Creating A Wedge Between You  

(I’m the team leader at the club’s bistro, where people need to go to a POS to place their order, so the service staff aren’t the same staff who take the orders. This is an incredibly busy Thursday night as we have a large raffle draw. We normally get around 200 to 250 covers; tonight we have 345 with only six staff working in this area. At 7:15 pm, a patron orders a bowl of potato wedges to come with the meals they have already ordered.)

Staff Member: *brings wedges to table* “Here are the wedges you ordered.”

Customer: “Sorry, these aren’t ours. You must have brought them to the wrong table.”

Staff Member: *takes wedges back to the kitchen after checking nearby tables* “They said they didn’t order these.”

(I go over to double-check on the table.)

Me: “Are you sure you weren’t waiting on anything else? Any sides or wedges?”

Customer: “No, we have everything.”

(The same customer now comes up to me at 8:45 pm, throwing a receipt down in front of me.)

Customer: “Your staff are useless; we didn’t get our wedges.”

Me: “I’m sorry but, just to be sure, you were sitting at [Table #1], right? A member of staff brought your wedges over and you said you didn’t order them, and then I checked to see if you were waiting on anything else and you said you were fine. Did you let anyone know you were still missing items?”

Customer: *begins to walk away*

Me: “Look, sir, I’m sorry this happened. Can I get anything to make up for it? A round of coffees? A refund on your purchase?”

Customer: “No. We don’t want anything… Actually. How about next time we’re here YOU—” *points finger* “–pay for all our meals.”

Me: “Yeah, nah, that’s definitely not going to happen. Look, I’ll talk to all of the staff to make sure this doesn’t happen again and—”

Customer: “Yeah, yeah, I work in customer service. I know you won’t change a thing.”

Me: “Well, not tonight we won’t, but this will ensure mistakes like this don’t happen in the future.”

Customer: *dramatic shrugging*

(Later, he went to another staff member and told her to make sure the duty manager knows he gets his free food next time. The kicker is that he used another member’s card for the purchase and didn’t give us his name or details so we have no idea who he is or when he’ll return.)