Say It Louder For The Spineless Managers At The Back: Stop… Rewarding… Bad… Behavior!

I used to work at a dine-in theater, where you can order food, dessert, alcohol, concessions, etc., all in your seat through a server/waiter and a personal call button.

During the opening week of “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2”, I had a family of four sit down for their first experience at a DIT. I did my usual greeting and had a great conversation with them about what we do and basically explained the premise of the Dine-In Theater. The dad and mom seemed really nice and really excited to be there and get to order stuff. They took some time to look over the menus, and when I came back, they ordered some appetizers, entrees, and drinks.

We were trained to upsell on appetizers, certain entrees, and alcohol especially. I politely asked the mom if she wanted Grey Goose instead of the house vodka in her Cosmopolitan, and she agreed. The dad stuck to his Jack and Coke. I remember her saying something along the lines of, “Might as well go classy.”

Throughout the movie, they pressed the call button at least six or seven times, each time asking for a refill of her Cosmo and his J&C. Each time, I made sure to say, “You’re sure you want another one?” as company policy went when it comes to guests and alcohol. I should have noticed that they kept saying “refill”, though.

I dropped the check around the Snape memories scene and thought “all was well.” But, by the end of the movie, they were the only ones who hadn’t closed out the check yet.

The movie ended, and the family walked out of the theater. The dad was very angry.

Dad: *Yelling* “Why the h*** is this bill so high?!”

I looked it over.

Me: *Politely* “Sir, I don’t see anything wrong. What charges do you think are wrong?”

Dad: “You charged me for fourteen cocktails, and it should be just two! Those were free refills!”

He started yelling about how he thought the alcoholic drinks were free refills, since under the soft drinks section, there was a “free refills” clause. This idiot thought that meant, “OH, FREE ALCOHOL REFILLS, TOO!” and was now demanding to see my supervisor.

My chill supervisor came over and defused the situation by bulls***ting about how that happened to him his first time there, too, and the family walked away with four free movie vouchers.

The “extra” twelve cocktails got comped, and I got tipped zero on what should have been a $190 bill. I hate people.