{"id":848,"date":"2021-03-21T09:37:08","date_gmt":"2021-03-21T14:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/?p=848"},"modified":"2021-03-24T18:04:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T23:04:11","slug":"servers-respect-is-a-two-way-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/2021\/03\/21\/servers-respect-is-a-two-way-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Servers: Respect is a two-way street"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"We’ve all been there.\u00a0 Sit down for a meal at a restaurant, giving our order to the server, and the server asks, “Would you like to add <insert special feature here>?”<\/p>\n

You think that sounds good, so you say, “Yes, please.”<\/p>\n

Fast forward about half an hour and you’re presented with the bill and there’s an unexpected charge included.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude10\u00a0 What the deuce?<\/p>\n

Now, to be clear, we’re not talking about adding a skewer of shrimp.\u00a0 Of course that’s going to cost more and is usually listed on the menu.\u00a0 We’re talking about adding a side of BBQ sauce, or some onions, things that are small and insignificant and not listed on the menu.\u00a0 (Steak houses are really bad about charging $2 for 2c worth of onion.)<\/p>\n

There’s a place we frequent that has everything ala carte.\u00a0 In other words, if you want fries with your burger you have to order fries separate.\u00a0 At this place I ask if I could substitute a croissant for the bun on a chicken sandwich.\u00a0 The server said, “Sure.”\u00a0 The whole way it went down told me it would be an even exchange.\u00a0 Nope, it was an extra $2.\u00a0 (This place also does not list prices for it’s specials.)<\/p>\n

Bottom line, it’s dishonest in a lying-by-omission way, not to mention rude, to take an order that includes a charge and not warn the customer they will be upcharged.\u00a0 Stop it.\u00a0 Just stop it.<\/p>\n

One more thing…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Servers… know your job.\u00a0 And I mean prices.\u00a0 For example, almost no menu anyplace includes prices for soft drinks… so I ask.\u00a0 (I have an arbitrary limit I’m willing to pay.)\u00a0 The most common answers I get are, “I think it’s <whatever>.”, or simply, “I don’t know.”, followed by them just standing there like a statue.\u00a0 Ummm, could you go check?<\/p>\n

I will say yesterday we had a wonderful server who knew the price and quoted it confidently.\u00a0 Unfortunately, sodas were $3, which is way too much, so we had ice water… which is better for us anyway.\u00a0 That being said…<\/p>\n

I make them go check because I’ve been burned several times when I accepted the, “I think…”, answer and it turned out to be more.\u00a0 Servers, know your job, that includes prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve all been there.\u00a0 Sit down for a meal at a restaurant, giving our order to the server, and the server asks, “Would you like to add <insert special feature here>?” You think that sounds good, so you say, “Yes, please.” Fast forward about half an hour and you’re presented with the bill and there’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annoyances","category-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":859,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions\/859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}