How normal is it to bribe managers?

occhiblu — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 09:39:23 -0800

How sleazy is it, really, for a restaurant manager to accept bribes? My father, brother, and I went out last Friday to our standard "nice dinner celebratory restaurant" for both my and my father's birthdays. We had enormous problems with the manager, which started when we he led us to a really undesirable table in the middle of the restaurant's main corridor and then claimed that none of the other empty tables was available when we asked. He did eventually move us, and the tables that he claimed were unavailable stayed empty for the entire three hours we were at the restaurant. But he continued to be an asshole to us over various issues for the next part of the meal (the waiter, who was excellent, managed to salvage the evening).

As we were leaving, I saw another couple slip the manager a bribe to thank him for getting them a table. In a restaurant that was, really, 75% empty the entire evening.

I want to write a letter to the restaurant complaining about the manager, but I'm unsure whether to mention that I saw the other couple bribing him. I feel our lack of bribe was what caused his behavior, but I'm wondering if bribing is so common that the restaurant owners will just write off my complaint if I mention it?

I mean, this isn't a hopping Manhattan club where there's a two-hour wait for tables, where I could see bribing the maitre d' as fairly normal. This is a sleepy college-town restaurant with $30 entrees that was 75% empty on a Friday night and which caters mainly to retired professors. To me, it feels like the manager is an extortionist who should be fired immediately, but I'm not sure if I'm overreacting.

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How normal is it to bribe managers?