Supples’ Pub

I’ve ranted about crappy customer service before, but last weekend takes the cake. Kat and I went out to Ruby Tuesday’s in Cary, as I was craving some steak and they have a good salad bar. It was about a 15 minute wait, not bad for a Saturday night, and we got a booth as requested. That’s about where the good stopped.

Let me summarize our waiter’s incompetence:

• No silverware, serves other people before getting us our silverware, not even a hint of an apology - takes 5+ minutes
• Forgets me when I ask for steak sauce, disappears for 5-10 minutes and then finally remembers
• In general serves his other customers (older and with larger parties) before he serves us

On top of that, my steak wasn’t very good (too tough) and the plates at the salad bar are scalding hot (aren’t salad plates generally chilled?).

Now, I can forgive all of this under normal circumstances - it is busy, he’s probably around 20 years old, probably rather flustered with the whole evening. But by the time I pour some belated A1 on my quickly chilling steak, Mr. Slackass with his other tables cleared out sits down 3 feet from us with two other waiters & starts counting out tips and talking about their customers of the evening (not in a good way, mind you).

At that point, I look at the check and decide my evening certainly didn’t fit the $60 tab. I pick up the check, and start to walk away when Mr. Slackass lets me know he’ll take that - “I’ll be right back buddy.” While I’m up front waiting for the manager, Kat let me know that he & his buddies decide to talk crap about me while I’m up front. Not smart.

I talk to the manager, give him the story, he’s VERY nice, and offers to comp all the food. Way more than I was expecting, I’m not one to take something for nothing, but appreciated nonetheless. So he gets me the new bill, I pay for it, and leave a one penny tip to let Mr. Slackass know he did a bad job - isn’t that the standard operating procedure?

Well unfortunately I have to give the check to Slackass to check me out, then I go to the back of the restaurant to get Kat and leave. As I get to her, he walks up quickly behind me, slaps a nickel on the table, and says “Thanks guys” in about the most smartass tone you ever heard. He quickly retreats.

I begin to smile & laugh, and go get Cameron (the manager) again. I get up there, ask the nice one-eyed bartender (he had an eyepatch) to see Cameron, and another of the waiters standing there starts to question me. I let him know Mr. Slackass has an attitude problem and he starts to try to tell me he was just bringing me my change or some BS and I explain what he was actually doing. Trying to abate me from seeing the manager, I finally tell him to get the manager and he proceeds to tell me “I’m sure he’ll be back in a minute,” i.e. refusing me.

I’m sorry - WHAT?!?!?!?!?!! Then he tells me leaving a $0.01 tip is rude - I tell him someone being a slackass is just as rude. Now I’m pissed off, this is damn ridiculous. Kat is there with me and she is not one to hold her tongue in situations like this, so she tells him how it is. Cameron walks out at that moment and I call him over. He sees the Jerk trying to talk me down or whatever and I guess knows this guy’s trackrecord, because he tells his people to shut up and asks us to step outside to talk. Kat demands the district manager’s name & phone number, the (very very nice and respectful) shift manager gets it, and he listens to our account. After I elaborate my frustrations and the extreme disrespect, he ensures me it won’t happen again and apologizes. Major thumbs up for Cameron, he’s a nice guy (even though he is young, imagine that).

I don’t know if it was because I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, but I just seemed to be inviting assholes to try me. I’m a very tolerant person in almost every way, but once you push my buttons I will come back and let you know what’s what. In the end, we only paid for our drinks and hopefully got those assholes fired. The nerve of that kid to tell ME what I should/could do or not do, ooohhh it makes my blood boil.

I still haven’t called the district manager and have no patience to do so today, so maybe tomorrow we will see how friendly the DM is.

The original Slackass’ lack of service wasn’t a huge problem. I was planning on coming back. But Mr. Jerk trying to placate me really pushed it over the edge for me. I have zero desire to go back to that Ruby Tuesday’s, and honestly no desire to patronize that restaurant chain ever again. I’ve never had a customer experience that so negatively influenced me, it is a little surprising. I realize it is not the chain’s fault, that it was a single and probably isolated incident - but once that impression is made, it is extremely hard to undo.