Tim Hortons bans complaining customer for life

I imagine it'd be handled the same way it'd be handled here: The store would call the cops if he refused to leave. The only way he'd get charged is if the cops actually showed up and he still wouldn't leave.

 

The original starting point here was that someone was told they couldn't order because the store was about to close.

You would complain about that, but not if they kicked you out right at close? But in the situations we were talking about, there literally wasn't enough time to make the food before closing time, let alone eat it. So you want them to let you order it, but then immediately kick you out?

 

Depends on the restaurant and what you're ordering. I think it's perfectly reasonable for you to be able to do the math and figure out if you're going to be done by closing time or something reasonably close to it. You want a burger and fries at 8:30? OK, come on in. You want a four-course meal at 8:30? Yeah, no, not so much. But then again, a restaurant that serves four-course meals is likely to have a last seating time.

Expecting a restaurant to stay open an hour past closing time to serve you and only you makes you an insensitive asshole. Not to mention you put the restaurant employees in the awkward position of having to explain to other people wandering in at 9:15 why you're getting served and they're not.

And keeping the doors open makes it a hell of a lot easier for people to leave. Not to mention it's required under the fire code.

 

They close at 9 p.m.

At 8:59, they're open.

At 9:01, they're not.

That's the rub.

 

So again:

You don't want them to tell you "we close in one minute, there's no time."

You want them to take your order at 8:59, then immediately kick you out when the clock hits 9?

 

At a bar, do they do last call at closing time or 10 minutes before?

This guy's food was so good, he knew people would be back. He would also offer to let them eat it as take out.

Usually how many other people were in the place had something to do with his turn away policy. If he had people still streaming in and everyone was making money, then he might extend the closing time.

Shit, if it was dead, he might have switched the sign to "closed" at eight if he felt like it.

 

If you get carry-out that's one thing. But anyone dining in that close to closing time is the epitome of an completely inconsiderate, self-absorbed d-bag. A good restaurant staff will smile through the hate and give the customer the dining experience they don't deserve though, as making it known how you feel about such customers will bite you in the ass. Seriously, nothing personal, but people should be required to work in the food service for one year out of their life. Would eliminate some of the dumbassery of many customers.

 

Sorry for the double post, but it must be said. Look, you obviously haven't worked in a restaurant, so please just stop discussing the topic. Picture this scenario: A restaurant closes at ten and hasn't had a customer since 9:15, everything is cleaned up and ready to go with about five minutes left. A family walks in, asks if you're still open, technically you are, and instead of getting carry-out decide they want the dining experience. So not only did you waste the last hour cleaning, but you have to re-do many jobs and cover the labor costs of people essentially standing around for the family to finish their meal. Of course, invariably the people that are so oblivious and inconsiderate to actually have the gall to dine in that close to closing time also can't pick up on such hints as putting chairs up, wiping tables down, or turning off the background music. Such behavior by restaurant-goers is not only embarrassing, but also more frequent than you'd think. Oh, and these people are notorious 'all waters,' and, if tourists, pull out coupons from back home that they actually TRAVELED with (don't get me started on coupons), don't leave a tip, yet happily hop back into their $60,000 vehicle.

You'll probably say, 'Then just close at 9:15!' Well, because a good restaurant doesn't have inconsistent hours. I worked at a place that had separate winter hours, but the owner was strict on the closing times; and who could blame him since in the summer we had customers coming in constantly to the bitter end, why create the idea that we could potentially close at an arbitrary hour?

I totally endorse a customer's right to order carry-out until the time posted (of course, usually these a-holes show up 20 minutes after the time you've given them), but if you are arguing that someone should gladly hop in a booth at 8:59 when a restaurant closes at 9, you are as clueless as you are classless.

 

"Notorious 'all waters'? Nice. I'll take water every time instead of spending another $10 so everyone can drink Sprite. (I worked four years in college, full-time, in food service so I'd like to think I have some cred here)

A worker's time is just as valuable as a patron's. However, I do use a ton of coupons all over -- for nearly everything (sorry, no budget for "fine dining" in my world of house, spouse kids and working in this business).

Yet if you are a restaurant in a "tourism area", especially for families (Orlando, San Diego, the Wisconsin Dells), part of the deal is that many of your customers are on "vacation time". They don't always eat dinner at 6 PM. Often, it can be really late if they spent all day at their attractions. They are spending money, usually thousands, to go to your area.

Ask Las Vegas how it's working out. I imagine plenty of waitstaff wouldn't mind a few late arriving customers in the fine dining establishments in 2010.

That being said, yes, I'm cheap and chintzy and always angling for a deal. But I always tip at least 30% to make up for what I save on the food itself.

 

But if you had a coupon that made a dinner that would normally cost $40, $20, remember that 20% of $40 in $8 and 30% of $20 is $6.

You still need to tip in the neighborhood of $8.

 

No, I don't want them to do either. HOWEVER, the latter is at least defensible because it's technically closing time. That said, again, the only food establishments I've been to where they chase everyone at closing time are Starbucks and bars (the latter because of state alcohol laws about when it's legal to consume purchased alcoholic beverages in a public place of business).

 

In order:

* What if the restaurant you go to decides to stop serving before your idea of reasonable? After all, everything's fluid. Let's say you get there at 8 p.m., knowing that they generally stop serving at 8:30, only to be told "sorry, business was slow so we shut the kitchen down at 7:45" so they could save a few bucks on payroll that week?

* Again, not sure what restaurants you guys have been frequenting, but closing time has never meant everybody-get-the-fuck-out-right-now time. Generally, if you close, you understand that you're not going to have an etched-in-stone getting-out time. Even if they stop serving 30 minutes before close, chances are good that you're going to have people in there after close anyway.

* How the fuck is expecting a place to serve you when they are OPEN FOR BUSINESS AS THE SIGN ON THE DOOR SAYS THEY ARE insensitive? The only way you get that is if a) I expect them to open the doors for me at 9:10 because it's close enough, or b) I sit around in my car until 8:59:45, then make a mad dash for the door just to be a dickhole. If I've been at the restaurant near closing time, almost always it's because I'm coming back from a game and I'm hungry, and I'm going there because it's open.

You also assume that everyone should have an encyclopedic knowledge about when places are open. Travelers and people going to a restaurant for the first or second time generally are only going to know what's open based on the posted hours and if the OPEN sign/light is up.

And what's awkward about saying "we are serving this person because he came in before we closed, but we aren't serving you because you came after we closed?" That's the deadline. That's why if the game gets called in at 10:45 for an 11 p.m. deadline, it gets in, but if it gets called in at 11:15, it holds another day. They may not like it, but it's on them for missing the deadline. If they called it in at 10:45, but you tell them that they cut it too close because you decided to send that page at 10, then who's the asshole?

* You can lock doors one way without the other. At Cracker Barrel, the doors locked at closing time. You could still get out, but you couldn't get in. Plenty of other places are like that. Which doesn't mean it's not a fire code violation, but if it is, it's one a lot of restaurants violate.