I hate it when I go somewhere and someone thinks they are better than I am. Case in point: My sister and her husband came to visit last summer. We live in a touristy town, so we took her to the beach area where there are a lot of restaurants and bars. We know most of the owners of these places. We hit our fave sushi bar first for a drink, then went across the way to a new restaurant we'd heard raves about. It was up on the second floor of an old hotel that had been refurbished. As we walked up a beautiful set of wood stairs, we marveled at the wonderful work that had been done. We asked if we could sit out on the deck. No problem.
So we sat, laughed, talked and waited for a waiter. And waited. My hubby went to the outside bar and asked the bartender if we could get a waiter. We waited some more. The specials men, which was photocopied and nothing fancy, had my sister and I making paper airplanes and flying them off the deck. We giggled. We were having fun. The waiter finally came and took our drink orders. We asked for a menu. We had planned on having appetizers there, then dinner somewhere else.
The next thing we know another waiter came to our table with menus. We asked where our waiter was. We were told he asked to switch. My sister asked if she could smoke on the deck (it was outside). She was told she had to go downstairs and outside. Hmmmm. We waited some more for our drinks.
The hostess closed the sliding doors to the deck. I know we were not that loud. We *were* having fun and laughing. I didn't know that was against the law. She then kept looking out at us giving us dirty looks. There were hardly any tables inside with customers.
My sister and my hubby went downstairs to have a smoke. While they were down there, I heard my sister loudly say to someone how the smoke was coming right up on the deck, so why couldn't she smoke from up there? She had a point. Our drinks finally came, the waiter wouldn't even smile at my brother in law and me and I had had it. I admit, I went on a bit of a vocal rampage. I told the waiter I had never been treated so rudely, the place was pretentious and that we were not regular tourists - we lived here year round and I was going to make sure I told everyone I knew in town (and I know a lot of folks) how horrible this place was. I informed him we had planned on eating something, but I wouldn't touch the place again with a ten foot pole. He asked if I wanted to speak to the manager. I told him to forget it, give us our bill and we were leaving.
By the end of my tirade, my hubby and sister had returned and both knew it takes a lot to piss me off, so this was serious. I had my brother in law pay, because the waiter practically threw the bill on our table, then I stormed out of the place, my sister and hubby trailing behind, loudly saying I'd never come back to this restaurant again.
We ended up eating at a place next to the sushi restaurant and the owner there had no problem with us smoking outside. We told him what had happened and he told us he'd heard nothing but complaints about the restaurant we'd been in.
Why is it that some people assume they are better than you or me? I hate when people presume and point their nose in the air and act like they are better than me. You know what? You're not. You're a sad little person. At least I'm happy with what I have.
So there.
So, who has ticked you off?
3 comments:
I don't care for snooty people either. I have noticed that I can go in the same store and be treated differently depending on how I'm dressed. For example, if I go to the grocery in my professional work clothes I am treated with nothing but kindness and courtesy. But if I've been working around the house and run to the same grocey, I don't get the smiles or the hellos. Hmmm... same person, different clothing. What gives? Sorry if I don't stop and shower and apply make-up just to spend money in your store. There, thanks for letting me rant.
Oh, I get that, totally. The really upscale 'rants 'round here (we live in a place scorned by many for its level of pretention, btw) usually have real people for the waitstaff that aren't all snooted out, but there are some where the staff is required to be snooticious. The type of clientele they want to attract expect it, I guess. IDK. Anyway, took only one visit to that restaurant to get us to vow to never return.
Then there was the one that had the "must turn tables" thing going for it, so the waiters, who were coldly polite, kept returning to push us along. We were there, spending some big bucks, to *enjoy* ourselves and make an evening of it. If we wanted to just gobble food and move on, we could've stayed home, KWIM?
And the frickin' dept. store clerks who might judge you because you're dressed down, so they wait on the people who are dressed up? Had that happen many times, but one memorable one was when I had my then-young children with me. When I got snubbed after waiting patiently for a long time, I called the kids to me and instructed them to start whining loudly, ("let's play pretend!") and that got me attention in a hurry!
I had a good one yesterday. I'm at Redbox (a DVD vending machine) to redeem a code for a free movie rental. As I started typing in the code from my iPhone, I hear a guy sigh loudly behind me. I ignore him and selected a blu-ray title, "Clash of the Titans." The guy sighs again, louder. When the screen came up asking if I wanted to add my email address (which I usually skip), I painstakingly typed in my email address very s l o w l y. The guy sighed again. When the movie finally came out of the machine, I took it, turned around, looked up at the guy who had a snarky smirk on his face, smiled brightly at him and said cheerfully, "You have a wonderful day!" The smirk came off his face real quick.
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