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!

[Florabeebaby]

I was a waitress in a hotel...I was always overly polite even to the nasty ones. it made them even more annoyed when I just smiled my 'yes sirs and yes madams'.
But the chef...he was bad. If they sent food back, he would send it back reheated etc...once I saw him step on a steak before grilling it.
I am nice in restaurants...don't want spit-tea or stepped on steak.
Because it happens.

[ProfondoRosso]

You can always tell the real personality of someone by how they treat their waiter or waitress

^^ This
There is a special place in he'll for braying, rude, dismissive, self important customers. After working in customer facing roles for many years, I never got used to the arse-ness of some people. Their families usually looked pretty embarrassed.

[ProfondoRosso]

Hell, not he'll!

[pixiepotter]

'I am nice in restaurants...don't want spit-tea or stepped on steak.
Because it happens'

..people have gone to jail for doing this

[LtEveDallas]

Ohh reminds me of the chef in the Officers Mess in Tidworth that pleasured himself into the soup. At his courts martial he asked for 12 other offences to be taken into account

Or the chef in a Sergeants Mess in Catterick who took great delight in kicking an obnoxious wankers steak all round the kitchen before serving it up medium rare "well seasoned"

I am ridiculously polite in restaurants.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Yanbu to like that fig thing - it is the food of the Gods. And they do a good bottle of Prosecco too. Otherwise I can live without PE - they never cook the pizzas for long enough.

[CaptainSweatPants]

Was the company dull if you had so much time to listen in on the next table?!!

[fluffyraggies]

I'm always nice to people who serve me. I spent allot of years serving the public in one job or another and i know what bastards 'the public' can be and how refreshing it is when you get a polite, decent customer.

If i have to complain about food i do it as nicely as poss. ... at the END of the meal. Seriously - who would risk pissing off someone who, behind closed doors, is alone with something you're going to put in your mouth!?

I used to work with a PT air stewardess. One of her colleagues was seriously pee'd off with an abusive customer on a long haul flight. She wiped his steak around the TOILET before serving it

[LEMisdisappointed]

I feel the need to explain the table arrangements - our tables were joined on account of an earlier seating catastrophe, so they were effectively on our table. Company was DP and DD (8) so fair to middling

Reminds me of a time that DP and I went to quite an expensive, rustic style resturant one valentines day - they only have bench type tables, so set it up with two couples on the end of each - seriously unromantic, but DP and I had well past the staring into each others eyes stage by then, we did refrain from starting up a conversation with the other couple however.

Moris Zap Enjoy!

[nicename]

Tables are often close together in Pizza Express and some people are just bloody loud!

Last time we went it was awful - we waited ages for menus, drinks, wrong order came, then we watched as the waitress stuck her fingers in the salad to extract some ingredients we'd ask to be left out, and the pizza was cold and doughy. We didn't say anything (we'd just had some bad news and were trying to digest that, so fingered food was the highlight of our evening) and were going to pay up as normal when the manager came over, sat down and said 'sorry you were waiting so long, and that the food wasn't great tonight...no bill and do you want some cake?'.

We really hadn't huffed or puffed or been rude. He obviously knew that it was an 'off night' (really busy and too few staff) and had been watching what was going on.

[BiscuitsAreMyDownfall]

My parents are terrible customers. I can get really embarrassed by them at times. I would hate to serve them.

Then again I dont think either of them have been in a customer facing work.

I always tried to make the rude customers smile. It was like a game with me sometimes.

A lot of customers dont seem to realise that we are just as good as them, sometimes we may even be better. When I was working part time in a cinema while at Uni I had one rude customer who obviously looked down his nose at me as I was obviously lower than he was. As I was getting his drink I casually mentioned to my colleague about how I was leading to a first in my maths degree (OK so I was doing Sociology and got a 2:2). His attitude soon changed to me then.

Im always polite to those who are serving me. They are after all at work and if it wasn't for them then the world would be a completely different place.

