Yeah, they know the system.

MIL's birthday so wifey and I take her out to dinner. We have some nice spots in town, from Tex-Mex to Thai to more formal.

No, she wants the Olive Garden.

We were seated right after a larger couple at the table opposite them.

We ordered, things moved along, then the large guy calls the waitress over, something's wrong with his meal. He ate 3/4 of it. Something is burnt. The manager comes over. He comps the meal, that is the Olove Garden picks up the tab.

Next thing you know, the server is back with an entire meal in a box for the fat wife.

Happy with three free meals, they leave.

Left a $3 tip.

I am embarrassed for humanity.

Dan

A friend of mine's X wife used to complain every time we went to dinner with them. Not because there was a problem, but to see if she could get a free meal. I finally told them to not invite us anymore, we wouldn't be joining them. Some people just suck at life.

Oh dont get me started on this. I worked for Outback for almost 8 years, through high school and college. People will try anything to get a free meal. Through that time, I saw 2 legit cases were a customer needed to be compensated. One was a screw from a fridge in their salad and the other was broken glass in a salad. Everyone else was just being pricks. I never understood the whole tipping the server low because you didnt like the food. They have nothing to do with the prep, and in your case, prob expedited the fatties to get more free food.

For the record, my in-laws are those people. My wife as talked to them and they see nothing wrong with their actions. I refuse to eat out with them. They will run a server to death for an 8% tip.

You too?

Recent: a car was broken into at the dealership. The dealership has signs posted 'not responsible yada yada' but we all know that's bullE36 M3, something like this is an excuse to pick some deep pockets. We ix the guy's car for free, no point arguing about it.

He now (five weeks later) provides us with a list of what was allegedly 'stolen' from his car. Among the items: a $399.00 set of 'beats' pro headphones. Why in the hell would you leave a $400 set of headphones in your car? No way to prove or disprove, and the guy knows it. He's being ballsy to fleece the dealership out of around $1500.00.

That makes him every bit as much of a crook as the guy who busted the glass out of his car.

Curmudgeon wrote: You too? Recent: a car was broken into at the dealership. The dealership has signs posted 'not responsible yada yada' but we all know that's bullE36 M3, something like this is an excuse to pick some deep pockets. We ix the guy's car for free, no point arguing about it. He now (five weeks later) provides us with a list of what was allegedly 'stolen' from his car. Among the items: a $399.00 set of 'beats' pro headphones. Why in the hell would you leave a $400 set of headphones in your car? No way to prove or disprove, and the guy knows it. He's being ballsy to fleece the dealership out of around $1500.00. That makes him every bit as much of a crook as the guy who busted the glass out of his car.

More so in my book. At least the guy that broke into the car knows he's a crook.

There's different ways to steal. This guy is doing it with a pen, not a rock, stick, knife or gun. He knows exactly what he is doing. I have seen this too many times.

Most memorable was the guy who had his 'twennytoos' stolen on our lot, he started raising hell saying oh yes we WERE going to replace his swiped wheels, put him in a rental car, pay for his missed time from work, etc. We then discovered they weren't stolen; the wheel rental place had repo'd the wheels for non payment.

Rent wheels ?

In reply to iceracer:

No, you can get your rimz on da payment plan!!! There is even a franchise for them called Rimtyme.

I know a few people like this. Maybe not as bad as these examples, but EVERY time you go out to eat with them, there's ALWAYS something.

Rule! If you go to a restaurant who's name ends with " 's ", don't expect haute cuisine!

Rule! If you order the cheapest thing on the menu, expect it to taste like the cheapest thing on the menu!

Rule! Don't go to a seafood restaurant on the east coast and order BERKELEYING CHICKEN!!!

iceracer wrote: Rent wheels ?

Yup. The biggest playa is Rimtyme, which is a subsidiary of Colortyme TV Rental.

http://rimtyme.com/wheels/rent-to-own-lease-to-own/Home.html

The one and only time I could have gotten a comped meal legit... I found a couple of cooked bugs in the bread.

We were offered the meal free... we turned it down.. we just wanted more (bug free) bread

iceracer wrote: Rent wheels ?

Yes you can, and I wish that I came up with that idea because I would be a rich man now, just from customers within 10 miles of where I live.

This goes both ways.

Downers Grove, Illinois Omega restaurant owes Village $8,500, then another $6,000 for past water bills. The electric company also shut him down a few weeks earlier for non-payment. And a few workers picketed for not getting paid.

http://downersgrove.patch.com/articles/omega-restauant-will-not-re-open-owner-says

They were then robbed of $28,000 of electronics when they were closed.

http://downersgrove.patch.com/articles/police-blotter-28-000-in-electronics-stolen-from-omega-restaurant

Too bad as the food was decent a few years ago....

Datsun310Guy wrote: Too bad as the food was decent a few years ago....

Damn shame. I have lots of fond memories of that place. Mostly form 20+ years ago, but I've been there a few times in the past five years or so.

mad_machine wrote: The one and only time I could have gotten a comped meal legit... I found a couple of cooked bugs in the bread. We were offered the meal free... we turned it down.. we just wanted more (bug free) bread

I'm just glad to hear that there are other people that do this. I think a lot of the people who don't just have never known anyone who works in the industry.

Or maybe they're just shiny happy people who don't care about anyone but themselves.

