Lipstick on a glass

[StepAwayFromGoogle]

So, our family went out to a local restaurant about two weeks ago for my and my Mum's birthday. Ordered drinks, they arrived, Dad took a couple of sips of his wine and realised there was a lipstick mark on the rim.
We called the bar manager over. He seemed really unbothered. Said "I'm sure you can understand that when we're busy a few glasses slip through the net and don't get polished". We were incredulous. Explained it was nothing to do with them being polished, it was to with them being clean. If there was lipstick on the glass we doubt Covid 19 had been cleaned off. My Dad is 74. It could potentially have made him very ill. The bar manager kept saying "I understand" but didn't apologise or seem to take it seriously at all.
We had other issues throughout the meal - each course arrived with one meal missing, we ordered ice cream for DDs and had to chase it three times before finally giving up and asking for the bill.
Mum asked to speak to the restaurant manager who murmured all the right responses in a dead pan way but also seemed to not be taking the whole thing seriously.
The day after Mum emailed the restaurant to complain, focusing on the fact that in a pandemic they weren't cleaning their glasses properly. No reply in a week. Wrote to the chain that own the restaurant. A week later no reply from them either.
Surely this isn't acceptable? Is there anyone we can report them to? They are potentially spreading Covid merrily around the local population.

Have you tried twitter and tagging in the chain/restaurant?

Please don't phone environmental health over this. Do you not think they are busy enough during this time? (To the poster that suggested it)

Mountain>>>>>>>>molehill

If you want compensation or someone to be punished just come out and say it.

Leaving the virus out of this for a moment I still wouldnt be happy with lipstick on a glass at a restaurant. Its something you would think they would check when serving. I may excuse it if at a friends house eating dinner but when you pay for a meal out, it would be nice to think the glasses would be checked, especially if it is a known fact that lipstick survives a dishwasher, it would be standard practice to ensure it was all removed before serving up a drink to the next customer.

What is it you all want op. Compensation?

The manager explained to you lipstick sometimes cakes on and needs polishing off. Logically you must have known it wasn’t spreading Covid. Why did you not believe him and did believe posters on here?

Look if it’s comp they ain’t giving you all money.

Long-wear lipsticks are tricky to budge off glasses in the same way that they can be tricky to get off your lips. Often you need an oil-based cleanser to dissolve the waxes.

[quote StepAwayFromGoogle]@Thisseatisnotavailable - I assumed that the fact that lipstick was on the glass meant it HADN'T been cleaned properly. I had no idea it was as indestructible as kryptonite.[/quote]
Haha!

Kryptonite lipstick, we better warn superman

As others have said it very well could and actually probably had been through the dishwasher but I think it's the fact they didn't notice that's bothering you about it because because you would think vigilance should be high enough that they shouldn't miss things like this during a pandemic.

Lots of lipsticks now are deliberately being sold as long lasting and "stay" proof so more and more if it's on a surface it physically needs wiped off as even the spray and steam from an industrial dishwasher doesn't lift it but it does kill the living elements so in truth it's more like a stain in that the colour stays but all the living parts are dead.

Hopefully this thread has made you feel better about your dad @StepAwayFromGoogle

Count yourself lucky. A maggot fell out of a wrap I was eating in a well known chain cafe. They refunded the price of our lunch but even though they took my email, they never even emailed me to apologise.

I've worked in many a bar and restaurant and certain lipsticks can survive the hot cycle of a dishwasher and literally need scrubbing/polishing off by hand. It's annoying AF for the staff and it absolutely does not mean that the glass isn't as clean as any other on the table. Please don't worry yourself about it OP.

My daughter in law had a similar experience in a restaurant. Dirty cutlery given to a 4 & 2 year old. Then wiped clean and given back without much of an apology. Luckily she had some cutlery for the 2 year old in his changing bag.The Food was also cold after a long wait.

Usually this restaurant was very good, with good service.

She sent an email, mainly about the dirty cutlery and was offered a return visit voucher family voucher.

They sound crap. And unhelpful.

Can't believe all the posters on here explaining how lipstick stays on a glass as if it justifies it.

hilarious. still DONT WANT IT on MY glass when I go out.

And posters expecting you just to suck up the bad service. That you PAID for.

I wouldn't focus on Covid tbh just crap service.

Though if they can't do the ordinary stuff right it makes you worry about the Covid stuff.

"it absolutely does not mean that the glass isn't as clean as any other on the table."

