still manage to be professional. Particularly when you are working in hospitality, it's just professional to be giving people a nice time. That's what they are there for, after all. There is zero incentive for them to come back if they don't have the nice experience they were seeking, and if everyone decided not to come back, the staff would lose their jobs. So there's the incentive?

To be honest, I think that any way it has got worse is just due to lack of staff. Post Brexit a lot of people working those jobs left, the pay is abysmal and usually when it's taking time it's just because there are few wait staff than 6-7+ years ago. I haven't noticed more rudeness, but just sometimes being slower because one staff member is covering a lot of tables or a busy bar.

This.

My dd works in the hospitality industry (front-of-house, back office, and events management), and she's said that at times she has been staggered by the appalling rudeness of customers towards serving staff.

🙄

Some of us have better standards of life that we think people should do a good job even if they aren’t being paid as much as they’d like. Sorry you have such low standards and expectations

I totally agree. It's the same in shops too. Massive queues, being ignored by staff, etc. I worked in retail for a long time so I get it. But something has changed post-lockdowns. It's like the bar was massively lowered and it's never returned to pre Covid levels

Was in London a week or two back. Excellent, and I mean excellent service in many places we went to.
High end (The Savoy) middle of road places, mid range hotels (Tower bridge Hilton) even little pubs down Fleet Street.
Borough restaurants were great, had a lot of brilliant convos with the staff serving us all over London.
Not a single issue anywhere.
Came home to north east Scotland…..great service in bars and restaurants yesterday.
We both work in hospitality and service and know how to treat those who are of service to us.
It’s bloody tiring dealing with the public, and they sure have got very arsey after Covid, which is understandable, but not to the point of abuse.
Watching drivers out and about the city yesterday, wasn’t busy, but you can see the aggression very clearly in a lot of people.

Oh it is. I find in America the level of service is fake and OTT, because they need the tips to top up their salary. There are genuinely nice servers, but it is always tainted by the heavy tipping culture.
I don't blame the staff at all, they need to make a living, but it's a terrible culture. It even tells you on the menu the percentage of the meal you're expected to tip, which was around 20%, it may be more now.
We found some servers rude to us, as soon as they found out we were British, because we have a name for not tipping. One male member of staff in particular was really rude when talking to us, wondered how we could afford the "vacation", in our mid twenties, and eas just generally sarcastic and making comments under his breath about Britain.

This man served all of the American people with drinks who came in after, was all over them, topping their waters up while we were left sitting there, it wasnt busy and he made a point of ignoring us, i had to go and ask for another drink. Little did he know we were prepared to give him a good tip.
We contemplated leaving nothing, but decided on leaving one dollar to show we knew about tips, and that is what we thought about his service. We would have just walked if it hasn't been for the fact our meal had arrived. We aren't usually petty people, but his attitude was awful, and ruined our meal.

Europeans have always managed services better than the blushing reserved Brits. Only the big cities rival Europe for service....
Rural West Yorkshire service is painful...

We ate out on Christmas day (not my first choice or preference) with extended family at an independent pub/restaurant. Booked months in advance, pre ordered etc. The service was just so poor. All of the meals came out at different times, ie 3 roast dinners came out 20mins before the others. It was quite stressful and not enjoyable at all. I appreciate restaurants are struggling for staff etc, but there was no apology/ explanation. They really didn't care.

Depends where you go.
Recently ate in a local restaurant where service was great. Staff were helpful but not overbearing.
Also went to a very posh bar where the service was excellent.

Have also been in a different local restaurant where staff were clueless- asked for vegan menu, got gluten-free menu. Order was partly wrong and an accidental spillage wasn't attended to.

Oh my goodness the horror of kitchen staff not wanting to hang around until after 10pm in the off chance you may wish to order food.

get a grip. You clearly have no clue what it takes to run an efficient restaurant. Most places have last orders by 9.30 which if it takes 30 minutes to cook the food and hour for you to enjoy three courses can mean they are already not able to start cleaning down and putting everything away until 11pm.

So people who can’t afford to pay more should expect crap service? Of course not.

Yes but people will largely go where the prices are cheaper.

I can't say I've noticed any worsening of service. Most places are fine, some are exceptional, some are poor. Same as it's ever been.

@OonaStubbs Your post doesn’t make any sense. The customers dont set the prices.

Service and hospitality staff are paid a pittance.

Pay them more, make the meals and drinks cost more, and you might get better service.

Worst customer service I have ever had was in a restaurant/pub in the New Forest. The staff barely acknowledge us and we ate and left.
We got into our car to drive off and the restaurant door burst open and a man flung himself at the front of our car to stop us leaving. 'You haven't paid" he yelled. We explained that we had paid his colleague and showed him our receipt. He muttered "sorry" and went back in. We were mortified at the cabaret show we had provided for the other diners and drove off as fast as we could. We were so shocked at the whole performance we couldn't believe it had happened.

I hate it when people mention minimum wage on threads like this. Lots of people are on minimum wage .Its not an excuse to be rude and surly to your customers. Your employer sets your wages . It’s also an insult to the many people who work minimum wage jobs who are lovey and provide excellent service.

Given that 3/4 of MN don't think 17 year olds are able to stay home alone for 1 night because there might be an emergency and they won't know how to cope, how their brains aren't developed enough to be considered adult until at least 25, why would you expect the same age group to be able to excell at work?

And whether you are an unpleasant customer or not abuse and violence is now an every day occurrence in both hospitality, and retail. I work retail (mid management) and now have to wear a body cam on every shift for safety. This tends to make you wary and suspicious of most customers unfortunately.