Oh man, I bet Dids will get a pay cut if you report him.

This.

They warned you about the cover charge. Ok, that;s fine, it's what they do in airports - they stiff you cos they know you'll pay.

re the discretionary cover charge, you can tell em to take it off (it's like a tip they try to lump on you cos lots of people are too stingy to tip, esp in an airport envionment). They rely on people being pussies and not getting it taken off. Who cares - its the tip. Don't leave anything else unless you get stellar service. If you don't want to tip, then ask em to remove it.

re ketchup. errm...just catch the waiters eye & ask. wtf is so difficult about that!?!?! You never been in a restaurant before? imo, the best places don't have servers constantly coming round smarmily asking if everything's fine (often they're just tip-sucking) but will have servers who are more standoffish but will notice and respond quickly if you look up or around for one of them.

lol whingeing pussies. God bless normal people.


oh, and the bottled vs tap water thingy. You fell right into that. When tehy ask if you want sparkling or still, that always means it's gonna come in a bottle unless you specifically say tap water; they're just trying to sell. And it's totally fine to ask for just tap water even in high end places.

I was a wine waiter in a reasonable high end place in euroland for a number of years.

not sure how you arrived at this conclusion, but you're incorrect.

there was no discretionary cover charge.

i guess that's the problem with being used to decent service. if i wanted to exert myself when i need ketchup i'd go to a fast food restaurant (actually i would have, but there were none at this particular terminal). it's actually infinitely easier to get up and grab some ketchup at the pump at mcdonald's than it is to keep looking up from my food/and or the people i'm eating with hoping to catch the server when he eventually passes by somewhere not too far away. not having enough ketchup, and not being able to request additional ketchup within 2-3 minutes of running out without having to flag the waiter down from across the restaurant == terrible service.


i might be overanalyzing, but i'm almost certain that higher end restaurants in the US often have small water glasses specifically so that they will have an excuse to come around every ~5 minutes to check on you (with refills). this is BRILLIANT. that way they don't have to constantly awkwardly ask "is everything okay?", nor do they have to neglect you. they just come around and fill your glasses and if you need anything they're right there. euros seem to think this is a bad thing cuz it takes away the opportunity yell across the restaurant, but to each his own i suppose.


regardless, point taken re: being a pussy. i'll have to be more assertive in the future if i want ketchup at a restaurant with crappy service.

You are in a much better position to know how much Ketchup you require. Why didn't you simply tell him he didn't bring you enough at the time you were delivered the meal?

cuz it was in one of those fancy schhmancy mini heinz bottles made out of some kind of thick glass and its impossible to tell how much actual ketchup there is in it. also cuz he should have returned within no more than 5 minutes to see if the burger was to my liking.

lol The Ketchup Diaries

so you are very shy away from your computer?

scam 7 - the "still" water was actually tap water that the restaurant put in a fancy bottle

scam 8 - Gordon Ramsay wasn't actually working in the kitchen

WAT?

Its a cultural thing on that one. Brits dont eat mayo on chips. But im sure the guy would have brought OP some or some more ketchup if he got his attention and asked for some.

you shouldnt have to be constantly looking around and then yell across the restaurant to get the servers attention for ketchup

Stopped reading here.

I wish Phill would start a food/restaurant blog. I would read the **** out of that.

I think when the waiter said 'still or sparkling' he was discretely giving you the opportunity to say 'tap water is fine thanks'. Pity you failed to pick up on the subtelty but live and learn. As for any discretionary charity donation, it is fine to say no, but it is for charity not profit and they probably raise a huge amount of money for good causes doing this.
If you (rightly imo) objected to the service charge being applied to cover charge etc then query it. If they give you attitude then ask for the entire service charge to be taken off the bill - in this circustance I would gladly/politely tell them why I had. The waiter should not be relying on tips to get paid so I don't think it is the same as in the US (although one high profile restaurant was using tips to pay wages).
Finally, any time you pay in a currency other than the local currency you get screwed.
Hope you had a pleasant flight and have a nice day!

no, Phil is a troll. The best part is he still gets people to bite, has to be some sort of record.

you guys aren't getting it. i know this. they made me pay in a foreign currency. i wanted to pay GBP but i had no choice in the matter. they can charge my credit card in GBP, so that i later get screwed by my credit card company in the conversion. this is what i would have wanted. they, however, decided to do me a "favour" and convert to CAD for me, screwing me harder than my credit card company would have in the process.

I can see how that is dodgy but I would just say 'I am paying in sterling, redo the bill.'

Having said all that I have I totally agree that getting a burger and chips/fries shouldn't be a minefield of trying to avoid people taking money off you. Awful experience.

cmon people he realizes that with a bit of complaining he could have gotten some of the charges removed. his point is that he shouldnt have to specifically state multiple times "no i dont want you to charge me more money for no reason"

My point is it isn't complaining it is simply politely saying no. Having said that I totally agree with op the idea you constantly have to query in order to get charges taken off a bill is awful.
I remember seeing Gordon Ramsay saying 'I'm not a chef any more' somewhere or other a bit back and I got the distinct impression he had accepted the compromise (money) he had taken as a businessman v. the artistry/passion of what he used to do in restaurants. I think op's experience might be evidence of this.

Lol First World Thread.

yea, if i'd realized this before the waiter ran off i would have, but i wasn't gonna stick around to fight over 50 cents after already getting raped for unlimited.


p.s. i lied about the donation thing since i didn't feel like ranting about it but wanted to show that it was another way i was getting screwed - i did request to "opt out" after the waiter told me about the charge, but it's complete horse**** that i have to specifically request *not* to give money to some charity i've never heard of and know nothing about. in hindsight, the correct play may have been to ask the waiter to tell me more about the charity, with appropriate followup questions that he most likely wouldn't be able to answer. that way his time would be nicely wasted or i'd have an easy out without being forced to look like a cheap bastard.

but seriously, wtf kind of fundraiser is that? if a business in north america runs a fundraiser for a charity, its often with a promise to match all donations. and its certainly never "oh by the way, we're gonna bill you for this... but if you wanna be a cheapass and opt out, you'll have to request the charge be removed. but be careful, we still have yet to prepare your food."

did i mention that gordon ramsay sucks? cuz gordon ramsay does suck.

well, most of us do live in the first world.

looking forward to your "contracted cholera again, my play?" thread.

Gordon SCAMsey iyam

this **** drives me crazy
either get me a man size glass or leave the pitcher on the table

lol @ blaming GR for your ****ty meal. If you could get paid a kajillion $ to stick your name on a chain of crappy airport burger joints you'd do it in an instant.