Crying Waitresses

In Shanghai restaurants it is common for waiters and waitresses to have to pay for food if they get an order wrong. I had seen this happen once before but it happened at lunch again today. My Chinese-American friend ordered a dish and the waitress misunderstood and delivered the wrong dish. When my friend refused it she reluctantly took it away but came back a few minutes later pouting that she had to pay for the dish if we didn't. My friend politely explained that it wasn't his fault she didn't pay attention and refused. When she came back to deliver the correct dish she was crying - which put a damper on the meal to say the least. To pay for a 40 rmb dish would just about wipe out her day's income. Feeling sorry for her we bought the dish for take-away but we didn't appreciate being placed in such a position by the waitress or the management. The result of this short-sighted Shanghai management policy is that waitresses will fight with customers and try to refuse to take incorrect orders back. The result is even poorer service.