Gratuitous Insults

Great food, insulting people

          Before we get into the actual rant let me share something with you.   Websters Dictionary Online defines Gratuity as follows: something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service.  This is important so please keep it in mind for later in the rant.

          For those of you in the Warner Robins, GA area who have not yet tried the food at the Metropolis Grill on Highway 96, let me tell you that it has some of the best, most authentic Indian/Mediterranean Food I have ever had.  The portions are generous and the prices are not too unreasonable for the food that you get.  My wife and I have been there several times and loved the food and the desserts.  Until yesterday I would have recommended to anyone that asked that they try the place.  That was until yesterday.

          We had finished some Easter shopping for my wife's work place and decided to eat out instead of go home to leftovers.  She decided that she wanted one of the dishes served at Metropolis so we drove out to 96.  Once there, we enjoyed a fantastic meal with decent service while talking about nothing in particular.  Everything was both hunky and dorry until it came time to pay the bill.  When our server brought out our bill, we were informed that the manager had told him that "since we had never tipped in our previous trips to the grill and that the servers worked for their tips if we came back we would be assessed an AUTOMATIC 18% gratuity!"

          First of all, see beginning paragraph for the definition of a gratuity.  Second recognize that as much as all of these businesses like to slap "automatic gratuities" on bills, they can't legally enforce that.  Any customer can request that the automatic tip be taken off and the businesses cannot refuse.  Why?  Again, see first paragraph.  Third ponder the idea of an "18%" tip!  We weren't a party of 50 or a busload of kids from band camp.  We were two people at one small table in one corner of the room.  Also the idea of paying that kind of tip at a casual dining eatery is insulting.

          I have worked in the food service industry a lot in my nearly 5 decades of life and I understand that servers/delivery people don't make a lot of money.  For this reason I am inclined to tip when I receive good service.  For the record, of the three times we have been to the Grill, we have tipped once.  We tipped the first time because the food was excellent and the service was acceptable.  We did not tip the second time because all of the servers seemed much more interested in talking on their cell phones than serving us.  We would have tipped the third time, but I was too insulted by the manager's actions to give our server a tip.  (As a side note here, the Manager didn't even have the Spheres to come out and tell us him/herself, our server was forced to give us the news.)

          If Servers want tips, they need to earn them.  Give good, prompt service to all your customers.  At least act like you give a darn about the people that come in your doors.  No one is "entitled" to tips or gifts, they have to earn them.  If Managers and Owners want to keep their businesses open, they need to treat their customers better.  We love the food at Metropolis, but we will never be going back there again.  I really hope all of my local readers at least temporarily boycott them as well.  Maybe if the people in charge see how much insulting their customers can hurt business, they will learn their lesson.  I doubt they will learn, but it never hurts to hope.

To end this unpleasant rant, here is a picture of a bunny holding a teddy bear.