Just last week, I wrote a piece about the methods my wife and I use to derive the proper tip when we go out to eat. We postponed our Valentine’s Day dinner to this last Saturday so we didn’t have to deal with long waits or odd eating hours. Our night was going great until the server forgot about us.
We sat for nearly 30 minutes after we were done eating our meal waiting for our bill and a box for the rest of our food. We only got one drink refill and the server never asked us if we wanted dessert. It wasn’t that busy for a Saturday night, to tell you the truth. The server was making the rounds to his other tables and he was very pleasant and friendly. So what do we do?
I, for one, am not a very vocal person. I don’t typically voice displeasure other than venting to my wife or friends in a calm matter. Nonetheless, my wife and I gave the server a very generous tip.
On the way home, my wife and discussed all of the failures of the service. Yes, the food was great, but we had to let the restaurant know of our poor service. If it had been our first time there, we would have never gone back. So that night, I wrote up a simple e-mail to let the manager know of our dining experience.
We really don’t expect anything out of it, but felt it was our due diligence to let the manager know. I’ll follow up if they have any response.
It’s rare that we go out to eat, so having a poor night out really stinks!
Stupidly Yours,
Matt
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So…. did you ever get a response? This reminds me of one fateful trip to a local family restaurant. The young server took our order and then we never saw him again. We assume his shift ended, because we never saw him again. After about 20 minutes, other servers started eying us. Customers around us who had come in after us were happily eating their dinners.
It wasn’t until 40 minutes later that one of the servers timidly asked us if we were still waiting for an order. After checking the kitchen, she came back and asked if we wanted to re-order food. We left in a huff and have never returned to that restaurant.
@Matt
Thanks for sharing, Matt. I probably could start an entirely new blog on customer service horror stories from both experience and working in the retail industry.
I have not heard anything from them yet and I don’t expect to since it’s been a few days. I’ll be sure to follow up if they do!