Wall of Text ahead!

An experience I had a at Corral that was Golden. And not just any Corral, but there test market for the Midwest!

This was the late 80's. I went there after work. so it is about 3:30 I get a baked potato and the buffet. $5 total, so a 20% tip was a Dollar. Now I was a regular customer. I always filled out the comment card with excellents and would prop it up with the dollar tip.

Now to the nightmare:

I had been there for over 30 minutes and only seen my waitress when she brought me my baked potato 30 minutes ago. My soda was empty i needed a clean plate for the buffet and I would like some napkins.

i was tired of waiting for her so I went up the counter and got me some napkins. Who do I see? My waitress, her boyfriend and the manager hanging out in the hall to the kitchen. They were leaning against the wall and having a great conversation, laughing and carrying on. They did not see me.

The Assistant Manager in Charge of Waitresses (I kid you not, That was the title on her Name-badge), who I went to high school with, saw me. She came over to my table and asked if everything was alright. I told her I would like a clean plate, my soda refilled and some napkins. Oh, and if you see my waitress, have her stop by.

She got me a clean plate, a refill on my soda and napkins. Then she sent my waitress over.

My waitress asks me if everything is alright? I say it is now that the ASMICOW took care of me.

When I left to pay, the ASMICOW took my payment. I asked her for a pen to fill out the comment card.

Food: Excellent

Service: Poor

Cleanliness: Excellent

Waitress: Poor

Comment: It would nice if my waitress spent more time helping tables instead of with her boyfriend.

And I threw in the basket with about fifty other comment cards. Now the ASM knew me and knew that was not my normal MO. She straightened up the cards with mine on top. TWICE

Guess what my ...waitress... did when she got to my table after I left?

Yep. She looked for her tip. She picked everything up on the table and looked under it for the tip I normally left. She even picked up the salt and pepper shakers. Her Tip was a talking to from the ASM, She waited for my waitress to get done looking for the nonexistent tip before calling her over. I could see this from outside before I drove away.

The next time i went I had a friend with me. When we left, we had a stack of 7 clean plates, I had a glass and half of soda. my friend had 2 and half and we had a 1/2 inch stack of napkins. The waitress practically lived at our table. Needless to say, we left a very nice tip. over 50%!

The missing waitress? Don't know what happened to her but I never saw her again. I heard later she was fired for similar incidents with other customer. So I guess i was just another incident for a bad waitress.