to complain pizza express head office?

[frootloop]

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?

I always tip.

I can't believe some people don't even round up when paying cash. Counting out change, blimey. I wouldn't eat in the same place twice.

I think yabu not to tip but this treatment would have sent me APE SHIT! I would have had to give them an intense dressing down the bloody cheek.

OP have you said which Pizza Express it was, you should definitely name and shame them.

YANBU well done for emailing their head office

On the tipping thing, I do normally tip but I will admit the whole 'they deserve it theyre on minimum wage' thing does rankle slightly. There are plenty of badly paid jobs that are difficult where tipping is not the norm, and if you don't recieve good service I really don't see why you should tip

Just so you know the waitress will have had to make that up out of her paltry hourly rate.....we once had to cover 40 quid a big table did not leave....they scampered whilst we were looking after another party. We almost worked for nothing that night.
If you short changed them the correct response is to be apologetic.
So you know.......most people tip at pizza express......you may have one table in a night that did not tip and yes all the waiters think badly of them.....whatever you think about tipping, the truth is as long as service is reasonable it is expected and most cost it into a meal out.
Most do not get the minimum wage on a job hence why you are not tipped.
I suspect for them to take that risk, they were pretty sure youdid indeed leave without enough money for the bill maybe?
If not then yes very rude of them but it may be you made a mistake a waiter had to pay for and that is bad form.

bad if so imo, you should always tip

Why? I pay for the meal, therefore I pay for service. I don't understand this whole tipping thing. They all get paid, why should I give them more?

I don't tip at the supermarket, or the bin man, or the milk man! Why are waitresses different?

I have never had anyone tip me for my work.

Just noticed how old this thread is....why was it bumped?

I'm looking at you sibel35

I didn't notice this was a zombie thread! How strange, I've always wondered why people do this

sibel - how the holy hell did you find this thread? 2007! 5 years old. That's got to be a record

I would love to know how you came across it! did you advanced search a keyword, or rearrange the thread list to alphabetical or, well, just how?

and now lots of people will post, not looking at the date (I've done it myself!) and it'll actually probably kick off again

MNHQ - how many more times do I have to make the case for locking old threads

So what if its an old thread? I don't understand the issue tbh?!

Re tipping. I wouldn't tip just because its the done thing, if its good friendly service then I will tip, if its not I wont-there is a lesson in that for the staff. Maybe some non tippers are being tight but some will think it wasn't deserved.

Mrsterrypratchet. Do you 'round up' if you are buying an item of clothing? Or do you just pay the price? Shop assistants earn shit money too.

Well, I agree that it doesn't matter in so far as it's not going to bring about the end of the world as we know it but it's a waste of your time to post on a thread that's years old. it's a bit like saying "and another thing" 5 years after the conversation has finished. Nobody cares any more

And how much value is there, really, in giving someone advice/opinion several years after they asked for it? If they're even still here.

Lol! How on arth do these threads get bumped?

Not a clue I wish sibel would come back and say, cos I'm dying to know.

-It's not a problem. Nobody is cross. It's just boggling how a years old thread gets found, when you consider that if you were scrolling through threads it would be on page 50!

Its a waste of time posting on most threads on mumsnet tbh but that doesn't stop people doing it.

The thread seemed to have moved onto a general conversation about tipping which was what I was responding to not giving advice.

I know this is an old thread but just wanted to add my 2 penneth

I am a waitress (not pizza express though) and I certainly dont agree that people should tip every time! All waiting staff are grateful for any extra we recieve but it is our job to serve and at the end of the day it is the choice of the customer to tip. When we take card payments the first thing the machine asks is if you want to add a tip and I hate it! I always tell them that they just need to press 2 to move on and enter their pin.
I certainly dont give worse service to people who dont tip, infact I am more likely to try and up my game with them to make sure that they are enjoying themselves!
I have had many Mums apologise about their kids making a mess but I just tell them that my cleaning time is part of the price they pay and to enjoy the rest of their day/evening
Obviously its great when I recieve tips and I must say that I am pretty lucky and usually earn more in tips than wages but I never EXPECT them!

When we go out as a famliy I only tip if the service has been good

I think it would be interesting to see if peoples attitude to tipping has changed since 2007. I know that ours has, money is much tighter with 3 DC now, one salary and everything costing more we only tip when receiving very good service in smaller restaurants, would never tip in a chain restaurant.

I used to tip hairdressers/beauticians but on the rare occasion I go now I can't justify adding 10% to an already hefty bill.

I do give my hairdresser a bottle of wine now and again though.

YANBU. I'd be livid. I've also had dreadful service in a Pizza Express that I had to complain to HO about.

Took me two pages to realise this was 5 years old!

As Bree asked about attitudes to tipping, mine hasn't altered since 2007....I usually tip 10% unless the service was really bad.

However I have never liked the idea of tipping as this wage supplement thing. Companies should pay their staff an appropriate wage, and not expect it to be made up by customers. Sadly though, they don't and me going on a one person crusade against tipping isn't really going to change that so I feel like I kind of have to tip so that the waiting staff do get a fair sum.

If restaurants paid staff a decent wage rather than minimum, the prices on the menu would go up drastically and you probably wouldn't be able to afford to eat there! Its a long hard shift working as a waitress with no breaks whatsever. On your feet sometimes for up to 10 hours, keeping a smile on your face when sometimes customers are incredably rude, tripping over children left to wander round. I work evenings in a restaurant so I am around for my children during the day and school holidays and I can honestly say it is very hard work.

5 years old! All the staff there will be dead by now!

I Damn well hope not :o I worked in a restaurant nearly 15y ago!

No I lie it was over 15. I feel old

Ohhh I love a good zombie thread!

Did you ever eat there again OP?

What response from HQ did you get, after they finished "investigating" it?