To think that the rude and nasty cows sat next to us in pizza express this evening

[LEMisdisappointed]

would be rather gutted if they knew that us being polite and nice resulted in a £24 discount!!!

So we made a last minute booking for pizza express this evening - got there and i could sense the staff were a little flustered, maybe short staffed? Anyway, we sat down for our meals, no problems. We ordered and there were a few mistakes - our starters weren't brought before our meal, so they brought them during, they were very apologetic and said they wouldnt charge us. A bit confusing as we were using an offer, but anyway we decided we wouldnt use the code because it would work out about the same price with the free starters so we ordered desserts not on the offer menu - they brought the wrong one for DP, he was fine with it, but they brought him the one he ordered for free - he was pretty happy about that - we joked with the waitress and when it came to pay, she asked for the code, i said, "oh it all went a bit pete tong, we'll just take the free starters instead" but they let us use the code anyway and "fiddled with the bill" resulting in a saving of £24 - very happy bunnies

Whilst we were sat down, a group of three women sat down and were generally dismissive and up themselves. Asked the guy for a taxi number - he said, ok, i'll get it for you - i was about to tell them a number as i know it by heart (on account of it being two numbers off my home number so i get a few late night calls) but i hushed myself shen she said to the guy "no, can you call the number for me" i made a face at DP and kept my mouth shut. Then their drinks were a bit late in coming - honestly the woman made the weirdest face when she announced to the waitress "we have not had our drinks, can you bring them now!" no please, no thank you - and generally a snidey tone of voice. Then at the end of the meal she asked for a box to put the two peices of pizza in that they had left over and the waitress brought the box over or her - said to just put in what they wanted. I swear the woman looked at this poor girl as if she had commited some sort of heinous crime - and told her to put it in the box for her - and made sarcastic comments about the size of the box compared to the size of the pizza. I did turn to DP and say "well, she wasn't going to get her hands dirty was she" I am pretty sure the sour faced cow heard. REally love, you are just not that special, you are not in a michelin starred resturant, you are in pizza fucking express. Even if you were in the bloody Ivy you should still be bloody polite to the people who are waiting on you.

So ha! Little Miss up yer own arse - i got £24 off my bill because i was nice - you got the full price, and the bums rush, beause you were a rude cunt! Yeah the service was a bit pants, but the staff were apologetic and rectified mistakes, so you really should have got over yourself shouldnt you - and yeah, i am feeling smugity smug smug!

[ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

I consider myself personally responsible that Cafe Reale is back on the menu op

[SeaSickSal]

I don't think you really know if anything else went wrong with their meal. Unless you just spent the entire evening just listening intently to their conversation which is a bit weird in itself. Given that you had such bad service I wouldn't be surprised if a few things went wrong.

And, yes, I do think that just being chucked a box and told to put your food in it is rude. I take leftovers home from pizza express quite a lot but they have never asked me to do it myself.

[YouTheCat]

We had a waiter who just kept forgetting stuff today. It wasn't busy as we had gone in for breakfast at F & B's. He forgot sugar and milk for the coffees. He took an age to make coffee in the first place. But he was a nice lad. I suspect might have had a late night previously.

No need to be rude though.

[LEMisdisappointed]

Seasick - of course i listened intently!! The woman had such a loud braying voice it was hard to avoid

Atruth - i thank you from the bottom of my heart - it is the food of the gods! i LOVE it, which is odd because i dont actually like figs

[Milkjug]

But wasn't it your poor service plus discount code that got you a cheap meal, rather than your politeness? Whereas nothing went wrong with their meal, apart from the drinks being late, so no need for discounted bill...?

Also, tbh, their behaviour doesn't sound so terribly bad. I mean, they sound charmless, and it wouldn't dream of behaving like that to any restaurant staff, but if it was mostly a matter of snide expressions and a lack of pleases and thank yous, you do sound as though you were eavesdropping with the express intention of finding ammo with which to hate them...? I mean, who notices whether the next table says please or not normally?

[Milkjug]

But go for it, obviously. Eavesdropping is great.

[CiderBomb]

I completely agree with the poster who said you can tell a lot about a person from how they treat waiting staff. Add to that shop assistants, bar staff, taxi drivers etc. It costs nothing to be civil and polite.

