10 Rude Things Waiters Do To You
There is one person in the world that you usually end up allowing to disturb you while you are eating. This same person is the one that can come in to ask, interrupt, take or bring anything, while you eat and talk to others at your food table. This someone is your waiter. Your waiter, in addition to bringing you a lot of food and drooling, can also bring in a lot of weird habits that fall into the category of being rude to you.
The real job of a waiter is to bring you food, and is to make your food experience a good one so that you can enjoy your food. The existence of tips is one of the reasons many waiters simply focus on a set standard of things aimed to satisfy the typical standards of many restaurants like making sure your water glass is always full, that you have clean plates, and that you are not angry at or with your food at any moment. Such focus has resulted in many waiters not knowing that throwing a plate full of food at you, for you to catch, is not the same as putting the food plate in front of you.
Here are 10 rude things that many waiters do on a regular basis. I notice these trends at so many locations that sometimes I feel I should ask such waiters if they could be featured on my site for bad or rude service.
Ten rude things waiters do to you
- Pour water into your glass by tilting the jug on its side, resulting in water splashes all over you or your table.
- Not help you with your food questions or order if they are not your assigned waiter, but pick up your credit card or cash for payment when you put down your payment on your table. Next time, tell such waiters “Oh no, it’s ok. You did not help me with my crisis of dying in spices without water. I will let my real waiter take care of this and not trouble you at all.”
- Take away your plate if your friend or someone else in your party is still eating, or vice versa.
- Bring you the check very quickly, and repeatedly asking about the payment in different forms just to get you to leave so that a new customer can sit in your place. Like Ponzu in San Francisco telling me and my friends “Anything else before you guys head out?” We were not all guys, and no, we did not want to head out. We wanted to sit there for a while and talk.
- Touch a lot to try to get more tips. More people know about your psychological tactic, now that Bes has told them about it. Touching strangers for pleasure or for money, by trying to make the stranger feel good unconsciously, is perversion, you pervert.
- Touch your plate, glass or spoons and forks all over with bare hands.
- Not pay attention to you when you need help, like when you need a refill of your water glass after you eat something spicy. In my view, unless otherwise noted or told to the customer, a waiter should always keep an eye on the customer in case the customer looks up and around for their waiter. Other waiters should heed to such body language by either helping or by letting the original waiter know about the desperate gazes of the needy, and probably hungry or thirsty, customer. This goes along with point # 2 above.
- Complain or bring up the topic of not getting enough tip from you. Giving a tip is not the law around the planet, and telling a customer that they did something wrong by not tipping enough, in my view, is plain wrong unless there is an actual situation where the customer directly or indirectly promised a tip and then did not tip enough.
- Ask questions while food is in our mouth. This is another tactic used by waiters. When your mouth is full, you may say anything to tell the waiter to get lost so you can chomp down your food, including “Yes, it’s good.” That is why you are always asked a bit-pointed questions. You are asked “Is everything ok?” instead of “I see that your mouth is burning. Is the food too hot?” or “I see that my questions are resulting in your mouth opening so strangely that the teriyaki chicken is falling onto the ground. Should I stop asking you questions till your plate is empty or till you tell me to reappear after disappearing?“
- Giving you too much attention, including asking you about the food or service or your needs and talking to you a lot while you try to focus on eating or while you try to talk to the people you came with.
How does your waiter treat you?
Does your waiter ignore you? Has your waiter given you a shower when refilling your glass of water? Have you been rushed out of a restaurant by an overzealous waiter? Do they give you too much attention? Have you ever said “YES! IT’S GOOD! I’LL TIP YOU REAL GOOD IF YOU GOOOOOO AWAY PLEASE!! 
” while being interrupted from munching on some very juicy treat that you would be paying $15 for?
Are you a waiter yourself? Have you seen any of the above trends in other waiters or experienced them yourself? Have you engaged in any of the above trends for different reasons?
Please let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks! 
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( December 13th, 2009 at 5:43 am )
Wow! Great points and all are so true!
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Twitter: @rmilana :
( December 13th, 2009 at 5:43 pm )
kimbala! all r true,they could be so heartless sometime
when i found that kind of waiters around my fav restaurant >>>> expect no return of me there!!
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( December 14th, 2009 at 12:01 am )
Thank you very much for your information. It was a great help.
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( December 14th, 2009 at 9:51 am )
Nice informative blog and have great tips… Thanks for submitting
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( December 14th, 2009 at 5:13 pm )
I’ve definitely experienced all 10 things before. Is it just me or are the “touchers” usually better waiters in general? Maybe their ploy just works on me.
