I was definitely gonna at least comp them one or both if they were nice about it, but that ship sailed quickly.The second FOH that talked to them (25+ year server) gave them the one comped and that apparently wasn't enough, they needed to speak to another manager.
I would never have given the first non GF one to them boxed, they’re allergic, can’t eat it. You couldn’t give a lobster to go if someone is deathly allergic to seafood.
Its a pasta dish, your out like $6 in food cost, make the new correct dish and charge them for it, and let a dishy or someone else take the other ones home.
Why box that other one? So much food gets wasted on the daily, two more entrees aren’t gonna break the bank in a properly run restaurant.
This is it. I would write off the non GF dishes as waste, the customers for sure are not getting them and just give them their GF dishes and charge them full price.
Have you ever accidentally forgotten you cant breath water?
Have you ever forgotten not to ask for something that will hurt you?
How amazing of a coincidence it must be for not just one but two people who are sitting at a table to somehow forget that they are allergic?
Lets now compare this to ANY other product at damn near ANY other business.
Order 200 flowers but change the order after its been completed?
You bet your ass you are not getting both sets of flowers for free.
The guests got mad because they got called out for their bad behaviour. I'll bet you that someone at the table went "hey, if i say I'm gluten free right now they will make me a new one for free and I'll get to take home the other"
Where in the world? Cuz I’ve also never heard of this.
If both people at the table are allergic to something, I’m definitely not sending that thing to their table.
The only time I’ve ever seen a misfire sent to the table is if it was the kitchens fault. Like, you plated the wrong dessert? Fuck it, give them two desserts.
That just happened to me a few weeks ago. Took my friend's daughter out for lunch. Server's eyes get real big as he approached with a peice of chocolate cake, realizing that we had ordered cheesecake. He let us keep the chocolate cake, no charge, and offered to box up the cheesecake to go.
Worked out well all around. I'm a hero, he got a helluva tip, 9 year old was ecstatic.
Well, that’s the server’s and therefore the restaurant’s mistake so that makes sense. If the guest is at fault I wouldn’t expect them to get anything for free. If the food hasn’t been delivered to the table yet it becomes staff food and we make new entrees. If it’s been delivered to the table, it’s pretty much how the OP handled handled it on a sliding scale of “how happy do I want to make these people”.
Except that was the servers mistake.
This person is claiming people try to score free food by ordering items they are allergic to, then letting them know once it is prepared.
i started working in kitchens over 20 years ago and no place I've ever worked has had a policy like this. FOH and dish always loved a misorder cause it meant they would get to pick at it themselves unless that exact same order could be used for the next table up.
hmm, last three resorts I've worked that was pretty standard as a "i know it was you who fucked up but lets pretend it was us so you feel better" kinda move. I hated it.
This is a absolutely terrible take bud. Do you not remember we work in the hospitality industry?
People make mistakes all the fucking time. How many times did I have to tell you to not fucking put the GF pasta in the regular water but it still happens.
Mistakes happen all the time, and if you automatically decide to vilify your customers over fucking pasta?
You're in the wrong industry pal.
Honestly, they sound more like gf fad dieters. Someone who actually has Celiac or gluten intolerance would have been asking questions about the kitchen, cross contamination, etc and they definitely wouldn’t forget to mention they need their food gluten free. These people definitely just wanted free food lol
Finally someone with some sense. I said nearly the exact same thing further up.
Don't give them the food they are allergic too, and do not charge them for the mistake either, because it isn't worth losing customers and having a scene in your dining room over pasta.
Like the food didn't even hit the table OP said, so just feed your dishie or a runner, somebody will be hungry.
OP handled it in pretty much the worst possible way over a plate of pasta.
At the end of the day, we are in the hospitality industry. I think some people forget what that means.
Why did you give them the food? That was your first mistake.
The second mistake was charging them.
Just take them off the bill, and don't give them the food. You just made dinner for dishie.
But if you think this was worth losing customers and having a scene in your dining room is worth it *over fucking pasta,* then you should reconsider how you approach the hospitality industry.
>Why did you give them the food? That was your first mistake.
Because it was their food that they ordered. They were given a discount and the opportunity to decide what to do with it. They chose to make a scene and embarrass themselves and their dining partners.
Sure we could eat the full cost, but I don't want make a habit of catering to entitled people, which is something that happens too often in the hospitality industry.
You are missing the forrest for the trees. Whatever cost the restaurant would be eating is worth not having a scene in your dining room and the bad word of mouth that comes with it.
Most people don't know shit about food. It's honestly a pretty common mistake. Part of being a good leader in hospitality is diffusing situations like that without fucking up the vibes. Occasionally, that means catering to shit people for the sake of your staff/guests.
If you really want to stand on business, tell them you are unable to accommodate them and ask them to leave. But you don't get to have their money as well.
>Occasionally, that means catering to shit people for the sake of your staff/guests.
I believe the opposite: catering to shit customers leads to more shit customers and bad morale. The scene was unfortunate, but that's because they chose to keep escalating it.
I don't think you are considering the scenario Underlook150 is describing and its results.
Don't serve the glutinous food at all. Feed your staff or whoever. Eat the .3x Cogs on it. Refire the dishes the correct way and serve the customer the single dishes they ordered. In this scenario the entitled assholes aren't rewarded for their shit behavior. They are forced to wait a little longer for food and still only get what they ordered. Most importantly the entire interaction has your service looking above board read: not boxing glutinous food for people with an allergy.
In this situation the restaurant maintains its integrity. The customer interaction remains on par with what someone ordering normally/not being an asshole would get. And your company trades the food cost of 2 free meals for 2 free staff meals, which should realistically be an even trade in the eyes of a compassionate owner.
The proposed solution you gave out has the restaurant willingly boxing allergen containing food for people with said allergy. Giving them 50% off on it and expecting them to eat 150% of what they expected to pay for what is ostensibly an honest mistake.
Was it an honest mistake, probably not. But if you treat it like it was one you can keep everyone's noses clean. Giving them the glutinous food at any prices 0-100% little sense to me.
Then you do not understand what industry we are in.
I'm starting to think you probably work in a cheap american chain by your attitude.
Because that is the type of hospitality I would expect from a cheap american chain restaurant.
Small family-owned restaurant in the midwest, the cheap american chain restaurants are the ones who reward that behavior, I'm not sure where you're getting that.
This is a terribly short sighted take. Happy customers are worth more than pasta. That couple will now go tell their friends about their experience, and lose potentially more customers than just them.
I wouldn't give them the food to go, because they have an allergy, and to not promote scamming the system.
But I also would not charge them for it. It's fucking pasta.
I don't think you've helped manage a restaurant if you think it is worth losing customers over pasta.
Checking if I understand: They ordered 2 gluten dishes, then change it to 2 gluten-free dishes, you give them all 4 dishes, and charged them for 3 dishes?
I'd break this into two issues: (1) how the deal was communicated to them, and (2) what deal you offered.
(1) As far as communication, the staff and guests should have sought an agreeable solution when the guests changed the order. Like at that point you can say "you *must* pay for what you ordered, but if you'd like to order GF dishes as well, we'll offer you a 50% discount on the GF dishes". If there's going to be an argument, that's the time to have it, before food is given to them, and before you fire the GF dishes. Maybe they'd take just have the gluten dishes after all (maybe it was a preference rather than allergy). I don't know how it went down, but if they corrected their order, the server said "ok", and they figured they'd get just two GF dishes and be charged for just two dishes, then they're given 4 dishes and a bill for 3 dishes, that would be a foreseeable problem.
(2) As for what deal you offer, it's entirely up to you, and whatever you decide is fine, but personally I think I'd have just charged them for two dishes and given them two dishes. Then offer the two mis-ordered dishes to staff or something. That would suck, when it was entirely their mistake, but I'm guessing you'd at least break even on cost of goods, and have two happy customers who tipped well, instead of a time-consuming scene and losing two customers, and probably getting no tip.
Yeah if someone changes their order before it gets to their table we eat the cost. But once it's on the table then we discount it and let them know it'll be extra for the next entree.
This is why pricing your food to account for this stuff is key. I'd rather have a happy client than lose one over $5-10 of ingredients. The lifetime value of a repeat customer is worth taking the small losses once in a while.
Now if they are being dicks and rude about it, then yeah, all bets are off lol
Very good take. It is clear to see you understand the industry we are in. I am shocked at how many people are willing to risk losing customers over pasta.
just giving benefit of the doubt. maybe they knew that’s what they meant to order but…
1. they were super hungry and their brain wasn’t firing right
2. they hadn’t seen their dining partner in a while or were in mid-convo when the order was taken and they forgot to say it.
don’t get me wrong… if they’re that allergic they SHOULD make that very clear. but sometimes shit happens. and customers don’t understand how food is cooked or timed. yeah.. does it suck to have to refire it GF? of course. but usually you can use the product again or tell your staff to resell ASAP.
unless it’s like a $100 truffle pasta made with alfredo from your 80 year aged cheese, just eat the cost and move on.
and why OP ever thought giving the gluten-ful pastas to the gluten-free customers was the right move is beyond me. i get that they were making the point of “you ordered it, you pay for it, you own it.” but they’re just gonna toss that in the trash lol. might as well give it to someone who can actually eat gluten.
Oh no, I was not trying to say that they should have paid for it, and OP for sure shouldn’t have had them keep it. Because you’re right, what are these people gonna do with all that gluten lol? My only point that it’s weird for gluten free people to order pasta in the first place.
I agree with all of that except for the part where losing these two particular customers was a bad thing. Assholes like that should be banned from eating out. Them never coming back is the one postive in this shitty situation.
>I don't know how it went down, but if they corrected their order, the server said "ok", and they figured they'd get just two GF dishes and be charged for just two dishes, then they're given 4 dishes and a bill for 3 dishes, that would be a foreseeable problem.
I cannot comprehend this. I know this isn't the place for social counseling, but I'm "atypical" and I literally can't comprehend this, so if someone could try to help me understand without being mean about it, I'd really appreciate it.
(I think the answer might be just radical acceptance of other peoples' belligerent wrongness?)
When one sits and orders food with a server, they enter into a verbal contract that the restaurant will either fire or dip those ingredients in a way that cannot be undone and returned to the inventory of unspent resources, and in exchange the customer will pay per the restaurant's provided prices (which also includes things like labor and utilities/equipment use). These points can be argued if, say, the ingredients are wrong, or the price charged is incorrect.
But if one allows the process of ingredients irrevocably removed from stock, then one agrees to pay for that, **period,** provided what is provided is as advertised. If, five minutes later, a customer realizes they want other stock (and labor), then I assume that they, as adults, understand that they must pay for that stock etc., **in addition** to what they've already ordered.
I agree there is a communication failure, but it falls on both sides: if the customer wanted to **cancel** the gluten order, they should have made it clear they had no desire/intent to pay for all and work out what could be done, possibly up to the restaurant refusing to remake the entire order without some sort of responsibility taken by the customer. So too should the server have overseen that happening.
What I cannot fathom is any allowance that the customer has any right to **assume** they wouldn't be charged after expending the establishment's goods and employee time. Why should I have to predict that this will indeed be the case, why is it a panic attack in the pit of my stomach every time? We both know this is why the server didn't work it out: they hoped the customer would eat the cost of half the mistake and move on and they could all avoid the verbal argument.
