More Truffle Than It’s Worth
I work as a waiter at a restaurant. In the city I work at, there’s a truffle dish that’s widely beloved… and also avaible only in a specific time of year.
One night, during a time when we had it available, I and another server took the order for the same dish from two different people, while the kitchen only had enough for one portion in stock: as we don’t usually write down the time orders were taken, we were put in the awkward position of having to explain that to the patrons. The head manager decided to tell them we were out, while saving the remaining dish for the next day and saying we only had one portion.
The customer I had at my table seemed to be understanding enough to order something else, but the other customer…
Customer: “If you don’t have truffle-oiled gnocchi, why do you have it on the menu? Bring me some!”
Server: “Sir, we are currently out of stock, really, we just had no time to change it.”
Customer: “Fine then, take it off the menu and I’ll leave. Or maybe you can do your job and stop saving it for yourself for after dinner.”
The server leaves, and that seems to be the end of that… until I notice the customer hasn’t left the table yet, and he hasn’t ordered anything else for a while. I decide to intervene.
Me: “Are you fine, sir? Do you need anything?”
Customer: “I’m not leaving ’til my server either comes back and wipes truffle oil gnocchi off the specials’ blackboard, or until I get served it!”
I knew it was a power trip. I knew it would reward his behaviour. But everyone had better things to do than play brinksmanship with some old dude, so I went to the blackboard, and wiped that d***ed dish with my uniform’s sleeve. I then went back to him, who looked red in the face.
Me: “Are you satisfied now, sir?”
Customer: “Yeah, especially now that I left this place the review it deserves on TripAdvisor, you scammers!”
He then got up and walked out huffing and puffing, spitting on the door’s glass before finally, finally, leaving. I went to check TripAdvisor, and he did leave a negative review, but in his version of the story, not being served by his own choice and leaving for free became him being forced by the owner, a twig of a woman mind you, shaking him down for money after not being served a dish we had totally sworn it was available, paying 50€ for the privilege of being insulted.
I honestly don’t get people sometimes.
Question of the Week
Tell us about the worst boss/manager you’ve ever had!