Kinda does though, doesn't it?

We're in the middle of a pandemic. If you're paranoid about the virus, dont eat out. If you're not paranoid about the virus, eat out and accept that restaurants will be as they ever were: sometimes sloppy.

Classic MN too cool for school.

If it's shite suck it up. You're not important.

ODFD.

"*it absolutely does not mean that the glass isn't as clean as any other on the table."
*
😂😂😂

Not unreasonable at all, but I think you should have cut your losses and left though. You've consciously or unconsciously decided that the risk of covid was small enough to continue with your meal and then reward the business with payment,

Sounds like a crappy place anyway covid or not.

Regardless of whether lipstick on a glass could be harbouring germs or not (I had no idea about lipstick, dishwashers, and polishing glasses before this thread) it's pretty revolting, and the manager should've behaved as though he gave a shit. It's his attitude that would piss me off far more than the initial lipstick problem and it's that, and the poor service that I'd mention in a review.

agree with PPs that lipstick can stay unbudged through high temp dishwashers/glass washers.
Not great response though - give them some crap reviews on tripadvisor/google, complain on twitter and move on.

@GreyishDays

Lipstick stays on through a dishwasher sometimes. They need to manually polish it off. So I doubt anything would be living in it, COVID-wise, but it would still look manky.

That's gross. I knew there was a good reason I've never wanted a dishwasher.

I last managed a pub 11 years ago. It was a VERY hard water area and wiping glasses to put straight on the shelf was an ABSOLUTE no-no once they'd come out of the dishwasher - lipstick ones wiped and rewashed.

In covid times there is no reason at all for clean (ie washed by machine in water hotter than your dishwasher at home) glasses to be wiped with a musty teatowel other than to get manky lipstick off before putting back in the machine. Any bar staff I saw doing so would have had a warning back then but now?? Very poor bar management (and you need to get your dishwasher mix right to sort out water stains).

Shit service is still shit service though, no excuse for that

Nobody likes a lipsticky glass. But really, let it go.

Stand down on the Covid thing, moan about the unpleasant appearance.

@Ffsffsffsffsffs

I last managed a pub 11 years ago. It was a VERY hard water area and wiping glasses to put straight on the shelf was an ABSOLUTE no-no once they'd come out of the dishwasher - lipstick ones wiped and rewashed.

In covid times there is no reason at all for clean (ie washed by machine in water hotter than your dishwasher at home) glasses to be wiped with a musty teatowel other than to get manky lipstick off before putting back in the machine. Any bar staff I saw doing so would have had a warning back then but now?? Very poor bar management (and you need to get your dishwasher mix right to sort out water stains).

Shit service is still shit service though, no excuse for that

That's actually a good point. While I agree that it can stay on a glass I wouldn't expect it to not be rewashed once it had been discovered and wiped off before it went back out for use!

@Staffy1. Your comment would be correct if A commercial glass washer used in pubs and bars and a domestic dishwasher were the same things but in fact they are very different and designed to do very different things.
A glass washer uses a liquid detergent and the washing cycle lasts a very short time, maybe only two minutes and certainly no more than 10 minutes. The short wash time and the lack of abrasives in the detergent mean lipstick might not get scrubbed away in the washing process, however the water in the machine is very, very hot so the glasses washed in the machine are sterilised as part of the process.

A domestic dishwasher is very different. They are designed not just to rinse and sterilise but also to remove food/lipstick traces. For this reason the cycles are much longer. The quickest on my machine is 83 minutes and an intensive cycle takes 180 minutes. That’s 90 times longer than a commercial glass washer Domestic detergents or tablets contain abrasives to rub off the food/lipstick particles. That’s why you shouldn’t wash knives or non-stick pans in a dishwasher - because the abrasive agents will gradually wear away the cutting edges and non stick surfaces. Domestic dishwashers also have rotating arms that constantly spray jets of water upward and downwards over the contents of the machine to keep rinsing marks and stains away. And as if all that wasn’t enough they also wash at very high temps to ensure the washed items are also sterile.

All that being said, it’s horrible to get a lipstick marked glass and I always send them back if I get one when I’m out. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the place is dirty or badly run. When I worked in a bar I’d try and spot them and wipe them clean before they were washed as the heat of the glass washer could sometimes bake them on and make them harder to rub away but inevitably the odd one will always slip through.

The OP has accepted that they didn't know it could survive a dishwash and is happy with that explanation. Why are people still giving a hard time?