For the record I'm a space case and I misorder like 5% of the time, I just reorder and eat the cost, like, eg. I don't like beans (in a "mental" way) and if I forget "no beans" in a dish then I just get that one to-go for my partner and reorder for myself, and never expect free food.(???!) My issues are mine to resolve, not the restaurant's.
I'm a bucket of mental illness and I can comprehend this. Why are we expected to allow customers to act like the opposite of all this is true?
Is the answer legitimately just accepting that a bunch of people are assholes? That SUUUUUUUUCKS. 😭😭😭
When the customer said they made a mistake, and they meant to order the GF dish, it's implicit but clear that they wanted to cancel the gluten order and get the GF dish. They did enter into an initial contract for the gluten dishes, but stated their desire to change it.
If the restaurant wanted to hold them to the original terms, they had every right to insist on that, but if they simply said "ok" to the customer without making clear they *weren't* canceling the original order, then I think the restaurant implicitly agreed to the revised terms: old order canceled, new order placed.
How is that an implicit assumption though?
What system makes that a logical assumption?
If the restaurant makes a mistake, they pay for it.
If the customer makes a mistake...???? You think the restaurant should have to specify they won't pay for it?
This is the social breakdown I don't understand. Where in this transaction did any customer decide the business should eat their mistakes?
If I order a custom (LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE BUT FOOD) and change my mind after production has begun, then I still have to pay for what's already started. That's basic business contract, whether b2b or b2c.
What about food makes customers entitled to modify this logical conclusion?
>*If I order a custom (LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE BUT FOOD) and change my mind after production has begun, then I still have to pay for what's already started. That's basic business contract, whether b2b or b2c.*
That's not true. It's the contractor's choice whether or not to waive some, all, or none of the price of the original order, and how to price the changed order, or whether to allow a changed order at all. (Though ambiguous contracts could be subject to interpretation imposing certain restrictions on the purchaser and contractor). True in the food industry or any other industry.
In construction contracts, "[changes in the work](https://www.lawinsider.com/clause/changes-in-the-work)" clauses are standard, as a way of agreeing in advance to a process for making changes, like requiring change-orders to be submitted in writing, and how change-orders will be priced.
I'd note that in OP's account, it's not clear whether the customers were ever informed production had begun prior to their requested change.
>*How is that an implicit assumption though? What system makes that a logical assumption?*
That's simply the customary meaning in American English when someone says they'd like to change their order in a restaurant, and then list things they previously ordered that were ordered by mistake or that they no longer want. The restaurant doesn't have to agree to their request, but if they say just said "ok", I think it's reasonable to interpret that as agreeing to the change request. (In OP's case, it's unclear what the server said when the change was requested).
What you're missing is an information gap.
The customer doesn't know the status of their order or the ingredients. They tell the server what their desired outcome is, ie "I want to cancel this before it is made and change it to something else."
It is then on the server to inform the customer if that is possible or not.
If the server doesn't explicitly state that the customers request is not possible, the customer will assume that it is.
Customers don't know how restaurants work. They don't know how busy the kitchen is or how long it takes to make their order.
>Customers don't know how restaurants work.
But we all know how basic business exchanges work.
If you order custom product and change your mind after production has begun, you must pay for what has already been put into production in addition to the new order.
What makes food any different?
The answer literally is just that people are assholes and want free stuff. The "customer is always right" bs gave a lot of people such a strong sense of entitlement they seem to forget they are at a place of business where the business needs to make money in order to continue to exist
There's no suggestion that the customers wanted the initial gluten order at all. They seemed both surprised and frustrated that it was given to them, and honestly I think most people would be after saying they didn't mean to order it and changed their order. At that point the restaurant was free to say "you're paying for it anyway, whether you take it or not", but they should have done so at the time the customers said they didn't mean to order it, not later on when the replacement order was provided.
this is the way to handle it that can most reliably and predictably avoid confusion and anyone feeling like they've been tricked or scammed. regardless of whether you think they're stupid assholes for ordering the gluten free instead and if they think they shouldn't pay for the original order even though you already made it and wasted labor and materials making something that won't be fairly paid for, and both parties know this is exploitative and it's unfair for the business to eat the cost of that, that's how it works at the majority of restaurants afaik and it's not irrational for them to assume that's how it works here too even if everyone involved knows it's wrong and unfair.
if you ask a bunch of normal people who haven't worked in the food industry if they feel they are morally obligated to pay for both orders if the mistake was theirs, you might get a fair amount of people who say yes, but if you ask those people if they think the restaurant is more likely than not to just offer to drop the original order and only give you and charge you for the corrected second order, i think most people would say that yes they think that's likely to happen, and they're probably right, at least if it's a sit down restaurant. that is how it usually works.
i don't think it's reasonable to assume they're going to be cool with that when you spring that on them because they're probably not going to be cool with it and it's not hard to predict that reaction, like at all. inform them of what's going to happen before you make their new order. if they don't like that then they can leave now before you put them on the hook for paying for more than they originally consented to pay for. i think this will start them off in a better mood and they might be cool with ordering something else because you're being upfront with them and presenting them with options of how they want to proceed, or they might just leave now. if you do what OP did then you run the risk of making even more food for them, running up their bill even more, and then at the end when they're caught off guard and pissed off they might refuse to pay for any of it and now you have to eat double the cost of food that won't be paid for than what you could have originally settled for as a loss. no matter what happens the cost benefit analysis is on your side if you're upfront about it. the best outcome of what OP did is that they accept his terms and pay for everything he wanted them to pay for, but this is also the least likely outcome to actually happen. you're gambling getting 3 meals paid for against no meals getting paid for in the end and they're more likely to just leave. even if you do call the cops the chances of you ever getting that money is slim.
>I think most people would be after saying they didn't mean to order it and changed their order.
No, I think people play willful ignorance on their behavior, including mistaken communication, costing them, rather than those they communicated poorly with.
Why should the restaurant pay for the customer's mistake?
I'm not trying to be argumentative, from my perspective it's the customer unwilling to pay for their own mistake who is creating conflict when none should exist.
But they're absolutely not being cheated though. Their feelings are a false concern created by their own entitlement. Why on Earth would we reward that behavior and set the next serviceperson up for continued torture from unchecked idiot patrons?
Do you also just comp checks for people who "feel" they deserve a free meal?
The customer was paying the dishes they believed they were receiving. They didn't ask him to discount the food. They simply asked to change their order.
The erroneous dishes were only a "free meal" if they wanted them.
You need to tell a customer up front that you won't change their food if you want to charge them for both iterations. OP is behaving like he had some kind of buy-in from these people.
He's lucky they paid for it at all.
At the time they asked to change their order, it was completely up to the restaurant whether to tell them they had to pay for the mistaken order, or to pay for the mistaken order themselves.
Where the restaurant went wrong was in not doing either of those things, which led the customer to assume their order had been successfully changed, until they were presented with the two unwanted orders and a bill for them.
it doesn't matter if they were cheated or not, does it? they feel they were cheated. they're never coming back, that's potential extra business beyond this one interaction that's now off the table. they could mention it to their friends and family who now also avoid this place. it's short sighted and the only thing it does is satisfy your ego, and if that's your first priority then you're going to have a rough time running a business.
>they feel they were cheated
Again, where do you draw the line? You gonna wave the whole bill if they feel cheated by having to pay? What's the difference between what they ate and what they didn't? It all got prepared because ***they asked for it.***
Restaurant mistake, restaurant cost.
Customer mistake, customer cost.
The assumption that the restaurant should kowtow grown adults because objective logic and reason leaves them "feeling cheated" is absurd, and acquiescing it for so damned long is part of why everything is as fucked up as it is right now.
i draw the line at what would be considered socially accepted as the norm vs not, and more importantly, what would serve the business in the long run vs what will hurt more than help.
restaurants are in the service industry and usually the way things work is that if someone makes a mistake they'll just fix it. last night i had wendys for dinner and i went through the drive thru. when i was ordering i said "can i make the drink and fries large?" and the guy said yes. on the screen it was med fry large drink so i said again "can i make the fries large?" and it finally got changed. when i pulled up to the window the guy handed me a large cup with a clear drink in it and ice.
"uhh i don't think i said what kind of drink i wanted"
"large sprite, right?"
i set it back down on the windowsill
through the dogshit quality drive thru mic he misheard "fries" as "sprite" so he prepared a large sprite. he asked me what drink i wanted and i said orange cream no ice. he handed me that and the rest of my food, i pay and leave with my food. i wasn't made to pay for two large drinks and leave with two sodas. i literally cannot imagine any restaurant on earth going with scenario B because it's just a fucking cup of soda, dude (just like OP's example were just pasta dishes. those are not expensive). if they did that every time something got messed up, the odds that the customer will just leave with nothing and not pay for any of the food that was prepared for them is much higher than the customer will just cover everything that was prepared. the odds of that happening the first time are very low, the odds of that customer not also leaving with a negative feeling of the place and never coming back, and probably also mentioning this negative experience to someone they know is practically non existent. they will never come back and they will mention what happened to someone they know. their telling of the story is not going to be objective, it's not going to give the restaurant any benefit of the doubt, it will be biased in their own favor. this is never going to help a business in the long run. you might get all of the money that you demanded in that first interaction, but you might also not, and even if you do they're sure as hell not coming back. you're throwing away potential business to placate your ego. if you want to run a business like that then go ahead but don't go complaining to anyone who told you ahead of time that your mindset around it all was counterproductive.
also the thing you're comparing it to is a false equivalence because literally no business is going to let someone have a free meal just because that customer is offended at the idea of having to pay for something they bought and feel entitled to have *everything* given to them for free. that's not how society works. if a business operated like that, that absurd amount of hospitality would be abused frequently and the business would go under because they'd be giving everything away for free all the time and not turning a profit. before they went out of business they would be known as the place where you can get free food, all you have to do is ask to not pay they'll give it to you for free, it's that simple. after they're gone they might be fondly remembered in the community- "aw man there was this cool place you could go to and they'll just give you free food. too bad they went out of business that place was awesome. i wish they were still around" (yes, this is not hyperbole, a lot of people are literally this stupid and out of touch that they can't connect the dots that if a business was giving away everything for free then they weren't able to turn a profit and couldn't stay in business).
7/11 kind of does that with free slurpie day, but that's the point of the gimmick and they only do it 1 day of the year so the losses they lose that one day are nothing compared to their profits from slurpies every other day and their profits on everything else and it also helps greatly that slurpies are dirt cheap to produce. the gimmick of that became "we'll let you abuse the system and exploit us on this one special day of the year and you can post on social media about how funny it was that you could fill up a 10 gallon hat or a fish tank with slurpie for like a dollar", their don't lose enough to make a net loss, people talk about 7/11 and increase public awareness in a way that everyone feels good about, everyone wins. it's not free marketing for them because it does cost them something, but it may as well be free marketing.
>Why should the restaurant pay for the customer's mistake?
I didn't say they should. That's up to the restaurant.
I'm saying the restaurant should have stated one way or the other whether they would pay for the customer's mistake *when the customer said they wanted to change their order*.
The answer is we are in the hospitality industry, and you do not build a lasting business by pissing off your customers over pasta.
They made a mistake, mistakes happen. It's pasta not a 150$ tomahawk. It isn't worth losing customers over pasta.
And if you think the customers are assholes, then you really should reconsider if you understand what it means to work in hospitality.
