Olive Garden Needs Customer Service Training

I have to admit that this is a bit odd. I worked for the OG as a
waitress also. I have worked at many different OG's and I have never
met a manager that would not come up to your table and make sure you
were okay after hearing about the situation. On that note, I have
never met a manager that will offer you complimentary alcohol over
dessert, considering it is more practical to offer the dessert.

Your order was "lost." Honestly, that sounds to me that the server
made a mistake and did not put your order in and decided that she did
not want to get into trouble with her manager and avoided that
situation. It is easier for a server to give away free wine over
desserts without the manager noticing.

I have made mistakes like this over the years, and each and every
time, the manager will make a trip over to the guests, offer free
desserts or offer to compensate part of your meal.

Even though some time has passed, managers are still more than
happy to listen to your concerns and find a way to make up to you for
your bad experience, after all...they are suppose to treat everyone
like family.

Horrified? Really?

The waitress sounded pleasant, if somewhat inexperienced. Hardly a
basis for horror.

I agree with the other posters that speaking to a manager would have
been appropriate in this instance. Waitresses, as you may recall from
your experiences in the restaurant industry, are often not in the
position to give away free items without clearance from management.

If the manager did not come to your table, why did you not ask to
speak with him/her?

I disagree that it was the waitress who was unprofessional. She can't
overrule her manager. I think your request for dessert rather than
another drink was reasonable (and I suspect the waitress did too,
since she asked and by your own account appeared uncomfortable at
having to deliver the refusal to your request), but if the manager
said no, what was she supposed to do, grab a couple of desserts for
you anyway? And if you wanted to see the manager, you needed to speak
up.

I agree with you completely! If I were a waitress and a manager told
me to tell the diners that they should take the amount out of my tip,
I sure wouldn't pass that along! Mistakes happen, and I don't see
what the big deal was about giving someone a free dessert instead of a
drink (thank you for being a responsible driver!).

I'm glad you let corporate know about this.

This sounds odd from the beginning to the end.

What I find the oddest is that you would want to stay for dessert when
you had planned to go to a movie that you ended up missing.

The manager offered compensation (which seems to indicate it was the
restaurant's fault) but the server suggested you could take the cost
of dessert out of her tip. That's a tad askew.

Wait. I find something even more strange. If you had asked to speak
with a manager directly, and explained the drinking/driving concern,
no manager who offered you free drinks would decline to offer you at
LEAST one dessert to share.

It sounds to me like she knew she made a mistake. By her offering for
you to reduce her own tip shows she was trying to make things better
despite not having the manager be in agreement with it. It would have
been best to speak to him yourself and maybe things would have had a
better outcome.

Trying to resolve issues such as this once you leave the restaurant
makes it hard to prove...although I am sure it happened the way you
are stating...its just easier to resolve these issues right then and
there.

Since you were in customer service then you should have known how
important it was to insist on speaking with the manager if he/she was
on the premises at that time.
Again, waiting until after you have left the premises, and in your
case waiting over 2 weeks to report this, decreases credibility.

Apparently you weren't "horrified" enough to ASK the manager to come
to the table. I don't understand why you are taking this out on the
waitress. I can't see where she did anything wrong, and I certainly
hope you didn't short her the tip (but I'll bet you did).

I agree you had a bad experience. but "Our waitress was unprofessional
and naive as to how to overcome obstacles with customers and exceed
their expectations."

She offered you a free glass of wine, you asked for a dessert. She
checked with her manager and was told no. How is the waitress's
fault?

"d then proceeded to suggest that we could take the cost "out of [her]
tip."

The cost of what? I can't believe a waitress would suggest reducing
her tip.


I agree the manager should have come to your table voluntarily, but
did you ask for a manager when no one came?