I'm so sick and tired of having to explain myself to the head of our Accounting Department as to why "I didn't collect the balance" from the event over the weekend. Screw that! The damm sales chick is supposed to have all social events paid in full before the group steps foot in the door. But NOOOOOO, that doesn't happen."Oh, I couldn't get in touch with the contact" or "She said she would send the check" are the usual kinds of BS excuses she gives. So what happens, I'm supposed to chase the group contact all around the room at midnight after the event is over and get a check or a credit card from them so we can get paid. BITE ME !!!
Do your damm job sales chick and collect the balance. My job is the proper execution of the event. Your job is to book it and get paid. That's all you do. Enjoy your weekends and holidays off. Enjoy your 9 to 5 days. Enjoy your free lunches with "a client". Just don't expect me to cover your ass and become a banker for you.
From now on, you're on your own. The calls from Accounting will be coming to you...
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5 comments:
Can't get mamagement to force her to do it? Here we require payment before we do anything. Not paid in full? Then the food is not going to be put out or served.
Years ago I worked at this place.
One night as we were dishing out this one meal, after the head table had been served, the maid of honour came into the kitchen screaming,"This isn't what we ordered! We're not paying for this!"
My boss, the owner, who at that point was still working weddings, said loudly,"Okay, stop serving!"
And then he stood there for a good ten minutes as she went back out into the banquet room.
We all looked at him with awe as he played chicken with them.
And we had another meal going out the other side to the other room at the same time.
And we waited.
And we waited.
And we waited.
Finally the B+G came in and straightened it out.
(The B+G had changed the menu the week before, without her knowing.)
But not before the bill was settled right then and there.
And then we finished serving.
It was early days, then, at that place.
So even if they are closed now, I know that incident isn't the one that killed them.
It's the only time I ever saw that happen anywhere.
That was an awesome exercise of power.
And the only time I saw it being necessary, in that place.
A power that I wished that I had many times in later years.
The difference between being a manager and an owner.
A power that I would never get.
Goes back to the philosophy that there are some customers that you don't want.
Something that the corporate mentality present in hotels just doesn't understand.
Although I do have one other example...
In a different time and place, there were these two goofballs, well dressed always, who would come in to the lounge at lunch time and order some midrange wine with their lunch buffet.
Something Australian or South African that was worth maybe twice as much as the rotgut French house wine.
They would get the lounge server to open it.
And then they would drink half of the bottle before complaining of the taste and then order another.
And do it all again.
They'd pay for the last bottle but not for the first three that they rejected.
This became a problem, of course, and my boss at the time, the FnB Director decided to set them straight.
Now my boss was a guy who knew wine.
He grew up in a Southern European country and had emigrated as a young adult to this one.
You couldn't tell him wine from nothing.
He knew it all.
So he sat down with these guys one lunch time as we watched and ate our buffet.
And he schooled them.
"I'm sorry but that is perfectly good wine and you can't send it back."
"But what about 'The customer is always right?'"
"I know wine and this is good wine. Please pay your bill."
And they did.
Never to return.
We didn't need their business.
Or that kind of customer.
I only wished that I had found out what they did for a living.
So as to make sure that I never did any business with them.
As for Sales.
I used to work in a place that would take anyone's booking.
With a minor deposit and not even a valid credit card number.
In fact, even if the credit card didn't pan out, they would accept it until the function date neared.
Many many times that credit card wasn't any good.
And then it became the hated Payment Due On Completion, instead of the beautiful Direct Bill.
Why they booked that stuff I can only guess.
Desperation?
Quota?
So then it became my job to track them down at the end of the function to get the signature or the payment.
I don't know why they did business like that.
But it made my life more difficult than it had to be.
And it shouldna been that way.
Yet, it was.
Many times I had to chase the convenor into the parking lot to get their signature.
My thought was,"Where the fuck are you going?"
"I go to a restaurant I don't expect a bill in the mail."
"Who the f*** are you to walk out on the same?"
I didn't always get the money.
But at least I got the signature on the hood of their car.
Legally complicit.
Why I should have ever been put in that position boggles my mind.
Management said I was personally liable if they walked.
And though they never enforced it, they were more than happy to give my grats away when assholes like that decided to complain.
The gm says,"Oh, they have another kid who is gonna want to get married in a few years."
Do you really want that headache gm?
Do you really want another shot at those assholes?
They are gonna do it again.
Exception: Some other banquet manager is gonna eat that one.
Not me.
I'm done.
That shithead fireman and his shithead fireman son is gonna try and take you for another ride.
I was depositing my paycheque one day and I saw this firetruck pull up and out pops this shithead fireman son to run into the credit union to make some payment that he had to make or all hell would break loose in his world.
He didn't see me as he passed.
He wouldna known me.
But the gm took his word over mine.
I knew then again that it was time to go do something better.
When people with 'Money' can sway your boss into throwing you under the bus...
Even when they don't really have any money.
When your boss can't call a spade a spade...
When the chef says that you have to be patient because the new boss is on a learning curve...
When you are being hung out to dry by people like these...
It is time to find something else to do.
So, I did.
And my heart bleeds for those who can't.
Not for those who won't.
Because I couldn't for ten years.
I had to stick around and pay the rent while my kids were born and raised.
And they could have if they wanted to.
But they chose to stay.
And I finally got my chance.
I took it.
And they laughed at me.
"Oh, when are you done?" they'd ask.
"Next Christmas", I'd say.
"Well, Good for you." They'd say.
They didn't think I could do it.
Because they didn't.
And I did.
I DID.
"Enjoy your weekends and holidays off. Enjoy your 9 to 5 days. Enjoy your free lunches with "a client". Just don't expect me to cover your ass and become a banker for you."
I've want to shout this many a times for every reason imaginable! I feel your pain.
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