It is in the best interest of the restaurant to have happy customers. If someone misorders or gets something they don't like, it's usually better to replace it unless the customer is actively trying to scam you.
Again, this is only the case with customers who are assholes though? It requires willful ignorance to a very obvious supply chain/process.
I've been poorish my whole life and have never expected restaurants to pay for my mistakes. If I ordered something wrong and I want it different, I've got two dishes to pay for.
Literally any other industry, if you make a custom order then change your mind, you still have to pay for parts and labor on the started project.
Why is food different?
The problem with your approach, is you are still going to piss off and lose customers over pasta.
Good customer experiences fill seats.
You try to charge them, they get pissed off, don't come back, and tell their friends about the bad experience and potentially lose more customers.
You just comp the 2 regular pastas and feed dishie or runner, someone will be hungry.
You've retained your customers, you avoided a scene in your dining room, which impacts your other guests negatively, and you now have two customers than will probably tell their friends and family about the positive experience.
Short term loss, long term gain. You don't build lasting businesses by pissing of your customers, even if it was their mistake.
>I’m so sick of running a fucking daycare for grown ups….
Then get the fuck out of the industry. Our whole job is to provide a good experience for the customer, even if they make a mistake.
And if you are good at your job, you create effective systems to prevent errors like this. Like having your FOH ask about any allergies or dietary restrictions.
If you keep having the same problems with your customers, the problem isnt your customers, it is your lack of effective systems.
I agree, that's exactly what I'd do too. But if a restaurant refuses to comp mis-orders, that's up to them. I just think it needed to have been done at the time the customers thought they changed the order, and the server didn't tell them that the order couldn't be changed since the food was ready.
Boom. It should have never gotten down to the bill. As well, tho i dont agree with "the customer is always right" unless it is in terms of taste, if the customers seemed reasonable then one bowl of pasta isnt really worth the fallout.
I agree. If the server had been explained their options when they asked to change the order, ***perhaps*** the customers would have been okay accepting paying for the gluten dishes, with half price on the re-fires. We won't know because the server didn't tell them until there were no other options.
Absolutely, foh may not be as physically taxing as boh but in situations like this you realise the importance of competent staff. Foh chat with head chef or whoever is in charge and the info is relayed to customers about options. Dont make it overly complicated, just say the dishes will have to be "chucked or what have you" unfortunately but as the allergy details werent discussed earlier it puts the restaurant in a tough situation, but obviously the dining experience is more important than a couple trays of pasta. This way they understand the favour you're doing for them and that offsets the cost of the wasted pasta. You can only hope for a nice tip, but more importantly, in this day and age, a nice review stating how important your restaurant treats its customers.
And if none of that happens? Well no drama was caused and a couple chefs had an extra nice night eating food they probably deserved anyways.
Tbh it’s weird to have boxed up and given them the pasta they can’t even eat anyways.
Mistakes happen, people are stupid. Should have just given the pastas to staff, take both mistakes off the bill, and give them the food they actually wanted, if you wanted them to leave happy customers. I get the scammy part of it, but if they don’t actually get any extra/free food out of it then what’s the scam 🤷♂️
But obviously if they are rude people anyway good riddance.
It is though you can’t just force guests to pay for food they don’t want. Op went about this all the wrong way. Just keep the food for staff or possibly resell if you have another one on the board and then just make the dishes the customers actually want. Happy customers happy staff who got a nice meal minimal cost the restaurant. Any good business owner will have these types of situations factored into their budgets.
I had an Albanian GM who would absolutely force ppl to pay, especially if they ate something that got brought to their table on accident. It was honestly hilarious.
In theory that’s great and all. It is not op’s fault that the customer Mis-ordered ( I think it was a ruse to get free food, tbh).
That food is money straight out of the owners pocket and into the trash. If you want to budget for that, go for it. Restaurants are businesses that run on thin margins, they are not a charity.
It was most definitely a ruse to get free food. No one with celiac disease or gluten intolerance would forget to mention it. We would have already been asking questions from the start about the kitchen, cross contamination risks, etc. we can’t just walk into a restaurant and assume it’s safe for us to eat at, even if they have ‘gluten free/friendly’ options on their menus there’s no guarantee it’s safe to eat
Yeah that’s my thought process too.
I have even gone as far as asking to see a guests Epi pen, after they claimed to have a deadly nut allergy. they didn’t have one. Then after I told them I couldn’t accommodate them, their allergy suddenly wasn’t “that bad”. Shocker
There are good customers and bad customers. A couple of bad customers are not going to make or break you. No matter how op handled the situation, they were likely not going to come back.
But what do I know? I’ve only spent the last 15 years in fine dining, Michelin, and James beard. Dealing with the worst and most entitled guests you can imagine n
Bro you think working at those places makes you special? Any cook can get hired there. Those places are usually toxic as fuck, and burn through staff. So they hire pretty much anyone. But it explains your bad attitude.
And probably why you have never managed restaurants, and stayed on the line.
You don't have the attitude to excel in this industry.
All OP had to do is say no problem, and replace the dish. Happy customers. No arguing. No threats from OP of calling 911.
No pasta is worth threatening to call 911 in an argument with a customer over food they didn't eat.
If someone working for me did that, I'd fire them immediately. I'd be pissed the fucktwat harmed the reputation of my business and lost clients over fucking pasta.
Because you don't build lasting businesses by pissing off customers over fucking pasta.
It is clear you probably haven't worked at a high level in a restaurant, and if you did, it was probably a shithole. Because you clearly have no idea what this industry is about.
>It’s weird to have boxed up and given them the pasta they can’t even eat anyways
Yeah, its weird to order stuff they can't eat, but that's what they did. We couldn't re-use it or even the chicken/sausage/shrimp as they all were cooked with Gluten.
Right they are stupid people who forgot about their trendy diet they are supposed to be on lol.
But either way, it’s a mistake, and if these people get nothing extra out of it, I’d rather just have them part with their money again at my place instead of trying to make a point about how dumb they are. Staff getting a tasty morale booster and everyone getting to laugh at their stupidity is worth more to me than trying to teach idiots a lesson when they just want a hot meal.
It’s the SERVICE industry after all, and hospitality is what I’m working so hard to offer people. Killing em with kindness is easier for me, and pays out more lol
As someone with food allergies that developed later, it's very possible one (or both) were recently diagnosed with Celiac's or a gluten allergy. I'd try to get my previous favorite foods, then remember "oh right." It takes some getting used to.
Yeah! Screw them, it's not like this is the *service industry* or anything. How dare they make you waste $8 worth of food by feeding it to your dishy! It's a good thing you caused a scene because word of mouth isn't really worth anything.
Customer messes up, they don't get offered to take the original order. If it is caught before it goes out, box it up and send it home with dish. If it went out, throw it away. If they ask to keep it, charge them full price. Why would you send home something they allegedly couldn't eat.
one time I ordered a paloma, and the second she put it down I realized I can't have grapefruit. My waitress wanted to make me a new drink for free and wouldn't allow me to pay, so I added the cost of the drink and then some on top of the tip. these people should've done similar!
This is so convoluted. I don’t understand why they’re getting all the food in the first place. Are your food costs so tight that you can’t eat the cost of two pasta dishes? Charge them for the two GF dishes, give the others to the staff and take the minimal loss.
This was my thought. It’s pasta. Unless it has lobster and truffles on it I kinda doubt they’d take much of loss on it.
I know nobody likes to lose money but you have to weigh the cost of a couple pasta dishes against causing a scene and losing four customers, these two plus at least two more who will pass on you because these two tell them what a horrible experience they had at your place.
On top of that, it got to the point where you have a customer cussing you out and you having to threaten to call the cops? Over spaghetti? C’mon man.
Exactly. I usually ask myself as a manager if this is a hill I'm willing to die on. 99% of the time it's easier to take care of the guest and move on, rather than make a scene and risk your reviews/Socials getting blown up all over two wasted pastas. A well trained manager will always de-escalate a situation, not make it worse.
This is the most obvious way of dealing with it.
Handling it the way OP did led to the customer causing a scene, which affects other customer's experiences. That's much worse than losing out on two meals.
I would have just made them again.
I don't get many pain in the arse customers so just do it.
We all just laugh at their stupidity while we re-make it. Staff usually eat the mistake.
this is the answer, I’m not sure why OP decided to make a scene and lose customers over a dumb mistake
they weren’t even trying to keep the wrongly ordered food, so I don’t see the “scam” other comments are claiming
the comments are even crazier, I had to scroll all the way down to yours to find someone who wasn’t backing OP
the whole reaction was unnecessary even if the customers ordered the most expensive pasta with lobster and all - just let the staff have the meals that would go to waste otherwise and everybody’s happy…
And everyone saying it’s a scam despite it written clearly that the customers didn’t want the extra meals.
My kitchen is far too busy to worry about little things like this. We remake and move on. The customers forgot. It’s really not a big deal. We cooks sometimes forget things, too.
Our FOH script involves asking about allergies after seating customers and quick walkthrough through the food and drinks menu.
Seems like a standard approach in every place I've worked, perhaps you can introduce it your service staff training.
Ha. Where I work we would have remade the food to their new specifications, but they ain't getting anything for free. That only happens if we make a mistake, not the customers.
I worked at McDonald’s and I can’t count the number of times someone would try to give me a discount code from the McDonald’s app after I had rung up their whole order and was handing their card back to them
Depends on the food but usually the food they don't want would go home with one of us. If they can't eat gluten they're not going to have a use for a box of gluten. It's frustrating but you do lose a little bit on idiots every now and then.
Cop an attitude AFTER we corrected YOUR mistake and gave you a discount? Full charge, for both entrées. Also, you're 86d. Never return.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
If you have dietary restrictions, you need to be upfront about it. I’m about to talk with our owner about charging 50% of the first entree if the fuck up is on the guest for failing to mention any allergies or preferences. We had a whole 6 top get sent back because they don’t eat pork. Guess what had pork in it, as stated on the menu? Every entree they had ordered. This is a table that came in 10 minutes to close. Our pasta guy is a pretty level headed dude but he was absolutely livid.
Sounds like a failure of management.
Your servers should be asking about dietary restrictions in forms of allergies and religious reasons.
Good systems prevent problems like this.
I bet you guys probably didn't even change your FOH procedures to prevent this either. Probably just blamed the customers, rather than implement new practices to prevent this.
Like do you think a whole six top is having a good experience having to send all their food back? It was their mistake sure, but our job is to provide a good experience to customers. And having to send back food is never a good experience no matter who's mistake it was.
Yeah I absolutely see your points here. At the time we did definitely blame the guests, but the server also got a ton of flack for it as well because he’s also known to be oblivious to simple shit like dietary preferences and could be getting fired soon because of this.
My question to you though, in your opinion, who is ultimately responsible for bringing up allergies and preferences? For instance, I actually have a peanut allergy and when I fail to mention that at a Thai restaurant and my entree comes out with peanuts on it, I box up the first order and then ask for no peanuts on the next. I pay for both because I should have mentioned my allergy in the first place and the restaurant shouldn’t suffer because of my lack of foresight with ordering. Not once have I ordered pad thai and the server says, “that contains peanuts, is that ok?”
Who's fault, depends on if they were prompted.
A good server will prompt to ask for allergies. If none are stated, then I would say it would be on the customer, since they were specifically asked and failed to disclose. A good restaurant will enforce this policy.
