After our last trip, I'm starting to wonder if good service has become a thing of the past in Vegas.

At Big Dogs on W. Sahara, our food was brought out to sit on the bar until the waitress noticed and brought it over to us.

At Sammy's Wood Fired Pizza on W. Sahara both our pizza's were burnt on the bottom. Not just overcooked but charcoal black burnt.

At Quarks in the LV Hilton the waiter decided to be our friend and kept coming over to interupt the conversation between myself and my wife.....and then wouldn't leave.

At the Great Moments Room in the LV Club, the waiter actually argued with my wife when she said she wanted ranch dressing on her salad. Then he proceeded to pretty much ignore the table. We had to poor our own water (bottled) and my Coke was never refilled. Exceptionally poor service for a fine dining restaurant IMO.

The valet at the MGM Grand yelled in my ear when he was ticked at another worker. I thought that was a nice touch to have someone yell "SHUT UP" in my ear as I got out of the car.

At The Cafe in the Monte Carlo, they delivered our food cold and got the toast wrong (wheat instead of white).

At the Cheesecake Factory, the waiter just couldn't get anything right. We finally had to flag another waiter down and have him bring us our bread. The waiter couldn't remember the order and he never did bring out the extra dsg (the Chinesse Chicken Salad was a bit dry).

Given time, I'm sure I can come up with several other service blunders we encountered in this short 4 night stay. If it had been my first trip to Vegas, I would have been completely unimpressed with the city and might not have returned.

Sounds like you needed to spread around some 1 cent tips.

Doug,

I don't think the problem's just in Vegas.

I'm really sorry to hear about your bad experience at the Great Moments Room. I really like the place and was thinking about eating there next month.

I do not think that good service is dead - we have some of what you described here in Texas. But there is still some good ones out there. I really blame low wages and the job market for what you described. Those that are in position now to render good service but opt not to are those that will eventually be the loser - when they lose their jobs.

And yet..these dumb clucks expect at least a 20% tip......

Service has never been prefect on any trip. There's always to occasional server that just doen'st measure up. But this trip, it was everywhere and was just consistantly poor to bad.

They may have expected a 20% tip but that isn't what they got. I still can't bring myself to stiff a server and very rarely drop my tip as low as 10%, but no one got the full 20% or greater this time.

If we had been eating the supper cheap meals, I sort of expect the service won't be 5 star. But to go through an entire meal at the Great Moments Room without ever being asked if I would like a refill on my soda was simply unexcusable IMO.

I'm accustomed to having the bottled water poored for us as well at the more upscale restaurants. Several times the servers would come through with the water pitcher. Never did they give a second thought to filling our glasses for us. Not a major issue like never getting a refill on a soda but still something I take note of at mid to high end restaurants.

The yelling SHUT UP in my ear by the MGM Grand valet really took the cake. Even the apology was half hearted and almost an after thought. Totally uncalled for and tactless. If I had done that to a customer accidentally I'd have been mortified and falling over myself to make it up to that person. Not this guy. It was opps, sorry I yelled in your ear...next.

I have noticed a general decline and I'm still trying to figure it all out.

Las Vegas used to be very big on customer service. We aren't on that level anymore. So where does it stand compared to the rest of the nation.

I've noticed big changes in service, repair, sales, delivery, and most other interactions, as well as food.

I'm wondering if it could be the result of being too close to the left coast, the megamerger management, kids growing up who got "time outs" instead of spankings, or pehaps being a democrat majority.

The really good service is not predictable. It's not always at the fanciest restaurant nor is it always at the mom and pop shops.

Whatever it is, there is a wave of irresponsibility going around. OTOH, there really is some great customer service in this town. You just have to appreciate when it comes along and become loyal to it, hoping that the poor service will kill itself.

BTW, if you have a $1.99 breakfast special, is 10-20% still an acceptable tip?

'kids growing up who got "time outs" instead of spankings,'

I vote for this one, JMT. It's prevalent everywhere and not just in Las Vegas. Usually the older people in service positions show their proper upbringing with politeness to the customers. When I was in retail management the type of thing that goes on nowdays would have been cause for immediate dismissal or at least a severe reprimand.

Bob

Re: "being a Democrat majority"
I live in a mainly Republican county in Ohio, and I can say that the service around here is horrible. I doubt that politics has anything to do with it.

Whatever it is, it has something to do with a personal desire to be the best that you can be and accepting responsibility for your actions. I was just taking some of my personal hot topics that might could lead down that path.

"BTW, if you have a $1.99 breakfast special, is 10-20% still an acceptable tip? "

Only if the service is really that bad. In those instances of super cheap loss leader meals, I usually base the tip on what I would expect the meal to cost.

As for the time out theory, some of the absolute rudest people I've met have been the heards of blue hairs on bus trips. I was once smacked in the face by the sleeve of an old fart putting on his jacket. All he did was look at me like I was in his way.

The old blue hairs may not be as sharp thinking as they were in their prime. I don't take enough bus trips with heards of them to make a good judgement. And I'm not sure if that is really related to customer service.

Most of the others, including the young blue hairs with more tatoos and body piercing than I care to think about "should" have the brain capacity to be productive and responsible. All they need is the correct guidance as they grow up.

If you can weigh your experiences and determine that time outs lead to a more productive and responsible person, then I respect your opinion even though I don't feel that way.

It just depends on how the timeout is done. If you put them in a corner and tell them to think about what they've done, well, your whizzing in the wind. If, on the other hand, you stick them in a room with uncle Floyd who has a flatulance problem, you might get better results. <g>

I have read all of the posts on this topic and agree with the causes you posted. The following comment from JMT probably states what I think is the reason for poor service: "Whatever it is, it has something to do with a personal desire to be the best that you can be and accepting responsibility for your actions." My feeling was that the reason for poor service was the "lack of pride" in ones self and the job they were hired to do. I feel that the amount of pay has only a little effect on the quality of service one receives.

I've heald off posting here, so many good point mentioned.

JMT's quote <<<Las Vegas used to be very big on customer service. We aren't on that level anymore. So where does it stand compared to the rest of the nation.>>>
"We arn't on that level" My, my, how soon we join the Las Vegans! LOL

VPbob's quote <<<
'kids growing up who got "time outs" instead of spankings,'>>>
True, so very true!

I agree with most posted here, not much I can add really. I think like Jeff & Wendell stated earlier in this post, it's not just a Las Vegas issue. I see it here at home all the time. Try finding a decent employee. One who will show up every day, one who is polite, one who has the where to all, to remember simple repetitive tasks, one who is also drug free. Good luck I say. I could speak volumes on my own personel experiances here, like the time I went through 13 employees for one position in one 12 month period. It was a entry level job, a gofur (mec helper), which paid $10 a hour to start! Paid vacation, and we wanted to train. Guess what I got? attitude! LOL I laugh now, but it was a mess then. My favorite, turned out to be a crack addict, and the worse one was the one who came to me demanding more money, because his daddy said he should be paid more (all before his first day of work).
Please keep in mind all these people are also allowed to vote! So when you look around you, think about that one!
M2C