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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to complain pizza express head office?

86 replies

frootloop · 20/12/2007 20:53

tonight my dh and i were enjoying a nice meal out and as we were finishing the head waitress comes over and says to us "my waitress tells me that when you last here you short changed us by about £1.50"
this was very surprising as we are very good at leaving the exact change. we said "are you sure it was us?" and she said "yes, she recognised you because you are pregnant" it had been a good 5-6 weeks since we were last there.

i think it highly likely that someone mistook the coins for a tip and this waitress should have given us the benefit of the doubt that it was a genuine mistake before humiliating us, especially for such a paltry amount.

i hate face to face complaining(i blush like mad) so was i unreasonable to email the head office?

OP posts:
Original poster
frootloop · 20/12/2007 21:37

It was GODALMING pizza express.

im off to have a shower and wash the shame of doing a 1 fecking pound 50 bunk on pizza express from my body and have an early night to sleep the sleep of the damned.

OP posts:
lucyellensmum · 20/12/2007 21:40

new girl, i like pizza express, the food is consistently OK, nothing special just OK. However the service varies between OK and dire, so i never tip. I am also very wary about tipping in chain resturants as i worry that it doesnt actually go to the staff.

Maidamess · 20/12/2007 21:40

Yes, write and complain, we did and got....vouchers for free Pizza Express Pizzas. But you don't have to go back to that one.

nametaken · 20/12/2007 21:44

frootloop don't give too many personal details away - you wouldn't want an INTERPOL swatt team raiding your house with AK47's at 5 in the morning looking for the missing dosh would ya??????

OhGiveUsAPruniPudding · 20/12/2007 21:52

It is legal in this country to quote an hourly rate of £0.00 for waiting staff, the remainder up to a ^minimum of to be paid from pooled tips. If you leave a tip by adding the amount to your card payment, this is a pooled tip and may count towards wages; if you leave cash on the table, it is still most often pooled but it doesn't go into the company's coffers before being distributed to staff.

I spent ages researching this and was totally gobsmacked. Even in the US, waiting staff have a low minimum wage and get to keep their tips to make it up to a liveable wage iyswim.

Having said that, I think Pizza Express have a more generous attitude, judging by how long the local staff seem to stay in the job.

RunningGirl · 21/12/2007 09:01

If you're not sure whether or not the staff get the tips then why not ask them? I often check in restaurants and the staff will always tell you. I think it would be most unusual for them not to get it if you're leaving cash though.
As previous poster has said, can't help thinking that if you're a regular yet never leave a tip this could be why you consistently get bad service and why they were so quick to jump on you for the alleged missing £1.50.

Original poster
frootloop · 21/12/2007 10:00

We did tip when we first started going to this particular restaurant, but when you are given a menu and then left for ages before they come back to take your drinks order, then have to wait half a century for them to come back and take your food order, then sit for ages with dirty plates in front of you, then wait forever for the pudding menu, then wait for another half century for the bill, you kind of don't want to tip.

funnily enough though last night we did get very quick service as the place was dead, but after being humiliated we sure as shit were not giving a tip.

i have got a tip for pizza express though, hire more bloody waiting staff.

OP posts:
dylansaunty · 21/12/2007 10:20

We lived in Godalming until 2 years ago. If i remember rightly, there are now loads of great places to eat in the town, so I'd give PE a miss and find somewhere better, there is lots of choice.

SlackSally · 21/12/2007 10:54

'All waiting staff in this country get paid a perfectly reasonable amount even if it is minimum wage so no need to tip anymore unless you feel you wish to.'

Have you ever been on the minimum wage?

I don't think anyone who has would ever describe it as 'reasonable'.

Plus that fact that waiting staff will invariably work antisocial hours and have to deal with complaints which are not their fault. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this waitress was told by her boss to go and say this to frootloop. It IS really rude, but that's not necessarily her fault. And I agree that no one is obliged to leave a tip, but I would question the wisdom of going back somewhere where the service has been consistently below par.

lucyellensmum · 21/12/2007 10:57

I am sorry, but i totally disagree with anyone posting who says that frootloop and her hubby deserve bad service because they don't tip!!! What a crock of shit, you tip because you are pleased with the service and no other reason. If the waiting staff are surly and you have to wait for ages, fuck em. I hate that the bill is presented with a place for gratuities, like it is expected!! You pay enough for the food as it is.

If the service is good, we tip, if not we don't. It often depends on how much change we have on us, if we have to break into a tenner then we wont tip, however we will often leave a fiver if the service and food etc has been really good. We NEVER tip at pizza express EVER!

Money is tight for us just now so we rarely eat out, if we do, we are on a budget, i cannot drink alcohol and i resent paying £3 for a small bottle of coke, so i order water, they are really pissed off when you ask for tap water!! So to have to put a 10% tip down would be too much - that could be about £4-5 in pizza express i guess. Stuff that.