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( December 15th, 2009 at 12:16 am )
Nice tips. Thanks for information
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( December 15th, 2009 at 8:44 pm )
Entertaining read. I think you may be rather unfortunate with your waiters. Anyone who has control over you isn’t someone I would provoke. I like my food not poisoned.
Although in the greater scheme, I think there are a lot of other more important things to worry about.
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( December 18th, 2009 at 11:11 pm )
To me, They are always nice because I am a body builder and wrestler….
.
Anyway, I am going to turn this topic to a bit woofy topic, I meet many customers daily which come to see me for coach hire, minibus hire and limo hire consulting, sometime the way they behave is beyond control, but that is where emotional inteligence help.
And thanks once again for being a body builder, it even helps when i am driving my car too fast
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Kymaro
(5 comments) Reply:
February 10th, 2010 at 11:53 am
@Camella,
I am always nice to my waiter albeit I’ll be poisoned, haha, but thanks for the tip. I would definitely focus on the gym in the next days to tone my body. I guess for now I just have to keep cool with the waiters and give them extra tips.
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Twitter: @airambulance101 :
( December 22nd, 2009 at 3:53 am )
This article is so true. I wonder why waiters are coming entertainers nowadays.
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( December 22nd, 2009 at 5:20 am )
These things are all true, my husband like to tip according to one waitress we had before. He always says no matter where we go this person is not as good as “Brittany” and just shake my head and say well they cant all please you can they?
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( December 27th, 2009 at 11:01 pm )
This is a nice post, i like it,
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Twitter: @kevinswholesale :
( December 28th, 2009 at 11:24 am )
wow you nailed a lot of my pet peeves… they are always smoking when you need a drink and always in your face after you just took a good big bite of food.. oh and ill flip if they touch my silverware… no way…
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( December 29th, 2009 at 9:15 am )
i like your post, its very interesting and informative to me, thanks for sharing it.
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( December 30th, 2009 at 4:45 am )
i thank google to bring me here and very thanks to you for the great article
its very helpful to me
happy new year
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( January 4th, 2010 at 1:38 pm )
I’m guessing the original poster has never served before and has no idea what it is like to wait on stupid ignorant guest, such as the poster him self. None of these points are true in the way that they were posted
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katie
(3 comments) Reply:
March 9th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
@Freida, you are totally right… this poster doesn’t seem to be happy with anything waiters do… they don’t ask enough they talk too much… one of the most oblivious statements has to be number 4. of course they’re asking if you need anything else. a waiters income is based on tips. 99% of people do not tip any extra if they sit at the table for an extra two hours. but we could have had two other customers who tipped us if you hadn’t sat there and chitchatted about your son who got his first job over the summer. i understand you want to catch up but if i get a 3 dollar tip after you sit there for 3 hours i’m going to be upset.
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( January 6th, 2010 at 7:55 am )
Hello Bes,
We went for our 11th wedding anniversary meal at a local restaurant, after going to the movies. We were the first diners of the evening in the restaurant and, when we arrived, there was only the one waiter to serve my wife and I – the only customers in a restaurant with a seating capacity for 200 people.
The waiter brought no water, but he did bring bread rolls and a starter. Almost one hour later, he brought the main course. My wife had already reminded him that we were still here. How could we be missed? We were the only people in the restaurant.
More people arrived in the restaurant. They received water and their main course within 20 minutes of arrival. We waited another half-hour for our dessert and a waiter shift change occurred. A different waiter delivered our dessert and yet the original waiter, before he went home, came to our table for the bill payment and a tip.
I gave him a tip. “Read The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Great Customer Service by alpha books”, was my tip to him!
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( January 6th, 2010 at 8:48 pm )
Some Psychology study showed that waiters who ‘accidentally-on-purpose’ touched a customers hand while serving them received greater tips. If I was a waiter that would be useful knowledge
I hate it when waiter’s take your plate away too quickly.
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( January 7th, 2010 at 4:00 pm )
it *constantly* happens to me where waiters ask me a question, right as I put a huge mouthful of food in my mouth. Maybe it’s their way of telling me I’m a huge fat pig, but I can already know that, without their passive-aggressive, unwarranted opinion!
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katie
(3 comments) Reply:
March 9th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
@Dara, usually we don’t mean to ask as soon as you put food into your mouth, but really, what other time can we ask? What you came there to do was eat. Most people don’t take breaths between bites let alone enough time for us to see you and come over to ask a question. We can’t creep you and wait until we see you swallow your food, we have other tables to wait on. And we get into trouble if we don’t ask about your meal.
