I do a lot of personal finance reading and I read a lot about frugality and finding little ways to save money. I admit that I’m a bit of a brand name snob when it comes to certain things. For instance, I can’t eat generic cereal…it tastes generic. But, I think to myself sometimes that I must be wasting money in this capacity. However, the other part of my brain points out that you get what you pay for. So the question really becomes are you the kind of person that is willing to sacrifice price in order to get the best quality, or do you prefer to watch prices regardless of quality?

A friend of mine works for the dentist that I go to and today I happened to have a cleaning, so we went to lunch afterwards (yeah, I know). Anyway, we went to this bar and grill place near the office that usually go to. She likes it because it’s fairly cheap and the food isn’t too bad. But, lately, the service has been terrible. We’ve had nothing but wrong orders, cold food, and inattentive waiters the last few times we have gone, so I was hesitant to go today. However, today’s special was ‘buy one burger, get one free’ so we decided we’d eat there and deal with it. Price weighed out quality in this case.

So we sit down and wait for the waitress to bring us a menu, which she did fairly quickly. We were optimistic at this point. When the waitress came back, we gave her our drink order and placed our food order as well since my friend was on a lunch break. After a few minutes, the waitress brings back our drinks and they’re wrong. She goes back to correct that and brings them back in fairly short order. And so we waited for our food.

And waited…

And waited…

My friend only has an hour for lunch so we were starting to get a little antsy. The place wasn’t busy and there were several people on the staff just milling about. Finally someone brings us our food. Most of the food order was right, but I had ordered onion rings instead of fries – which is fifty cents more – and they had brought me fries. In the interest of time, I told the guy that brought our food not to worry about the onion rings, I’d just eat the fries and to please take the additional fifty cents off our tab.

The guy got defensive and rudely told me it would only take two minutes to make more onion rings. Already testing my patience, I turned and told him that it was alright, we were in a hurry and the fries would suffice. I might have been a bit colder than I normally would be, but the guy’s attitude was upsetting, especially since they had made the mistake, not me. At any rate, he rolled his eyes and walked away grumbling.

By this point I was pretty mad. I don’t normally let little things like this blow into something big, but in my mind, I had tried to let the situation go and this guy persisted. Then, he rolled his eyes and walked away mumbling under his breath. It was uncalled for and very unprofessional. Next thing I know, our waitress is bringing over a basket of onion rings, even after I said I didn’t want them. She informed me that they were free of charge.

I appreciated what she tried to do and thanked her for her efforts. I asked her if she could give me the name of the manager and the name of the individual that had brought out the food. She asked why and I told her that I intended to speak to the manager about the guy rolling his eyes at me as I felt that was unnecessary and rude. She saunters over to the bar and tells the very guy in question all about our conversation, loudly enough that I can hear it across the room. My friend looked at me and shook her head because that guy made his way back over to the table.

He walked up and put his hands on his hips and asked me if there was a problem. But, the way he said it was in that tone of voice that implies I am causing a problem and I’m about to get kicked out. The thin hold I had on my irritation level pretty much broke at that point. I turned to him and told him that I had a problem with his attitude. There was no reason for him to roll his eyes and talk down to me and I wanted his manager’s name and number. He explained that he was the manager, so I asked for the general manager. He said he was it because he was the owner.

If this guy is the owner then I’m the virgin Mary…it was very clear he was not the owner. He may have been a day shift manager, but he wasn’t the owner. And, he refused to give me his name on top of that!

So, in my irritation I told him that his manners needed improving and he should learn how to talk to paying customers. He said, and I quote, “Whatever! Is there anything else I can do for you?” and then he turned and started to walk away. After that I said something that was probably not the right thing to say – I wasn’t belligerent, but it didn’t help matters at all. Still, I have never been treated so disrespectfully, especially when the restaurant made the mistake to begin with. I wasn’t even going to make a big deal out of it, but the guy’s behavior just rubbed me the wrong way.

We left pretty quickly after that because I had pretty much lost my appetite. It amazes me that people in the service industry have such disdain for serving others. I mean, that’s kind of the point of the SERVICE industry. To be fair, I let the situation go a little further then it should have because I was mad. But, the point to this entire story is that I got what I paid for. Because I wanted to go the cheaper route, I got a disgruntled employee who probably doesn’t like dealing with people on a regular basis.

While customer service in general has seen a decline in quality for the last decade, it’s still annoying to walk into a restaurant and be treated that way. We go so we don’t have to deal with the stress of cooking at home, we can have a nice relaxing time out, and then we get nothing but grief.

Price over quality.

So, even though I know I can save money by cutting a few corners here and there, going with the cheaper places or the cheaper products, I just think in the end it causes me more stress than it would have been to rework the budget. I’m not suggesting that I need a Mercedes Benz when a Toyota will do. But I am saying going with the absolute cheapest and completely forgoing any quality can be more stressful than spending a little more and getting a fair deal all the way around. At least for me personally.

So, my question to you guys is this. Do you prefer quality over price, or price over quality?

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