Just a matter of time until the oblivious service post happened

Is it possible to have bad service with a happy ending? Perhaps.

At the end of a very fun group birthday brunch, at a local favorite in downtown Boston, we received our check, not looking at it to quickly, because we knew were going to split it. The bill for the 6 of us was only $150 (including the 18% gratuity), not bad. So, we paid, and continued happily talking for another 20 minutes or so. It was a good time, the discussions were funny, and the meal had been pretty good. So, we were excited. Then it happened.
"You all didn't pay for your drinks," said one of the servers as he laid another check down on our table, "So, here is the bill."
"Too bad," jokingly said one of the brunch group, as the rest of us looked up perplexed at the fact that 20 minutes after paying our final bill another check had appeared. The server just looked at her, and walked away.

It looked as though we were going to have to pay this additional bill, even though we all started to talk about how tacky it was to bring such a small bill after paying such a large bill that included gratutity.

Looking down at the bill, I said, "$22 for our sodas, tea, and coffee." Everyone ponied up the money, but did it so as we discussed whether we should tell the manager about how tacky this seemed to us. Finally, I decided that I would be that person, as we were getting up to leave, and the rest of the group went towards the door.
"Are you the manager?" I asked the only man with the tie.
"Yes," he replied with food in hand.
"I just want to let you know that after having just paid a bill for $150 dollars for a group of 6, that I think it is really tacky to bring a bill over for the $22 dollars of soda, coffee and tea that we had."
"Did you pay with a credit card?" he said with a frustrated look on his face.
"No, we paid with cash," I replied, not expecting anything in return, but an apology.
"That is not acceptable. Let me give you your money back," he said, and looked at his co-worker who had given us the bill.

Reaching for the bill, the manager looked at me, and said, "I'm very sorry, that's just not acceptable."

"It's not necessary, but thank you," I said, as another one of the group was handed the money, and started to distribute it back.
While it appears that the one server was completely oblivious to what good service was the other came through. So, a bad moment in service can have a happy ending people. While an apathetic
approach by the server would have been what we needed in the first place, getting a response that was twice as good (money back), was twice as nice!