Waiters that deserve to die
Seriously, this is epic.
Its been one of those days. And it started being one of those days really early into it, I should have seen the warning signs and just went back to bed. But no, I'm an idiot. To try and offset some of the early bullshit, Renee and I decided to go out and have breakfast (all right it was noon, but it was still breakfast food, damn it).
I ate out at Mount Vernon Stable for the first time just a little while ago while out with a friend, its easy walking distance from the apartment and I had been meaning to try it. They got good food, food I can actually recognize, and its all decently priced. Most importantly, the place is quiet; I've been there when it was packed almost every table occupied, and the chatter is a background murmur, I can still hear Renee talking to me from across the table. That is actually a real rarity around here, usually you get four or more people in a room and you might as well be sitting in the middle of a packed stadium for all the fucking noise they are making. There's another place down by the Harbor we really love the food there, but don't like going because of the crowd they attract, we often have to have the waitress seat us three or four times because there is always some loud, obnoxious party of five that makes any sort of conversation impossible. I grant you my tolerance for noise is pretty low and its something I often find physically unpleasant past a certain level, but the vast majority of the people of Baltimore seriously need to learn to shut the fuck up.
So, we went to check out the breakfast food. And it was fucking fantastic. Coffee was ... well, less than fantastic but drinkable. Things were starting to go well. We paid for the bill with Renee's debit card, were talking about plans for the rest of the day because it was really nice out and why let that go by staying in the house?
Then our receipt comes back. It takes us a minute to realize that the debit card is not also in the folder. So we ask the waitress where is the card. She tells us to wait a minute, and walks over to where they have a cash register over in the corner. She doesn't come back. She's talking to another waiter. She doesn't come back. Then we see the two of them both suddenly run outside. They are gone for a few minutes. Then they reappear, both of them, walk right by us back to the other side of the room.
Now we're worried. We get her to come over and ask her what the hell is going on? Takes a minute or two to get the whole story out, we heard one version from her, the owner's sister (highest management on the premises at the time) told us a slightly less bad one, we corrected and after a conference some combination of the two was told.
Basically, the card must have fallen out of the folder while she was doing whatever, had her back turned didn't notice. Then the second waiter we saw running around picked it up off the floor when a near by customer of his claimed it to be his own. He already had a credit card for this man, but he was with someone else and a claim was made that he had handed him two cards to split the bill, but if it was done whatever. The waiter handed this man the card, the man left, they don't have a name or any contact info for him.
First thing we did of course was call the bank and cancel the card. And now this leaves us with no cash, no ability to use an ATM, no way to visit a bank (hurray Sunday!), and we still have fucking grocery shopping to do (as in no real food in the house).
The owner's sister is quite apologetic, we're not being charged for our meal, and she gives us twenty dollars of her own money, so now at least we have some way to buy some food for the rest of that day until Renee can get to a bank tomorrow and have this taken care of. No, apologies do not really make up for the massive and entirely unnecessary inconvenience, but its better than we expected. And yes, she assures us the manager, whom she called over this a couple of times, will be speaking to that waiter because he really should have looked at the card before handing it back, there is no excuse for this. Yeah, no shit.
In the meantime, we see this waiter, puttering around, waiting on tables, doesn't even look in our direction. And we are deeply annoyed by this. He doesn't get to walk around us like nothing happened, that asshole owes us an apology, even if our only response to that is going to be you're a fucking moron, he owes us that. Renee got up and asked the woman to send the guy over to apologize.
After several minutes, he finally does. Now what he should have done is come to us on his knees, grovelling, I am so very sorry, I'm an idiot, I'm pond scum, I'm toe fungus, I'm genital lice, I am so completely unworthy of your forgiveness and do not expect you to grant it to me but I beg of you anyway, I am so, so very, very sorry. I mean really, aside from leaving us stranded with no cash for the rest of the day, we have no idea who this shithead that has Renee's card actually is; if this is someone that made a genuine mistake or one who saw a card on the ground and decided to make a play for it. Even if it was a mistake, nobody checks ID plenty of places don't even check signatures, who knows where his next stop was going to be with a card he may or may not realize isn't his? This is a fucking stupid, irresponsible move that never would have happened if he had been paying attention and doing his fucking job.
So what are the first words out of douche bag's mouth? "I have no idea why I have to apologize to you. I didn't do anything wrong." In the bitchiest tone he could possibly manage while still not quite crossing that line from customer service pleasantness to ... well, customer.
This pimple on the inner ass cheek of society insists, somewhat impatiently but still not quite crossing that line, that he did indeed look at the card. He insists it said "Roberts." So he handed it right over. Problem solved, not my fault, I can move on with my day now yes, I'm a busy man with much more important things to attend to.