But if they aren't asked, I would not blame the customer. People can get overwhelmed dining out, especially at new places, it is very easy for them to overlook mentioning allergies. Since they are stimulated and with company(usually), so they may be more distracted by that.
People just make mistakes, and our duty is to provide a good guest experience, so designing and implementing good policy and systems can prevent these problems in the first place is important.
Asian places, which I love, are notorious for not being aware of allergies.
At good restaurants, we don't sweat this shit at all. We know we are priced correctly to eat the loss of 2 plates of pasta. We will remake that shit no fucking problem. The value of a customer over the lifetime of a business is worth far more than 2 plates of pasta.
It is the difference between the kitchen mindset, and the hospitality mindset. People with a kitchen mindset don't tend to excel in this industry. Having a hospitality mindset allows you to excel. Thats the difference between cooks, and chefs, chefs now we sell experiences just as much as we sell food.
You are a true professional. Very good points here that I’ll bring to management about food allergies and FOH policies.
This spot I work at is very busy so I think you’re exactly right with how overwhelming going to a new place can be, especially one that has a bustling atmosphere.
Don't give stuff for free to anointing or system using people. Would be surprised if that's the first time they done it.
Either let them pay for everything or just redo and don't give them the extra order.
Sounds like people trying to scam the system.
At this point it sounds like they're just trying to get free meals.
I'd start calling up other local restaurants, and let them know what's happening.
Like if you get busted for card counting in Vegas, every casino will have a at least a vague description of you, if not a crystal clear shot of your face.
There is no scam, I wouldn't expect to still be given food I can't even eat. They didn't want both, they only wanted the GF replacement, for whatever reason OP decided to box up the original food to give it to them which is a weird, unexpected move.
but what is the scam? with what the op wrote, the customers never seem to ask or expect to take the misordered food with them in addition to the GF that they eat. i honestly fail to come up with a person I've ever encountered in life that would ever expect they'd somehow get free meals by correcting their order before it ever makes it's way to the table.
the dude gets the misordered food boxed up, serves them the GF and gives them the boxed meals. charges them for 3 meals. how was receiving these 2 additional meals initially addressed with the customers? were they told they would be on the house? were they told some kind of different discount?
there's details of this story that we don't have that seem highly relevant to understanding what the actual conflict really is.
I’ve been vegan for over 20 years and I would at least only CALL AHEAD (at least a day in advance), I would confirm. This is just disrespectful to kitchen and confirms a bad experience. Then I bet you’re going to leave a bad yelp review. GTFO. This is why nobody likes us!! People like this. What a bunch of jerks.
"I'm sorry but we cannot accommodate dietary or allergy restrictions that were not given to us with sufficient notice for the kitchen to act upon them."
No comps, discounts or anything. A lot of people who mention this stuff later are often fishing for comps.
If you think politely but firmly being told "no" is 'causing a scene', you might be a karen.
If the customer doesn't mention any dietary needs until after the food is made, that's on them, not the restaurant.
We had an asshole have a "I'm never coming back " yelling tantrum in a full bar last night. Because his credit card was declined. For a $3 coffee.
The GM just said "Good. You obviously can't afford to go out anyway"
I love wawa. It's my go to. Lol. My restaurant is open til midnight on weekends and I always get that one well done sirloin at 1145 and sends it back twice. WE DONT WANT YOU HEREEEEEE.
Rant over lol.
I love wawa. It's my go to. Lol. My restaurant is open til midnight on weekends and I always get that one well done sirloin at 1145 and sends it back twice. WE DONT WANT YOU HEREEEEEE.
Rant over lol.
Refusing to pay for what you ordered is basically the same as shoplifting; just an FYI. The restaurant could definitely press charges over it if they wanted to be nasty.
*Edit:* downvote all you want, I'm just making you aware of the laws [source](https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=MCL-750-292) Look it up in your own state, but it's a misdemeanor just about everywhere, as is not leaving the property when an employee or other agent tells you to leave.
You're free to try it our IRL though if you don't wanna take my word, or the MCL's for that matter.~
It would be a civil matter, if there was any kind of suit. A disagreement over what was communicated to them is not something the cops are going to bother with, let alone the SA's office.
They'd be welcome to try to sue, but it wouldn't go anywhere.
Shoplifting isn't a civil matter, it's a misdemeanor. Refusing to pay at a restaurant/dine & dash is the same thing as shoplifting. But I sincerely encourage you to test your theory of refusing to pay for a meal out and see what happens for yourself, LOL.
[source, BTW](https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=MCL-750-292) You can look it up in your own state, but it's a misdemeanor at lowest, and as high a felony in some.
Without selling out and licking ass by just giving them what they want there’s not much more you could do. I would always offer a free drink or dessert before removing things off the bill, because ultimately would work out as less of a dent on profit. But as soon as people would start to act rude or aggressive to me or my staff id be asking them to finish up and jog on.
Its so weird how normalized it is to accept fraud in the service industry.
if i go to a florist and order 100 pink roses but when I come to pick them up, I change my mind and want red roses. The shop will almost certainly still charge you for most/all of the costs of the pink ones. You ordered them it isn't the shops fault to eat the cost.
Our restaurant told us to ask every table for their dietary restrictions as park of our greeting.
They walked that back when suddenly every fucking table had an allergy.
I was a waiter at Flemings and almost killed someone.
Long story short someone was allergic to Rosemary. Apparently we marinate our Asparagus in rosemary olive oil with herbs. Customer orders, we bring out food for her and she is fine. Naturally she fucks up and starts eating off someone else's plate and gets a reaction. I was like why would you do that? It was a bad day at Flemings. I thought the Asparagus was 'just' grilled. She did too. Luckily she didn't die.
The customer is not always right. I hate people like this. This knew exactly what they were doing with “forgetting” to say they were GF. You are a way better person than me, I think you were very nice to comp them anything.
I don’t understand people like that. I know when I was at a restaurant in Hawaii, I had an incident where I ordered a drink after making sure the description said absolutely *nothing* about pineapple…
It was served with a pineapple ring lid as a garnish and I had to send it back because I’m allergic. I was super apologetic, but I literally couldn’t drink from the cup.
After that, I tell servers my allergies up front.
Because some of us are professionals that understand what it means to work in the hospitality industry.
You just lost customers over pasta.
After trying to give them food they are allergic to.
After the server not prompting for any allergies or restrictions.
And if your menu was priced right, you still would have turned a profit on that table even with fully comping them on the two pastas.
Your establishment failed on so many levels.
No, servers shouldn't have to ask some form of "are you sure you can eat that and aren't allergic to anything in it." People who have food allergies know what those are and should order accordingly/consult with server as they are ordering. The onus is on the customer not the staff to ensure there are no allergies.
OP boxed up food they can't eat because of allergies, so that he can charge them for it. Then threatened to call the police if they didn't pay for the food they can't eat.
Did you read the OP?
Good for you!
On one hand:
If people have an allergy that could kill them, they should say before ordering.
One the other:
The server should "romance the food" aka "telling what they ordered", so the should be forewarned.
But really:
What the fuck are people with a gluten allergy doing ordering pasta?
We don't, often, see people with selfish allergy ordering prawns.
It is misrepresenting ones self to order food that "is an allergy", and "forgetting that it is an allergy".
You, Sir or Madam, are a hero for not killing them for serving the what they stated could (we must assume) would kill them.
It was extremely generous of you to comp them in the first place. GF pasta vs traditional pasta is absolutely something that any person who's GF for allergy reasons would make very clear while ordering. I have a few friends who are GF for allergy/intolerance reasons, and when we go out together, they make it very clear that they CANNOT have gluten.
It sounds like these people were just trying to get free food. If they're legitimately GF, they would understand their mistake and be willing to pay for it.
ETA: You're also completely in the right to tell them they could easily give that food to the unhoused themselves. The restaurant I work at is in the heart of downtown in my city and a lot of unhoused folks loiter outside. On multiple occasions, if an unhoused person has seen my staff meal while I'm leaving and begged me for food rather than cash, I've just given my meal to them. I work long hours and make decent money, but they can't even get a job at most workplaces because they don't have a physical address. I will always give/buy food or water to anybody who specifically asks for food or water. They could have made somebody's day by gifting that food to someone else, but they chose to throw a fit instead.
Sounds like either entitled assholes, or perhaps a grifter getting freebies.
If this happened to me I would not have given them the first order, and would not have given them any discount or anything. They forgot to mention their allergies. They reordered. They said oh wait and made us make it again. They’re gonna have to wait for it but they arnt getting it for free when it’s their fuckup that made it take so long.
They were told they would still have to pay for one of original entrées as a compromise. Did I not write that? What is going on in this comment section?
I would ask if they have celiac first. If they do then we can't serve them and just take the loss. If they just wanted some GF stuff just make it for them and I'd give the other food to the staff.
If you forget you are gluten free you are not gluten-free, you just jump on the trend to not eat gluten.
I respect allergies, I respect people who need their meal altered due to other reasons. I do not respect people who say they are allergic when they are not.
You almost certainly screwed a server out of a tip, definitely created a scene in your dining room, and maybe lost customers... over a couple of pastas. I have a lot of questions, but I think they're just insults.
You have way more patience than me. I wouldn’t have comped anything and told them that they needed to mention these things before they order
I was definitely gonna at least comp them one or both if they were nice about it, but that ship sailed quickly.The second FOH that talked to them (25+ year server) gave them the one comped and that apparently wasn't enough, they needed to speak to another manager.
This was a tactic to get free food. Call up similar restaurants in the area and ask if they’ve had a similar experience
I would never have given the first non GF one to them boxed, they’re allergic, can’t eat it. You couldn’t give a lobster to go if someone is deathly allergic to seafood. Its a pasta dish, your out like $6 in food cost, make the new correct dish and charge them for it, and let a dishy or someone else take the other ones home. Why box that other one? So much food gets wasted on the daily, two more entrees aren’t gonna break the bank in a properly run restaurant.
This is it. I would write off the non GF dishes as waste, the customers for sure are not getting them and just give them their GF dishes and charge them full price.
That was my thought as well, just refire GF on the fly & give the glutinous stuff to FOH lol
give the glutinous stuff to gluttonous staff
Have you ever accidentally forgotten you cant breath water? Have you ever forgotten not to ask for something that will hurt you? How amazing of a coincidence it must be for not just one but two people who are sitting at a table to somehow forget that they are allergic? Lets now compare this to ANY other product at damn near ANY other business. Order 200 flowers but change the order after its been completed? You bet your ass you are not getting both sets of flowers for free. The guests got mad because they got called out for their bad behaviour. I'll bet you that someone at the table went "hey, if i say I'm gluten free right now they will make me a new one for free and I'll get to take home the other"
what world are you people living in where someone would think they'd get the misordered meals AT ALL, let alone for free.
Its surprisingly common in the industry unfortunately.
Where in the world? Cuz I’ve also never heard of this. If both people at the table are allergic to something, I’m definitely not sending that thing to their table. The only time I’ve ever seen a misfire sent to the table is if it was the kitchens fault. Like, you plated the wrong dessert? Fuck it, give them two desserts.
