Sociopaths brag about their crimes on Wait-person website

[KurtNYC]

We have all heard horror stories about restaurant staff getting pissed at customers and finding unhealthy ways to get back at them. But now they have their own website and trade stories with delight about how they have made customers sick, violated health laws, stolen from their employers and customers and the like. Here is a taste:

he waits until the offender orders another drink. Then he swishes the glass into the bar cleanser sink, leaving a light coating of the nasty soap-like chemical on the glass. In the case of beer, the chemical results in a nice foamy head and MAJOR bowel and stomach problems a few hours later. Rob claims he has actually seen patrons run to the restroom.

Thievery:

I just loooove the ones that pay by credit card, leave blank both the tip and total lines on the slip, sign on the dotted lines, and leave both copies of the credit card receipt. Duh!! They have no proof whatsoever that they didn't give me that 50% tip. Thanks!

There are more sad, disturbing and petty items where those came from. These people are actually trading techniques for how to rob and injure their customers. It is enough to make you never want to eat out again.

http://www.stainedapron.com/rev.htm

[skypilot]

1. I used to wait tables but I have to say...

...that I do not sympathize with some of the servers that I've read about on some of these sites. There is another site where they actually post the names of people who have left them bad tips. I do not support this kind of thing.

[On the Road]

2. Personally, I Never Take Revenge

Even if it were justified, it would bother me more than it's worth. But a lot of people do. If revenge is confined to sociopaths, that means a lot of us are sociopathic.

A lot of customers are jerks either because they're clueless or because they have a sense of power and want to take it out on someone. Waiters are just like everyone else. If you treat them like shit, a certain percentage will find a way to get back at you. It is not smart to mess with waiters, cooks, or bartenders.

[KurtNYC]

3. I hear you

I don't think that every waiter/waitress who confronts a bad tipper or problem customer is a sociopath. But there is a huge difference between throwing someone's odd-change tip back at them versus poisoning their drink.

One person on there talked about how they had chased customers in the parking lot and flung their coins at the fleeing car only to be told by the busboy once they went back into the restaurant that the people had handed him $15 directly (this on a $60 check).

[Beaverhausen]

4. Wow that website is scary

I always try to be a pleasant as I can TO all servers. I know what it's like to deal with the public and I think a little extra friendliness on MY part can go a long way. Most of the time it does.

[KurtNYC]

6. Me too - I have been a cook and a waiter

So I know what the other side is like. I have had bad experiences over nothing, over mis-understandings.

We were finishing a meal at a chinese restaurant in Berkeley. The check came and my pants were on the tight side sitting down so when I pulled out my wallet, some change came out with it. I put the change on the table just for a moment, we hadn't gotten up or anything and the waiter comes running to the table, screaming "This is tip? this is tip? you keep it you cheap fuck!"

I thought the guy was going to stab me. Not sure that he ever understood what he had done.

[fudge stripe cookays]

5. Oooohhh this shit burns me up.

reprehensor and I had a little Italian restaurant in our old neighborhood that we loved. We even had our wedding rehearsal dinner there.

Several months after that, we went in again, and had a waitress whose service wasnt that great. AND when R asked her to recommend a reasonably priced wine, the one she got us to order by the bottle was one of the most expensive on the menu.

He was pissed. And we only shortchange on the tip when we get crap service, or something like that happens.

Ater we left, she inflated the tip quite a bit. When we got the bank statement and compared it, r. was furious. He voed never to go there again.

Which really made me mad. It wasn't the restaurant's fault, it was the server's. Finally, about 6 months later, I presuaded him to go back in, and I went straight up to the owner and explained the situation.

He was so apologetic. Knew exactly the server we meant (she'd been fired for doing that!) and even gave us free drinks for returning as loyal customers. That squared it with r. It's still one of our favorite places.

Take that, waitress from hell!

L.

[Susang]

10. You should have contacted the restaurant as soon as you got the statement

I'm sure everyone here on DU knows where I stand when it comes to tipped employees, but that was unethical and wrong (not to mention illegal) for the server to do and the situation could have been cleared up easily with no hard feelings quickly, particularly since you were a regular there.

Unfortunately, the reason some unscrupulous servers get away with that is the fact that nobody takes the time to complain, they just don't go back to the restaurant. This has a boomerang effect, it takes the servers longer to get found out and fired, so they end up scamming more customers and doing much more harm to the restaurant's reputation.

Always say something to the manager, even if you're embarrassed, that's my mantra. They really do want to know and if they don't they're unbelievable fools whose business deserves what it gets.

And that's only one of the many things I've learning in the 20 years I spent in the service industry. ;-)

[northzax]

15. no offense, but when someone steals from me

I don't tend to call them and politely ask for my money back, I call the police. that is theft and credit card fraud, a fedeal felony. If you inflate your tip on my credit card, you can expect to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, just as the restaurant would do if I walked out without paying.

[Patiod]

20. That's what's beautiful about working at a Country Club

The management "inflated" it for you.

We had some old bitches that had never worked a day in their lives, that would snap their fingers and yell "Hon! Hon! the tomato in this salad isn't ripe enough" or "can't you tell the bread is in my sandwich is STALE????!!!" and then cross out the tip.

The management hated them as much as I did, and would always make sure I got my standard/automatic 15%. Club rules didn't allow for "crossing out" the tip, although these old bats did it all the time (to no avail).

I'm not talking about inflating it to 50%, just adjusting it from 0% to 15%.

[fudge stripe cookays]

18. See, I WANTED to.

But a certain someone who pays the bills can be unavoidably stubborn about things like this, and....

Well, anyway. It's cleared up AND we got free booze. Which is always his favorite thing anyway.

