I think I had to fill out some form or something for the credit card.

Oh. Must be a quite different plan from mine. A card just showed up for me without me knowing it was coming. I don't use it to get around receipts -- I use it to get around spending money. So it's definitely worth it for me.

In my head the process goes

Mine too. And I've never actually sent food back that wasn't bleeding.

I've been sending in my FSA stuff all year, so I never have to keep a receipt longer than it takes me to accumulate 3 or 4, which is my vague notion of being enough to make it worth filling out a form for.

Internet demographics

I have more arguments about this one. I agree with the waiter -- if you just don't like how it tastes, you don't get to send it back. Sorry, but you made a bad choice. If I tried to return a bottle of wine to my local wine store because I didn't like how it tasted, I'd get laughed out of the store.

Many people don't agree with me, however. They think that "wine which doesn't taste the way I want it to" always = "bad wine" and is therefore okay to send back. I try to never go out to dinner with these people.

I completely agree with you, Tep. I've never gotten wine that's gone bad, in a restaurant, or at home. I've gotten some wines that weren't good choices, but there was no vinegar or mold about them. I just didn't guess right. I never send them back. I drink the first glass quickly, and then the subsequent glasses don't taste so wrong.

It's generally considered acceptable to send back food you don't like -- why should wine be treated differently?

Like a lot of other people, I think the reasons why don't like it should come into play. Pink chicken? Send it back. Charred steak that was supposed to be rare? Send it back. Overly greasy, overly salty, overly sweet, bad clams? Send it back.

If you'd never had mushrooms before, and order a dish with mushrooms, and discover you hate mushrooms, I don't think you ought to send that back expecting to get a second dinner for free. If you do get the second dinner for free, you ought to tip, big time.

I completely disagree with the waiter's #8 rule:

8. When the waiter presents the bottle LOOK AT THE LABEL! Sometimes waiters make mistakes. My bistro has several wines of differing vintages from the same maker. Sometimes a ’97 is a shitload more expensive than an ‘01! You drink it you buy it. Caveat emptor pal.

Of course the customer must look at the label, but if both the waiter and the paying customer fail to notice the mistake, I don't think the customer should be held responsible. And I do think the restaurant should give the customer the benefit of the doubt. I would never claim to have ordered the cheap if I ordered the expensive. I know plenty of people might, but I never would. If I were treated as if I did, the restaurant would lose a customer, and get a load of bad word-of-mouth from me.

If a restaurant finds too many customers (or a certain customer, too many times) seem to benefit from the the ordered-cheap/got-expensive "mistake", as far as I'm concerned, they need to address it with their waitstaff. The waiter can start making a production of ensuring he knows which bottle is ordered at the time.

89 quirkyalone. But I only go to bars to meet people I already know.

Am sick, but on the upswing.

I've only sent food back to have it cooked more. I'm usually OK with what I get. There was a chicken marsala once that I thought was too salty, and I love salt, so it probably was oversalted. ita probably would've gone into shock after one bite. I could've sent that one back, I guess. I haven't ever gotten a bad bottle of wine, though I have ordered some I didn't like much. My bad.

Why don't you ask them for a copy of the bills?

I will, but in the meantime i am sending in the cc receipt as a hold placer.

Jessica, I am hoping to start the new year off sending in recepipts a few at a time. Much less headache.

Overly greasy, overly salty, overly sweet

These, to me, are all be matters of taste. One person's too salty may be another's bland. I don't think they fall into easy categories of "badly prepared" vs "not to my taste."

Apparently I can leave, but I just heated up my soup, so I'll eat that first. The IT folk are re-setting something and say they need to shut down stuff. WAH! No internet at work is scary.

It looks like only one person in our department who outranks me is here today.

Hmmm.

So if you kill them you move up in rank then, right?

I didn't mean that the thread should be killed.

Gently pokes thread with a stick