The worst service you have received

[HogwartsAlum]

I haven't had many bad experienes with restaurants (though now that someone mentioned hair salons...!)  The bad service experience I remember is just a strange story.  It went like this:

My husband and I were visiting a new city and decided to eat at a restaurant I had read about.

It was a lovely enough place.  And at about the same time we were seated, a prompt waitress politey asked us if we knew what we'd like to drink?  We did know that we wanted red wine, so we asked her about that selection and they had tons.  Great, give us that Cab.  Then she asked what we'll be having for dinner?  

We said we'll have to get back to her (ie, we'd like to look at a menu).  She gave us menus, while laughing and acting like we were being silly.  Yeah, yeah, we're just kerrazy like that... She was acting like they act at chain restaurants when we're out with my in-laws, who take forever to order.

Anyway, it couldn't have been much more than 60 seconds later that she came back wondering if us crazy kids had finally decided??  I had to try and smile to tell her that no, actually we'll be a few.  

She then tells me that she doesn't have a few minutes and that "we're going to order now.  So<insert condescending kindergarden teacher voice>you have to order now, okay?  Okay!  Maybe you want the X??"

Wait, what?  Husband and I gape at her blankly.  No thanks?  What is this about?  Most likely we were speechless.  Anyway, she ended up stomping off, so we ended up getting up and just ... leaving, because, duh, what else to do?  

I guess she was just having a bad day--  I don't know what was going on.  Ordinarily I'd say it was a fluke thing, but -- and this will sound a little unbelievable-- but there was something going on in that town.  We felt like people were staring at us in the downtown area and at one point another pedestrian came up to us and rather pointedly asked if she could help us?  

Someone else who'd been a tourist there told me that it was a very rude and racist town, and that he (a black man) would not be going back.  That wouldn't surprise me at all, but incidently my husband and I, like most of the town, are white.  Race isn't why people were being like that.  Weird, huh?

There's a town here in MO (not mine) that has a university in it.  It's about halfway between here and St Louis.  Someone I went to my college with (who lived here) said her husband took some classes there, and she said that whenever they went there, it was like all the service people and the people on campus and everywhere they went were like zombies.  They stared and would say "May I Help You" in this creepy monotone.  She said she and her husband called it Village of the Damned. 

Well she and I had an archaeology class together that went on a field trip to Illinois, and she told us all about that.  On the way back from our trip we stopped in that town to get some food at Arby's.  ALL the people behind the counter were like that!  We could hardly contain ourselves until we got back into the van and we laughed like crazy.  It was WEIRD.

[jibby]

There's a town here in MO (not mine) that has a university in it.  It's about halfway between here and St Louis.  Someone I went to my college with (who lived here) said her husband took some classes there, and she said that whenever they went there, it was like all the service people and the people on campus and everywhere they went were like zombies.  They stared and would say "May I Help You" in this creepy monotone.  She said she and her husband called it Village of the Damned.  

I'm  not sure which city you're in, so I'm just guessing, but roughly halfway between Kansas City and St. Louis there is a very odd-feeling college town whose name starts with an "F".  Please tell me Missouri doesn't have two of these places! 

[Twik]

Me: "Hi, I'd like the room service delivery special, please--one cheese pizza and one pepsi--along with a second pepsi and a glass of white wine."
Room Service: "That will be ready in thirty minutes."
Me: "No problem. Uh...don't you want my room number?"
Room Service: "Oh, you wanted us to deliver that?"
Me, looking at the words "Room Service Delivery Special" on the ad. "Isn't that what Room Service does?"
Room Service: "Uh...yeah, I guess. That will be thirty minutes."

Heehee! I once stayed in an otherwise very nice hotel in Niagara Falls. The first night, I was tired, so I called down for Room Service. I know they HAD Room Service, because they had a Room Service menu.

Just as in the quote above, it went a little off the rails when I ordered, because they seemed to think I was trying to make sure the meal was ready when I came down to the dining room. "What? You want us to take it up to your room? Umm, I not sure we can do that...."

I finally convinced them to deliver the meal (I'm sure they discussed this between themselves as Customers Want the Strangest Things). I left the tray outside the door when I finished.

48 hours later, the tray was still there. To avoid infestation, I took it down to the restaurant myself.