FSC

[redqueen]

7. I'm already scared of eating out.

Hostility is a psychic boomerang.

[grace0418]

8. scary

This one reason why I am VERY kind to waitstaff.

I used to work with a very odd guy in a frame shop and if someone was a jerk he would go in the back and wipe boogers on their artwork in some inconspicuous place. I kid you not. He was the store manager and I was the assistant and he even tried to get me in trouble for not working hard enough all the while he was swiping cash out of the register and "voiding" the receipts.

Some people are just fucking freaky.

[Susang]

11. His name wasn't Alex, was it?

If so, I know of worse things he's done. :scared:

[grace0418]

13. No, not Alex

He was a liberal, even if he was a freak, so I better not say his name here. Someone might know him.

[johnnie]

9. I don't trust any place

I have heard too many stories and see too many things. I don't care if it is a dive or a "top rate" place, there is always a chance some idiot will play with your food.
I have had friends who have thrown fits because of the stupidest things and I always wonder if when they got their food back if they were getting some extra gifts with it.
I'm not paranoid, but I don't expect every place I dine at to be perfect. All you need is one cook or server to have a bad day and feeling like they need to get their frustrations out.

[grace0418]

12. Sounds like this person waited on BushCo

"Lone Star New Year
Where was I near the stroke of midnight, New year's Eve, 1997?

Same as last year; lugging bottles of cheap champagne to tables full of drunk cowboy lawyers and their cackling wives. It was a prix fixe dinner complete with streamers, hats and balloons strewn all over the floor. Ours was supposed to be a swanky restaurant, but decorum is not something highly valued among this crowd of Texan ranch owners. Those stout bellied blowhards loved to tie one on and take out their contempt for the less fortunate on us. The more we rushed and smiled, the more brutal they were. "Where the hell is that goddamn Champagne!!" bellowed a graying tycoon, sweating from the alcohol of many glasses of bad chardonnay. He had taken off his Stetson hat and seemed not to care about the pressed in ring it had left in his hair. He charged up to me as though he planned to rip my head from my body.

"Young Lady, do you realize it is five minutes to midnight? You gonna get all of us poured some bubbly by then, or do I need to get yer goddamn manager in here to help you?"

"No sir, I've got it covered,"

I growled between gritted teeth. Everyone in the small private room was either standing in clumps or perched, as with most of the wives, with their Channel clad asses right on the table, laughing, sloshing, spilling ashes, piling plates on the windowsills. My busboy and I began frantically to serve the Veuve Cliquot, dodging stumblers and other busboys and servers assisting in clearing the table. It seemed hopeless; once I thought everyone had a glassful, a shout would come from here or there: "Hey honey, I'm out over here!" and I would have to scramble to refill. The time was closing in. There was no way to keep up with them so Carlos and I, exhausted, just hung back for the moment. Miraculously, one of them noticed the time and shouted to the group, "Hey, hey y'all, it's time! It's time!!" They scrambled for their streamers. "Five...Four...Three...Two...One..."

And in this millisecond, as the partiers reared back to toss out their paper streamers, my eyes hit the huge candles placed along the middle of the table. I started up to intervene but it was too late. "...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!" The streamers were released into air, floating gracefully, crisscrossing, right into the flames. In no time the entire table was ablaze with bright streams of fire. Finding this hysterical, the crowd of wealthy ranchers began to extinguish the fire with spews of shaken beer and champagne. The table was soon covered with ashy, smoking pools of Coors Light. I gave up. This was total chaos. I left the room completely exhausted and disgusted.

When I returned, my friend the Drunk Hathead was spitting at our manager. Something about "lousiest service he'd ever had" and "I thought this establishment had a good reputation". As it turns out, the man was trying to get out of the $270.00 gratuity. The manager was losing the battle, from what I could see, and as I could take no more of it, I stomped back to the table to begin cleaning up. As I began wiping off the stinking remnants of the fire drill, I noticed the man's Stetson sitting on a chair upside down, looking very much to me like a perfect receptacle for my wrath. I discreetly made an inspired concoction of beer, white zinfandel, cig butts and leftover rib eye fat in a wine glass, and deposited all into the hat. I hardly keep Carlos from busting a gut, but assured him we must be very cool.

The man barked at the manager for half an hour at least, and all but the man and his wife had retired to the cigar room. Hanging out seemed too suspicious, so I finally had to leave the scene. It was only with the later report from Carlos, who kept an eye on the scene, that I learned what happened. When the man tried to put on the hat, my cocktail splattered all down his suit, sending his wife into riotous laughter. Apparently he was so pissed at her for laughing he never thought to put two and two together. And as if the gods had seen fit, the man had not only agreed to pay half the gratuity, but was so shitfaced that he added another tip on the tip line in addition, totaling the $270 we were supposed to get in the first place.

—Taj J., Austin, TX"

[Susang]

14. The mention of White Zinfandel makes that story real to me

I have lost count of how many times I had patrons ask me if the Zinfandel on our wine list was the "red" kind or the "pink" kind. :eyes:

[tigereye]

16. makes me think of Kitchen Confidential

hysterically funny but scary book.

[fudge stripe cookays]

19. Yep!

Just finished it. Never order fish on Monday!

FSC

[frictionlessO]

17. My sweet sweet mom worked three waitress jobs to take care of 5

kids all on her own, at the same time. 2 of 'em were cocktailing jobs as well...

I never ever tip a normal gratuity... I always leave more than they expect, and if the joint is a dive they usually get even more. Bad day scenes also get more.

I cant tell you how many times Ive tipped more than my meal cost. Whenever I do it I make sure I get out before the waiter or waitress can see the tip. I dont want thanks, just giving it is enough sometimes.