Scammers, Part III

First, I would like to apologize for taking so long to post this. I have had a hellish week and have not had the time or energy to sit down and write this post.

Scammers, part III will focus on the impact of scammers on the restaurant industry as well as its employees.  In the perfect world, you sit down, order, eat, pay and tip and leave promptly unless you “paid” to camp out (many individuals will tip very generously if they intend to stay far past their meal-time). However, many individuals, as we have discussed at length, have realized that by bending the rules, they can scam the establishment out of product and/or money.

Often, I am asked to void or take items off a ticket or access other areas of my POS (point of sale computer system) that I do not have access to. Once you order an item, I am unable to remove or alter it. I need the general manager to “void” the item (most restaurants give this power to any manager).

The reason for this is two-fold. If friends of mine walk in, I could theoretically send hundreds of dollars worth of food and bar orders out, but not charge full price. However, most managers will tell you the real threat is patrons making hasty demands on servers. If given the power, the server would be able to bend to the whim of the costumer in a way that severely hurts the pocketbook of the restaurant.

There is far more competition in the food service industry than ever before. I am sure you can think of 10 new places in your area that have opened in the past 6 months, and 10 more that have gone out of business or moved to another location.

With this competition comes a desire, almost  paranoid fear, of keeping the guest happy. If it were legal, some managers would have servers help wipe the asses of our patrons when they journey to the restroom.

Because  of the competition, management does not want to say “no” to, or piss-off the patron in any way. Guests are not stupid and many take advantage of the score. They know their every desire, no matter how irrational, stupid or costly will be met. So, patrons demand and demand and demand until they have gotten more than their fair share - corporate and/ or the owner(s) see this as a way to get people back through the door.

In the perfect world, the manager would scold parents of misbehaving children. But the threat of parents being too offended to grace the door frame again is too daunting. We would love to say, “Sorry you don’t like it, but you ate it and you have to pay” but that’s telling the costumer “no.”

Despite this, everyone makes mistakes, and often, we do have to void items off of our tickets. I spend over an hour per week finding or waiting on manager  to correct a problem.

In my current establishment, I cannot send open food or drink orders. In other words, I cannot ring-up anything that is not on the menu. I need a manager for this. The reason is simple - go back to my “oyster and shrimp sandwich” story. Restaurants want to control what goes out of the kitchen and bar as much as possible. At my current place of work, this is Hell, as costumers often order specific dishes or add-ons unique from the menu.

Although scammers cost us time and money we don’t have or want to spend, the fear of losing business is enough to keep us saying “yes.” It’s a vicious little cycle - you scam, and we keep giving in.