[quote]When people have very specific orders and extra sauces and special salad requests, I try to write everything down so I don't forget. If I happen to forget a side of ranch for one person with all the the tables Im trying to take care of at the same time, I feel bad about it and apologize and run and get it. I don't know why you "take points off for that." You aren't the only one being waited on. A mistake like that is not intentional, and when the server is sorry and makes it right, you should forgive them and get on with things. Thats really a silly thing to hold against someone who has a million other things going on and they are trying to the best they can. Some servers are lazy and don't care, and that I would " count points off for". But when they make it right when they accidentely mess up, then thats a good server.[/quote]
AllyTiel
First of all, most of the times HONESTLY, it's not a real mistake, it's a LACK OF EFFORT. What I mean by that is that the servers don't compare their WRITTEN ORDER to the FOOD they deliver to you for obvious errors. Also, we have had servers ALL ON THEIR OWN OFFERED to bring condiments out ahead of time, which some of them said so they wouldn't forget.
I feel if you are that forgetful, maybe you should consider bringing it out beforehand, but always ask permission first.
As far as taking points off goes, if you didn't bring it out ahead of time and forgot it, you had COUNT them TWO CHANCES and forgot, so YES, it should be taken off since I have to WAIT to eat my food the way I enjoy it. WHY should you get the full 20% or more if you mess up? That's not fair in my eyes that I should still pay you the FULL AMOUNT no matter how little you TRIED YOUR BEST!!
A good example of laziness is that I recently a few months ago had a waitress that at the table remembered "Oh yeah you ordered ranch and salsa" when she only brought out ONE appetizer which it wasn't busy or anything, this was like around 1:30p.m. on a Saturday. There was no wait for a table and it wasn't that busy or anything. It's not like it was 7p.m. at night or something. I feel and to me it's a fact, when you forget TWO ITEMS on ONE appetizer plate, there's NO WAY you verified that plate, NO WAY!! She just brought it out without comparing her WRITTEN ORDER TO THE FOOD. I also didn't have to tell her, because she remembered BEFORE I had a chance to. She didn't say she was sorry and I even was nice enough to tell her "Thank you." Most servers don't say they are sorry honestly. I was very nice, even telling her I was sorry for having such a complicated order and that I am just a picky eater. So I was nice, WHY wasn't she? Who knows? Why didn't she TRY to get it right?
Then the entrée came, she said something like "I hope they got it right." Which that made me mad, so I just said "the side of mayonnaise. I can't stand the attitude that kitchen staff are the only people that can get things wrong. She could have brought that mayo out ahead of time if she was that forgetful and of course once again she didn't apologize. That time I didn't say "Thank you", because of her being so uncaring by what she said and how she didn't TRY her BEST to get it right. I usually say "Thank you" no matter what, but it's really getting to me now-a-days that I am so sick of the lazy servers out there like her.
My point is,(especially to MarianLiabrian2), I am being nice, she wasn't, so why should I be as nice back when it comes tip time?
She would have had a BETTER tip if she would have said she was sorry, of course. She also would have had a better tip not telling me if "did they get it right" attitude.
I asked for a bag, box, and some containers for the condiments. She didn't write those down and forgot the bag. Another lazy thing she didn't do was write it down and then when later I asked for a bag again, she didn't apologize for forgetting it the first time around. She also didn't listen when I had told her I didn't know about the check yet if I was ready or not, which she ended up bringing it anyway, which after we got the check that we didn't want, we ordered a dessert and some bar drinks making the total from like around $55 or so to $70 there about. Her tip was $5. That's a terrible tip, but she was a terrible server. She's lucky she got something for being such a LAZY and extremely UNCARING server.
My point is, NO MOST servers DON'T TRY THEIR BEST!!
Can you honestly say that you compare the food to the written order BEFORE you bring it out? If you don't, then you aren't trying your best. You are being lazy about it. Try to verify that order BEFORE bringing it out. If you aren't the server that took the order, I bet you don't compare the ticket to the food(assuming the ticket is correct of course), do you? Trying your best is truly trying your BEST and if you can't say you do all of that, you aren't trying your best.
It's one thing to compare the written order or ticket to the food and just miss something once in a while, it's another to not try at all.
Most servers are like that waitress that I just mentioned above. Do you check the orders with what you wrote down? I bet you don't.