Saturday, August 15, 2015

A Bad Restaurant Example



My wife and I recently went to an upscale local restaurant. It is “upscale” because of the location on the waterfront, linen tablecloths, limited menu and its high prices, none of which was a surprise to us. Unfortunately even with all those things going for it, along with very good tasting food, the service took it down a number of notches. The waitress, when she finally arrived, was unable to respond to two simple questions. Question one: Could we be served a meal noted on the menu as not served after 6 PM? It was 6:30 PM. Question two: what was the price of a menu item noted as “market price”?

Oh yes, we ordered a bottle of wine while waiting for the answers. Ten minutes later she returned to our table with two wine glasses and an answer to question two ONLY. No wine and no answer to question one. Upon reminding her to get an answer to question one, she went away for another ten minutes. Then the wine showed up. Then an answer to question one…NO! We prepared for this with a backup item and ordered it, along with the high priced other item we selected. The waitress never came back to the table to pour any wine. We filled our own glasses, but did not finish the bottle. It is customary in this town to take an unused bottle of wine from a restaurant, sealed to your home. When the waitress was asked to package the wine she said: “we do not do that!” We said: “yes you do, ask the manager! She returned some fifteen minutes later with the appropriate packaging, but we had to ask her again to bring the bill. She did not return to the table to pick up the credit card. I walked to the bar to pay the bill, shorted the tip to make my displeasure noticeable, and left. We will not return or recommend this place to anyone.

 

What would you have done? If this was your business what would you expect to happen?

 

Steve Koenig, SCORE Counselor


 

 

 

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