[NEDESAPIO]

I went to a certain low-priced salon one day to get my hair trimmed.  I have blunt-cut hair that falls about chin-level.  I always get it cut the same way:  all one length, no layers or anything like that.  A new stylist was there, and I explained to her what I wanted -- just a trim, all one length.  She seemed to understand.  She ended up giving me a hideous-looking haircut, with the sides much longer than the back.  Her reason?  She thought I'd look good like that.  How wrong she was. 

I was livid, and probably rude to her.  I had her repair it as best she could.  I didn't see her after that and suspect she may have been fired. 

Edited for spelling.

[Mrs. Eclipse]

I remember another story that really bothered me.

The Limited Too, at the time, was the only store that carried Neopets stuff, and they were having a special on striped Kacheek plushies.  One was 5.99 and the other was 10.99.  There was a small one and a big one.  I really wanted one, but I could only afford the small one.  Also, there was only one size left, and I couldn't tell which size it was.  I tried to compare it to the others but didn't come to any conclusion.

I turned to the worker girl stocking pillows next to me and asked, "Excuse me, could you tell me how much this costs?"
She said, "No, you have to go to the register."
I thougth that was odd, so I asked to confirm, "You want me to do a price check at the register?"
"Yeah."
She didn't even turn to look at me the whole time.

So I get in line.  There are three people ahead of me and I waited for twenty minutes.  I would have left after five except that my family wasn't meeting for another twenty minutes, and I was done at the mall... and I had come here especially for this special.  _{Wish they had a fastpass machine, at least...}
One person in line wasn't finished shopping, or didn't have the right sizes on the floor, and was having the lady behind the counter running around the store to get things she wanted or to duck into the back.  I really think that's why they have people on the sales floor... except then I noticed that the pillow stocker was the only one on the floor (Saturday afternoon.  Summer.)
I get there and tell the lady, "Can you tell me how much this costs?"
She seems really annoyed- I'm guessing because this isn't standard procedure for price checks, and says, "10.99"
The one I couldn't afford.
Grrreat.
I tell her I won't be purchasing it and leaves.

Mom later told me that the way they acted was just not right for a mall chain store, although it was typical.  I steer clear of that particular branch of Limited Too, because the counters are so bottlenecked.  There's a nice one at an outlet mall in Arundel Mills, though... too far for normal but not as bad as this one usually is.

[LollyBee]

We were going for a works birthday meal out, there were about 8 of us.  (We each paid for our own meal but would pay for birthday person's drinks.)  We chose a particular restaurant as it was had told our town's vegan society that it provided vegan food.

I had the exciting but admittedly vegan chilli & rice.  It came to dessert time.  I ask the waitress what's in the Peach Columbine.  Peaches, ice cream OR whipped cream OR both.  I ask for it without ice cream or whipped cream.  She doesn't think they can do that.  I explain that I am happy to pay full price, & ask if it is already made up with ice cream/whipped cream or both.  No but she still doesn't think I can have it. 

Manager comes over to see what the problem is.  I explain I'd like Peach Columbine with just peaches, because I am a vegan & do not want ice cream or whipped cream.  She says the ice cream is non milk.  Well, clearly it isn't because they could not then describe it as ice cream.  So I say I think it does have milk in it, but she is adamant it doesn't so brings out the ice cream lid for me to see.

I explain that 'non fat milk' is not the same as 'non milk' & show her where the milk ingredients are on the lid.  I ask again if I could just have the tinned peaches, but she says no. 

Why say they do vegan food if they're not prepared to find out what it involves?

[Suze]

the same mental cases kept telling my friend if he couldn't eat eggs just to use "egg beaters" and wouldn't take that they were still made from --- TA DA --- eggs.

and that flour (as in main stream buns) was not made from wheat???

[beckygoesape]

I was shopping for a prom dress.  Because I had just gotten off work, I wasn't wearing the nicest of clothes, even if they were clean.  I was going to check a few shops on my way home.

I entered one store, with a couple trendily dressed girls entering right behind me.  The saleslady (Not girl, lady, someone old enough to know better.) literally shoved me to the side to greet the girls behind me.  They proceeded to giggle about upcoming proms, what was going to be in this year, if their boyfriends were renting limos...etc.  The girls said they had no money on them and they might be back later that evening with their mothers.  The saleslady agreed to this cheerfully.

