Two recent incidents occurred that have me convinced we no longer live in the United States of America, but in the United States of Incompetency.
First was at Denny’s. The restaurant opened a few months back and Bob and I wanted to try it, but each weekend we encountered long lines. Bob started vacation, so we decided to try it during the week.
We went on a Monday. “How crowded could it be?” we thought. We arrived at 10 am and were told we would have about a 15 minute wait. There were only a few people ahead of us, so why not?
But 15 minutes passed, then 20, then 30, still no seating. Bob then asked to speak to the manager.
He was not available, we were told. “We have a number of wait staff on break and the kitchen is backed up, so you can’t be seated,” they said What an idiotic excuse, we thought.
Getting a bit tired of the run-around, Bob decided to take matters into his own hands and proceeded to walk over to an empty table and sit down.
Miracle of all miracles, the manager appeared — and proceeded to reiterate the same idiotic excuses.
Now, I am far from an expert, and we don’t dine out every day of the week, but between Bob and I, we have been to our fair share of restaurants, so we could tell that not only didn’t he have a clue, but running an efficient staff and providing service was just not in his wheelhouse.
Incompetency.
Our second experience was at the EZ-Pass office. With the new HOV lane on the bridge, and the new express toll lanes, the brain trust at EZ-Pass decided now was the time to send out letters to issue new tags and to recertify Staten Island customers — all at the same time.
You would think the executives should have known better. There are a lot of people on this island, and many of them are HOV users. This being the case, recertification letters should have been staggered so as not to create a log jam for the only EZ-Pass office on the island. Right?
Nope. Not only didn’t they stagger the dates and times, they didn’t put on extra personnel to handle the deluge, thereby creating shear chaos for all.
The first day we went, we waited for half an hour, decided this was nonsense, and left. Vowing to return early the next day and beat the crush, we got up early and again set out to EZ-Pass. Even though it was fairly early, the line was even longer than before.
But time was running out, so we decided to stay.
There we were, with dozens of other disgruntled, disgusted, and hot customers standing in line, waiting to be re-certified.
Incompetency.
Not for Nuthin™, but I no longer wonder why this country is in the state it’s in. There are far too many incompetents running the show and not enough competents.
Follow me on Twitter @JDelBuono.