Bad Service

Lindsey and I went to the new Applebee’s in Ebensburg last night. It just opened last week I believe and this was our first chance to try it out. The food was pretty good. I mean, Applebee’s is generally pretty good, nothing that will blow your mind, but usually will not disappoint, if that makes sense.

This really has nothing to do with the food, instead it has to do with the service. I do not want to say that it was terrible service, but instead it was just awkward. Clearly the girl was new and I am sure after awhile she will pick up the rhythm of waiting on tables.

She took our drink order and then instead of going to get the drinks, she started cleaning off a table. I do not mean she grabbed a few items and kept moving, instead she was wiping it down after loading a tray full of dirty dishes. Then resetting the table-top items. Once that was done, she took the dirty dishes to the back and then brought us our drinks. The entire thing took her about five minutes (when I saw her start cleaning the table, I decided to watch the time, sue me, I am weird).

Once she came back with our drinks, we put in our order. A few minutes later someone delivered our appetizer and our server comes back and just stands there for a second then asks “is everything okay?” She is extremely timid about it and then she notices that my Pepsi is empty and she says “oh, would you like another…” To which I responded, “Pepsi, yes please.” Now, here is something that she needs to learn. If someone is drinking soda and they finished it before the appetizer comes, then just bring another one. It makes sense to ask if the person is almost done with dinner. Also, do not bring out another straw when you bring the refill. Try to help your establishment’s supply cost.

After a few more awkward times coming to see if everything was alright, she comes and asks if we want dessert. We politely decline and she says “would you like the check?” Umm, yeah, unless you want to pay for it. She is holding the book that keeps the check in her hand and even opens it to look at it. She then walks away. A minute or two later she comes back with the same book and drops the check.

Our bill was $29.22. Lindsey only had a $50 and so she puts it in the book and the girl comes by and opens it, looks at the $50 and asks if we need any change. No, you go ahead and keep it. A 71.12% tip seems appropriate. She is gone for almost eight minutes and when she brings us the change, it is in the one way you would not expect. She brought us a twenty dollar bill. Who does that? Either the people are going to ask you to break the $20 or they are not going to tip you well. They are not going to leave the $20. She then apologizes for it taking so long since she had to go in the back to make change. They do server banking, once the manager gave her a twenty, I am sure she could have broken that up from her own tips to make four fives, a ten/a five/five ones, or hell twenty ones! All of those things would have helped her get a better tip.

Instead, all Lindsey had was two ones and I had one. So she got a $3.78 tip, only 12.93%. Even with the weird and awkward service, we probably would have left a $5, which is 17.11%. Hopefully she learned a valuable lesson from this, but somehow I doubt it. She probably went to the back and said “those assholes only left me $3, cheap pricks.”

Author: Ngewo