As a server, I take a lot. I take orders, I take food to the table, I take people ignoring me and now I take umbrage to your most recent advertisement for your product. On your Samsung Pay Facebook page there in a glorious photo of a restaurant customer blatantly ignoring his server as he pays his check, not even making eye contact with the fellow human being who brought his food. And the tag line?
“It’s been a while since you caught up. Don’t be distracted- Samsung Pay lets you focus on what’s important.”
I get it: we servers are unimportant nuisances and your product will keep customers from having to be “distracted” by us bothering them, is that it? After all, how awful are we to approach a table to see if everything is alright? What are we thinking when we have the audacity to speak when we have not been spoken to? And most importantly of all, why would a customer ever feel the need to take time out of their “catching up” to acknowledge the existence of the person who has been taking care of them? Thank God that Samsung Pay is here to fix all of that. Now, when we bring the check to the table, we can just stand there and hold a little electronic device while the customer pays for their meal and they can pretend we don’t even exist. That’s great!
Are you freaking kidding me? Did no one in your huge office of advertising drones even stop to consider how off-putting this image is? And I’m not even talking about whatever they are drinking. (Seriously, what the fuck is that blue liquid in the glass, Liquid Drano? Blue curacao on the rocks? Some cocktail from the Star Wars Cantina?) I’m talking about the smug fucking look on the guy’s face. And also, why is he paying their check before they have even taken one bite of their food? As soon as the server set the food down, the guy must have been all, “Oh, and I need to pay the check right away because I want to try to impress this girl with my fancy Samsung phone. I also have to get to my annual douche bag meeting that starts in 20 minutes.” Meanwhile, the girl is thinking, “Gosh, it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other and I suddenly remember why: he’s being a dick to our server. And why he doesn’t have an iPhone.”
I wonder what other images they passed on to make this one the right choice. A photo of someone sitting in church dropping a Samsung Galaxy in the collection plate perhaps? Or maybe it was of a business man getting out of a cab while shielding his eyes so he doesn’t have to see who was driving. It could have been an image of a rich lady stepping over a homeless man on Fifth Avenue as she walks into a hair salon and when he asks for money to buy food she says, “Why, of course! Do you accept Samsung Pay?”
Listen, Samsung. Your product may be wonderful, but the way you are showcasing it here is not. You need to reevaluate how this photo looks and recognize that it is very demeaning to at least one person in it. (I’m talking about the one person who has their fucking head cropped out of the photo, which is probably a good thing since the server most likely is giving an epic eye roll right now.) Servers don’t want to be thought of as “unimportant” or a “distraction.” We want to be recognized as people who are doing a job that customers should be appreciative of. We expect eye contact and for our customers to say “thank you” and “please” and not just flash their phone at us so they don’t have to speak to us. Let’s be honest, though. How many restaurants are really going to accept Samsung Pay anyway?
Mustard and mayo,
The Bitchy Waiter
Here is the Facebook post if you want to go tell them what you think about it:
C'baoth
The woman in the picture : “Oh my god this guy is such a tool. I’m never ‘catching up’ with old classmates again”
Imagine if you were on a date and the person you were with just held their phone out at the waitress like that?? I’ve never been a server and it still bothers the hell out of me.
That shirt though… You know he’s gettin’ lucky tonight
sally
I have to say, this guy looks like a creeper. I would prefer to be ignored by the likes of him. 😉
Elsehwere1010
Not to mention what looks to be a picture of a skull behind his right arm, or that the shirt he’s wearing came right out of the wrapping; the cuffs have a crease, indicating it’s new and never been worn. All of his is really low-budget work, unlike other Samsung branded images. Methinks some lower echelon minions have been at work and may now be in deep, deep trouble.
Laura
Plus where’s the option to tip, if you’re just waving your phone at a machine?
In canada, some credit or bank cards have the option to “tap” your card on the machine to pay, and then the option to tip never comes up. Thankfully, my current workplace has disabled the tap function to avoid that mess.
DeeDub
Good luck using this where I work. We’re still living in the last century. Paper and pens it is. I’m surprised we don’t still use the ole knuckle busters! No pos system, unforeseeable at getting one…. Ever.
But yeah, guess what!? Servers ARE important. Not a distraction, either! If I wasn’t there, how could the gal at 44 have her two ranch dressings, one french, a BOWL of lemons with her glass of water and a side of mayo and a soup cup of buffalo sauce???? (all for a chicken Philly) And yes, we are so archaic that we don’t charge for extra sauces. Off point, sorry.
Love all that u do, BW!! Keep up the great work!
NicoleM
Heh, my restaurant doesn’t have the chip reader for cards yet.
Justin
In your example why did you need to specify that the old rich lady was white? You didn’t say “someone white sitting in church” or “white businessman getting out of a cab”
The Bitchy Waiter
Actually, I just changed that! I wrote and posted this yesterday but was editing it this morning before I shared it on the facebook page. Made a few other tweeks too. Thank you.
Jim
Don’t care either way on the Samsung Pay portion of this, but I do like the bringing the credit card readers to the table idea. When we were in Canada ALL the restaurants did this. It was nice to have the credit card never leave my hand. As someone who has been a victim of a waiter skimming my credit card reader, having the card readers come to the table is much better. The readers also had the auto-tip buttons (like, 15%, 20%, etc.) so it made it easy to calculate the tip, even after having a few drinks. It also seemed easier on the waiters because in a normal credit card transaction, you bring the check, they put their credit card in the check, you take the check, ring it into the register, bring the credit card slip back to the person to sign, they sign it, then you have to enter things into the system. Several of those steps disappear with the mobile reader.
dead_elvis
Let’s focus on the true abominations in this photo, like Samsung boy’s hideous shirt & watch, the waiter’s terrible apron, and all the tacky-as-fuck gold frames on the background wall.
Samsung Pay is probably too late to the instant-payment app ball for it to be a long-term player, anyway. Your butthurt should be focused on the ad firm that came up with this discriminatory anti-server campaign.
Sarah
Butthurt, yeah no. It isn’t nearly as important who created it as it is that Samsung CHOSE to use it.