I'm not tight, i remember once DP and i accidentally went into what we thought was a fish and chip resturant in london. OK so it was the west end and quite smart so we might have been being a BIT niave to pop in there for a bite to eat before heading home after a day shopping in china town for a karate suit for DP. As soon as we sat down with though, woooaahh, brace the wallet. It was really funny, we were as scruffy as hell and we looked around to see people dresssed up to the nines, even though they were probably in theri casual clothes. The food was good. But the service was fantastic. The waiters were clearly career waiters, quite possibly owners - they actually genuinely wanted us to enjoy our food and enjoy our whole experience, they even offered us half an hour "rest" before desert. We nearly choked on our posh after dinner mints when we got the bill, but we has such a great time we left a £15 tip!! Its all about service! OK so i know pizza express is a different kettle of fish but its all relative, i wouldnt leave them £1.50!

lucyellensmum · 21/12/2007 11:02

yes, slack sally, i have often worked for the minimum wage, had to do an extremely stressful and responsible job, take shit from angry clients, comfort upset clients and generally work my arse off. I most certainly did not get any tips!

I do agree that it is nice to tip the staff, as this does supplement their wages. Alot of staff are students so could do with the cash. But i am also entitled to enjoy a meal out without the pressure of having to tip.

When clients shouted at me it was invariably not my fault, but it was MY JOB to take this on the chin (within reason) and get on and sort it out. Dealing with customer complaints is the job of the waiting staff in the first instance, if they can;t help, get the manager, its that simple.

BrieVinDeAlkaSeltzer · 21/12/2007 11:08

FrootLoop

Try the Franham one, the staff are lovely.

Original poster
frootloop · 21/12/2007 11:29

I totally agree with lucyellensmum, we only tip for good service and not because its expected, and if they treat their customers badly because they don't tip then they quite deserve it if those customers do the talking with their feet and go elsewhere.

Anyhoo, i got a reply from pizza express and they are ivestigating, i await the results with bated breath.

OP posts:
OhGiveUsAPruniPudding · 21/12/2007 17:47

THe point is, often it doesn't supplement their wages, it pays their wages - I think that stinks, I think the companies who set things up that way are monstrous.
THe only way to know is to ask the manager how their staff are paid, or to resolutely never tip by card, only by cash on the table.

newgirl · 21/12/2007 18:32

i agree froot loop should have had good service but we do have to wonder why the waiter went to the extreme measure of asking for 1.50 - you have to think they were trying to make a point about something

i'm sure the head office will be mortified

i hate the whole tipping thing - seems archaic - i reckon just pay people a good wage and expect them to do a good job

SlackSally · 21/12/2007 18:38

Me too, LEM, and I've never had a job where tips are part of the deal. I was merely objecting to the assertion that the minimum wage is 'perfectly reasonable'.

NAB3hundredbaubles · 21/12/2007 18:40

Did you give them the £1.50???

kerala · 21/12/2007 18:41

Sorry - think not leaving a little tip at least is really tight.

NAB3hundredbaubles · 21/12/2007 18:42

Leaving a very small amount is more insulting than leaving nothing, imo.

Tips should be earned, not expected.

kerala · 21/12/2007 18:45

I disagree! Leaving a small tip at least shows willing. If everyone left a small tip it would add up. Have you never waitressed? It would have to be pretty pitiful service for me (and everyone Ive ever eaten out with) not to tip

Zealot · 21/12/2007 18:52

i always tip, unless the service has been execrable. 10%, and 15% for good service.
funnily enough... the last place i didn't tip was PE after getting a fiorentina where the egg had sat under the lights so long it had gone to rubber. i did metnion it, but it took so long to get someone's attention that everyone else had eaten half their meal and i was in a rush so couldn't wait for another pizza. weird, though, i've never had a problem with PE otherwise and don't think their pizzas are small.

Original poster
frootloop · 21/12/2007 19:43

no we didn't give the £1.50. we know we left the right money and im convinced the waiter thought the coins were a tip, its happened to dh before when he went to lunch with work collegues.

plus they were vague about the amount, said it was about a pound maybe a pound fifty, and only thought it was us. hardly strong evidence for approaching customers this way and after so long.

IMO tips are earned and not a right. if the staff have crap wages they have the option of getting another job, it shouldn't be up to the customer to supplement their wages through being made to feel guilty. if the service is good, we tip. if we are left with empty glasses and dirty plates for ages, we don't.

the best service we ever had was in a little restaurant in new york, we had a sip of drink and the waiter was swooping in to top up our glasses, cleared our plates immediatly and you only had to catch his eye and he came gliding over and the place was very busy, needless to say we left a huge tip, thats what i call service. not some spotty teenager grunting when we ask for more drinks after 10 mins trying to get their attention.

OP posts:
NineUnlovelyTinselDecorations · 21/12/2007 19:55

I used to earn £2.50 an hour as a waitress but I didn't expect a tip. Paying a decent wage is the resposibility of the OWNERS of the restaurant, not the customers. I don't slip the woman who works in the newsagents an extra 12p on the price of my Saturady Guardian just because she might be badly paid. And I don't expect her to spit on it before she hands it to me either.

kerala · 21/12/2007 20:58

But waiting staff are tipped. End of surely.

piximon · 21/12/2007 22:24

YANBU - I can't believe they would cause an embarrassment like that without proof.

I usually always leave a tip unless the service is very poor. Last time I didn't tip was ages ago in a Pizza Express, in Maidenhead. My mum asked for her pizza without capers and it came with them on, also it was so burned (we watched the chef keep leaving the kitchen area to talk on the phone) that some of it was like charcoal. I've worked in catering and I would never serve someone something in such a state. They offered to cook another but by this time she'd gone off the whole idea. DS1 had a kids pizza and his was also on the very well cooked side.

I've never had poor service in a Pizza Express before this occasion though.