Then she turned to me and asked what I wanted, with a sneer.  I pulled out a wad of nearly $500 dollars out of my purse, told her that I did have money to spend in the store but I'd decided I didn't want anything after I'd been shoved.  She gasped and blinked at me.

***

A friend and I stopped at a D---y's.  It wasn't particularly busy.  We ordered entrees, which were cooked badly.  Our waitress saw that they were cooked badly, but told us it was the best the cook could do because he was new.

We sent them back and ordered salad bar instead.  It was picked over, and what was there wasn't fresh.  We ate what we could of it.

We'd finished and sat for a while waiting for our bill.  We yoohooed at the waitress through the kitchen doors and she said she'd bring it in a jiffy.  When she did come by, she had a small portable vacuum with her and she proceeded to vacuum under our table, pushing aside our feet!  She explained that she had to vacuum at the end of her shift, then handed us our bill.  She'd only charged us for our drinks, so that was something.

We called the next day to complain to the manager, who we knew.  We couldn't complain that night...he wasn't there...obviously.


Becky

[Sootikin]

I was shopping for a prom dress.  Because I had just gotten off work, I wasn't wearing the nicest of clothes, even if they were clean.  I was going to check a few shops on my way home.

I entered one store, with a couple trendily dressed girls entering right behind me.  The saleslady (Not girl, lady, someone old enough to know better.) literally shoved me to the side to greet the girls behind me.  They proceeded to giggle about upcoming proms, what was going to be in this year, if their boyfriends were renting limos...etc.  The girls said they had no money on them and they might be back later that evening with their mothers.  The saleslady agreed to this cheerfully.

Then she turned to me and asked what I wanted, with a sneer.  I pulled out a wad of nearly $500 dollars out of my purse, told her that I did have money to spend in the store but I'd decided I didn't want anything after I'd been shoved.  She gasped and blinked at me.

Becky - I know exactly how you felt, I earn a decent sum but don't feel the need to dress up to go shopping.  The way I dress is not neccessarily indicative of the money I have to spend  - as the saleswoman who patronised my then FDH and I found out when we shopped for wedding rings dressed ... hold your breath ... in kicker boots, black jeans and jumpers (a petrolhead uniform in that area, apparently), she acted like we would never be able to afford 'real' gold rings.  Once she realised we weren't penniless scum she was all over us, and we were very polite as we left to buy our rings elsewhere.

[SunkissableOne]

This actually just happened to me the other night.  DF and our good friend P and I went out to dinner at this steak house in Flint, MI.  First we got a waitress who clearly had no idea what was going on.  DF ordered a chicken entree and the waitress had no idea what sides went with it.  Fine...no big deal, we managed anyways.  P ordered fish and asked how much a cup of soup would be to add on.  She tells him $1...but when the bill came it was actually $2.50.  I am very picky and asked that onions be left off of my sandwich that I ordered...of course when I finally got my food the onions were on it.

Everything seems fine...

A table comes in and sits behind P.  She takes their order and goes on her way.  Several minutes have passed and she brings out the other tables food.  We still do not have ours.  Maybe fifteen minutes later we finally get ours and I see I have onions on my food.  Not wanting to wait all night I pick them off and deal with it.  DF and I ordered cocktails with dinner.  Several minutes later we finally get them and they were mixed horribly!  I had a daquari and it tasted like I was drinking straight alcohol.  I asked the waitress to redo it because it was just that bad.  She tells me she made it herself and it is exactly how it should be.  I sigh and just accept it and drink water instead. 

Halfway through dinner P needs more water.  The waitress is nowhere to be seen.  Finally she comes by and she moans and groans about having to give us more water as by this time we all had finished our water. 

We finish dinner and I kid you not we waited a good 25-30 minutes for our check.  I got so irritated I finally got up and said I was going to get a manager.  At that time our waitress amazingly shows up shouting "I'm here!" and she gives us the bill.  Not separated like we had asked...but still not that big a deal.  We figure out the bill and left her no tip.  I was fuming when I finally got out of their.  Our dining experience lasted just over 2 hours.  I might also add the place was virtually dead and she only had two tables tops!