Like hell. My guess is he quickly glanced at the card and then handed it over without a second's thought; when our waitress came to him with the problem he tried to recall what he saw and that was what his mind came up with (remembered Rs, an O, sure why not?). Are we supposed to believe Renee's card merely vanished into the wind? I mean, it was not returned to us, it was last seen over there where a card turned up on the ground with a customer who "guesses" he must have given you two cards by mistake. But no, you totally got that right, Renee's card must have just gotten up and walked out on its own.
We went right back to the manager's sister. Because he was trying to insist he didn't give the card away, we made him go back there and look for it again; after all, if he didn't hand it away it should still be there, right? And of course it wasn't. We made sure she knew that we were considerably less than thrilled with his so called apology. We told her we really didn't appreciate his attitude like this was not his problem and we were a couple of assholes for dragging him into this. We both told her we wanted him fired, which is not something I usually care to do, but this time I think it was warranted. What he did itself was deserving enough of getting axed, in situations like that you look at the fucking card, you look very fucking carefully at the fucking card, maybe you ask to see some ID just to be certain, I mean this isn't a card he handed to you himself this is something sitting on the floor, best to be extra cautious. This is not fucking rocket science, this is common fucking sense, and his frightening lack of common sense screwed the both of us and could potentially have screwed us worse if the other man had any time to try and use the card. But it was that attitude that was the icing on the cake. Come to us acting all fucking put upon, fuck you, you stupid asshole. You have no fucking business, this is your fucking fault to begin with and we both know it, so shove it up your ass sideways.
Alas, the woman there did not have the authority to fire anyone, though our preferences will be passed on, along with our promise that we would leave if we found him working here, don't want that idiot in the same room with our money. Too bad, I would have been quite happy to have seen him fired personally. We got held up there more than an hour after we initially intended to leave dealing with this bullshit, I'd have gladly stayed an hour longer just to see that.
He did swing by one last time on our way out the door, a bit more humbled than before. I'm not sure if the woman ordered him to get back to us and do a better job this time while we were getting our shit together, or if he just overheard what we had to say and wanted to smooth things over genuinely afraid for his job. He got out an I'm sorry, but then insisted again he didn't do anything. All I said was whatever, whatever you want to think. I was so done at that point, all I wanted was to be out of there.
I do hope they fire shitcake. And who knows, they might. Not just for our displeasure, but all the people around us who overheard everything that happened and were less than pleased as well (lucky it wasn't the couple next to us that had their card misplaced instead, they would have called 911 and had the police down there to make an official report, told everyone as much as well). If not ... well, I hope the next person he gives attitude to after screwing them over with his stupid bullshit fucking kills him with a dinner fork. And I hope I'm there to see it.
Its been one of those days. And it started being one of those days really early into it, I should have seen the warning signs and just went back to bed. But no, I'm an idiot. To try and offset some of the early bullshit, Renee and I decided to go out and have breakfast (all right it was noon, but it was still breakfast food, damn it).
I ate out at Mount Vernon Stable for the first time just a little while ago while out with a friend, its easy walking distance from the apartment and I had been meaning to try it. They got good food, food I can actually recognize, and its all decently priced. Most importantly, the place is quiet; I've been there when it was packed almost every table occupied, and the chatter is a background murmur, I can still hear Renee talking to me from across the table. That is actually a real rarity around here, usually you get four or more people in a room and you might as well be sitting in the middle of a packed stadium for all the fucking noise they are making. There's another place down by the Harbor we really love the food there, but don't like going because of the crowd they attract, we often have to have the waitress seat us three or four times because there is always some loud, obnoxious party of five that makes any sort of conversation impossible. I grant you my tolerance for noise is pretty low and its something I often find physically unpleasant past a certain level, but the vast majority of the people of Baltimore seriously need to learn to shut the fuck up.
So, we went to check out the breakfast food. And it was fucking fantastic. Coffee was ... well, less than fantastic but drinkable. Things were starting to go well. We paid for the bill with Renee's debit card, were talking about plans for the rest of the day because it was really nice out and why let that go by staying in the house?
Then our receipt comes back. It takes us a minute to realize that the debit card is not also in the folder. So we ask the waitress where is the card. She tells us to wait a minute, and walks over to where they have a cash register over in the corner. She doesn't come back. She's talking to another waiter. She doesn't come back. Then we see the two of them both suddenly run outside. They are gone for a few minutes. Then they reappear, both of them, walk right by us back to the other side of the room.
Now we're worried. We get her to come over and ask her what the hell is going on? Takes a minute or two to get the whole story out, we heard one version from her, the owner's sister (highest management on the premises at the time) told us a slightly less bad one, we corrected and after a conference some combination of the two was told.
Basically, the card must have fallen out of the folder while she was doing whatever, had her back turned didn't notice. Then the second waiter we saw running around picked it up off the floor when a near by customer of his claimed it to be his own. He already had a credit card for this man, but he was with someone else and a claim was made that he had handed him two cards to split the bill, but if it was done whatever. The waiter handed this man the card, the man left, they don't have a name or any contact info for him.