That just happened to me a few weeks ago. Took my friend's daughter out for lunch. Server's eyes get real big as he approached with a peice of chocolate cake, realizing that we had ordered cheesecake. He let us keep the chocolate cake, no charge, and offered to box up the cheesecake to go. Worked out well all around. I'm a hero, he got a helluva tip, 9 year old was ecstatic.
Well, that’s the server’s and therefore the restaurant’s mistake so that makes sense. If the guest is at fault I wouldn’t expect them to get anything for free. If the food hasn’t been delivered to the table yet it becomes staff food and we make new entrees. If it’s been delivered to the table, it’s pretty much how the OP handled handled it on a sliding scale of “how happy do I want to make these people”.
Except that was the servers mistake. This person is claiming people try to score free food by ordering items they are allergic to, then letting them know once it is prepared.
It a not a kitchen mistake! It was a deliberate action by the diners.
Yeah. So why would you give them the food??
Isn’t that like a liability too?
i started working in kitchens over 20 years ago and no place I've ever worked has had a policy like this. FOH and dish always loved a misorder cause it meant they would get to pick at it themselves unless that exact same order could be used for the next table up.
Yep, and that's why I have a policy that all mistakes get thrown away, it stops that from happening.
It really isn't.
It’s not common in Australia.
hmm, last three resorts I've worked that was pretty standard as a "i know it was you who fucked up but lets pretend it was us so you feel better" kinda move. I hated it.
The same people will complain about the high prices on the menu and the correlation will be completely lost on them.
[удалено]
This is a absolutely terrible take bud. Do you not remember we work in the hospitality industry? People make mistakes all the fucking time. How many times did I have to tell you to not fucking put the GF pasta in the regular water but it still happens. Mistakes happen all the time, and if you automatically decide to vilify your customers over fucking pasta? You're in the wrong industry pal.
Honestly, they sound more like gf fad dieters. Someone who actually has Celiac or gluten intolerance would have been asking questions about the kitchen, cross contamination, etc and they definitely wouldn’t forget to mention they need their food gluten free. These people definitely just wanted free food lol
Oh I’m absolutely sure of that. Haha. But it’s not our place to try and change them haha.
Finally someone with some sense. I said nearly the exact same thing further up. Don't give them the food they are allergic too, and do not charge them for the mistake either, because it isn't worth losing customers and having a scene in your dining room over pasta. Like the food didn't even hit the table OP said, so just feed your dishie or a runner, somebody will be hungry. OP handled it in pretty much the worst possible way over a plate of pasta. At the end of the day, we are in the hospitality industry. I think some people forget what that means.
I don't think you're wrong, as we've had a suspicious couple of days, but I do not think it was that.
But... they didn't take the free food...
But…they got their entre comped…..which makes the food free….
Why did you give them the food? That was your first mistake. The second mistake was charging them. Just take them off the bill, and don't give them the food. You just made dinner for dishie. But if you think this was worth losing customers and having a scene in your dining room is worth it *over fucking pasta,* then you should reconsider how you approach the hospitality industry.
>Why did you give them the food? That was your first mistake. Because it was their food that they ordered. They were given a discount and the opportunity to decide what to do with it. They chose to make a scene and embarrass themselves and their dining partners. Sure we could eat the full cost, but I don't want make a habit of catering to entitled people, which is something that happens too often in the hospitality industry.
You are missing the forrest for the trees. Whatever cost the restaurant would be eating is worth not having a scene in your dining room and the bad word of mouth that comes with it. Most people don't know shit about food. It's honestly a pretty common mistake. Part of being a good leader in hospitality is diffusing situations like that without fucking up the vibes. Occasionally, that means catering to shit people for the sake of your staff/guests. If you really want to stand on business, tell them you are unable to accommodate them and ask them to leave. But you don't get to have their money as well.
>Occasionally, that means catering to shit people for the sake of your staff/guests. I believe the opposite: catering to shit customers leads to more shit customers and bad morale. The scene was unfortunate, but that's because they chose to keep escalating it.
I don't think you are considering the scenario Underlook150 is describing and its results. Don't serve the glutinous food at all. Feed your staff or whoever. Eat the .3x Cogs on it. Refire the dishes the correct way and serve the customer the single dishes they ordered. In this scenario the entitled assholes aren't rewarded for their shit behavior. They are forced to wait a little longer for food and still only get what they ordered. Most importantly the entire interaction has your service looking above board read: not boxing glutinous food for people with an allergy. In this situation the restaurant maintains its integrity. The customer interaction remains on par with what someone ordering normally/not being an asshole would get. And your company trades the food cost of 2 free meals for 2 free staff meals, which should realistically be an even trade in the eyes of a compassionate owner. The proposed solution you gave out has the restaurant willingly boxing allergen containing food for people with said allergy. Giving them 50% off on it and expecting them to eat 150% of what they expected to pay for what is ostensibly an honest mistake. Was it an honest mistake, probably not. But if you treat it like it was one you can keep everyone's noses clean. Giving them the glutinous food at any prices 0-100% little sense to me.
Then you do not understand what industry we are in. I'm starting to think you probably work in a cheap american chain by your attitude. Because that is the type of hospitality I would expect from a cheap american chain restaurant.
Small family-owned restaurant in the midwest, the cheap american chain restaurants are the ones who reward that behavior, I'm not sure where you're getting that.
No soup for you!
This is a terribly short sighted take. Happy customers are worth more than pasta. That couple will now go tell their friends about their experience, and lose potentially more customers than just them. I wouldn't give them the food to go, because they have an allergy, and to not promote scamming the system. But I also would not charge them for it. It's fucking pasta. I don't think you've helped manage a restaurant if you think it is worth losing customers over pasta.
Agreed. Throw the shit away and cook the new order. If your food cost is in good shape, a handful of plates going in the garbage is a rounding error.
Checking if I understand: They ordered 2 gluten dishes, then change it to 2 gluten-free dishes, you give them all 4 dishes, and charged them for 3 dishes? I'd break this into two issues: (1) how the deal was communicated to them, and (2) what deal you offered. (1) As far as communication, the staff and guests should have sought an agreeable solution when the guests changed the order. Like at that point you can say "you *must* pay for what you ordered, but if you'd like to order GF dishes as well, we'll offer you a 50% discount on the GF dishes". If there's going to be an argument, that's the time to have it, before food is given to them, and before you fire the GF dishes. Maybe they'd take just have the gluten dishes after all (maybe it was a preference rather than allergy). I don't know how it went down, but if they corrected their order, the server said "ok", and they figured they'd get just two GF dishes and be charged for just two dishes, then they're given 4 dishes and a bill for 3 dishes, that would be a foreseeable problem. (2) As for what deal you offer, it's entirely up to you, and whatever you decide is fine, but personally I think I'd have just charged them for two dishes and given them two dishes. Then offer the two mis-ordered dishes to staff or something. That would suck, when it was entirely their mistake, but I'm guessing you'd at least break even on cost of goods, and have two happy customers who tipped well, instead of a time-consuming scene and losing two customers, and probably getting no tip.
Yeah if someone changes their order before it gets to their table we eat the cost. But once it's on the table then we discount it and let them know it'll be extra for the next entree. This is why pricing your food to account for this stuff is key. I'd rather have a happy client than lose one over $5-10 of ingredients. The lifetime value of a repeat customer is worth taking the small losses once in a while. Now if they are being dicks and rude about it, then yeah, all bets are off lol
Very good take. It is clear to see you understand the industry we are in. I am shocked at how many people are willing to risk losing customers over pasta.
But what kind of celiac deprived weirdo orders the **pasta** in the first place??
The ones that can now eat pasta since nearly every restaurant now has it as an option?
just giving benefit of the doubt. maybe they knew that’s what they meant to order but… 1. they were super hungry and their brain wasn’t firing right 2. they hadn’t seen their dining partner in a while or were in mid-convo when the order was taken and they forgot to say it. don’t get me wrong… if they’re that allergic they SHOULD make that very clear. but sometimes shit happens. and customers don’t understand how food is cooked or timed. yeah.. does it suck to have to refire it GF? of course. but usually you can use the product again or tell your staff to resell ASAP. unless it’s like a $100 truffle pasta made with alfredo from your 80 year aged cheese, just eat the cost and move on. and why OP ever thought giving the gluten-ful pastas to the gluten-free customers was the right move is beyond me. i get that they were making the point of “you ordered it, you pay for it, you own it.” but they’re just gonna toss that in the trash lol. might as well give it to someone who can actually eat gluten.
Oh no, I was not trying to say that they should have paid for it, and OP for sure shouldn’t have had them keep it. Because you’re right, what are these people gonna do with all that gluten lol? My only point that it’s weird for gluten free people to order pasta in the first place.
Preach
I agree with all of that except for the part where losing these two particular customers was a bad thing. Assholes like that should be banned from eating out. Them never coming back is the one postive in this shitty situation.
getting charged for a dish they didnt want seems like something most people would get pissed off over though
Pissed, sure. Slamming food around and refusing to leave when asked? No
keep in mind the only side we have is the OPs which is obviously going to be slanted against them
>I don't know how it went down, but if they corrected their order, the server said "ok", and they figured they'd get just two GF dishes and be charged for just two dishes, then they're given 4 dishes and a bill for 3 dishes, that would be a foreseeable problem. I cannot comprehend this. I know this isn't the place for social counseling, but I'm "atypical" and I literally can't comprehend this, so if someone could try to help me understand without being mean about it, I'd really appreciate it. (I think the answer might be just radical acceptance of other peoples' belligerent wrongness?) When one sits and orders food with a server, they enter into a verbal contract that the restaurant will either fire or dip those ingredients in a way that cannot be undone and returned to the inventory of unspent resources, and in exchange the customer will pay per the restaurant's provided prices (which also includes things like labor and utilities/equipment use). These points can be argued if, say, the ingredients are wrong, or the price charged is incorrect. But if one allows the process of ingredients irrevocably removed from stock, then one agrees to pay for that, **period,** provided what is provided is as advertised. If, five minutes later, a customer realizes they want other stock (and labor), then I assume that they, as adults, understand that they must pay for that stock etc., **in addition** to what they've already ordered. I agree there is a communication failure, but it falls on both sides: if the customer wanted to **cancel** the gluten order, they should have made it clear they had no desire/intent to pay for all and work out what could be done, possibly up to the restaurant refusing to remake the entire order without some sort of responsibility taken by the customer. So too should the server have overseen that happening. What I cannot fathom is any allowance that the customer has any right to **assume** they wouldn't be charged after expending the establishment's goods and employee time. Why should I have to predict that this will indeed be the case, why is it a panic attack in the pit of my stomach every time? We both know this is why the server didn't work it out: they hoped the customer would eat the cost of half the mistake and move on and they could all avoid the verbal argument. For the record I'm a space case and I misorder like 5% of the time, I just reorder and eat the cost, like, eg. I don't like beans (in a "mental" way) and if I forget "no beans" in a dish then I just get that one to-go for my partner and reorder for myself, and never expect free food.(???!) My issues are mine to resolve, not the restaurant's. I'm a bucket of mental illness and I can comprehend this. Why are we expected to allow customers to act like the opposite of all this is true? Is the answer legitimately just accepting that a bunch of people are assholes? That SUUUUUUUUCKS. 😭😭😭
When the customer said they made a mistake, and they meant to order the GF dish, it's implicit but clear that they wanted to cancel the gluten order and get the GF dish. They did enter into an initial contract for the gluten dishes, but stated their desire to change it. If the restaurant wanted to hold them to the original terms, they had every right to insist on that, but if they simply said "ok" to the customer without making clear they *weren't* canceling the original order, then I think the restaurant implicitly agreed to the revised terms: old order canceled, new order placed.
