AIBU to think customers who complain after 5 minutes need to get a grip?

[Coffeecompants]

I work in a hotel in the British Isles which is a popular summer destination, and we're still fairly busy, around 90 guests for breakfast each morning. Breakfast runs for 3 hours, but people can obviously come whenever they like, and I completely understand not wanting to get up at the crack of dawn on holiday. In reality, most arrive around 9am, so we get a fairly busy 30–45 minute period where lots of people arrive at once.

It's first come, first served. Guests are shown to a table and their tea/coffee order is taken straight away, then they have the buffet with hot and cold food, juices etc, as well as an à la carte menu. I'm the barista, so I'm in the back making teas, coffees and toast. Orders come through as checks and I make them in order. During the busy period I can get 10 orders in 5 minutes, so even though I'm pretty quick, a little queue obviously builds up.

Anyway, we're in the middle of the busy period. The dining room is mostly full, people are arriving steadily and I've got about 5–7 drinks in my queue. A colleague comes back from the floor and says, "Do you have a check for table 5? They've complained they've been waiting AGES and they're not very happy." I'm literally putting their drinks on the tray as she says this. I go to check, thinking maybe I’d lost track of time while so deep in my coffee-making groove, or that a ticket had been lost and they'd been waiting 15–20 minutes. It happens to be the order I'd just made and I was placing on the service tray right that second... they’d ordered 6 minutes ago. Six minutes.

Now, if you've been waiting 25 minutes for a coffee and nobody has brought it, absolutely ask. Things get missed, tickets go astray, mistakes happen. I'd rather you tell us so we can sort it. But 6 minutes imo is not long by any stretch of the imagination . During the busiest part of breakfast, when you can see the dining room is busy and staff are clearly working through orders?

People can see what's going on. They can see other people arriving, other tables waiting, staff taking orders, bringing food and drinks etc. We're not all standing around having a nice chat while their coffee languishes somewhere. Yet somehow it's "I've been waiting AGES, better go and complain."
And the thing is, complaining doesn't make the coffee appear any quicker. Someone then has to stop what they're doing to deal with it, which disrupts the order of service and inevitably affects something else.

We get variations of this all the time and this is just one example of an endless list of crazy unreasonable 'complaints' .
Oe recent that stands out (but is hardly unusual for the kind of thing we ge) was man who got absolutely furious because the other guests had apparently "eaten all the sausages". Yes when there have been 30 people art the buffet in 15 minutes, it gets depleted. Obviously, in an ideal world we'd have enough staff to monitor every item on the buffet and perfectly time every refill with the kitchen, but unfortunately we don't have that level of staffing or, as far as I know, magic wands. We apologised and told him the chef was preparing more and they'd be out in a couple of minutes. They were ready less than 3 minutes later. A colleague then took a fresh plate of sausages over to his table so he didn't have to go back to the buffet. He then got annoyed that we'd brought them to him.
Honestly, you couldn't write it.

Maybe I'm just completely jaded from working in hospitality for a while, but sometimes the level of outrage over completely normal things is baffling. If something has genuinely gone wrong, absolutely tell us. But if you're in a busy breakfast room, you've been waiting six minutes and you can see staff working through orders, just sit down and wait for your bloody coffee. Although it does at least give us something to laugh about afterwards when we're talking about how ridiculous you were.

Sorry, realise this was a fairly long post , and I promise that I do actually quite enjoy my job, but it's just these unrealistic demands and entitlement that sour it!

AIBU to think six minutes is a perfectly normal wait, and that some people have completely lost the plot when it comes to waiting in restaurants? Or would you be one of these complaining guests and think that's perfectly justified?

Given there’s a buffet, why don’t you put out coffee/tea makings, like at the Toby Carvery? Then they all help themselves and can’t whinge about minimal wait times.

I would have thought that whoever seats the guests could help with this by saying “I’ll put your order in straight away but as this is peak time it might take 5 minutes or so to come out”.

Alternatively your manager needs to put someone else on hot drinks at peak times.

I wouldn’t complain but I do want my morning tea asap.

I only stay in hotels if there is no other choice and breakfast chaos is just one of the reasons why.

Customers will ALWAYS complain. Its just a fact of life.

Your argument should be with management. If you're not getting food and drink out fast enough despite working hard, it's because you're understaffed. Can you tell management about complaints due to delays caused by short staffing? If you have 90 guests paying, what, £100 a night each, there should be enough money to hire another person for two hours of a morning.

A colleague who is taking the orders just needs to say the drinks will be 5-10 minutes. In a buffet style breakfast, you want someone at the table to receive the drinks, check everyone has their drinks, so the 5 minutes is delaying them getting their breakfast (and they can probably see all the sausages disappearing because there’s nobody to manage the supply on the buffet). Expectations can also be managed as people enter the restaurant with a sign saying during busy times, service may be slower.

I visited a museum the other week and ordered a child’s lunch box and a toastie. They said it would be 10-15 minutes, so after 20 minutes I went and checked where my lunch was. Maybe it means disrupting the queue for someone else or maybe it’s checking that my lunch that I’ve already paid for hasn’t been missed in the hustle and bustle of a busy kitchen. The staff there probably thought I was a pain in the arse because I’d grabbed the bits of the lunchbox already but apparently they assembled them in kitchen, although no sign to say so. A clear sign saying lunch box items would be assembled in the kitchen and more staff would have meant I’ve not made them an extra problem and not had to chase my lunch.