[ChippingInNeedsSleepAndCoffee]

Tell me more about this dessert... it doesn't sound great from their description on the menu?

[MorrisZapp]

True enough cider, but it does go both ways. Paying customers should be able to expect certain standards.

And some waiters, shop assistants etc are appalling arsey tossers.

[HardFacedCareeristBitchNigel]

I work in a hotel. Be nice to me and i will bend over backwards for you. I'll help you get your kids ready for the wedding you are really late for and clear up all the mess. I'll take your kids to see the chickens and give them a box of fresh eggs for you to take home. I'll make sure you've got a tray of nice biscuits and fresh milk to take up to your room with a nice bud vase. I've even been known to bring in a homemade shepherds pie for some longterm residents who were desperately missing homemade food.

Be a wanker to me and you are getting the absolute bare minimum that i am obliged to give you.

[MorrisZapp]

Well anyway op, you went out, had a lovely meal and got pissed. It's better than I've managed tonight. DP is 'ill', all our lightbulbs need replacing so we're sitting in the dark, and I got drawn against my will into a bloody awful film.

I should have taken.evasive action the minute Mtt Dm*ns face appeared on my screen.

It was too dark to find the remote.

[bubalou]

Oh no Morris - not the adjustment bureau - I fell for that one a long while back and switched it straight over tonight when it came up on the sky planner!

[LaVitaBellissima]

Ever long I love Lamb, have you listened to Gorecki? I love the lyrics :)

LEM - good for you, you deserved a discount

[MorrisZapp]

Yes, sadly. I loathe MD, but I actually felt sorry for him. At one point he said 'last time I checked, the world was pretty screwed up'.

My toes may require surgical uncurling.

Decent sex scene right enough.

[WorraLiberty]

Morris if all your light bulbs need replacing, are you sure it's not just the fuse in the electricity box?

[MorrisZapp]

No its not all of them, sorry. Turn of phrase. Just two, but in key places.

Gave up in waitrose. Why can't shops just sell 60watt bulbs like in the good old days.

[WorraLiberty]

Oh right yes I'm with you there

I fucking hate all these low energy light bulbs, they just don't give off the right sort of light!

[ILetHimKeep20Quid]

I can't believe I used the last of my drunk focus skills on reading your op

[Lighthousekeeping]

£24 off the bill isn't that much for pizza express. It's normal for those 2 for 1 vouchers. Doesn't everyone use some kind of voucher in there?

[ILetHimKeep20Quid]

Yah, no one pays full price in pizza express

[kali110]

Yanbu at all. I fucking hate rude people.
Sometimes things go wrong in restaurants, its how the mistakes are rectified.
I worked in public service for over a decade. I just cant go back. Swear people have just got rude in the last few years. I would never speak to someone serving me so rudely especially not someone serving me food!

[kali110]

Morris, ypu have my deepest sympathies. My dp made me watch a fucked up film tonight. He is not allowed to pick folms ever again, some of the crap iv been forced to watch.

[ihearsounds]

Pe screwed up a lot. They messed up orders for more than one table. You don't know if this was the first time those customers had been in there, or even why they were in there.

I occasionally mystery shop. Sometimes my brief is to be a rude customer. My jobs usually come because there has been complaints about slow service etc. My brief includes various scenarios of what I do/say and what I should expect the place to do. And from what I can remember, employee should have put the left overs in the box, not told customers to take what they wanted.

[BenNJerry]

YANBU. I was a waitress/barmaid for years in various pubs and restaurants. Sometimes, on busy days, orders can get messed up. Sometimes service was slow, because the chefs cannot physically cook masses of orders within 10 minutes. If we were busy, we would explain to customers before they sat down that there may be a wait for the food, and if they didn't want to wait then they were free to decide if they wanted to go elsewhere.

I don't care if you're a customer, waiting staff are not there to be abused or insulted. Certainly nobody would mess an order up on purpose, so there is no need to be rude about it. I would never spit in anyone's food as that is just disgusting, but FYI, I have seen what goes on behind the scenes in certain well-known pub chains and I wouldn't want to risk being rude anyway.

I still work in a customer related environment, and it's so bloody difficult to bite your tongue sometimes!