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Twitter: @OliverGreene :
( January 10th, 2010 at 7:15 pm )
This is true but I would like to say if we really want to be serve accordingly we treat waiters with respect to gain respect. I am not a waiter but I consider them best in their field as we consider ourselves best in what we do.
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( January 11th, 2010 at 2:07 am )
I very much impressive to read this post. Great informative, I will go to bookmarking this.
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( January 12th, 2010 at 5:55 am )
Not funny if that happens to you, but so much fun reading! Hilarious!
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Twitter: @techgeeze :
( January 13th, 2010 at 9:43 pm )
There is nothing we can do, but so far I don’t experience one of them the common is I waited half an hour in a resto, then we left after they send the order in out table without a charge to make things even.
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( January 14th, 2010 at 9:24 am )
i had a bartender dump the pourer from the bottle into the martini shaker and dump 1/4 of the bottle in, pick the spout out with her fingers and then try and guess the proportions of the martini. after I called her on it, she denied it, i said i saw her, she said….well, do you want a new one? gross gross gross!
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( January 16th, 2010 at 5:59 am )
I would add another point as 5.b -> They would ask you for tip if you just move from the table. They never welcome and if you were a first timer.. you’ll never get any guidelines.
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( January 17th, 2010 at 2:07 am )
I think there’s always gonna be bad waiters, and there’s not much you can do to control that type of situation when it happens — so the best u can do is try to make the best of it and not let it ruin your night.
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( January 17th, 2010 at 6:19 pm )
The worst one i’ve experienced was when a waiter in an italian restaurant tried to mimic my accent and ended up getting no tip for it. He decided to go ahead and spit on me as a result and the rest was not so pretty….
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( January 18th, 2010 at 3:38 pm )
wow great post…
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( January 18th, 2010 at 9:25 pm )
Funny, I just had many of these same thoughts tonight after having a virtually perfect server at dinner. She neatly refilled drinks and waited for our plates to be completely clean before taking them away. She only asked “how things were” when we were just hanging out without our mouths full. All your points are well taken. The other night, the waiter was disturbing and…geez…most of them are so quick to remove plates and glasses when they’re not empty!
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( January 19th, 2010 at 8:30 am )
Entertaining and fun filled post… keep up the good work
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( January 19th, 2010 at 9:41 am )
Please. Get Real here. You act like they should be treating you like a King or Queen! They get paid 2 bucks an hour! They don’t need to go ABOVE AND BEYOND, just provide you with the service you need!! What do you do, go around finding things wrong with everything everywhere you go, just so you can come here and complain about it to feel important!?!
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( January 19th, 2010 at 1:37 pm )
It seems like more often then not my husband and I get a horrible waiter when eating out. It annoys me b/c it is they are at work to make money and they are busy doing everything else then pleasing the customer. I was a server and so I can complain. Great list thanks for sharing!
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( January 19th, 2010 at 2:15 pm )
I completely agree with #2. That has happened to me so many times when I dine out. I hate when there is clearly plenty of food left on my plate and take it away….sad.
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( January 19th, 2010 at 2:18 pm )
Interesting. I know what you mean, and I think mostly true. I waited tables back in the college days and I remembered how hard it was, but I don’t think I was ever rude!
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( January 19th, 2010 at 3:21 pm )
Try going out for dinner in Amsterdam, have never seen any waiters which were more rude then over there
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( January 20th, 2010 at 12:42 pm )
Amsterdam is nothing compared to Denmark.
I had a cafe for a year ago, and I couldn’t get any probber waitors.
Waitors in Denmark a just bad behaving.
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( January 20th, 2010 at 1:14 pm )
Waiters never really bug me except for being inattentive with the check. I’m not a fan of waiting around for hours after I’m done eating.
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( January 20th, 2010 at 4:58 pm )
Waiters should wait until everyone is finished eating before taking away anything. Sometimes they focus more on cleaning tables rather than satisfying customers.
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Twitter: @KariOlinger :
( January 21st, 2010 at 8:01 am )
thx for great points! thumbs up. looking forward to more posts
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( January 21st, 2010 at 8:34 am )
Nice post
Very Interesting to read..
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( January 21st, 2010 at 5:20 pm )
What horrible experiences. With little kids, we don’t go out much these days, so when we do, we hope to have the least stressful night. Luckily, we’ve not had too many rude/bad waiters (at least not that I can remember).