There are two problems at work here. People who think it's ok to game the system as they are only hurting some evil faceless company and companies that are so focused on nonsense customer service reviews that managers on a store level are afraid to tell customers to go berkeley themselves.

A lot of our problems would be solved if more people had to try to work in a small business to see how everything that goes on has an effect on how business run. The same goes to tipping. I have some relatives I won't go out with because they have no idea how to take care of their servers and i end up making up the difference. I have been on that end and now that I am making decent money I try to always do good by people.

Curmudgeon wrote: Yup. The biggest playa is Rimtyme, which is a subsidiary of Colortyme TV Rental. http://rimtyme.com/wheels/rent-to-own-lease-to-own/Home.html

I... you gotta be...

"RimTyme leases a number of repurenttable tire brands to keep your ride rolling reliably down the road."

Hope we don't have to bail out every baller who can't afford his "rim" payments.

I have no problem bitching about bad food/service, or whatever, but I've never intentionally tried to get a free meal. A few years ago, I got some cole slaw with my ribs, and just as I was putting it in my mouth, my nose caught a wiff, but it was too late. I spit it out on the table, it was so bad. I got a freebie on that one, and didn't leave a tip, and didn't feel bad about it. If I'm taking food to somebody, I'm going to make sure it's OK first. Clearly she didn't.

We have a restaurant similar to Olive garden here. Free salad and small loaves of bread with your meal. We eat quite a bit of the "free" salad and bread, and my wife typically takes most of her entree home for lunch or supper the next day. Is that acceptable?

friedgreencorrado wrote:

mad_machine wrote: The one and only time I could have gotten a comped meal legit... I found a couple of cooked bugs in the bread. We were offered the meal free... we turned it down.. we just wanted more (bug free) bread

I'm just glad to hear that there are other people that do this. I think a lot of the people who don't just have never known anyone who works in the industry. Or maybe they're just shiny happy people who don't care about anyone but themselves.

Eh, if there's a legit problem, I'll accept comped food and see no reason to feel guilty for doing so. If I berkeley up working on something I fix my mistakes at no cost to the customer, I just see it as the same thing.

I've had one comped meal in my life due to a problem, and one due to the manager deciding on her own initiative that we had been waiting ridiculously long. We were, but we expected it going in and had not complained. Took the meal, ordered some extras (that weren't comped) and left a very large tip on the theoretical total.

Zomby Woof wrote: We have a restaurant similar to Olive garden here. Free salad and small loaves of bread with your meal. We eat quite a bit of the "free" salad and bread, and my wife typically takes most of her entree home for lunch or supper the next day. Is that acceptable?

That's different, if they keep bringing it out free enjoy. The problem child Dan's talking about is the professional complainer The same person that comes in everytime and does the same thing, and do it wherever they go. It's one of the thing I hate about dealing with the public. I have one that doesn't even ride the bus but he has to much free time so he sits across the street from me and compiles a list of what every bus driver did incorrectly in his mind and what I didn't do to discipline him. And ofcourse since customer happiness is our goal someone in our office responds with a nice letter and phone call thanking him for his time and comes to me so I can have the drivers do what will make this idiot happy, regardless of what our actually policy is.

In reply to keethrax:

Hey, as long as you left a good tip, IMO you're good. I guess my bias is showing. Most of the folks I know personally are servers, and they really don't have much to do with the quality of the meal. If the server is cool about expressing your complaints to the kitchen or manager instead of trying to make excuses, they're still working for you.

Full Disclosure: Only comped meals I've ever had--I knew the manager of a bar/restaurant in a small town in Mississippi. The rules were that a place serving beer had to make 50% of their profits in food sales. Sometimes when the receipts from the bar and the restaurant weren't quite "legal" after they were combined, he'd throw a few meals at friends or "regulars" out of his own pocket to skew the night's results so that the place could keep their alcohol license.

friedgreencorrado wrote: In reply to keethrax: Hey, as long as you left a good tip, IMO you're good. I guess my bias is showing. Most of the folks I know personally are servers, and they really don't have much to do with the quality of the meal. If the server is cool about expressing your complaints to the kitchen or manager instead of trying to make excuses, they're still working for *you*.

I almost always leave a good tip. And I never leave a bad tip for things beyond the server's control. I have left two bad tips in the past, but they've all been related to truly egregious service.

I've waited my share of tables, my dad waited tables, my mom's been a waitress for the better part of thirty years. You bet your ass I tip well unless there's a very good reason.

I almost always tip generously. My first ex-wife worked as a waitress for a while & our daughter has done the same. I almost never leave a bad tip but when the service is poor enough to warrent a bad tip, the wait person gets a note suggesting a career change & the reasons why.

iceracer wrote: Rent wheels ?

I once walked into a place like that and asked how much it would be to rent a set of Hoosiers on Kosei K1s for a weekend. They looked at me like I'd grown an extra head.

On the original topic, I did complain about a genuinely off-tasting meal once at a Macaroni Grill, after eating a bite or two and something just tasted funny. They did give me a different meal on the house, and I left a decent sized tip.

Ranger50 wrote: In reply to iceracer: No, you can get your rimz on da payment plan!!! There is even a franchise for them called Rimtyme.

Rent-2-roll around here....amazingly they're still in business after 3 years...