My husband received his first paycheck from
his new job on Friday. So we decided to
celebrate and went out to our favorite
restaurant for dinner. The excitement and
pleasure we normally experienced was soon
shattered by disappointment.
The wonderful service we received was
replaced by a waitress who was too busy to
take care of us. She had no problem serving
the tables to the left and right of us, but we
seemed to be an inconvenience. We had to call
her over for our order and for refills. She
forgot our straws, forgot our wasabi, forgot
my daughter’s dipping sauce, and forgot my
husband’s soup. She finally brought the soup
and straws upon our second request, but the
wasabi and dipping sauce never arrived.
“That’s okay,” I thought. “Everyone has a
bad day sometimes.” But then came the worst
customer service I have ever experienced in my
entire life! It was heavily suggested that my
husband and I were LIARS!
When we received our bill, I noticed that
we had been charged for two coffee drinks. The
problem was that while I had ordered two
coffees, we only received one.
When the hostess came by, I explained that
I would like the second coffee taken off
because I never received it. Her reply, “yes
you did. I brought it to you.” I looked at her
and said, “Yes, you brought me the first
coffee I ordered. The second coffee never
arrived.” She left the table to discuss the
matter with our waitress.
The waitress returned and said, “You had
two coffees. I picked up a glass.” My husband
and I looked at her and politely said, “Yes.
You picked up the first glass. We never
received the second coffee.” She then said,
“Well the waiter made two drinks.” We said,
“That may be so, but we never received it.”
She walked away to discuss the matter with her
manager who in turn went to discuss the matter
with the bartender.
The bartender swore he made the drink. We
didn’t deny the fact that he made the drink,
we simply stated that we had never received
the drink. The manager came to our table and
said, “We have a dilemma here. My waitress,
the hostess, and the bartender said you
received your drink.”
We looked at him and said, “We don’t deny
that the bartender made the drink or that we
ordered two coffees (Baileys Irish Cream and
coffee, to be exact.), but that second coffee
never made it to this table.”
Doesn’t sound so bad, right? Well, here’s
the kicker! The manager looked us dead in the
face with a look of anger and in a harsh voice
said, “Well, I can always go look in the
dishwasher for the second glass. My bartender
assures me that you are the only ones who
ordered one of those drinks.”
My husband looked at him in disbelief. “Did
the manager just call us liars?” I asked
myself.
My husband simply said, “Look, we
understand your position, but we never
received the second coffee. Go look in the
dishwasher.”
Frustrated, the manger threw his hands up
in the air, and with a disgusted voice said,
“Well here is what I am going to do. I am
going to credit you this drink.” No apology.
No sorry for the misunderstanding. No sorry
for the inconvenience. Nothing.
I looked at the manager and said, “We come
here every other week. We never had a problem
before.” He just walked away.
The manager came back with the check and a
tally that showed the times each of our orders
were put into the system. Guess what? The
second coffee was not listed on that sheet,
but he had written down two times in blue pen
and said, “The first coffee was put in at 5:58
and the second coffee was put in at 6:40.” We
looked at him and said, “We aren’t denying we
ordered two coffees; just that the second one
never came.”
Then my husband added, “Look at this table.
Everything from the second order is here. Do
you see that cup here?” The manager just
walked away disgusted.
We paid our bill, left a $10 tip since the
bill was $100 and we didn’t want to stiff the
sushi makers, and walked out.
My son, who hates waiting for the bill
because he always feels bad when we spend too
much on eating out, had gone outside when we
asked the waitress for the bill. The look of
bewilderment and anger on my face must have
given me away because my son asked, “What’s
wrong?”
After a little nagging, I finally told him
what happened. He looked at me and said, “Mom,
you never got that second cup of coffee.” I
said, “I know and you can bet we will never
eat there again.”
The moral of this story…sometimes bad
customer service can cost you a long-time
repeat customer. If you’re having a bad day,
try to take a deep breath and don’t take it
out on your customers. And remember,
sometimes, employees lie to cover their butts.
And sometimes, mistakes just happen.
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