Slow serving waiters and fast vanishing wines

At the recent wedding reception of a relative at a top 5-star hotel in KL, my wife and I were given the task of looking after alcoholic drinks.

Hostess dated and signed on all red wine bottles sent few days earlier. We brought along a few bottles of expensive brandy and whisky. The person in charge went through their procedure of listing all the bottles and my wife counter-signed it.

During the long drawn dinner, as was usual with Chinese weddings, but more so because we have an eloquent MC with many jokes and tales to tell, we realised that the drinks were slow in being served. My wife and I took turns to hurry them, yet without much success.

The hotel policy requires drinks to be served by their waiters and if they were being slow, we very much felt like breaking their rules and start serving them ourselves. But uppermost on my mind was the happy occasion which should not have been spoilt by relatively petty issues.

The reason for the slow service was evident once the dinner was over. As soon as I walked towards the waiters, the person in charge immediately told me, gesturing to the empty bottles, that all the drinks have been finished. The dinner was held in a banquet hall with doors closed and the drinks counter was outside the hall. So it was almost impossible for us to really know what was happening outside without going out there every few minutes.

My wife and I felt a sense of disbelief and helplessness at being so easily hoodwinked by the waiters. She actually went through each and every bottle and checked to ensure they were all empty. When questioned about the many glasses filled with drinks, the waiter said they were all mixed with water and meant for the band members.

Looking back, now that I know the modus operandi, it would require someone not known to be in charge, to really keep an eye on them. All the markings on the bottles were of no use if they were ready with their own containers. Without proof, we cannot check anything more than the empty bottles. I noticed an employee with a walkie-talkie who presumbly must be a supervisor or in charge of security. What if he was in collusion with the waiters, actually informing them each time one of us was about to go out and check?

The detective in me would very much like to expose them with pictures, at someone else's function next time, given half the chance!