[nicename]

One thing I have noticed is that you get more 'don't give a shit' attitude from customer-facing staff these days. In ye olden days, you would get 'service' - polite, friendly service. Now its more common (shops more so than restaurants) to be ignored or treated as an inconvenience. Or have salkes staff selling you products that they really have no idea about.

I'm in London though, so maybe its a London thing!

Either way, mny mum taught me to treay everyone the same, give people the benefit of the doubt and praise good service.

[MorrisZapp]

I LOVE IT!!

[DontGiveAwayTheHomeworld]

When things go wrong, a polite person is more likely to get a discount/freebie than a rude one. If things are going wrong, most of the time the poor staff are rushed off their feet. A lot of places refuse to hire enough staff, or underestimate how many they need.

I used to be a receptionist, that was hell on earth. Having to bite my tongue to stop myself yelling back at arsey people was good practice for parenthood though!

[festered]

YANBU at all. I'm always nice to staff at restaurants unless they're rude to me (doesn't happen often but has done)!
You get treated much better if you're polite, they don't have an easy job especially as so many people are like the ones you describe and get some sort of kick out of being nasty to service staff for whatever reason (ego boost I suppose).
I used to work in a restaurant that had a couple of rich/semi famous people and they were the worst tbh. I witnessed a fellow waitress picking her nose and placing it in someone's burger one time. It's not a myth!
Having said that, I do complain if something is very wrong. But never in a rude way and the treatment from staff is much more important than anything else-I can cope with incorrect orders and anything I can put down to rushed staff or human error.

[youretoastmildred]

These threads blow my mind. It is like the one where the OP said "Oh no my daughter is a waitress and people are being rude to her" and there was a howling rush of posters elbowing each other out of the way to go "I AM THE NICEST PERSON TO STAFF" "NO I AM I ALWAYS HAVE A LITTLE CHAT WITH THEM, NO ONE IS BENEATH ME NOT EVEN SERVING STAFF" "NO, ME, I KNOW ALL THEIR NAMES" "NO I AM THE NICEST, WHEN I AM BFING MY BABY I ALWAYS SMILE AND OFFER THEM A SIP"

For heaven's sake, do you think anyone is going to come on here and say "I snapped at the waitress, she was very busy and I think she was new, but what the hell, she'll toughen up"? Someone must be doing it. I don't know any of you, there is no point in passionately insisting it wasn't you BECAUSE I DON'T CARE

[LEMisdisappointed]

Bless you

[ToTheTeeth]

For heaven's sake, do you think anyone is going to come on here and say "I snapped at the waitress, she was very busy and I think she was new, but what the hell, she'll toughen up"? Someone must be doing it. I don't know any of you, there is no point in passionately insisting it wasn't you BECAUSE I DON'T CARE

It's me, sometimes. If I'm getting poor service I don't go out of my way to be nice to the waitress. I'm not a cunt, but I am proportionate.

OP, YABabitU. You seem ridiculously over-invested. Do you and your DH just sit in silence and eavesdrop on other people? The service sounds crap, I can understand why they got shirty. And whenever I've asked for leftovers to be boxed up the staff have always done it for me, just chucking a box at someone is rude.

And yes, I've waitressed and worked in a shop. It's deeply patronising to think all wait stuff are one with the angels and should be treated accordingly.

[witsalmader]

"NO I AM THE NICEST, WHEN I AM BFING MY BABY I ALWAYS SMILE AND OFFER THEM A SIP"

I laughed out loud.

[Pixel]

So how do we know that even if we are model customers the chef won't spit in our food regardless? He might just be a git!
Being nice in the hope of not getting spit soup is no guarantee...

[HardFacedCareeristBitchNigel]

Spit soup occurs for 1 reason. The waiting staff go into the kitchen and say "the wankers on table 4 that complained about their soup being cold have just kicked off where is their main ?". Chefs are usually arses when you insult/complain about their food or upset the waitresses.

If your food is cold you will get much further saying "excuse me, could you ask the chef to warm this up in the microwave" than shouting and making a scene. We all know cold food is unacceptable, we dont need customers to be a wanker about it too. With the polite response the waiter will approach the chef "this dinner is cold and they have been really nice about it so sort it out".