Complaint Review: Denny's

I have to applaud the recent effective use of taunting employed by the most unprofessional company known to man, Denny's. To add insult to injury me and a friend of mind where arrested for disorderly conduct. This is what happened.

After deciding to grab a bite to eat at 5 am Sun morning a friend and I stop into our local Denny's restaurant located in Merrillville In. Once we entered the packed restaurant we could instantly feel the tension between drunk, tired, frustrated, and just all out cranky patrons and rude, underpaid, overworked employees. Of course no employee was available at the door to keep customers at bay until they could be seated so my friend and I decided to cop a squat in one of the booths on our own. After sitting for about 20 mins then being told that since we sat ourselves we, "had to wait" we proceeded back to the register to at least get the attention of a manager so we could get some water.

After we initiated contact with one of the managers we were told that someone would be right with us and we headed back to our seats. When we reached our seats we were greeted by a group of girls sitting in the booth next to us and without delay started a small conversation. Not even a minute after we were speaking with the group a couple took it upon themselves to take our seats. Since we had sat ourselves to we were in no position to agrue so we just decided to take a seat wit the group of girls. When the waitress finally showed up we instantly alerted to the waitress that we were "not" with these girls and to bring us a separated bill upon completion of our meal. The waitress listened to our request and continue her duties as a rude waitress.

After completion of our meal the rude waitress showed up at the table with one bill completely ignoring the fact that we repeatedly asked for them to be separate. At this we confronted the waitress about this matter and were told to, "just tell them you want it to be separated at the register they'll take care of it". Being that this sounded like a pretty responsible response we all headed off towards the register. After reaching the register to leave we found out that the party had just begun.

The three girls that we ate with pulled a fast one and left the restaurant without paying. I decided to chase them down and try to get some info on them in case we needed it. After receiving a phone number I re entered the restaurant and noticed that one of the managers had also seen them leave and was outside writing down there license plates number. When I reached the register again I notice that my buddy had went to the bathroom and had not yet rectified the bill. Eventhough he was paying I thought I would shed some light on the subject until he returned.

As soon as I started to speaK I was met with a barrage of rude, inconsiderate responses such as, "You have to pay the whole bill" and "Well whatever thats not our problem". As I was pleading my case to the manager with the waitress by her side, I was verbally attacked by another waitress from the blind side. This other waitress apparently felt the need to prove to herself that she could be an authority figure and blatantly told me that, "I need to watch my tone of voice". Initially I was stunned for about 5 seconds because first of all I couldn't believe that a waitress that had nothing to do with this issue confronted me and second of all the manager did nothing about it. Of course this this is where the waitresses tauting succeeded. We went back and forth for a second arguing about her opinion of the tone of my voice when another waitress verbally attacked me in her defense.

By this time I was furious and I do admit that at this point my tone of voice went from explaining myself to has all the employees in this restaurant lost their freaking minds. During our verbal mle I undoubtedly shouted some vulgar statements which were matched in language and intensity by the second waitress. By this time my friend had came out the bathroom and he immediately calmed me down and told me it wasn't worth while screams and loud obnoxious behavior continued via the unprofessional waitresses. Even after the one manager that we spoke with before ordering admitted that he knew that we did not come with them nor did we know them before that incident the other manager told us if we weren't going to pay the whole bill that she could call the police.

Me being a complete a*****e and somehow thinking that the police would sort things out told the manager to go ahead with the call. As soon as the police arrived I instantly got the feeling that they were there to prosecute us under any circumstances. The reason why I got this feeling is because as soon as they entered they pulled the employees to the side for a "one sided explanation", they never approached either manager to access the situation, nor did they ask us as customers what happened and even when we volunteered this info we were told to shut up.

At this point we turned back around and tried to continue working out the issue when I felt someone touch my waist and pulling up my shirt. When I turned around I saw and officer informally frisking me and when I looked at him another officer said, "It's for our safety" which was weird because no one in the restaurant at this time was acting in any manner to think otherwise. After finally realizing that there was no hope whatsoever my friend decided that he would just pay the whole bill. As he grabbed his cash and started to pay he made a comment in a very low, defeated, under his breath tone, "f&%$ it, I make 50,000 a year anyway" not talking to anyone the cops rushed him and shouted disorderly conduct. Once I seen this action I was so terrified I didn't make a peep.

The waitresses were laughing and joking and saying things like, "Ha Ha what do you have to say now". So since they had took my friend I was left standing there with there bias police officers behind my back so at this point I felt very defeated and exploited so I went to pay the bill. It was like 50 dollars and since I didn't have that much cash on me I had to pay with a credit card. While I was paying I didn't say a word because out of the side of my eye I could literal see the police plotting and looking for a reason to arrest me. After paying I turned around and started for walking out the door where I was met by more laughing and tauting by the waitress. Once I reached the outside the one officer asked me where my car was. When I reach out to point in the direction I was grabbed and the officer shouted disorderly conduct. I was like what for and he said because of a statement I made in the argument with waitresses way before they arrived.

Now I'm sure if this was an issue I would have been arrested in the beginning and especially before my friend. The only thing I can think of is that they expected me to say something while they were in there but since I gave them nothing they went to there "backup plan".

I know this post is very long but I couldn't do justice without explaining in this length. On a personal note I just want to let people know that racism and discrimination still exist and is very well alive. No matter what anyone says I have no doubt in my mind that if we were anybody else other than two young African American males we would have been treated with more respect than that. How can you come into a very calm and non violent situation and not even ask the customer what happened or whats going on. I would like to think that theres no excuse for law enforcement to act in any other manner unless provoked to do so.

In conclusion I'm not looking for any personal gain such as money but I would like the manager to be fired for not properly handling our concerns as customers, being uncooperative even after her fellow manager agreed with our explanation, and condoning the actions of her employees. As for the two waitresses we all know that in any other workplace no matter how irate a customer you would be instantly fired if you decided to engage in a vulgar language shouting match.

And as far as the Merrillville Police Dept. is concerned they need to be retrained on how to investigate once on the scene. I do however believe that they are already well trained in this field and that their actions were do to racial biases.

Please if anybody can give me some advise on this matter or just comments I would appreciate it.