First thing we did of course was call the bank and cancel the card. And now this leaves us with no cash, no ability to use an ATM, no way to visit a bank (hurray Sunday!), and we still have fucking grocery shopping to do (as in no real food in the house).
The owner's sister is quite apologetic, we're not being charged for our meal, and she gives us twenty dollars of her own money, so now at least we have some way to buy some food for the rest of that day until Renee can get to a bank tomorrow and have this taken care of. No, apologies do not really make up for the massive and entirely unnecessary inconvenience, but its better than we expected. And yes, she assures us the manager, whom she called over this a couple of times, will be speaking to that waiter because he really should have looked at the card before handing it back, there is no excuse for this. Yeah, no shit.
In the meantime, we see this waiter, puttering around, waiting on tables, doesn't even look in our direction. And we are deeply annoyed by this. He doesn't get to walk around us like nothing happened, that asshole owes us an apology, even if our only response to that is going to be you're a fucking moron, he owes us that. Renee got up and asked the woman to send the guy over to apologize.
After several minutes, he finally does. Now what he should have done is come to us on his knees, grovelling, I am so very sorry, I'm an idiot, I'm pond scum, I'm toe fungus, I'm genital lice, I am so completely unworthy of your forgiveness and do not expect you to grant it to me but I beg of you anyway, I am so, so very, very sorry. I mean really, aside from leaving us stranded with no cash for the rest of the day, we have no idea who this shithead that has Renee's card actually is; if this is someone that made a genuine mistake or one who saw a card on the ground and decided to make a play for it. Even if it was a mistake, nobody checks ID plenty of places don't even check signatures, who knows where his next stop was going to be with a card he may or may not realize isn't his? This is a fucking stupid, irresponsible move that never would have happened if he had been paying attention and doing his fucking job.
So what are the first words out of douche bag's mouth? "I have no idea why I have to apologize to you. I didn't do anything wrong." In the bitchiest tone he could possibly manage while still not quite crossing that line from customer service pleasantness to ... well, customer.
This pimple on the inner ass cheek of society insists, somewhat impatiently but still not quite crossing that line, that he did indeed look at the card. He insists it said "Roberts." So he handed it right over. Problem solved, not my fault, I can move on with my day now yes, I'm a busy man with much more important things to attend to.
Like hell. My guess is he quickly glanced at the card and then handed it over without a second's thought; when our waitress came to him with the problem he tried to recall what he saw and that was what his mind came up with (remembered Rs, an O, sure why not?). Are we supposed to believe Renee's card merely vanished into the wind? I mean, it was not returned to us, it was last seen over there where a card turned up on the ground with a customer who "guesses" he must have given you two cards by mistake. But no, you totally got that right, Renee's card must have just gotten up and walked out on its own.
We went right back to the manager's sister. Because he was trying to insist he didn't give the card away, we made him go back there and look for it again; after all, if he didn't hand it away it should still be there, right? And of course it wasn't. We made sure she knew that we were considerably less than thrilled with his so called apology. We told her we really didn't appreciate his attitude like this was not his problem and we were a couple of assholes for dragging him into this. We both told her we wanted him fired, which is not something I usually care to do, but this time I think it was warranted. What he did itself was deserving enough of getting axed, in situations like that you look at the fucking card, you look very fucking carefully at the fucking card, maybe you ask to see some ID just to be certain, I mean this isn't a card he handed to you himself this is something sitting on the floor, best to be extra cautious. This is not fucking rocket science, this is common fucking sense, and his frightening lack of common sense screwed the both of us and could potentially have screwed us worse if the other man had any time to try and use the card. But it was that attitude that was the icing on the cake. Come to us acting all fucking put upon, fuck you, you stupid asshole. You have no fucking business, this is your fucking fault to begin with and we both know it, so shove it up your ass sideways.
Alas, the woman there did not have the authority to fire anyone, though our preferences will be passed on, along with our promise that we would leave if we found him working here, don't want that idiot in the same room with our money. Too bad, I would have been quite happy to have seen him fired personally. We got held up there more than an hour after we initially intended to leave dealing with this bullshit, I'd have gladly stayed an hour longer just to see that.
He did swing by one last time on our way out the door, a bit more humbled than before. I'm not sure if the woman ordered him to get back to us and do a better job this time while we were getting our shit together, or if he just overheard what we had to say and wanted to smooth things over genuinely afraid for his job. He got out an I'm sorry, but then insisted again he didn't do anything. All I said was whatever, whatever you want to think. I was so done at that point, all I wanted was to be out of there.
I do hope they fire shitcake. And who knows, they might. Not just for our displeasure, but all the people around us who overheard everything that happened and were less than pleased as well (lucky it wasn't the couple next to us that had their card misplaced instead, they would have called 911 and had the police down there to make an official report, told everyone as much as well). If not ... well, I hope the next person he gives attitude to after screwing them over with his stupid bullshit fucking kills him with a dinner fork. And I hope I'm there to see it.