Restaurant refuses to sing happy bday to 6 yr old

[emon87]

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I still think everyone is jaded towards this topic because its a six year old. Plus they're huge life nits.

If the situation was something like the following you'd be pissed. You are taking your girlfriend for her birthday and were going to a restaurant where you know they will sing her happy birthday. It is very important to her that they sing happy birthday. You arrive and confirm with the staff that they will indeed sing to her. When the dessert comes there is no singing. When you talk to the owner she informs you that they no longer sing I think you'd certainly be a little fired up.

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I'd sing happy birthday to her, and if she was still upset I would tell her she's a spoiled bitch.

[mason55]

Blarg,


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To answer the question, yes, we would have most likely gone to one of the other places that were within 10 minutes of driving distance. This was a special night for his son, not for the rest of us. We aren't so lazy we would refuse to take the 1 minute walk back to the car, followed by the 10 minute drive.

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Also, you realize if the dad had called ahead, the person who answered the phone would have most likely been the same hostess?

[j555]

The hostess definitely should have checked with the owner first before she promised the b-day singing. Blame her not the resturaunt for trying to class up the place. They are under no obligation to sing to the kid. I like the idea of giving the kid a free desert to make amends for the stupid hostess, but otherwise the owner did nothing wrong here.

[tuq]

Blarg,

Even though you normally prove yourself to be smarter than I could ever hope to be, I can't wrap my head around your insistence that the father is partially to blame.

I think it's reasonable to assume that, if I ask a hostess or someone on the front-end of the chain of command if a certain service or product is provided and they say yes, then I'm not going to refuse to take their word at it and demand to speak to a supervisor - unless she appeared tentative or unsure of her answer. That would be a Super Nit thing to do and I'm pretty sure I would annoy everyone around me.

The fact is that the hostess situation is an outlier - if it wasn't we would all handle it differently - and blame on the father is misplaced, IMO.

[guids]

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Blarg,

Even though you normally prove yourself to be smarter than I could ever hope to be, I can't wrap my head around your insistence that the father is partially to blame.

I think it's reasonable to assume that, if I ask a hostess or someone on the front-end of the chain of command if a certain service or product is provided and they say yes, then I'm not going to refuse to take their word at it and demand to speak to a supervisor - unless she appeared tentative or unsure of her answer. That would be a Super Nit thing to do and I'm pretty sure I would annoy everyone around me.

The fact is that the hostess situation is an outlier - if it wasn't we would all handle it differently - and blame on the father is misplaced, IMO.

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ya, blarg, the guy said that the dad was willing to go to a whole different restaurant if they didnt sing (even though this wreaks of being spoiled), so I dont fault the dad I guess.

[MicroBob]

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you idiots do realize that the dad asked most likely the dumbest person in the place, the hostess, if they could do it.

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Dad: "My 6-year-old is going to get the big Happy B-Day song just like I've seen about a zillion times here in the past, right?"

Hostess: "Absolutely. Will be happy to arrange the birthday singing for the little fella."

Dad: "Sorry, but you're only a hostess so I don't trust you. I need to speak with the owner please so that I can be absolutely certain that what I've seen the past zillion times I've been here hasn't suddenly been cancelled and you simply weren't told about it."

Dad continuing: "Also, I'm not sure I am going to believe the owner either. She kind of looks like one of those owners who doesn't know what her employees are up to.
Perhaps I can speak with each one of the staff to make sure they aren't boycotting the owner's demands or perhaps suddenly decided to refuse to sing the song based on religious grounds or something.

[suzzer99]

LOL - nice one.

[Blarg]

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Blarg,

Even though you normally prove yourself to be smarter than I could ever hope to be, I can't wrap my head around your insistence that the father is partially to blame.

I think it's reasonable to assume that, if I ask a hostess or someone on the front-end of the chain of command if a certain service or product is provided and they say yes, then I'm not going to refuse to take their word at it and demand to speak to a supervisor - unless she appeared tentative or unsure of her answer. That would be a Super Nit thing to do and I'm pretty sure I would annoy everyone around me.

The fact is that the hostess situation is an outlier - if it wasn't we would all handle it differently - and blame on the father is misplaced, IMO.

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The father deserves blame for escalating the matter past both the waiter and the hostess. Two NO's should be enough. The guest should not be trying for best 3 out of 5 at that point.

One NO and one YES should be resolved by the hostess and the manager/owner privately, with the resolution conveyed to the guest by the hostess, along with her apology for misleading the guests. It should stop there. Taking it further is being a bully on the guest's part. Dealing with bullies is part of the hostess's job, so the manager/owner should not have to hear any more about it.

Buying the kid a nice birthday dessert is pretty doable for the restaurant, and should be considered. The hostess, if she's smart, should also consider buying it herself at the employee discount rate.

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I think it's reasonable to assume that, if I ask a hostess or someone on the front-end of the chain of command if a certain service or product is provided and they say yes, then I'm not going to refuse to take their word at it and demand to speak to a supervisor - unless she appeared tentative or unsure of her answer. That would be a Super Nit thing to do and I'm pretty sure I would annoy everyone around me.

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I didn't make this argument and it took me a few readings to even realize what you meant.

[Blarg]

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you idiots do realize that the dad asked most likely the dumbest person in the place, the hostess, if they could do it.

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Dad: "My 6-year-old is going to get the big Happy B-Day song just like I've seen about a zillion times here in the past, right?"

Hostess: "Absolutely. Will be happy to arrange the birthday singing for the little fella."

Dad: "Sorry, but you're only a hostess so I don't trust you. I need to speak with the owner please so that I can be absolutely certain that what I've seen the past zillion times I've been here hasn't suddenly been cancelled and you simply weren't told about it."

Dad continuing: "Also, I'm not sure I am going to believe the owner either. She kind of looks like one of those owners who doesn't know what her employees are up to.
Perhaps I can speak with each one of the staff to make sure they aren't boycotting the owner's demands or perhaps suddenly decided to refuse to sing the song based on religious grounds or something.

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haha!

[Blarg]

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Blarg,


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To answer the question, yes, we would have most likely gone to one of the other places that were within 10 minutes of driving distance. This was a special night for his son, not for the rest of us. We aren't so lazy we would refuse to take the 1 minute walk back to the car, followed by the 10 minute drive.

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Also, you realize if the dad had called ahead, the person who answered the phone would have most likely been the same hostess?

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No way to know that one way or the other, but there's certainly a good chance. If the dad called ahead and got misinformation, he would be blameless for acting on misinformation. I'm still not a fan of his escalating the matter, though.

I may not be a fan of the manager/owner for not making sure his staff is better trained, too. As a general policy, any employee pretty much anywhere should know not to say you're going to do something for a customer unless you're absolutely rock solid positive you can do it. Otherwise you just get in a jam and everybody looks bad and has hard feelings, and sometimes you're out of some money.

For instance, simply registering a complaint can cost 75 bucks or more in some chains. They can mount up quickly and result in very steep fines and, in surprisingly short order, costly remedial programs. They do not have to have ANY merit to do so.

Maybe the hostess was just stupid. If so, she'd better get on the ball before she loses the joint any more customers, goodwill, and cold hard cash.