In my previous post, I mentioned how much I enjoyed getting free stuff. While sometimes free stuff is just given to you, like with the Redbox free rentals, other times there is some serious strategery involved.
For example, there is definitely an artform to complaining in order to get free stuff. Usually I'm not one to complain. I'm willing to lay down and take whatever misfortune may come upon me and see it as an opportunity to "build character." While most of the time I think that I am a better person because I choose not to complain about things, sometimes complaining is the right thing to do, right?
As an example, I present to you the free dessert dilemma. I don't often eat out at restaurants, it's much too expensive for my taste. On this occasion I had a giftcard to a particular restaurant and I decided to take my girlfriend out to a nice dinner since she was visiting for the weekend. We were having an enjoyable dinner after the starters and I was looking forward to the moment when my steak that I had ordered would arrive. Naturally I had avoided eating too large of a lunch in order to reach full appreciation of my special day of eating at a restaurant.
At last the time arrived, I saw a waiter coming with two meals that looked to be my own and my girlfriend's. With a flourish, the pasta dish for my girlfriend was delivered to the table. With... much less of a flourish, my dish was also delivered to the table. What follows is a recount of the events between when the waiter picked up my dish and when the dish settled on the table.
The waiter, with much confidence, grabbed my steak plate with a napkin in hand and began lifting it off his tray. A fraction of a second later, the waiter realized that the napkin was not going to provide sufficient heat insulation I could see the pain he was in by the way his eyes enlarged to nearly twice their normal size and his hand did its best to simultaneously let go and hold on to the plate. Yes, the plate was too hot and he shouldn't be holding it, but he was determined to fulfill his duty to place my meal in front of me. While this motion was going on, our ears were also graced with the waiter's verbal recognition that trying to use a napkin as a hot pad holder was not a good idea. It included an expletive followed by the observation, "That's hot!"
The plate did make it in front of me, but my meal wasn't the only thing that arrived. The funny thing about the waiter's action of both holding on to and letting go of the plate at the same time is that it required his whole upper body to be over top of the table. Thankfully, his feet were still firmly anchored to the floor, so the story doesn't end with a waiter joining my meal on the table. What did happen was a little drop of spit came out of the waiter's mouth as he completed the verbal portion of his act. It sailed through the air and landed right in the middle of my plate. I blinked, not entirely sure if what I just saw actually did happen. Thankfully, the waiter was sure of what he just saw happen and said, "I'm so sorry, that plate was really hot and I think I just spit a little bit on your plate."
I wasn't entirely sure what to say. I knew that I should probably complain and ask him to take the steak back immediately. On the other hand, I was mostly okay with a single drop of spit on my plate. That's what I have an immune system for, right? Again, the waiter took over for me and said that he would get a second dish out for me right away.
But this is where the dilemma actually begins. I've heard stories about people finding undesirable things in their meals and then getting free stuff because of it. Should I complain and possibly get free stuff? I could, but I'm not one to complain. Thankfully, I didn't have to solve this moral quandary. The manager came up to our table and apologized for what happened. He asked if we would be getting dessert that night, then said it would be "on him" if we did.
I didn't have to complain, but when we got our check, we were still charged for dessert. The gentleman that I am, I made my girlfriend complain to the server that it should have been free. I guess you could say that I have a somewhat extreme aversion to complaining.
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