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Dragged against my will into sucking
Good GRIEF.
So I just got back from lunch, right? I went with a friend from another department, who has to watch the clock on her lunch hour a lot closer than I do. So I suggest we go to a barbeque buffet we all go to a lot that is right up the road from where we work. Buffets are fast, you pay, load up, eat, and you’re out. No problem.
It’s 2 oclock (late for me, I usually go at like 11:30 or so), so I’m pretty hungry at this point. I get the buffet, with is just under nine bucks. Everyone always gets the buffet, nobody I’ve ever been here with has ever gotten anything else.
My friend doesn’t eat a lot, so she just wants the small plate, which is about 5 or 6 bucks. She’s at the counter while their putting her plate together, I put my meal together myself and sit down.
So get this: my friend comes out to the table with her stuff in a bag and says they told her she can’t eat in if you get the plate, you can only eat in if you get the buffet. I’m like, you are shitting me. You can’t eat their food in their dining room? Are you SHITTING me? They saw us come in together, did they think that would work for us? She says they said it was to deter people from buying the small plate and then going through the buffet line?
Did I mention that at 2 pm, there were five other people in the place including us? The other three rather portly construction worker types? One of us a swarthy, longhaired chick with a witchlock and spectacles, the other a big platinum blonde in a black glittery tunic? It’s not like we can really hide or blend in this place. And us being regulars, no less.
But no matter. Okay. Fine. Neither of us were really mad at this point. Annoyed, but not what I'd call "mad." I was more annoyed than she was. She was like don’t worry about it, I’ll eat when I get back. I said, “No, you won’t, we didn’t come out here so you could sit there hungry and watch me eat while your food gets cold.”
I could have yelled and screamed. I didn’t. I could have gone up there and demanded my money back. I didn’t. What I did was go up to the counter and ask for a to-go box. And I did it very politely. Because the boy up at the counter was clearly underage, and not someone I was gonna be mean to. I just asked for a to-go box so we could leave. I figured we’d go back to the office and eat in our conference room, something the folks from my department make a regular practice of. Not really that big of a problem. Yes, I know I paid for return trips to the buffet, but really, after eating what was already on my plate, any more food would have been just gluttony. Could I eat more? Probably. Did I NEED more? No. I didn't really care that much.
So I’m back at my table taking the stuff I’d already gotten off my plate and putting it into the to-go box, when they send the kid out to tell me I needed to pay separately for the to-go order.
And that, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is when I turned into a Sucky Customer.
I spoke considerably harsher to him than I meant to. I had had enough, and the words flew out of my mouth before my brain filter said “It’s the kid, be gentle.” It was 2 pm. I’m hypoglycemic, which means my brain doesn’t fire on all pistons and I get belligerent when I get hungry. At least I didn’t use bad language on him, I’d never forgive myself. I just barked “NO. I’m not ripping anyone off here, we are TRYING to have lunch together, and if she can’t stay, neither can I. So I’m getting WHAT I ALREADY PAID FOR, and leaving. I PAID for the buffet, so I’m eating the cost difference, not you.”
So he scuttled off and I threw away the trash, threw away my drink, and we left.
I’m kind of irked. I actually feel terrible for barking at a kid like that. But what the hell? What were they so terrified of, that a fucking chicken gizzard might float out of the door unaccounted for? No wonder that place is only open two days a week, if that’s what they do. I didn’t even ask for any rules to be bent, I didn’t ask for the difference between the buffet and the plate to be returned, I wasn’t even rude, initially. And maybe they ought not send a young boy out to do the dirty work, if they don’t want him eaten for lunch. That doesn’t excuse me, of course, but it doesn’t shine a nice light on them, either.
We came back here and had less than fifteen minutes to wolf down our damn lunches. Sheesh!
So I just got back from lunch, right? I went with a friend from another department, who has to watch the clock on her lunch hour a lot closer than I do. So I suggest we go to a barbeque buffet we all go to a lot that is right up the road from where we work. Buffets are fast, you pay, load up, eat, and you’re out. No problem.