[HogwartsAlum]

There's a town here in MO (not mine) that has a university in it.  It's about halfway between here and St Louis.  Someone I went to my college with (who lived here) said her husband took some classes there, and she said that whenever they went there, it was like all the service people and the people on campus and everywhere they went were like zombies.  They stared and would say "May I Help You" in this creepy monotone.  She said she and her husband called it Village of the Damned.  

I'm  not sure which city you're in, so I'm just guessing, but roughly halfway between Kansas City and St. Louis there is a very odd-feeling college town whose name starts with an "F".  Please tell me Missouri doesn't have two of these places! 

Actually it starts with an "R."  I'm afraid that there's two of them! It must be all the limestone in the water. 

[Lisbeth]

I went to a Chinese take-out restaurant near my office to get some lunch.  I'd never previously gone there so I don't know what they have.  I decide on a lunch special which should have two entrees over rice.

The woman behind the steam counter is in a nasty mood.  She gets annoyed with me when I ask what something is.  I order one entree and then, when I ask for the second one, she actually starts to scrape off the first!

I haven't been back since.

[Harriet Jones]

Actually it starts with an "R."  I'm afraid that there's two of them! It must be all the limestone in the water. 

Is it my husband's alma mater, what he refers to as the "Missouri Monastery of Mines"? 

[audrey11]

This requires a bit of backstory.  In college, I waited tables at a D---y's and was also a reservist.  One summer, my unit was activated and the manager, Tammy, was absolutely hysterical that I was "leaving her in the lurch" and was furious that I gave only two day's notice.  Hey, I only got two day's notice.

A few years later, I went to meet a couple of friends at a different location of the above-mentioned restaurant.  They were already seated when I arrived, and the waitress noted that I needed silverware when she brought my drink.  We ordered, and I reminded the waitress that I would need silverware.  I'd like to point out that she had two tables in her section, and in fact, there were only four tables seated in the restaurant, so it was by no means busy.  Thirty minutes later, we realized that we still didn't have our food, although the food sitting in the warming window did look suspiciously identical to the items we had ordered.  Finally, the waitress, who hadn't been seen in the past thirty minutes, returns and brings our order.

We ask for refills and again, I ask for silverware.  I had ordered an omelette and pancakes, so a fork at the very least was necessary.  She returns with our refills, but no silverware.  I remind her again.  She disappears.  I tell my friends to go ahead, as they both have blood sugar issues.  15 minutes go by, still no silverware.  I finally give up and go to the waitress station to get my own silverware.  We finish eating and would now like to leave.  We're getting irritated by the fact that we have not seen our waitress in over 30 minutes by this point, so no refills, no check, etc.

I decide to flag down the other waitress (who was getting her legs run off by one of her tables).  I ask her for both our bill and the manager, as this was getting ridiculous.  As soon as she gets a moment, I see her go into the back and she returns with our bill and tells me the manager will be out in a moment.  By this point, I'm seeing red.  It's been nearly an hour and our waitress has completely disappeared.  We haven't been able to leave, as none of us had enough cash for the bill, and needed to run our debit cards to pay.  The waitress has not returned to see if I ever got my silverware or if we needed anything else. 

The manager comes out to see what the problem is.  It's Tammy, my old manager, and as soon as she sees me, she says she doesn't care what the problem is with our table.  She goes on for at least 5 minutes about how someone like me deserves the terrible service she gets.  Okay, that's it.  We're done.  We get the other waitress to check us out and give her all of our cash as a tip.  By the way, still no sign of our original waitress in all of this.

I did actually complain to corporate about the service and Tammy.  I never got a response back.

[RegionMom]

I (at the time) was fresh out of college and working as a temp in a gov't office.  We all decided to go out one night for something to celebrate, and went to an all you can eat wings place. 
About 8-10 of us, and we all ordered the wings and all got ONE plate served for ALL of us.  The guy who chose the place explained that the restaurant serves s.l.o.w.l.y. so that your tummy fills up and you do not eat as much as you could if you cram the wings down like no tomorrow. 
But...we got NOTHIHING.  The ice in our glasses melted after our drinks were drained, and we had wiped the remaining moisture out to alleviate our parched lips. 

I do not recall getting another plate, but I do recall having to stop by a fast food place to get enough sustenance to make it home to raid the fridge.

That is the ONLY time I saw the trick of leaving a glass of water upside down with a few pennies in it. 
How did we get the water, you ask?  One of the guys took his dry glass to the men's room. 
YEch!!!