Hound, sit down right now and write down any info you can remember about the servers, mgr you spoke to, etc.... Even in a PACKED restaurant you should not have a wait like that between courses. MAYBE at a super fancy make a big deal about presenting each course because it is made by some super chef and cooked individually only by him you should wait that long. Trust me - not only years working in restaurants but lots of classes learning how to run all aspects of them.
Then you write a complaint to corporate about how your family can NOT afford to eat out except 2-3 times a year and this was a super special splurge after a hard year with your older daughter just in a major car accident and your younger daughter preg with a very difficult pregnancy. You chose RL because it used to be a family favorite and in the past special dinners were great there and service was good and you tipped extra well accordingly.
But then you ate there on Sat and it was good food but the service was incredibly slow. NO matter what you said the servers would NOT bring food for your grandchildren but instead made them wait until the ENTREES for the adults were served. You had to wait more than thirty minutes between courses and that is really tough when you have already waited 30 min for a table and the pregnant lady is tired and her feet are swelling. You spent over two HOURS there AFTER you waited for the table.
Then you could not even show how bad the service was because a tip was automatically added and the restaurant REFUSED to change it (they would have if you asked, so if you didn't ask don't worry about it. RL and the other stores owned by the same group all have mgrs who assume you will just accept what they say about it after a meal because you are tired and have other things to do. In groups of restaurant mgrs and servers you can always tell the ones from that group because the mgrs are stunned when customers call corporate and corporate gets upset with them for stuff like this. Plus in many areas the RL servers all wear lands' end or ll bean shirts and insist on free replacements when they trash the cuffs - many RL mgrs actually tell servers to do this, I have heard them brag about it.)
Stress how rare it is for you to spend money eating out, how it is only for very special occasions and you don't do fast food. If you spend money on a meal out you expect it to be a real occasion and you don't think that asking for decent service, which you did NOT get, esp for the grandkids who were hungry and even after asking to have their food brought out early they had to wait until they saw the adults have soup AND salad and that is just too much for little kids, not exceptional service but decent service was too much.
Then the restaurant heaped insult upon you by insisting that you pay a tip that was NOT earned in any way shape or form. The food was delicious, and that was appreciated, but the bad service and the rudeness of being forced to pay a tip that was in no way deserved and having to sit with cranky kids who just watned their food and the staff wouldn't allow that to be brought out early as requested ALL left you with a very bad taste in your mouth.
Then say that you will sadly have to look for another place to have these super special family dinners the 1-2 times a year they happen, and of course you will tell your friends if mgmt cannot resolve this. you spent $$ (tally up the amt for everyone, not just you and husband) and for that amt you expected far better.
Chances are that you will get apologies and free meals for all of you including the kids, chances are they will jsut make it for the entire check and not specify a dollar amount. OTherwise they will give you the $$ you spent plus a bit extra for your efforts and the insult of the forced tip.
I don't mind the automatic tips on large groups because so often the servers busts her hiney and gets stiffed or maybe 5% from a big group - the bigger the group the worse the tips are - but if the service is not good I will argue with a manager until they take it off just to get me to leave. Then if a server did a good job but wasn't "our" server or came in when the earlier server left or was the first server but went off shift and someone lousy was there after, I go find that good server and give her a good tip - usually more than the automatic amount.
One reason for auto tips on groups is because servers are charged income tax as though they made at least 8% of their total checks in tips - regardless of if they didn't. If they get tipped more and there are records, like credit card receipts, then they are taxed on that also. But if there is NO tip info they pay taxes as though they earned tips on each ticket. It may be higher than 8% now, it was a few years ago the last time I dealt with that. As big groups, esp with separate checks, tend to all assume that someone else will tip and then the individuals don't leave a tip - this can cost a server a HUGE amount in taxes esp if a place routinely handles large groups. So I understand why they do the auto tipping for groups, but if the service is not good then I still won't pay it. But I make sure if part of the staff did a good job and the main server didn't then the good people get a reward.
But this is a situation that corporate WANTS to know about and fix. they do NOT want you, your husband and daughter's and their husband's to all go and say you had great food but lousy service to others. And that is what WILL happen. If they give you free meals again, you get to go and give them a chance to give you good service, they cut down the negative things you say AND you are likely to tell many others how corp made it right for you.
You scrimp and save too much to get the $$ to go out for a nice dinner to let anyone slack off like that. THe mgr will likely be told that he has to shape up and get service back on track, which is needed, and it gives corp very valuable info about how things are going in the stores. For every diner who complains and lets them have a chance to make it right there are a LOT of diners who just bad mouth them.
If you want me to look over the email, just send it via pm. I complained like this a few years ago when we went to a DOn Pablos (hard to find out here) and the food was good but service hoovered. We got gift cards for twice the amount of our meal and a lovely card on our next anniversary with another GC for the cost of the original meal - so we got 3x the cost of the meal that had bad service. This is not the norm, but it was our anniversary and the first one in three years we had been able to afford to go out and we drove 90 min to get to DP's - each way. I also did a complaint for a friend who had awful food and service at the Roadhouse Grill in our town. The store owner blew it off so I went to corporate. The big problems they had were that the food took over 40 mins for each part, including the drinks and then she went to the bathroom to help her son because he spilled a drink and her dad also went to the bathroom and the server came and took all their food - only 2-3 bites out of each plate because they had just arrived! Her mom and husband and kids tried to stop them but the server said she "had" to as they had "left". SO they paid for steak dinners for 3 people who didn't get them. Corp was furious with the owner - who stupidly verified that she made the server take their food even though it had just arrived because they had a lot of people waiting to be seated and they had been there "too long". I know a server there and corp came out and forcibly retrained the entire staff after a couple of complaints like this. They also gave the servers a phone # to call if the owner tried that tactic of taking away plates if someone went to the bathroom (owner learned this from a local restaurant that went under because things like this but the people who worked there all tried it at other restaurants in the area after they got new jobs.) or anything similar. They didn't wnat her ruining their reputation.
My friend got a new meal from that place for the entire family plus got a gift card for the amt of the original meal. The new meal was a card that said "good for free meal and drinks for 10 people" with no dollar amount. The letter encouraged them to order drinks and desserts and all the extras.
I HATE bad restaurant experiences. So do the restaurants. SO let me know if you want hel pwith the complaint. Cannot guarantee results, but corp won't ignore it.