Last week when I was trying to plan a brunch for Mother’s Day, I called up one of the local buffet breakfast places up in North Jersey where my Mom lives. The purpose of the call was to make reservations, but let’s be honest – trying to make reservations a few days before Mother’s Day usually means that you’re not going to get in. My mindset was, “This ain’t going to happen, but I might as well give it a shot.”
I called the place and the woman on the phone answered with a type of, “Hello?” where it sounded like she was lost in a cave somewhere. I said, “Hi, I was hoping that I could make reservations for Mother’s Day?” She responded, “Huh?” in a manner such that she didn’t know what was going on. A little perplexed myself I said, “I’d like to make reservations for this Sunday on Mother’s Day.” She said, “Oh, I think we’re all booked. Let me check.”
As she checked the book she made some odd sounds – sort of a crunching, binding sound. Very weird. Then she came back with, “We have availability at night, but our brunch is all booked up.” I said, “Oh, I was hoping for the brunch. Okay, thanks,” and I went to hang up the phone. Out of the corner of my ear I heard, “Well wait, let me check again.”
Odd – I thought she just checked.
Then she came back with, “I can fit you in at 1pm.” For a variety of reasons, this was too late for me and my family so I said, “Oh, no thanks. That’s a little bit too late for us, we were hoping for something earlier. That’s okay. No problem. I guess I should have called a few days ago. Thanks!” And as I got ready to hang up the phone (again) I heard the woman say, “Well it’s Friday today and you’re looking to make a reservation for Sunday I mean we’re obviously booked up.”
Ugh…thank you Captain Confrontational for repeating my own words. Stupid idiot.
Instead of just hanging up, which I should have done, I said to the woman, “Yes. That’s what I just said. If you do not have anything for the morning that’s fine. We need reservations for the morning, but it’s no problem. Thanks again.” The woman started to say something else – obviously looking for a telephonic fight – and I just hung up the phone before I could hear what she was saying.
How stupid are some people? Listen – if you’re the person on the other end of the line at these restaurants, then you need to understand that not everyone is looking for a fight! Granted, this story is comical at this point, but still – get a grip! The woman was right and I knew it going into the phone call – it was way too late to get any reservations. Okay, fine. But then to want to harp on a mutually agreed upon fact? Come on!
Anyway, I thought I’d share the stupidity with everyone. 🙂
Well, if you’re the person on the other end of the line at these restaurants, then you obviously need to understand that not everyone is looking for a fight!