Diner Report

I have worked at a diner in the Chicago Suburbs for over a year now and have had some wild experiences. I had a very interesting 10-hour shift today and it inspired me to start a new weekly series. Every week, probably on Saturday night or Sunday (which is my only day off usually), I will post about the week's happenings.

This week has been pretty slow with New Years having us only open Tuesday-Saturday. Apparently everyone had either partied too hard or spent all their money because no one was really coming in. The subzero temperatures had everyone and their grandmother's calling in for deliveries. We were shorthanded this week as well so, it was a bit crazier than it should have been. All in all, it has been a good week though.

Last Saturday, a guy came in and order two hot dogs and two of our hot dog specials (two hot dogs, a small fry, and a small drink). Two were only mustard and ketchup, two were everything without peppers, and the other two were everything no peppers. I ran it past him at least two times and everything seemed clear. There was some confusion between me and D, our cook, after he had put sport peppers on both sets of specials. The man saw this exchange, even though the whole things was lighthearted and easily fixed. So, the guy gets his six dogs, two fries, and two Diet Pepsis and goes home. Everything goes on like normal until an hour later when the guy calls. All of his hot dogs are wrong. All of them... according to him. I'd encountered the customer a few times and he was always sour, no matter what happened so, I honestly wasn't surprised by his complaints. I was surprised at the extent of his complaints. Thinking all of his hot dogs had been made incorrectly, I told him I could give him a credit. My manager (who I love) let me know that we couldn't give him a credit as everything he bought was a promotion that day, but we could replace all of the hot dogs. Turns out that not all the hot dogs were wrong. And for us to replace food, we need the initial items back. The guy proceeds to tell me that he can only give back a few because they scraped the toppings off two of them and put the dogs on buns they had at home. Well, if you can't give us back the botched sale, we're just going to assume you're lying and you ate the items. I told him just about that much and he just decided that it was my manager's fault. The guy then went on a tirade about how my manager was terrible and the owners should be informed. My manager, contradicting everything the man was saying, let me know he would deliver the hot dogs, and fresh fries. AND FRESH FRIES!!!! So terrible, my manager. He begrudgingly took the partial order back and gave the guy new food. All was well.

Until Tuesday when we came back from New Years weekend. He had called our other location and complained to their manager. I felt like I was being interrogated, but I just laid it all out for her. Turns out the guy wanted an apology from the delivery driver, who he said was rude to him. He had no idea the delivery driver was in fact my manager, but for some reason, he wanted an apology from him. He called on Tuesday for an apology from a delivery driver after what happened on Saturday. That's insane.

That was how last week ended and this week began. I'll have the conclusion of this week's Diner Report tomorrow. I'm off to bed as I have another 10-hour shift tomorrow.