Apologize For The Right Thing

Here's a weird one.

I was out for dinner with four other people recently at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown. Not the fanciest place in the world, and the food is hardly exceptional, but it's comfortable, affordable, and generally a nice place to eat.

Anyway, when we arrived we gave them our name and were told that we'd have about a 20 minute wait. No big deal, and quite common for a popular place.

We waited a while and began to notice (after about 10 to 15 minutes) that other parties who arrived after us were being seated. At first I wasn't bothered -- these were typically groups of two or three or four. Perhaps they simply didn't have a large enough table for the five of us. I had to wonder, though, if there were really no opportunities to push two tables together.

As the 20 minute mark came and went, the restaurant was getting a bit quieter and people who walked into the lobby would be seated almost immediately. Including a group of 5.

At this point, everybody in my group must have been thinking the same thing, and two of them approached the staff. The hostess checked her little list of names and, lo and behold, they were just about to call our name. What a fantastic coincidence!

Give me a break.

So, as we were being led to the table, I complained aloud (as I tend to do when I'm annoyed by poor service or ridiculous people) abou tthe fact that others were seated faster.

She responded by apologizing. But, for the wrong things.
It was an apology, but came out like excuse-making.

She said that the other groups were smaller than ours.
I pointed out that at least one was exactly the same size.

She said that larger tables weren't available.
I pointed out several places where large tables sat empty, or where smaller empty tables were side-by-side and could have been moved.

She said that some people had reservations.
I reminded her that any time we try to make reservations, the restaurant tells us that it's only possible to reserve a table for 6 or more.

She said that some wait staff were just coming onto their shift.
... only to take us to a table immediately beside the other party of five who were brought in before us, and served by the same waitress.

Throughout all theses "explanations" she apologized. Sorry for the wait. Sorry that our wait staff weren't ready for you...

But no apologies for the real issue.

Let's face it: she somehow skipped over our name on the list, and as soon as it was brought to her attention she was able to seat us.

How hard would it be to say "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I don't know why I missed your name." ?

I didn't mind the wait, since it was pretty much what I expected. Everything else about the experience was fine. So why lie or make excuses? If you're going to apologize anyway, why not apologize for the real problem?