Waitressing question

[Finduilas]

So I was eating with my family at a Ninety Nine the other day. We all ordered and got our drinks, the waitress was friendly, etc etc...
But then apparently another table of four had ordered two meals that my sister and I had gotten and two meals that were different from my parents'.
The waitress came along and gave my sister and I the right food, but it had been intended for the other table. The waitress thought that she had just accidentally switched some plates around, but it turned out that the food that was supposed to be ours wasn't done cooking yet, so my parents had to wait about five minutes to get their food.

The waitress apologised profusely (almost too much, since we didn't care at all) and offered us dessert. My parents said to us, after she had left, that they didn't want to get it because it would come out of her paycheck. I said that I didn't think it would, and that it would come from the restaurant. Who is right?

We didn't get a dessert. We were far too full.

[Evil Queen]

It depends on the restaurant but it generally works like this; if it's the fault of the Kitchen then the restaurant pays for it. If it's the fault of the waitress, then she pays for it.

For example; since the food was still undercooked, the fault lies with the kitchen and you get free dessert (because the manager oks it -- same thing if the kitchen is backed up).

If the waitress had, say, purposely dumped it on your heads, then she would pay for it. Accidents are usually thought of as that; accidents. The restaurants usually eats that. At least, everywhere I've worked at it's been that way, but I've not been a waitress for a while.

We have more waitstaff here, they can detail it better for you then I can.

[wagegoth]

I think that, legally, it's not supposed to come out of the waitress' pay, but restaurants do a lot of illegal things. The waitress may have offered the dessert so quickly because she wanted to keep your parents happy and because it would not be coming out of her check. The desserts probably would not have cost the restaurant more than a couple of dollars, anyway.

I believe that, in most states, a company can't legally make an employee pay for damages or loss unless the employee deliberately caused the damage or loss. But that's something to check with your labor board. Something like this most restaurants are just going to write off as a couple of dollars toward good will and happy customers and a form of cheap advertising.

[Peppergirl]

Allow me to second what Wagegoth said about it probably not being legal to take it out of the servers' check, but restaurants do ALOT of shady shit.

When I was a server, nothing came out of my check - even if it was my fault. Then again, I worked for a really cool independent restaurant.