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 asked the waiter last time I was in our local Pizza Express re: tips and he said the ones on the card are shared between everyone (including kitchen staff) and cash ones they can keep. A good friend of mine worked at that PE for over 10 years part time when she was at school/uni and would regularly make £130 in tips in one night on a Friday or a Saturday night . To be fair to them, the service in there is pretty good.

On a note related to the 'vintage' OP, I once went to a restaurant in London with my boss and a group of clients. At the end, as we were leaving, the manager discreetly approached my boss and handed him a sealed envelope with 'Mr X' on it. When we got back to the office, he opened it and found it was the bill from the previous time he'd been in there (he was a very regular customer) with a polite note saying they were terribly sorry but he had forgotten the bill on that occasion. How nice was that? They didn't chase him out and embarrass him in front of clients when he didn't pay, nor say anything in front of clients when he came in the next time - just quietly handed him the note as he left, which of course he dealt with by paying over the phone immediately.

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

If it was any older you'd be adding your tuppence ha'penny

I got soooo excited to see that FrannyandZooey had returned before checking the date.

Bastarding old thread bumpers

bloody hell!!! this is my old thread!! i forgot i even had that name.

just posting to say---

no, we never did go to that PE again, we moved away about a year or so later.

we got vouchers.

we still only tip if we get good service, not that we go anywhere swish with two young dc.

Worra, that made me laugh!

I used to be like that bamboo, probably in 2007 but now I feel guilty if I don't tip certain professions. It feels far more 'expected' these days. It really has changed.

15 years, stealth? I thought you were only about 21. Or am I confusing you with someone else?

You've just seen my picture and made the natural assumption. I am in fact 32.
Or you may be confusing me with stranded...

I worked at pizza express ten years ago- put me through college with no debt but I worked so hard there.
Brilliant place to work and the only restaurant I would ever eat in again- the standards are so high there and the food is really good quality, as is the wine for what you pay.

Nearly everyone tipped aside from certain groups- eg Spaniards were never good tippers nor the French- maybe a cultural thing.
I tried not to be drawn into the serious bitching waiters gave to non tipping customers but no one wanted to serve the non tippers who dared to return.Everyone knew exactly who they were because it was so rare for a customer to not tip-maybe one table in a night of twenty tables.

The fact is all this bollocks about- I don't tip at the supermarket.....no because that is not part of the deal because it is not the same kind of service where someone is waiting on you.
When you go to a restaurant it is part of the deal if the service is reasonable-if i cannot afford to tip I do not eat out.Who wants to be the table that the waiters remember as being tight cheapskates? However I do not tip taxis, but then have taken so few in my life....maybe they also expect tips...

I am in the US now and 20 % is expected- if you leave 10% you actually insult the waiter! We eat a lot more take out.If any of you visit the US-know that this is the expectation- 15-20 % on any meal where you sit down.

I think it's nice to tip if the service is good and you can afford it. However money is tight these days!