DO you complain when you get lousy service? I used to just blow it off, though I would blow off the store/restaurant/company that had provided the lousy service, too. I can hold a grudge for a long time. Just ask the wife why I never ever buy Exxon/Mobil/Devil Co. gas. Except that one time last Saturday when I was out of town, out of gas and couldn't find a decent gas station. But I only bought $10 worth of the devil's gas. I filled the tank a couple of hours later. At Chevron.
I digress.
We went out to eat after church on Sunday night. A quick bite to eat at a local chain Mexican food place. They have 5 or 6 stores around town and our least favorite location also happens to be the closest one to our house. The service is almost always sub-par. And, I suspect because of that, they are never crowded. But the food is good and the place is reasonably priced. So we put up with the lazy waiters and we eat there several times a month.
Until last night.
We walked in and waited at the host station for 5 minutes to be led to a dirty table. I was not happy about it, especially when there were less than 10 occupied tables (out of 50 or so) in the whole place. I wiped off our table and put the dirty leftover dish on another table.
By the time the wife and girl child returned from the bathroom, I was still waiting for a visit from a waiter to take our drink order. I had been at church and I really needed something to drink, you know... We waited another couple of minutes and then we walked out.
We went down the road and ate barbecue. Like all good Texans should do. And for the record I drank Dr Pepper.
This afternoon I emailed the corporate office to let them know how unhappy I have become with their lousy service at this location. All the other locations we have tried have decent waitstaff.
In the past I have complained about egregiously poor service at restaurants with mixed results. Seems the managers always make with the offer of a free meal pretty quickly so that we will give them another chance.
And actually, I am hoping that they offer some sort of peace offering. Because they make a really good chicken and bean burrito. But it is maddening that now I have to drive 15 minutes further to get one.
12 years ago
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6 comments:
My complaint-likeliness is directly proportional to the ease of which I can complain.
My preferred method of complaint is via survey, or something else online. Unfortunately, it's also the easiest to ignore from a corporate standpoing.
But, the older I get, the less tolerant I get about poor service. Especially in this economy. If I "grace" your place of business with my $$, the I expect a little bit of gratitude.
Is that elitist?
"standpoing?"
You know what I meant!
Oh...I let people know about the need for better service ALL the time. If I am on the receiving end of bad service? Oh boy! My first action is generally a well-placed CALL. As a second resort I'll go online to the company website. Yeah. I'm definitely not the person to give totally crappy service to. I'm choosing that place to spend money, so I expect some pleasant interaction.
ummm... 15 minutes doesn;t seem too much does it? :)
15 minutes, no big deal, EXCEPT in a fully staffed, almost empty restaurant, where I could see half a dozen staff hanging out at the kitchen entrance.
Rat out the chain, Mike! In a past life, work chased me to Texas 2-3 weeks a year (Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and, yes, Austin). Chains, joints in strip malls, wherever -- I always ate Mexican down there.
Me bbq tastes are pork, vinegar, red pepper, no ketchup/tomatoes (read - NC bbq).
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