Customers Behaving Badly: The Restaurants Strike Back

Lately, I've been reflecting quite a bit on Jazzfood's thought-and-comment provoking thread and link re: "the power of amateurs and the damage they do. And how to fix it." It's a discussion that bears ongoing attention. I applaud Jazzfood and those who responded for taking a constructive approach to the topic. It seems that for the most part, ignorance and hubris are the basis for the transgressions of amateur reviewers. I didn't want to hijack that thread, but I do want to call attention to a couple of stories from St. Louis' Riverfront Times that point out the lengths to which some "bad apples" will go to abuse the good will of restaurants.

Read on for an account of a still unidentified woman posing as a journalist from Riverfront Times who uses her fake status to ignite vodka-fueled scenes and berate staff. Even more sensational is a series of articles (here and here) that umask a local man who used complaints to extort free sandwiches. The restaurants involved used some smarts and high-tech order tracking to expose the thief (a local accountant).

COMPLETELY off topic, but funny to me in my slaphappy, "cleaned out the garage early this am, then took jr. to the zoo for three hours, then came home and ate myself Thanksgiving full of enchiladas" state -

Any other unix geeks' brain come to a screeching halt after reading the word umask?

I thought the most interesting part of the article was the fact that "(t)he woman did not try to parlay her position into free grub--she paid her $80 tab in cash."

She may have been a drunken, disruptive bitch, but at least she has scruples.

Buddy

Moses (Ryan O'Neal): "I got scruples too, you know. You know what that is? Scruples?" Addie (Tatum O'Neal): "No, I don't know what it is, but if you got 'em, it's a sure bet they belong to somebody else!" 'Paper Moon' (1973)