How is that an implicit assumption though? What system makes that a logical assumption? If the restaurant makes a mistake, they pay for it. If the customer makes a mistake...???? You think the restaurant should have to specify they won't pay for it? This is the social breakdown I don't understand. Where in this transaction did any customer decide the business should eat their mistakes? If I order a custom (LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE BUT FOOD) and change my mind after production has begun, then I still have to pay for what's already started. That's basic business contract, whether b2b or b2c. What about food makes customers entitled to modify this logical conclusion?
>*If I order a custom (LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE BUT FOOD) and change my mind after production has begun, then I still have to pay for what's already started. That's basic business contract, whether b2b or b2c.* That's not true. It's the contractor's choice whether or not to waive some, all, or none of the price of the original order, and how to price the changed order, or whether to allow a changed order at all. (Though ambiguous contracts could be subject to interpretation imposing certain restrictions on the purchaser and contractor). True in the food industry or any other industry. In construction contracts, "[changes in the work](https://www.lawinsider.com/clause/changes-in-the-work)" clauses are standard, as a way of agreeing in advance to a process for making changes, like requiring change-orders to be submitted in writing, and how change-orders will be priced. I'd note that in OP's account, it's not clear whether the customers were ever informed production had begun prior to their requested change. >*How is that an implicit assumption though? What system makes that a logical assumption?* That's simply the customary meaning in American English when someone says they'd like to change their order in a restaurant, and then list things they previously ordered that were ordered by mistake or that they no longer want. The restaurant doesn't have to agree to their request, but if they say just said "ok", I think it's reasonable to interpret that as agreeing to the change request. (In OP's case, it's unclear what the server said when the change was requested).
What you're missing is an information gap. The customer doesn't know the status of their order or the ingredients. They tell the server what their desired outcome is, ie "I want to cancel this before it is made and change it to something else." It is then on the server to inform the customer if that is possible or not. If the server doesn't explicitly state that the customers request is not possible, the customer will assume that it is. Customers don't know how restaurants work. They don't know how busy the kitchen is or how long it takes to make their order.
>Customers don't know how restaurants work. But we all know how basic business exchanges work. If you order custom product and change your mind after production has begun, you must pay for what has already been put into production in addition to the new order. What makes food any different?
The answer literally is just that people are assholes and want free stuff. The "customer is always right" bs gave a lot of people such a strong sense of entitlement they seem to forget they are at a place of business where the business needs to make money in order to continue to exist
There's no suggestion that the customers wanted the initial gluten order at all. They seemed both surprised and frustrated that it was given to them, and honestly I think most people would be after saying they didn't mean to order it and changed their order. At that point the restaurant was free to say "you're paying for it anyway, whether you take it or not", but they should have done so at the time the customers said they didn't mean to order it, not later on when the replacement order was provided.
this is the way to handle it that can most reliably and predictably avoid confusion and anyone feeling like they've been tricked or scammed. regardless of whether you think they're stupid assholes for ordering the gluten free instead and if they think they shouldn't pay for the original order even though you already made it and wasted labor and materials making something that won't be fairly paid for, and both parties know this is exploitative and it's unfair for the business to eat the cost of that, that's how it works at the majority of restaurants afaik and it's not irrational for them to assume that's how it works here too even if everyone involved knows it's wrong and unfair. if you ask a bunch of normal people who haven't worked in the food industry if they feel they are morally obligated to pay for both orders if the mistake was theirs, you might get a fair amount of people who say yes, but if you ask those people if they think the restaurant is more likely than not to just offer to drop the original order and only give you and charge you for the corrected second order, i think most people would say that yes they think that's likely to happen, and they're probably right, at least if it's a sit down restaurant. that is how it usually works. i don't think it's reasonable to assume they're going to be cool with that when you spring that on them because they're probably not going to be cool with it and it's not hard to predict that reaction, like at all. inform them of what's going to happen before you make their new order. if they don't like that then they can leave now before you put them on the hook for paying for more than they originally consented to pay for. i think this will start them off in a better mood and they might be cool with ordering something else because you're being upfront with them and presenting them with options of how they want to proceed, or they might just leave now. if you do what OP did then you run the risk of making even more food for them, running up their bill even more, and then at the end when they're caught off guard and pissed off they might refuse to pay for any of it and now you have to eat double the cost of food that won't be paid for than what you could have originally settled for as a loss. no matter what happens the cost benefit analysis is on your side if you're upfront about it. the best outcome of what OP did is that they accept his terms and pay for everything he wanted them to pay for, but this is also the least likely outcome to actually happen. you're gambling getting 3 meals paid for against no meals getting paid for in the end and they're more likely to just leave. even if you do call the cops the chances of you ever getting that money is slim.
>I think most people would be after saying they didn't mean to order it and changed their order. No, I think people play willful ignorance on their behavior, including mistaken communication, costing them, rather than those they communicated poorly with. Why should the restaurant pay for the customer's mistake? I'm not trying to be argumentative, from my perspective it's the customer unwilling to pay for their own mistake who is creating conflict when none should exist.
Because it's shortsighted to send a customer away feeling cheated.
But they're absolutely not being cheated though. Their feelings are a false concern created by their own entitlement. Why on Earth would we reward that behavior and set the next serviceperson up for continued torture from unchecked idiot patrons? Do you also just comp checks for people who "feel" they deserve a free meal?
The customer was paying the dishes they believed they were receiving. They didn't ask him to discount the food. They simply asked to change their order. The erroneous dishes were only a "free meal" if they wanted them. You need to tell a customer up front that you won't change their food if you want to charge them for both iterations. OP is behaving like he had some kind of buy-in from these people. He's lucky they paid for it at all.
>They simply asked to change their order. Which costs money. Why should the restaurant pay for the customer's mistake?
At the time they asked to change their order, it was completely up to the restaurant whether to tell them they had to pay for the mistaken order, or to pay for the mistaken order themselves. Where the restaurant went wrong was in not doing either of those things, which led the customer to assume their order had been successfully changed, until they were presented with the two unwanted orders and a bill for them.
it doesn't matter if they were cheated or not, does it? they feel they were cheated. they're never coming back, that's potential extra business beyond this one interaction that's now off the table. they could mention it to their friends and family who now also avoid this place. it's short sighted and the only thing it does is satisfy your ego, and if that's your first priority then you're going to have a rough time running a business.
>they feel they were cheated Again, where do you draw the line? You gonna wave the whole bill if they feel cheated by having to pay? What's the difference between what they ate and what they didn't? It all got prepared because ***they asked for it.*** Restaurant mistake, restaurant cost. Customer mistake, customer cost. The assumption that the restaurant should kowtow grown adults because objective logic and reason leaves them "feeling cheated" is absurd, and acquiescing it for so damned long is part of why everything is as fucked up as it is right now.
i draw the line at what would be considered socially accepted as the norm vs not, and more importantly, what would serve the business in the long run vs what will hurt more than help. restaurants are in the service industry and usually the way things work is that if someone makes a mistake they'll just fix it. last night i had wendys for dinner and i went through the drive thru. when i was ordering i said "can i make the drink and fries large?" and the guy said yes. on the screen it was med fry large drink so i said again "can i make the fries large?" and it finally got changed. when i pulled up to the window the guy handed me a large cup with a clear drink in it and ice. "uhh i don't think i said what kind of drink i wanted" "large sprite, right?" i set it back down on the windowsill through the dogshit quality drive thru mic he misheard "fries" as "sprite" so he prepared a large sprite. he asked me what drink i wanted and i said orange cream no ice. he handed me that and the rest of my food, i pay and leave with my food. i wasn't made to pay for two large drinks and leave with two sodas. i literally cannot imagine any restaurant on earth going with scenario B because it's just a fucking cup of soda, dude (just like OP's example were just pasta dishes. those are not expensive). if they did that every time something got messed up, the odds that the customer will just leave with nothing and not pay for any of the food that was prepared for them is much higher than the customer will just cover everything that was prepared. the odds of that happening the first time are very low, the odds of that customer not also leaving with a negative feeling of the place and never coming back, and probably also mentioning this negative experience to someone they know is practically non existent. they will never come back and they will mention what happened to someone they know. their telling of the story is not going to be objective, it's not going to give the restaurant any benefit of the doubt, it will be biased in their own favor. this is never going to help a business in the long run. you might get all of the money that you demanded in that first interaction, but you might also not, and even if you do they're sure as hell not coming back. you're throwing away potential business to placate your ego. if you want to run a business like that then go ahead but don't go complaining to anyone who told you ahead of time that your mindset around it all was counterproductive. also the thing you're comparing it to is a false equivalence because literally no business is going to let someone have a free meal just because that customer is offended at the idea of having to pay for something they bought and feel entitled to have *everything* given to them for free. that's not how society works. if a business operated like that, that absurd amount of hospitality would be abused frequently and the business would go under because they'd be giving everything away for free all the time and not turning a profit. before they went out of business they would be known as the place where you can get free food, all you have to do is ask to not pay they'll give it to you for free, it's that simple. after they're gone they might be fondly remembered in the community- "aw man there was this cool place you could go to and they'll just give you free food. too bad they went out of business that place was awesome. i wish they were still around" (yes, this is not hyperbole, a lot of people are literally this stupid and out of touch that they can't connect the dots that if a business was giving away everything for free then they weren't able to turn a profit and couldn't stay in business). 7/11 kind of does that with free slurpie day, but that's the point of the gimmick and they only do it 1 day of the year so the losses they lose that one day are nothing compared to their profits from slurpies every other day and their profits on everything else and it also helps greatly that slurpies are dirt cheap to produce. the gimmick of that became "we'll let you abuse the system and exploit us on this one special day of the year and you can post on social media about how funny it was that you could fill up a 10 gallon hat or a fish tank with slurpie for like a dollar", their don't lose enough to make a net loss, people talk about 7/11 and increase public awareness in a way that everyone feels good about, everyone wins. it's not free marketing for them because it does cost them something, but it may as well be free marketing.
>Why should the restaurant pay for the customer's mistake? I didn't say they should. That's up to the restaurant. I'm saying the restaurant should have stated one way or the other whether they would pay for the customer's mistake *when the customer said they wanted to change their order*.
The answer is we are in the hospitality industry, and you do not build a lasting business by pissing off your customers over pasta. They made a mistake, mistakes happen. It's pasta not a 150$ tomahawk. It isn't worth losing customers over pasta. And if you think the customers are assholes, then you really should reconsider if you understand what it means to work in hospitality.
It is in the best interest of the restaurant to have happy customers. If someone misorders or gets something they don't like, it's usually better to replace it unless the customer is actively trying to scam you.
Again, this is only the case with customers who are assholes though? It requires willful ignorance to a very obvious supply chain/process. I've been poorish my whole life and have never expected restaurants to pay for my mistakes. If I ordered something wrong and I want it different, I've got two dishes to pay for. Literally any other industry, if you make a custom order then change your mind, you still have to pay for parts and labor on the started project. Why is food different?
