My spouse and I have noticed a slightly shocking trend when
paying our bill at restaurants. When I
tell you about it, you might not think it is a big deal but remember it all
adds up in business. This slightly
disturbing trend has not been with a single server or a particular
restaurant. I have noticed it always seemed
to be a college-age server. Did they not
need to know math to get into college? I
know I had to both learn it and apply it for making change back when I worked
in the hospitality industry and in retail sales when I went to college.
Anyway, the trend seems to be to not give proper change when
bills are paid in cash. They bring me
the paper money but not the coins. The
first time this happened, it was less than a dime they owned me and I assumed
the waitress dropped it into her apron and forgot to get it out when she got to
the table. However, it continued to
happen at the next several restaurants I went to where the waiter only brought
the bills and not the coins. Once they
owed me 98 cents – that is almost a dollar they kept. That time, we decided to reduce the tip by
the dollar that was kept but who knows if the server even noticed this. Now I see it as a trend and it worries me
because I do not know if it is thoughtless servers or something being taught in
the food service industry. I also think
the trend must be more widespread than my local eating places. I was recently in another state and the same
situation occurred at a restaurant there!
I now feel it may have only happened at the one restaurant because the
others were paid with a credit card.
This is not the only math problem I’ve noticed at
restaurants. We have twice given the
server a large bill along with exact coin change at a restaurant. Both times, the server gave us back change as
if we never gave them any coins. In
other words, they kept the coins and only put the bills into register which of
course calculated what we should get back wrong. When we brought up the incorrect change, we
were told “don’t worry about it” as if they gave us extra money rather than
less.
Do people just not care about getting it right any more? Does their management know they are making these
mistakes and frustrating their customers?
It is not just bad math or outright stealing; it is very bad customer
service! (Read good example post) I think managers should be
watching and where appropriate saying “please go back to school and learn math
or get a pocket calculator.”
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