Bad service

We're in a recession. People are supposedly looking for jobs, and yet it seems that servers, tellers and cashiers are providing some of the poorest service ever.

For instance, Scott stopped at a gas station last week. Along with buying the gas, he picked up a box of Dots, the gooey, fruit flavored variety. The cashier said, "Don't you want three boxes?"

Scott assured her that one was enough.

She said, "But they're on sale for three for a dollar." Then she admitted that she didn't know how to ring up just one box.

So he came home with three boxes of Dots.

Last Saturday, we ate with Belinda's uncles at one of the local restaurants that serves breakfasts to various coffee klatches. The service was beyond bad.

The waitress took our orders and then left. In a half an hour, she started bringing plates of food and asking who ordered, "Two eggs scrambled, bacon and white toast."

Well, no one did. But if you wanted to eat, your choice was to take it or re-order and wait for another half an hour.

The problem, however, is that after eight plates, she quit coming back to our table and started giving food to another table. Since there were 12 of us at our table, you can imagine the disbelief as my wife and I sat with nothing in front of us...and no more waitress. Luckily an aunt on a diet gave me a half a piece of unbuttered toast while I waited.

Finally, after regaining her attention, four of us re-ordered. Another 20 minutes elapsed and she started bringing us plates of food again. Not necessarily ours, but it at least it was breakfast items. So we all got served....something.

However, we began wondering how we would get our bills since the waitress obviously had no idea what food she had served and to whom.

Twenty minutes later she emerged from the kitchen with a handful of slips. Like our food, she started reading off this item and that item and waited for us to raise our hand and claim a slip. Mine totaled $7.50, which I considered "in the ballpark" for what I had ordered. However, the cup of coffee was not included on the bill. I didn't feel any need to tell her.

Before I left the table, I placed a dollar bill down and made a bet with the uncles that she wouldn't have the guts to ask us, "So how was everything."

She didn't...however, I left the dollar as a tip. Still, I couldn't imagine being this waitress. She had the plates screwed up at the table next to us as well. Think how long an eight-hour work day would be if you continually goofed up people's orders.

So where are all these people looking for work? I can remember when Patti, David and Karen's mother, was waitressing in Roundup. I don't think she ever wrote down an order and she never missed placing the right plate of food in front of the right person. She also could add up the bill and never use a calculator. Are there still waitresses like that or are they just memories, like Republicans in the White House and the Packers winning the Super Bowl?