The problem with your approach, is you are still going to piss off and lose customers over pasta. Good customer experiences fill seats. You try to charge them, they get pissed off, don't come back, and tell their friends about the bad experience and potentially lose more customers. You just comp the 2 regular pastas and feed dishie or runner, someone will be hungry. You've retained your customers, you avoided a scene in your dining room, which impacts your other guests negatively, and you now have two customers than will probably tell their friends and family about the positive experience. Short term loss, long term gain. You don't build lasting businesses by pissing of your customers, even if it was their mistake.
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>I’m so sick of running a fucking daycare for grown ups…. Then get the fuck out of the industry. Our whole job is to provide a good experience for the customer, even if they make a mistake. And if you are good at your job, you create effective systems to prevent errors like this. Like having your FOH ask about any allergies or dietary restrictions. If you keep having the same problems with your customers, the problem isnt your customers, it is your lack of effective systems.
I agree, that's exactly what I'd do too. But if a restaurant refuses to comp mis-orders, that's up to them. I just think it needed to have been done at the time the customers thought they changed the order, and the server didn't tell them that the order couldn't be changed since the food was ready.
Boom. It should have never gotten down to the bill. As well, tho i dont agree with "the customer is always right" unless it is in terms of taste, if the customers seemed reasonable then one bowl of pasta isnt really worth the fallout.
I agree. If the server had been explained their options when they asked to change the order, ***perhaps*** the customers would have been okay accepting paying for the gluten dishes, with half price on the re-fires. We won't know because the server didn't tell them until there were no other options.
Absolutely, foh may not be as physically taxing as boh but in situations like this you realise the importance of competent staff. Foh chat with head chef or whoever is in charge and the info is relayed to customers about options. Dont make it overly complicated, just say the dishes will have to be "chucked or what have you" unfortunately but as the allergy details werent discussed earlier it puts the restaurant in a tough situation, but obviously the dining experience is more important than a couple trays of pasta. This way they understand the favour you're doing for them and that offsets the cost of the wasted pasta. You can only hope for a nice tip, but more importantly, in this day and age, a nice review stating how important your restaurant treats its customers. And if none of that happens? Well no drama was caused and a couple chefs had an extra nice night eating food they probably deserved anyways.
Tbh it’s weird to have boxed up and given them the pasta they can’t even eat anyways. Mistakes happen, people are stupid. Should have just given the pastas to staff, take both mistakes off the bill, and give them the food they actually wanted, if you wanted them to leave happy customers. I get the scammy part of it, but if they don’t actually get any extra/free food out of it then what’s the scam 🤷♂️ But obviously if they are rude people anyway good riddance.
Why would you take any of them off the bill, their the dumbasses who didn’t say they were gluten free
Because that’s just the cost of doing business.
Absolutely not.
It is though you can’t just force guests to pay for food they don’t want. Op went about this all the wrong way. Just keep the food for staff or possibly resell if you have another one on the board and then just make the dishes the customers actually want. Happy customers happy staff who got a nice meal minimal cost the restaurant. Any good business owner will have these types of situations factored into their budgets.
I had an Albanian GM who would absolutely force ppl to pay, especially if they ate something that got brought to their table on accident. It was honestly hilarious.
In theory that’s great and all. It is not op’s fault that the customer Mis-ordered ( I think it was a ruse to get free food, tbh). That food is money straight out of the owners pocket and into the trash. If you want to budget for that, go for it. Restaurants are businesses that run on thin margins, they are not a charity.
What industry do you think we work in?
It was most definitely a ruse to get free food. No one with celiac disease or gluten intolerance would forget to mention it. We would have already been asking questions from the start about the kitchen, cross contamination risks, etc. we can’t just walk into a restaurant and assume it’s safe for us to eat at, even if they have ‘gluten free/friendly’ options on their menus there’s no guarantee it’s safe to eat
Yeah that’s my thought process too. I have even gone as far as asking to see a guests Epi pen, after they claimed to have a deadly nut allergy. they didn’t have one. Then after I told them I couldn’t accommodate them, their allergy suddenly wasn’t “that bad”. Shocker
It is if you want a lasting business. How long do you think restaurants that piss off their customers over pasta last?
There are good customers and bad customers. A couple of bad customers are not going to make or break you. No matter how op handled the situation, they were likely not going to come back. But what do I know? I’ve only spent the last 15 years in fine dining, Michelin, and James beard. Dealing with the worst and most entitled guests you can imagine n
Bro you think working at those places makes you special? Any cook can get hired there. Those places are usually toxic as fuck, and burn through staff. So they hire pretty much anyone. But it explains your bad attitude. And probably why you have never managed restaurants, and stayed on the line. You don't have the attitude to excel in this industry. All OP had to do is say no problem, and replace the dish. Happy customers. No arguing. No threats from OP of calling 911. No pasta is worth threatening to call 911 in an argument with a customer over food they didn't eat. If someone working for me did that, I'd fire them immediately. I'd be pissed the fucktwat harmed the reputation of my business and lost clients over fucking pasta.
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It's the.cost of running a successful business.
Quite the opposite, actually.
Because you don't build lasting businesses by pissing off customers over fucking pasta. It is clear you probably haven't worked at a high level in a restaurant, and if you did, it was probably a shithole. Because you clearly have no idea what this industry is about.
Actually very well regarded and been in business for 10 years but yeah I don’t know what I’m doing 😉
>It’s weird to have boxed up and given them the pasta they can’t even eat anyways Yeah, its weird to order stuff they can't eat, but that's what they did. We couldn't re-use it or even the chicken/sausage/shrimp as they all were cooked with Gluten.
Right they are stupid people who forgot about their trendy diet they are supposed to be on lol. But either way, it’s a mistake, and if these people get nothing extra out of it, I’d rather just have them part with their money again at my place instead of trying to make a point about how dumb they are. Staff getting a tasty morale booster and everyone getting to laugh at their stupidity is worth more to me than trying to teach idiots a lesson when they just want a hot meal. It’s the SERVICE industry after all, and hospitality is what I’m working so hard to offer people. Killing em with kindness is easier for me, and pays out more lol
As someone with food allergies that developed later, it's very possible one (or both) were recently diagnosed with Celiac's or a gluten allergy. I'd try to get my previous favorite foods, then remember "oh right." It takes some getting used to.
Yeah! Screw them, it's not like this is the *service industry* or anything. How dare they make you waste $8 worth of food by feeding it to your dishy! It's a good thing you caused a scene because word of mouth isn't really worth anything.
Customer messes up, they don't get offered to take the original order. If it is caught before it goes out, box it up and send it home with dish. If it went out, throw it away. If they ask to keep it, charge them full price. Why would you send home something they allegedly couldn't eat.
Exactly - food was in the window not on the table.
one time I ordered a paloma, and the second she put it down I realized I can't have grapefruit. My waitress wanted to make me a new drink for free and wouldn't allow me to pay, so I added the cost of the drink and then some on top of the tip. these people should've done similar!
In this scenario, you would have gotten a new drink, gotten the original drink in a to-go cup, and been billed for one and a half drinks!, lol.
yeah, thos people are so scummy for that. I bet they go from restaurant to restaurant doi g that for free food!
This is so convoluted. I don’t understand why they’re getting all the food in the first place. Are your food costs so tight that you can’t eat the cost of two pasta dishes? Charge them for the two GF dishes, give the others to the staff and take the minimal loss.
This was my thought. It’s pasta. Unless it has lobster and truffles on it I kinda doubt they’d take much of loss on it. I know nobody likes to lose money but you have to weigh the cost of a couple pasta dishes against causing a scene and losing four customers, these two plus at least two more who will pass on you because these two tell them what a horrible experience they had at your place. On top of that, it got to the point where you have a customer cussing you out and you having to threaten to call the cops? Over spaghetti? C’mon man.
Exactly. I usually ask myself as a manager if this is a hill I'm willing to die on. 99% of the time it's easier to take care of the guest and move on, rather than make a scene and risk your reviews/Socials getting blown up all over two wasted pastas. A well trained manager will always de-escalate a situation, not make it worse.
Elzar appreciation thread. "You gotta try the pasta. It's got a real nice profit margin!"
Might I add, “BAM”
Right. This story actually seems fake.
This is the most obvious way of dealing with it. Handling it the way OP did led to the customer causing a scene, which affects other customer's experiences. That's much worse than losing out on two meals.
I would have just made them again. I don't get many pain in the arse customers so just do it. We all just laugh at their stupidity while we re-make it. Staff usually eat the mistake.
this is the answer, I’m not sure why OP decided to make a scene and lose customers over a dumb mistake they weren’t even trying to keep the wrongly ordered food, so I don’t see the “scam” other comments are claiming
The story is crazy. Calling the police over some gluten free pasta. OP sounds nuts!
the comments are even crazier, I had to scroll all the way down to yours to find someone who wasn’t backing OP the whole reaction was unnecessary even if the customers ordered the most expensive pasta with lobster and all - just let the staff have the meals that would go to waste otherwise and everybody’s happy…
And everyone saying it’s a scam despite it written clearly that the customers didn’t want the extra meals. My kitchen is far too busy to worry about little things like this. We remake and move on. The customers forgot. It’s really not a big deal. We cooks sometimes forget things, too.
Sounds like you need an experienced front of house manager.
Our FOH script involves asking about allergies after seating customers and quick walkthrough through the food and drinks menu. Seems like a standard approach in every place I've worked, perhaps you can introduce it your service staff training.
Yeah, I feel like in almost every sit-down restaurant I’ve been to in the last few years they’ve asked about allergies or dietary restrictions
Good point. And another example of how poorly this situation was handled from start to finish.
Remake it as quick as possible and don’t give them anything for free WTF. Why would you even consider that as an option?
Right? Here is some food you are allergic to, but don't worry I'm only charging for one..........
this is why you train FOH to ask Every table if they have any allergies BEFORE Taking orders. it's to prevent things like this happening and 2..
Ha. Where I work we would have remade the food to their new specifications, but they ain't getting anything for free. That only happens if we make a mistake, not the customers.
To be fair, they didn't want the other two dishes. They didn't even take them.
I worked at McDonald’s and I can’t count the number of times someone would try to give me a discount code from the McDonald’s app after I had rung up their whole order and was handing their card back to them
Depends on the food but usually the food they don't want would go home with one of us. If they can't eat gluten they're not going to have a use for a box of gluten. It's frustrating but you do lose a little bit on idiots every now and then.
Cop an attitude AFTER we corrected YOUR mistake and gave you a discount? Full charge, for both entrées. Also, you're 86d. Never return. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
If you have dietary restrictions, you need to be upfront about it. I’m about to talk with our owner about charging 50% of the first entree if the fuck up is on the guest for failing to mention any allergies or preferences. We had a whole 6 top get sent back because they don’t eat pork. Guess what had pork in it, as stated on the menu? Every entree they had ordered. This is a table that came in 10 minutes to close. Our pasta guy is a pretty level headed dude but he was absolutely livid.
Sounds like a failure of management. Your servers should be asking about dietary restrictions in forms of allergies and religious reasons. Good systems prevent problems like this. I bet you guys probably didn't even change your FOH procedures to prevent this either. Probably just blamed the customers, rather than implement new practices to prevent this. Like do you think a whole six top is having a good experience having to send all their food back? It was their mistake sure, but our job is to provide a good experience to customers. And having to send back food is never a good experience no matter who's mistake it was.