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Twitter: @cars tuning :
( January 23rd, 2010 at 3:26 am )
very informative blog!!very interesting to read and all are true!!thank you!!!
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Twitter: @cars tuning :
( January 23rd, 2010 at 1:41 pm )
well, good point, ’cause not everyone knows about this.
thanks for sharing!!!
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Twitter: @cars tuning :
( January 24th, 2010 at 5:27 am )
I completely agree with #2. That has happened to me so many times when I dine out. I hate when there is clearly plenty of food left on my plate and take it away….sad.
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Twitter: @cars tuning :
( January 24th, 2010 at 7:09 am )
I believe that Waiters should wait until everyone is finished eating before taking away anything. Sometimes they focus more on cleaning tables rather than satisfying customers. am I rong??
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( January 25th, 2010 at 2:04 am )
this is incredible post … just for inform you i was read something more explaining that from few days in http://www.u2tours.info/donats/greating.html
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( January 25th, 2010 at 11:39 am )
well…
the point of number six is sometime happen to me
it’s really annoying you know
but I would like to make sure their hands clean of bacteria
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Twitter: @_ScottCrider :
( January 25th, 2010 at 5:57 pm )
the restaurant experience in whole is made from the parts. ambiance, food, service and if the balance is not there, lousy food, crappy service…ruins the dining experience. Great food, dining room ambiance and especially service makes a meal rock and if you have a bad experience with an establishment then I would highly recommend let them all know!
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( January 26th, 2010 at 5:25 pm )
great site i added my computer your page
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( January 26th, 2010 at 8:37 pm )
Here’s an often overlooked thing some waiters do. When you need your glass refilled they take your empty glass and return it filled up. That’s bad. How do I know I didn’t get someone elses empty glass? They should always bring you a new full glass THEN take your empty.
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( January 26th, 2010 at 11:36 pm )
These are SO true lol
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( January 27th, 2010 at 9:30 am )
I saw this exact article yesterday on Reddit… or Digg… I forget.
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Twitter: @http://www.twitter.com/thedebthawk :
( January 27th, 2010 at 10:19 am )
I can’t stand when a waiter doesn’t refill my iced tea. That happens to me a lot.
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( January 28th, 2010 at 8:49 am )
all the things written is really impressive.
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Twitter: @igamek :
( February 2nd, 2010 at 6:30 am )
Nice post, so true. lol
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( February 2nd, 2010 at 2:03 pm )
This is somewhat funny. I do understand that waiters can be rude, but customers can also be rude and put the waiter in a bad mood. People should just respect each other and not look down at someone just because of the job that they hold, because you never know who you will be working for next. Thanks!
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( February 3rd, 2010 at 4:05 am )
Nice topic.I really agree with you.I have also observed all these 10 things waiters do.Especially the 7th point about filling glasses.It has happened many times with me.
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( February 4th, 2010 at 9:59 am )
I think if you go into a place looking for something to go wrong or someone to be rude you’ll find it. Be positive. They may hate their job, and the dog just died. think before judging
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Twitter: @dwhitetweets :
( February 4th, 2010 at 4:03 pm )
I’ve had a waiter start yelling at me giving me a hard attitude because some of the food that was given to me wasn’t properly cooked and I asked the waiter to take it back to the kitchen.
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( February 9th, 2010 at 5:46 am )
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( February 10th, 2010 at 11:22 am )
Thing is be kind to your waiter or you end up eating and drinking food laced with sweat and saliva! I’m sure you don’t like that to happen, do you?
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( February 18th, 2010 at 7:28 pm )
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Twitter: @fafyer :
( February 18th, 2010 at 7:31 pm )
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( February 27th, 2010 at 5:06 pm )
What I hate is they all act like your causing them grief when you ask for something. IT’S YOUR JOB you moron. If you don’t like helping customers, go work in a different trade. Duh!
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( March 3rd, 2010 at 12:36 am )
I work for 15. Years as a waiter all 10 things are ok but i think u never worked as a waiter when u have 2ld ladys an one of them ask u for a coffe and the other one say to u a im ok no thing for me and when u bring that coffe and the other one ask u ooooo waiter can i have a coffe to or she never order but say to the waiter u forgat me aaa so tell me how u feel or a drunk person goes to bathroom and add some stuf to his nose and come over and give u hard time if u want the 10 rooles u have to spend 150$ per person and ok there they watch u ok good bless u all
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by BesZ, BesZ. BesZ said: Ever got a rude waiter? Then read "10 Rude Things Waiters Do To You" – The Reasoner – http://bit.ly/718iVe
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