It’s 2 oclock (late for me, I usually go at like 11:30 or so), so I’m pretty hungry at this point. I get the buffet, with is just under nine bucks. Everyone always gets the buffet, nobody I’ve ever been here with has ever gotten anything else.
My friend doesn’t eat a lot, so she just wants the small plate, which is about 5 or 6 bucks. She’s at the counter while their putting her plate together, I put my meal together myself and sit down.
So get this: my friend comes out to the table with her stuff in a bag and says they told her she can’t eat in if you get the plate, you can only eat in if you get the buffet. I’m like, you are shitting me. You can’t eat their food in their dining room? Are you SHITTING me? They saw us come in together, did they think that would work for us? She says they said it was to deter people from buying the small plate and then going through the buffet line?
Did I mention that at 2 pm, there were five other people in the place including us? The other three rather portly construction worker types? One of us a swarthy, longhaired chick with a witchlock and spectacles, the other a big platinum blonde in a black glittery tunic? It’s not like we can really hide or blend in this place. And us being regulars, no less.
But no matter. Okay. Fine. Neither of us were really mad at this point. Annoyed, but not what I'd call "mad." I was more annoyed than she was. She was like don’t worry about it, I’ll eat when I get back. I said, “No, you won’t, we didn’t come out here so you could sit there hungry and watch me eat while your food gets cold.”
I could have yelled and screamed. I didn’t. I could have gone up there and demanded my money back. I didn’t. What I did was go up to the counter and ask for a to-go box. And I did it very politely. Because the boy up at the counter was clearly underage, and not someone I was gonna be mean to. I just asked for a to-go box so we could leave. I figured we’d go back to the office and eat in our conference room, something the folks from my department make a regular practice of. Not really that big of a problem. Yes, I know I paid for return trips to the buffet, but really, after eating what was already on my plate, any more food would have been just gluttony. Could I eat more? Probably. Did I NEED more? No. I didn't really care that much.
So I’m back at my table taking the stuff I’d already gotten off my plate and putting it into the to-go box, when they send the kid out to tell me I needed to pay separately for the to-go order.
And that, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is when I turned into a Sucky Customer.
I spoke considerably harsher to him than I meant to. I had had enough, and the words flew out of my mouth before my brain filter said “It’s the kid, be gentle.” It was 2 pm. I’m hypoglycemic, which means my brain doesn’t fire on all pistons and I get belligerent when I get hungry. At least I didn’t use bad language on him, I’d never forgive myself. I just barked “NO. I’m not ripping anyone off here, we are TRYING to have lunch together, and if she can’t stay, neither can I. So I’m getting WHAT I ALREADY PAID FOR, and leaving. I PAID for the buffet, so I’m eating the cost difference, not you.”
So he scuttled off and I threw away the trash, threw away my drink, and we left.
I’m kind of irked. I actually feel terrible for barking at a kid like that. But what the hell? What were they so terrified of, that a fucking chicken gizzard might float out of the door unaccounted for? No wonder that place is only open two days a week, if that’s what they do. I didn’t even ask for any rules to be bent, I didn’t ask for the difference between the buffet and the plate to be returned, I wasn’t even rude, initially. And maybe they ought not send a young boy out to do the dirty work, if they don’t want him eaten for lunch. That doesn’t excuse me, of course, but it doesn’t shine a nice light on them, either.
We came back here and had less than fifteen minutes to wolf down our damn lunches. Sheesh!
. It was more like 
. ) She seemed a bit flakey then, but it's not like we were bothered by it. I'm just bringing it up because it sort of suggests to me that this chick is not exactly a paragon of professional behavior. So maybe I shouldn't be so shocked at her lack of stellar customer service skills. But that just felt so antagonistic and deliberate to me, and that's what really gets next to me.
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