Bad Experience with Customer

everyone should be required to wait tables for one week before they are allowed to dine out

I totally agree. Everyone should be made to do a stint in some form of restaurant work before going into any other work field. We (the general public) are quick to think that we are all benevolent and kind with the greater good in mind but a few weeks waiting tables would bring our true nature into sharp focus.

As far as other experiences that make you shake your head in wonder... years ago (back in the 70s) when I was a cocktail waitress at a then very popular restaurant (not a bar mind you), I was serving a large party of about 4 couples when one of the men groped my bottom. I whipped around and slapped his hand away, called him a clown and sternly told him to keep his hands to himself. A couple days later the manager got a letter from the clown's WIFE complaining about MY woman's libber attitude. As if I should have just smiled and giggled at the guy. Go figure.

When I was an undergraduate, I paid my expenses by waiting tables two nights a week during the school year and two full shifts a day during the summer.

I remember once the woman handling the next table was running behind, and she'd forgotten some ketchup for a kid (maybe about 12 or 13). As I passed, the parents asked me to bring it instead. As I was going towards the station with the condiments, the kid said something in a nasty, sarcastic tone about my feller server...I think it was "anyone can bring food out, she must be stupid." This girl was spending a summer in the US; during the school year she was a student at Oxford. Not that her education really matters, but she was most certainly not stupid. The thing that really got me was that the parents didn't say a word to him. Even if they agreed, they didn't bother to teach him basic politeness. The fact that people think it's okay to treat servers this way is just one of the many, many reasons I'm glad I have a different career.

And as for these customers, I would have called the police. Why is walking away without paying for food and drink any different than walking away from a gas pump? It's stealing. But that's not my call.

Seems like some people are quick to complain, but don't have any idea what really goes on in a restaurant.

I have enough street sense from years of dining in restaurants to know it's a hard job, and I could never do it. It's not brain surgery, but it's a skill and a mind that I do not have, nor do many of us diners. The people who excel at any customer service job are very talented individuals, imo.

My personal dream, and I know other service industry folks will agree, is that everyone should be required to wait tables for one week before they are allowed to dine out

Actually there are several things I wish people -had- to do in life...preferably at a young enough age where it made a difference in their lives...and this is just one of them. I don't know that a week is long enough for some people however.