Dinner shop at an Irish pub which starts with a bar shop. I belly up to the bar and grab a drink menu. Diminutive, tattooed female Irish bartender in her 40s comes over and asks me if I know what I would like to drink. Being the good little passive "let them try to sell you whiskey" mystery shopper I am, I vaguely gesture at the menu and say something like "hmmm.... I'm not sure yet." Her response, with a twinkle in her eye: "Get your @#$%& together and decide!"

It wasn't said unkindly, but it certainly was a first. Granted, I'm still somewhat of a newbie (4 months in) but I have bellied up to many bars in my day and can't remember a time when a person in the service industry has instructed me to "get my @#$%& together" hahaha. Maybe if someone had just told me this long ago....

ETA: this forum censored me hahahahahahaha. The mixed up symbols you see were previously the "S WORD." haha.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2016 06:21AM by CeciliaM.

Dick's Last Resort is a chain that has locations here in Cali... their hook is that they act... well, like dicks. I didn't think it was that fun, but maybe some people enjoy it. I still got paid for the shop, though.

But even they didn't actively curse. They would have had no trouble telling you to get your act together and decide, though. My server tried to get me to stand on a chair and sing "I'm a little teapot" when I displeased her. I played along for a while and then just stopped responding to her when I'd had enough. That was one of the least fun MSing experiences I've had (which is saying something!)

I think she was being a charming Irish rogue or something like that. It wasn't totally unpleasant and I would have just laughed it off if I wasn't on a shop. But on the shop, it's awkward because I feel I should include it in the report, but I am thinking of how to write it so it's clear I wasn't offended. My husband was a little uncomfortable though. The stuff she was saying later, which didn't make a lot of sense, had something to do with the fact that after we get home, I would be "s-wording" in my pants because I was mad at him about something, but we weren't arguing or anything, and just sitting there chill until she came up to us and starting asking us how the food and company was. I just said something mild like "we've been married a long time" or something like that, which I say as kind of a joke sometimes, and she kind of took it a long ways from where I started haha.

I visited Dick's Last Resort in Chicago and had a rip roaring good time. It was before my MS days so maybe it made a difference.

@CeciliaM wrote:

I think she was being a charming Irish rogue or something like that. It wasn't totally unpleasant and I would have just laughed it off if I wasn't on a shop. But on the shop, it's awkward because I feel I should include it in the report, but I am thinking of how to write it so it's clear I wasn't offended. ... The stuff she was saying later, which didn't make a lot of sense, had something to do with the fact that after we get home, I would be "s-wording" in my pants because I was mad at him about something, but we weren't arguing or anything, and just sitting there chill until she came up to us and starting asking us how the food and company was.

Deep down inside, your SecretShopper self knows you should report it - but the first comment wasn't a black-and-white 'obvious' insult like it could have been. If you go back and re-read what you type, you will see you are committing one of the fundamental errors of MSing: the client and MSC are not paying you to THINK or FEEL. We are paid to REPORT.

Sure, you can say that the bartender approached you with a slight smile, and when you said you were unsure of what to order, she said with a very slight sarcastic tone "Get your s together". But later on, I would say that her offbase comment of her prediction of your future extra-curricular activities in your pants was surely not some 'sarcastic' comment, and was offbase.

Just remember: for every person that reports on things happening to a MS client, there are hundreds-or possibly thousands-of others who experience the same thing, and instead of saying something to a manager, the customers simply become former customers never to return. There is a good chance that the MS client picked their location to be shopped precisely because they suspect something is amiss, and want to send in an undercover shopper to find out just what is causing sales to drop. Many MS clients don't pay large sums to MSCs just to be proactive or to say they did mystery shopping - often it's because they either suspect something is going on, or they have a big problem (like declining sales) and want to find out what the issue is. Maybe it's the kitchen's food. Maybe it's the bartender. Maybe it's the bathroom. Maybe it's the temperature. etc., etc.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2016 01:47PM by STL_shopper.

I definitely reported both things. In the narrative portions where I was just asked to describe the interactions, I just wrote it down matter of factly, quoting her and what she said, and mentioning that she said it "jokingly."

This report did have a place where it asked me for my opinion. A lot of the restaurant shops I do have a section that ask something like- would you come back, and explain why? It was helpful too that my husband was along; apparently her comments came off more offensive to him than they did to me.

So what I said in that section was that it was clear that she was trying to joke around, but her comments were a matter of debate between my husband and me, with me thinking that she was just joking and him thinking that she meant something more rude. (This is actually often the case with the two of us, haha) And then I said it felt really awkward. I mentioned that Seattle is a very "polite" city and it felt out of place.

At the end of the day, now they know, and they can decide for themselves what they think about their employees saying these things to people.

@LisaSTL wrote:

I visited Dick's Last Resort in Chicago and had a rip roaring good time. It was before my MS days so maybe it made a difference.

I think the problem for us was that there were another couple sitting in the bar and my guest and I in the dining room, and that was the total number of customers in the restaurant. It was basically an empty restaurant with a surly waitress who didn't have anything to do, so she frequently came by to shout at us.
I wrote up the report positively: she did everything she was supposed to do according to the guidelines including physically holding our hands and walking us over to the gift shop area and encouraging (instructing) us to buy something. She was funny and engaging, it was just a lot.
If I weren't shopping, and was with a larger group of friends, or if the restaurant were more full and the attention from our waitress could have been spread around a bit, it likely would have been a lot more fun.

@CaliGirl925 wrote:

@LisaSTL wrote:

I visited Dick's Last Resort in Chicago and had a rip roaring good time. It was before my MS days so maybe it made a difference.

If I weren't shopping, and was with a larger group of friends, or if the restaurant were more full and the attention from our waitress could have been spread around a bit, it likely would have been a lot more fun.

None of this sounds fun at all to me. Maybe it's because I have acclimated to Seattle, which is a very polite and chill place, but it sounds horrifying lol

I was there for a Sunday brunch so there was a good crowd. The server was "attentive" while still having enough other customers to harass. It does seem like he visited us a little more. I was there with my BFF and in between laughing until we had tears in our eyes we were giving it right back. Two girls and lots of Mimosas.

I've never had a bartender tell me to get my sheet together.

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

I've never had a bartender tell me to get my sheet together.

Right? Where was she 20 years ago? lmao

@CeciliaM wrote:

This report did have a place where it asked me for my opinion. A lot of the restaurant shops I do have a section that ask something like- would you come back, and explain why? It was helpful too that my husband was along; apparently her comments came off more offensive to him than they did to me.

My husband is WAy more sensitive than I am, so I get that for sure.

In your case SunnyDays, they just thought it

I've been to the same Dick's as Lisa and it is lots of fun. Ed Debevic's in Chicago is similar.

I would not have found the Irish Pub situation at all strange unless of course it is a very staid and upscale restaurant and not at all like the Irish Pubs I have seen. Isn't that what you are in an Irish Pub for? To down a lot of beer or other alcohol, get drunk and have a roaring good time you may not remember in the morning?

@sandyf wrote:

I would not have found the Irish Pub situation at all strange unless of course it is a very staid and upscale restaurant and not at all like the Irish Pubs I have seen. Isn't that what you are in an Irish Pub for? To down a lot of beer or other alcohol, get drunk and have a roaring good time you may not remember in the morning?

No, I had a 2-drink max