Horrible Customer Service

Growing up I was taught one key thing from my mother when going out to different public establishments. The first thing was "The Customer is ALWAYS RIGHT!" I have lived with that mindset in whatever I do when dealing with service like industries. Even on my two jobs where I have served customers on a daily basis, I used that attitude.

This practice is common across the board, however it is not common to those people in the service industry. Especially not to those at the Busyboys and Poets in Washington, DC on U. Street. A group of 15 of my friends and I adventured to this establishment. I have been to this Busboys and Poets a number of times and have never had problems with the service or the food. This time however something went awry. We did understand that it would be difficult to come in expecting seating for 15 of us, and that was fine with us. We were told that it would be a 10 minute wait, which most of us understood that it would be more than just 10 minutes because there were 16 of us. When it turned into 30 minutes then 45 minutes, then an hour we were not too pleased.

This did not deter us away like it would have most big groups. We just waited patiently in the book store and read some books, sang a song and just talked. Initially while we were sitting some people sat and grabbed a couple of philosophical and intellectually challenging books. Then one of the "big little" kids came over with some children styled books. She began to try and entertain us by reading to us but decided to let someone else do so. So I began to read the book and added a little bit of flavor into it. Then they found another book for me to read which was "Martin's Big Words." It was a book dedicated to Dr. King and I enjoyed reading it so much that I was inspired to sing We Shall Overcome on his actual birthday. :) We got a couple of other people that were in the bookstore to join in on singing the song and we honored Dr. King appropriately.

Back to meat of the story. One group was chosen to go sit at the table that they had picked for us and that was 10 people. So there were six of us left. Well 45 minutes had already passed when the first group was seated and the second group waited another 15 or so minutes for them to add us to the group. We knew that as a big party that logistically it would take a lot to get the check split fairly. The head waitress of our party told us that they would split the check by three tables. We were all fine with that.

Well we got our food no complaints there and the service was fine up until that point. Then MY table asked for our check since we were done. It took us 45 minutes to get our check. We were fed up because that should never be the case. When our waitress came back around and finally brought us our check, I decided to ask for the manager. A lady came, that was not the manager, but decided to get rude with us and jump down my throat wondering why I asked for the manager. I told her that we waited 45 minutes for our check and just wanted to explain to her that we were upset. She then asked me well what can I do for you, I asked if she could take the 18% gratuity off our bill and we pay what we feel was proper for the employees to be given. She said that is fine. That is when everything went downhill. One of the other waitresses went to the opposite end of the table from my group and told them that they would not be able to take the gratuity off because I said we waited 45 minutes for the check. That was only the case for our table and they blew it out of proportion. The lady then told us that they would not take the gratuity off of our check.

Then I asked for the manager again because we needed to rectify the situation. This time a black man came over and he looked like he had no clue as to what was going on. Which he didn't. We explained the situation and he said he would take care of it. From then on things turned around however the attitude of the staff was not pleasant for the remainder of our visit.

So warning when going to restaurants with big groups ensure that all situations like this are squared away from the beginning of the visit.

Reflections

Just yesterday I decided I wanted to watch a home video from my freshman year of High School when I ran and won Homecoming Freshman Prince. Wow this video should be destroyed.

When I found that video I also found a video from February 14, 1999. That is right it is almost eleven years ago when the video was recorded. I was serving at my home church as the worship leader for Boys Scout Sunday.
That was like my last year that I think that I was a boy scout because the troop that I was in did nothing but went on camping trips. I will admit back then I was a bit of a punk and did not like the outdoors. I still to this day do not enjoy the outdoors when it comes to bugs and things of that nature but i know how to deal with it now.

I have definitely grown up a lot since my days before Howard University. These past (Blank) years at Howard have been a life changing experience. I appreciate every set back and come back. I definitely appreciate and value the people I have met since being at Howard. Each of these people have given me a smaller insight on how to live life better. I can honestly say that I am a different person than who I was before Howard.

There will be a plenty more times that I will be reflecting on my life so please look out for those times.

2010 is Here

Ok, so I am going to give this blogging thing a second chance here.

I recently have been talking to a few people who have given me different inspirations as to what I should right about for my blog. Some say politics, which I know not much about. Some say religion, not my strong suit but I could fake it 'til I make it there. Some say race, I mean that would probably be an undertone of everything that I talk about but I just don't know. Some say the regular everyday news...I say to that HA.

Well in this year so far I have attended church once. Bringing in the New Year. I got wasted my second night of the New Year. I paid for it on Sunday and missed church. I had a talk with my mother about it and she was not pleased about my situation but I really can't do anything now but just say that it is in the past.

Last year in December when I came home I was reading a book by John Grisham one of my favorite authors. The book was THE APPEAL. It is my second time trying to read through the book. This time the reason I put it down is different from the first time I was reading it. I found a book that sparked my interest that I had in my collection of books to read from before. The book is THE MIS-EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO by Carter G. Woodson. This book is deep and I am amazed at how much of the stuff in this book is still the case in today's time. It has inspired me to read more books written by my people about my people. I want to ensure that I have done my part to keep my race alive as well as keeping me alive.