The Most Frustrating Fungus Among Us

I am staying at a hotel on a business trip, and our group decides to try the in-house restaurant. We all put in our orders and present our room keys so that the meals can be charged to the corporate cards attached to our rooms. I decide I want to try the stuffed mushrooms.

Now, from the start, it is obvious that our waitress does not want to be there. She is constantly rolling her eyes, grunting, sighing, and just hurling out non-verbal cues that say she wants to be anywhere but at work. On its own, this wouldn’t be a problem. Long shifts are a thing.

When our meals are brought out, everyone’s plate comes out but mine. I think it might just be taking a bit longer, but a few minutes pass with no sign of it, so I finally flag down our waitress.

Me: “Excuse me, miss. Do you know how much longer my meal will take to prep?”

The waitress gives me another disgruntled look and sigh.

Waitress: “Uh, yeah. We’re out of mushrooms, actually.”

Me: *Pause* “Okay. Um…”

I glance at the menu and decide to go with my second choice.

Me: “Could I get the chef’s special salad, then?”

She gives another dramatic sigh but pulls out her pad, notes it down, and walks off. The salad comes out pretty quickly, so we are all willing to just laugh it off. However, when the bill comes out, I find that the stuffed mushrooms are still listed.

Me: “Um, sorry, but you’re still charging me for the stuffed mushrooms.”

Waitress: “You ordered them.”

Me: *Pause* “But I didn’t get them because you were out. I only got the salad.”

Waitress: *In a really clipped tone* “You ordered it; you pay for it.”

I’m getting a bit fed up now.

Me: “No. I pay for what I got, and what I got was a salad. That’s it.”

Waitress: “Ugh, whatever.”

Before I could say anything else, she turned and walked away. Naturally, I was pretty ticked at that point, so I went up to the host stand and laid out my problem to the host. He immediately recognized the issue and corrected my bill to exclude the stuffed mushrooms. We finished up and headed to bed.

I ended up acting on a hunch and mentioned the issue to the desk worker while checking out the next morning, asking them to check to make sure nothing had been charged. I got to see their eyes bulge in shock when they checked through the listed expenses for my room and found that “someone” had billed me, not once, not twice, but SEVEN times for a “miscellaneous purchase” for the same amount of the stuffed mushroom dish.

He immediately went to get his manager, and she got the charges taken off, apologizing for the mixup. Given the look on her face when she heard the whole story, I’m guessing the waitress will be in for a stern talking-to about it, at the very least.