Free is good but sometimes it really isn’t worth it. Chris and I discovered this on Veteran’s Day this year. It all sounded like a great idea but when it was all said and done, we should have just stayed home.
Chris served in the US Navy and if you are part of a military family, you get the pride and the respect that is held for military folks and their spouses. It’s a family and even as a very specialized Navy officer teaching at the Nuclear Power School in Orlando, Florida, we were part of something bigger and made lifelong friends. It is something to respect and honor and I told Chris that we needed to take advantage of one of the “free” offers available to veterans on Veteran’s Day. So we did. Or tried to at least.
So many chain restaurants offer discounts and free meals to veterans on this special day so we chose the one that we liked the best (I must admit I influenced him because I like their salad bar – one of the few remaining salad bars in existence) and we headed off early. After all, we are over 60. I don’t have blue hair but we knew it would be crowded anytime and wanted to get there and home before it was too late because — remember — we are over 60.
When we arrived I commented that I had never ever seen the parking lot so full and as I circled around I noticed a tour bus. That should have been my first clue but I didn’t have my Nancy Drew hat on that night. We went in, were told we would have a 10-15 minute wait to get seated and that was not a big deal. The place was packed. Door Dashers and Uber Eats orders were flying out the door as well.
I think it was a perfect storm situation. Tour bus AND free meals for veterans. The staff was frazzled. We had 3 different waitresses attending to us, none of them communicating with each other and it was really somewhat of a nightmare. Thank goodness for the salad bar – we could get something to eat while we waited and waited and waited for our meal. No drink refills, no checking in on us, none of the usual casual chatter going on. It was chaos. When our food arrived, my steak was shoe leather. Honestly if they could have cooked it any longer it would have been a rock. Chris’ shrimp pasta was sub par.
But you know what? Through it all, we remained calm. We talked. We joked. We realized it was what it was and there was absolutely nothing that we could do to help change the situation so why add to the drama for this poor wait staff? We waited and waited for the bill. We asked two waitresses for it and when we finally got it they had not given us the military discount so off they went again. Never to be seen again. Well, not quite right. We were getting up and had just left cash for the bill on the table and the waitress saw us and she said to just forget paying which we would not do. We did leave and as we did the line was out the door with customers. We did not say a thing to them as I hoped they would be able to turn the night around. Our dining experience was over 2 1/4 hours and unsatisfactory but we learned a valuable lesson. Sometimes free just isn’t worth it.
Have you ever experienced bad service like this? How did you handle it? I wonder if there was anything we could have done to help ease the situation but honestly we were both very kind and understanding and I am not sure what else we could have done. Everyone has bad days. Sometimes businesses don’t plan well enough for customers. I think this was just one of those times that they did not expect. Anyway, here’s to all the veterans out there –thank you for your service.