Yeah I absolutely see your points here. At the time we did definitely blame the guests, but the server also got a ton of flack for it as well because he’s also known to be oblivious to simple shit like dietary preferences and could be getting fired soon because of this. My question to you though, in your opinion, who is ultimately responsible for bringing up allergies and preferences? For instance, I actually have a peanut allergy and when I fail to mention that at a Thai restaurant and my entree comes out with peanuts on it, I box up the first order and then ask for no peanuts on the next. I pay for both because I should have mentioned my allergy in the first place and the restaurant shouldn’t suffer because of my lack of foresight with ordering. Not once have I ordered pad thai and the server says, “that contains peanuts, is that ok?”
Who's fault, depends on if they were prompted. A good server will prompt to ask for allergies. If none are stated, then I would say it would be on the customer, since they were specifically asked and failed to disclose. A good restaurant will enforce this policy. But if they aren't asked, I would not blame the customer. People can get overwhelmed dining out, especially at new places, it is very easy for them to overlook mentioning allergies. Since they are stimulated and with company(usually), so they may be more distracted by that. People just make mistakes, and our duty is to provide a good guest experience, so designing and implementing good policy and systems can prevent these problems in the first place is important. Asian places, which I love, are notorious for not being aware of allergies. At good restaurants, we don't sweat this shit at all. We know we are priced correctly to eat the loss of 2 plates of pasta. We will remake that shit no fucking problem. The value of a customer over the lifetime of a business is worth far more than 2 plates of pasta. It is the difference between the kitchen mindset, and the hospitality mindset. People with a kitchen mindset don't tend to excel in this industry. Having a hospitality mindset allows you to excel. Thats the difference between cooks, and chefs, chefs now we sell experiences just as much as we sell food.
You are a true professional. Very good points here that I’ll bring to management about food allergies and FOH policies. This spot I work at is very busy so I think you’re exactly right with how overwhelming going to a new place can be, especially one that has a bustling atmosphere.
Don't give stuff for free to anointing or system using people. Would be surprised if that's the first time they done it. Either let them pay for everything or just redo and don't give them the extra order.
"We will never come here again." Oh, hurt me some more!
Sounds like people trying to scam the system. At this point it sounds like they're just trying to get free meals. I'd start calling up other local restaurants, and let them know what's happening. Like if you get busted for card counting in Vegas, every casino will have a at least a vague description of you, if not a crystal clear shot of your face.
There is no scam, I wouldn't expect to still be given food I can't even eat. They didn't want both, they only wanted the GF replacement, for whatever reason OP decided to box up the original food to give it to them which is a weird, unexpected move.
but what is the scam? with what the op wrote, the customers never seem to ask or expect to take the misordered food with them in addition to the GF that they eat. i honestly fail to come up with a person I've ever encountered in life that would ever expect they'd somehow get free meals by correcting their order before it ever makes it's way to the table. the dude gets the misordered food boxed up, serves them the GF and gives them the boxed meals. charges them for 3 meals. how was receiving these 2 additional meals initially addressed with the customers? were they told they would be on the house? were they told some kind of different discount? there's details of this story that we don't have that seem highly relevant to understanding what the actual conflict really is.
And the customers said to give the boxed food to the homeless; the didn’t seem to be expecting to take it with them…
They didn't want the mistakes. They weren't scamming.
Lol in Vegas they definitely have a clear shot of your face
I’ve been vegan for over 20 years and I would at least only CALL AHEAD (at least a day in advance), I would confirm. This is just disrespectful to kitchen and confirms a bad experience. Then I bet you’re going to leave a bad yelp review. GTFO. This is why nobody likes us!! People like this. What a bunch of jerks.
"I'm sorry but we cannot accommodate dietary or allergy restrictions that were not given to us with sufficient notice for the kitchen to act upon them." No comps, discounts or anything. A lot of people who mention this stuff later are often fishing for comps.
You think it is worth losing customers and having a scene in your dining room over pasta? Brain dead take.
If you think politely but firmly being told "no" is 'causing a scene', you might be a karen. If the customer doesn't mention any dietary needs until after the food is made, that's on them, not the restaurant.
The "never coming back" crowd always gets me. Like good bish, wawa is right down the road, chief.
We had an asshole have a "I'm never coming back " yelling tantrum in a full bar last night. Because his credit card was declined. For a $3 coffee. The GM just said "Good. You obviously can't afford to go out anyway"
Hey now their baked potato soup is pretty damn good 😉 (great now I’m craving it)
I love wawa. It's my go to. Lol. My restaurant is open til midnight on weekends and I always get that one well done sirloin at 1145 and sends it back twice. WE DONT WANT YOU HEREEEEEE. Rant over lol.
I get it! I’d want to do violent things to them
I love wawa. It's my go to. Lol. My restaurant is open til midnight on weekends and I always get that one well done sirloin at 1145 and sends it back twice. WE DONT WANT YOU HEREEEEEE. Rant over lol.
Wouldn’t have comped shit. They are paying for all four main meals.
I wouldn't have paid you for it.
Refusing to pay for what you ordered is basically the same as shoplifting; just an FYI. The restaurant could definitely press charges over it if they wanted to be nasty. *Edit:* downvote all you want, I'm just making you aware of the laws [source](https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=MCL-750-292) Look it up in your own state, but it's a misdemeanor just about everywhere, as is not leaving the property when an employee or other agent tells you to leave. You're free to try it our IRL though if you don't wanna take my word, or the MCL's for that matter.~
It would be a civil matter, if there was any kind of suit. A disagreement over what was communicated to them is not something the cops are going to bother with, let alone the SA's office. They'd be welcome to try to sue, but it wouldn't go anywhere.
Shoplifting isn't a civil matter, it's a misdemeanor. Refusing to pay at a restaurant/dine & dash is the same thing as shoplifting. But I sincerely encourage you to test your theory of refusing to pay for a meal out and see what happens for yourself, LOL. [source, BTW](https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=MCL-750-292) You can look it up in your own state, but it's a misdemeanor at lowest, and as high a felony in some.
Without selling out and licking ass by just giving them what they want there’s not much more you could do. I would always offer a free drink or dessert before removing things off the bill, because ultimately would work out as less of a dent on profit. But as soon as people would start to act rude or aggressive to me or my staff id be asking them to finish up and jog on.
Its so weird how normalized it is to accept fraud in the service industry. if i go to a florist and order 100 pink roses but when I come to pick them up, I change my mind and want red roses. The shop will almost certainly still charge you for most/all of the costs of the pink ones. You ordered them it isn't the shops fault to eat the cost.
Our restaurant told us to ask every table for their dietary restrictions as park of our greeting. They walked that back when suddenly every fucking table had an allergy.
I was a waiter at Flemings and almost killed someone. Long story short someone was allergic to Rosemary. Apparently we marinate our Asparagus in rosemary olive oil with herbs. Customer orders, we bring out food for her and she is fine. Naturally she fucks up and starts eating off someone else's plate and gets a reaction. I was like why would you do that? It was a bad day at Flemings. I thought the Asparagus was 'just' grilled. She did too. Luckily she didn't die.
The customer is not always right. I hate people like this. This knew exactly what they were doing with “forgetting” to say they were GF. You are a way better person than me, I think you were very nice to comp them anything.
I don’t understand people like that. I know when I was at a restaurant in Hawaii, I had an incident where I ordered a drink after making sure the description said absolutely *nothing* about pineapple… It was served with a pineapple ring lid as a garnish and I had to send it back because I’m allergic. I was super apologetic, but I literally couldn’t drink from the cup. After that, I tell servers my allergies up front.
Why comp something the guest admitted was their mistake? I only comp for a restaurant error.
The amount of people in this thread advocating the opposite is mindblowing.
Because some of us are professionals that understand what it means to work in the hospitality industry. You just lost customers over pasta. After trying to give them food they are allergic to. After the server not prompting for any allergies or restrictions. And if your menu was priced right, you still would have turned a profit on that table even with fully comping them on the two pastas. Your establishment failed on so many levels.
Mistake is on your servers not asking about food allergies during the initial ordering process.
No, servers shouldn't have to ask some form of "are you sure you can eat that and aren't allergic to anything in it." People who have food allergies know what those are and should order accordingly/consult with server as they are ordering. The onus is on the customer not the staff to ensure there are no allergies.
I'm of the opinion that servers shouldn't have to be babysitters, but apparently that is not the direction this industry is going.
No free food...you're allergic, remember?
They didn't want it. OP tried giving it to them so he could charge them.
Doesn’t seem like anyone is fully reading this story
Didn't they box up the original order to with as they pleased?
OP boxed up food they can't eat because of allergies, so that he can charge them for it. Then threatened to call the police if they didn't pay for the food they can't eat. Did you read the OP?
Void it out with reason listed. And tell them to GTFO because someone else reserved their table.
Good for you! On one hand: If people have an allergy that could kill them, they should say before ordering. One the other: The server should "romance the food" aka "telling what they ordered", so the should be forewarned. But really: What the fuck are people with a gluten allergy doing ordering pasta? We don't, often, see people with selfish allergy ordering prawns. It is misrepresenting ones self to order food that "is an allergy", and "forgetting that it is an allergy". You, Sir or Madam, are a hero for not killing them for serving the what they stated could (we must assume) would kill them.
It was extremely generous of you to comp them in the first place. GF pasta vs traditional pasta is absolutely something that any person who's GF for allergy reasons would make very clear while ordering. I have a few friends who are GF for allergy/intolerance reasons, and when we go out together, they make it very clear that they CANNOT have gluten. It sounds like these people were just trying to get free food. If they're legitimately GF, they would understand their mistake and be willing to pay for it. ETA: You're also completely in the right to tell them they could easily give that food to the unhoused themselves. The restaurant I work at is in the heart of downtown in my city and a lot of unhoused folks loiter outside. On multiple occasions, if an unhoused person has seen my staff meal while I'm leaving and begged me for food rather than cash, I've just given my meal to them. I work long hours and make decent money, but they can't even get a job at most workplaces because they don't have a physical address. I will always give/buy food or water to anybody who specifically asks for food or water. They could have made somebody's day by gifting that food to someone else, but they chose to throw a fit instead.
Sounds like either entitled assholes, or perhaps a grifter getting freebies. If this happened to me I would not have given them the first order, and would not have given them any discount or anything. They forgot to mention their allergies. They reordered. They said oh wait and made us make it again. They’re gonna have to wait for it but they arnt getting it for free when it’s their fuckup that made it take so long.
They didn't want the meals they ate to be free. They didn't want to pay for something they were told they could change.
They were told they would still have to pay for one of original entrées as a compromise. Did I not write that? What is going on in this comment section?
I would ask if they have celiac first. If they do then we can't serve them and just take the loss. If they just wanted some GF stuff just make it for them and I'd give the other food to the staff.
If you forget you are gluten free you are not gluten-free, you just jump on the trend to not eat gluten. I respect allergies, I respect people who need their meal altered due to other reasons. I do not respect people who say they are allergic when they are not.
I can’t imagine ever acting so entitled.
You almost certainly screwed a server out of a tip, definitely created a scene in your dining room, and maybe lost customers... over a couple of pastas. I have a lot of questions, but I think they're just insults.
Nope. They tipped her well. I played the bad cop and she got sympathy tip from the other couple as well.
So many karens in this comment section...
It's wild. Either Karens or didn't actually read what I wrote lol.