To tip or not to tip...that is the question!

Last night for Claire's Birthday we went to our local Chilis. Her choice. She wanted a restaurant that would "sing happy birthday to her"! I called ahead to make sure they do this. We got there around 5:30 and the place was almost empty.

The waitress that took our order was nice, but pretty much incompetent. We told her right away that we wanted the waiters to sing happy birthday. She asked if we were ordering dessert. We said no, all she wants is for them to sing happy birthday. She takes our order. Now, in all fairness, I'll admit my order was confusing. I like the chicken caesar pita, but not with the peppercorn seasoning. Instead I always order it with the fajita seasoning. (has never been a problem the last 50 times I've ordered it that way!) Claire ordered pasta with no sauce, like she always does, with a side of mandarin oranges. Anyway, the food takes a long time to come out. (The restaurant is still not busy.) The waitress comes to the table and says that Claire's pasta came out with alfredo sauce on it, is that ok? Um, NOPE! That's why we ordered it with no sauce! So, she goes back. A while later our food finally arrives. Claire's pasta is right, but they brought french fries instead of oranges. My pita is totally wrong. She brought the fajita pita instead of the caesar pita. Again, my order was difficult, I'm not holding this one against her. Chris' order wasn't right either, but we never even got around to telling them that. (He ordered a salad and fries as his side with an extra side of chipolte sauce. He got salad, corn, and fries with no chipolte sauce.)

Ok, at this point, we're a little frustrated, but its ok. The manager brings out my new pita. It is correct. By this time Chris and I are both out of drinks. The manager says he'll bring some back. He doesn't return for quite awhile. In the meantime we can't find the waitress and our drinks are completely empty. We put the empty cups on the edge of the table. The waitress finally comes by and says, "everything good here?". Um, no, we need more drinks!!! So, she brings us more. Then the manager finally comes back with the ones he said he'd bring.

Also, no one ever cleared any dishes from our table the whole meal! I hate that. We had empty cups, bowls, and plates everywhere. We even stacked them all up at the edge of the table. But, alas, they were still there when we left!

Well, we finish dinner around 10 'till 7:00. The waitress is no where to be found and the restaurant is really getting busy by now. We finally see her and she says that "it" is coming right out. I think she means the singing. No, she meant a dessert for Claire. Ok, that was nice, but where is the singing??? She says that everyone is really busy and she can't get them together to do it just yet.

We ask for the check. 15-20 minutes later she brings the check.

We are really getting irritated now. Still no singing.

We give her the credit card. She takes it and puts it (along with the bill) in her apron.

We ask to see the manager. He does not come.

Waitress comes back. Still does not give our credit card back. Asks if the manager came by. We say no, she goes to get him.

Manger comes. I explain about the singing and that we are ready to leave. His response? "Sorry, we are just slammed tonight." Um, I don't care at this point. I just want someone, anyone to sing happy birthday to my child so I can go home! I'd also like our credit card back! I don't actually say that to him, but I did explain that she took 20 min. to bring our bill and still has not brought it back to us. He says ok, I'll get someone to sing and get your bill for you. (Chris also chimed it at one point and told him that the orders were wrong and slow and we had bad service the whole time.)

The manager comes back to our table puts down a bill and leaves VERY quickly. Chris says, "hey, where's my credit card?" But the manger took off so fast he never heard him. Turns out the manager didn't actually listen to what I said. He just brought us our same bill again.

The waiters come to sing. My husband asks our waitress for his credit card back. She says, "oh, yes, let me go run that" @#!%&#@@#$# She hadn't even run it yet! She walked around with it in her apron for 15 minutes!

She brings the receipt and card back and my husband puts a big ol' zero in the tip section and we leave. At 7:35. 2 hours after we got there!

I always feel a little guilty not leaving a tip, even when the service is that bad. (We always leave a tip UNLESS the service is that bad!)

So, I'm curious, would you leave any tip in this situation?