How a Smooth Night Can Turn Into a Hassle

Okay so it is Sunday night and the restaurant is humming. There is a wait but it doesn't matter to me as all I think about is my section. For some reason I have a small section. I have tables 5,6,7 and table 11 but for tonight anyway all they are giving me is table 11 and when they join the other three tables together that counts for 1 so really I am working with two tables the entire night.

Pretty easy, eh? You would think so. My table of 7 ask for the bill and they want separate cheques but it is not a big deal cause it is only seat 7 who wants separate and the rest want it on 1 bill. So on the Squirrel I print out the bill for seat 7 and seat 4 takes the other 6 people on her bill.

Well when they sat down all they ordered was Pepsi so I do the 2 bills and when I go back to the squirrel to run the credit card through I notice they have a transfer from the bar. A bit confused I run the bar transfer on the bigger bill's credit card. They say they never had these drinks at the bar and it doesn't surprise me so I go to the supervisor and ask him to delete that. I then just run the credit card through minus the transfer that hopefully the supervisor is deleting.

Now the transfers lately from the bar are getting to be a problem as a previous table of mine had drinks transferred to their bill as well that shouldn't have been there.

So to continue I grab the credit card slips from the table and say good night and they leave. I go to close the bill on the squirrel and the supervisor had deleted everything but the bar transfer that was not supposed to be there. In other words I couldn't close my two credit card slips as they have now completely disappeared!

I go to him and tell him what the problem is. It is so dumb he doesn't even understand what he did. I tell him I need to close these bills with tip. Technically the bills have disappeared.

So now I have to ask the guy doing the expedite to find me the food order for table 5 so I can punch it up again. The supervisor has to call Visa to get the number on the credit cards. I am running around doing this , meanwhile a table of 9 has sat down in the spot where the 7 was and my table of two has finished eating and wants the bill.

They are paying debit the two top so I am running around looking for a debit machine that is being used somewhere in the restaurant. At the same time I am being given by the expo the food order he has found from the deleted bill and I need to punch that in and then do the separate check routine.

I finally find the debit machine after what seemed like 15 minutes and the guy does the debit and leaves me nothing. A big thank you for the wait! Maybe at best I could have expected $10 from him but waiting for the debit machine killed that. That is why you should always bring a bill right away and take care of it asap or you will find not much of a tip.

Now I am running back to my table of 9 and they have noticed in a glass of wine I have served there is something floating in it. Back to the bar I go and there were some chocolate shavings in the wine. Listen I am blind as a bat in dark atmosphere. So I deliver the glass of wine asap back to her. Then they are ready to order and I get their order rung in and they open their roll ups and all their forks are dirty. Nice going busboys!

Now at this point the supervisor is calling visa to get the number of the credit card to close the bill from before. He succeeds. Whew!!!

After all that I have just the 9 top to finish and I get one more deuce and the night is over.

Sometimes what starts out as a good night ends up not so good.....What can I say????