I don't disagree with you that tea and coffee could be out and this would make everyones lives easier. Although (and i'm saying this because this is the response we get from head office whenever we say anything, not because i personally think having tea and coffee readily availible is any signal of the grading of a place!) the hotel is a more 'upscale' not 5 star luxury but higher end, and when we've communicated this with the centralised management (it's small ish 'chain' - although they'd prefer it called a curated collection of independant hotels). They say that that won't do for our establishment and doing so would downgrade it and they do not want to be like a toby carvery or premier inn- which i agree is silly . although filter coffee and tea is a different thing to barista coffee

I agree that tea and coffee should be out to make things easier but also 5 minutes for a freshly made coffee is also not long to wait. Filter coffee and tea should be straight forward to get out quickly anything else I would expect to wait.

Last hotel I stayed in had no decaf coffee options in the machine so I had to ask for one to be made (they had a bar where you can order coffee in the day). It always took around 5 to 10 minutes.

They complain purposely so they can email in later on to say how shit everything was so they can get money back or vouchers. An old boss of mine used to brag about doing this in every hotel or restaurant she went to. Nasty immoral cow she was.

The problem being you and I plus many others who work in hospitality/retail can read a room and work out if they'll be a longer wait or so.
The general public are selfish and think they are the only ones to be served, they don't see everyone else around them.
Also add the fact that employers employ the bare minimum staff because they can't afford to do otherwise and all staff are trying to multitask at speed and it's hard work!

I've also stayed in 5 star hotels that have large coffee machine in the buffet area that use nespresso pods that and people make their own.

Oh yes, of corse we have (constantly, multiple times ) absolutely asked for more staffing but ts a centralised management lots of corporate rubish who have no idea. and theres only so much we can do with what we've got.

But to be honest, its 6 minutes, which is not long either way , and i dont think it warrants complaint or needs particularly addressing as a service issue, its the customer complaining who is unreasonable.

I think the waitress could manage expectations by saying I’ll put your order in now, our drinks are made to order. Please help yourself to fresh fruit juice and buffet.

Maybe this could act as a PSA to mumsnetters who haven't worked hospo and don't possess the skill/awarensss haha

And you're 100% right abought the staffing thing defo the case in my place

People will always complain.

I suppose 6 minutes might seem quite a long time to wait for 'just a drink' - especially as a lot of people will be fine waiting a little while for their food, but they will want their drink whilst they're waiting for it. Many people will also be grumpy and not really be firing on all cylinders until they get their coffee.

The fact that the food is there instantly to help yourself to (assuming that other guests haven't already had the lot) probably makes it seem even less reasonable in people's minds that they still have to wait for their coffee.

Ideally, you'd have more than one person on the drinks - during the busy hour at least... but why on earth go to all the faff and stress of taking hot drink orders and having somebody making them rather than just putting out a machine for guests to help themselves? It sounds needlessly slow and old-fashioned.

I think ideally I’d maybe have tea (with good sized pots and milk jugs please, not just mugs) out for people, and instant/ straightforward filter coffee.

Then if people want a complicated coffee they can order it?

A lot of the things you’ve described do sound a bit like understaffing to me tbh

6 minutes is fine but it sounds badly run, I would say peak times need to be booked in with a maximum capacity, coffee and tea need to be in pots and cafetière’s rather than made to order as such they just get asked if it’s tea or coffee for their table as they’re seated.

Oh yes, they definately do when guests are seated, they're given a rundown of buffet , order , coffees will be out shorty (and if were busy theres an addition of a signal of how it might be a moment )

But also, are you saying that guests/people are incapable of looking around them and maybe thinking, " Oh, it's busy; maybe my coffee won't just appear as if im the only person here?

Honestly the wait for tea and coffee (plus many hotels giving you a Nescafé sachet for decaf) is one reason I don’t usually book breakfast and go to Starbucks or similar instead.

but it is normal for hotels so I’m surprised they complained after six minutes.

stuff running out on the buffet is annoying though.

I understand your frustration, and I personally wouldn't complain - I suffer in silence.
However I do not comprehend why so many places feel thar the making of a cup of coffee should be so labour intensive, slow and noisy (there is another thread about noisy cafes) similar to a riveting in a ship building yard.

I’ve stayed in many hotels in the UK and across the world. Whilst I quite like a barista made flat white, if I am trying to have breakfast before a day of sightseeing, business meetings or R&R then I much prefer either a coffee machine I can use or for just to have decent coffee poured for me from a jug.

That your management think that devalues the brand is one of the reasons I am not keen on UK boutique hotels.

Customers will always find something to complain about and I agree that 6 minutes is too early to complain but then having only 1 person making coffee at a known pinch point seems short sighted to me

Oh yes, they definately do when guests are seated, they're given a rundown of buffet , order , coffees will be out shorty

To be honest, you don't really need a waitress to explain this to every customer - it will normally be obvious when people see the layout; and you can always have a couple of prominent signs.

If the management insist on keeping coffee-making done slowly to order and by staff, rather than installing a machine, they'd be better redeploying a waitress or two and having them make coffee instead!

I stayed in a five star hotel earlier this month that had a coffee machine that guests can use: it only made basic black coffee. If you wanted a latte or a cappuccino or whatever, you ordered that when they took your order for hot food.

Would management consider that - would that protect their precious curated experience..??

Some people are just arseholes.

Had a guy a couple of summers ago. We being battered and there was an hour wait on food as one of the fryers wasnt working and a chef had to go home sick. But people were happy to order and wait it was bedlam. Perfect storm. This guy came in ordered, told wait time (I took his order) and sat down. Then came up twice saying he had seen three tables come in, get their food, eat and leave in the time he had been waiting. Made a MASSIVE fuss, and my boss grabbed his ticket, showed he had only ordered 23 minutes before, had been told it was an hours wait ("OH NO I WAS NOT YOU ARE A LIAR!!!"), refunded and barred him!