What’s the worst experience that you have had at a restaurant?
I still remember a particularly bad
situation which for a long time caused me to avoid an entire restaurant chain. Our
local franchise has since closed but even when I travel, that restaurant chain
is never going to be my first choice. In fact, I’ve only eaten at that chain
one time since this incident happened.
I thought about the incident over
the weekend when my wife and I wanted to find a decent slice of cake to finish
off a very pleasant evening spent together. We stopped at a local Cheesecake
Factory where we had previously received bad service, giving the franchise a
second chance. They redeemed themselves with good service and we likely will go
back. But while our previous Cheesecake Factory experience was bad, it was
nowhere near the worst service we have ever received. That incident happened at
a restaurant which shall not be named in this post: a restaurant where the staff
and management completely dropped the ball, almost like they did not want my
business.
I should name the restaurant, but
I’ll be nice. It was a place where we had gone several times before because we
knew that the quality would be the same across the country, even if it wasn’t
the best food in the area. My wife and I, along with our son (we only had one
at the time) walked into the lobby of the restaurant and asked how long we
would have to wait. The woman who was greeting customers told us it would be
20-30 minutes, so we gave her my name.
Because it was a bit crowded, we
stepped into the hallway of the mall where the restaurant was located, where we
stood just outside the door for about 15 minutes. The people who were there
before us were just being seated, so we figured that we had to be coming up on
the list. After another 15 minutes we asked the greeter if she had an estimate
of how much longer we would have to wait. The woman responded by having some
sort of breakdown and ran back into the restaurant. We all have bad days and at
that point I was more concerned about her well-being than I was about our
table.
It took another five minutes for
her replacement to come to the door, at which time we again asked if our name
was going to be called soon. This new greeter, without any real knowledge of
the situation, told us that we missed our name being called and that we should
have stayed in the lobby. I’m not sure what she based her answer on since she
was not around to see what had happened prior to her coworker running away. And
even if we had missed our names while in the mall, her response was not very customer
friendly.
At this point I asked to speak with
a manager but instead of a manager I found myself talking to yet another
greeter who told me that they did not have a table large enough to seat my
family. This answer came after they had already called in two groups that were
much larger than my own, so I asked how they had tables that could hold six
people but not a table that could hold three. Her response was enough to
trigger protests from other customers who stepped in to defend me and my family
after witnessing how we were being treated. I knew things were bad when
bystanders were getting upset about the service that I was receiving and yet
this new greeter stood her ground as if defending some cherished land.
I asked for the second time to
speak to a manager and an assistant manager came to the lobby. Once again, I explained
what happened and asked if there was a number I could call to contact their
corporate parent. In response the assistant manager gave yet another excuse,
telling me that the restaurant was having trouble because they had no hot
water. At this point I was thinking it was time to call the health department
as I’m fairly certain they were not supposed to be open without hot water.
Eventually we were given a table
and the manager gave us a complimentary meal, which we reluctantly accepted. Something
about not knowing how they were washing their hands without hot water made us
hesitant to try the food. We ate and didn’t get sick (thank God) and I still
tipped the waitress. After all, it wasn’t her fault that we received such bad service,
but we never again set foot in that particular franchise.
I understand that people make
mistakes and that in all likelihood the first greeter overlooked our names. I’m
even willing to accept that the mistake may have been on our end and that we
may have missed hearing our name called. However, there were several better
ways to handle this situation without the breakdown and without all of the
questionable explanations. Because of this, the situation ranks as the worst
service I’ve ever received, not just at a restaurant but in any business.
What’s the worst service that you
have ever received? Has anyone ever done something that cost them your
business?
