Sunday, July 12, 2009

Where's All The Good Help?

I simply cannot stand sub par customer service... which is exactly what I received Sunday evening from Cheddar's.

Our party arrived at the restaurant around 8:50 pm (which is a whole hour and ten minutes before closing). By the time we were seated and had our food it was just after 10:00 pm- which is when the restaurant closes. Although we had four people at our table drinking tea who had just gotten their food, the kitchen staff dumped all the rest of the tea and refused to brew anymore. The shift manager's excuse was, "we try to not brew anymore tea after we close so we are not throwing any out." The last time I checked I wasn't living in Africa. I don't care what you throw out at the end of the night.

What the shift peon failed to realize was that at $2.95 a glass 'his' store was making no less than a $10.00 profit off of tea for our table (and that is really pushing it because there is no way it cost more than $2.00 to make six gallons of tea). He offered to take all of our tea off our tickets and simply let us drink water just so that he didn't have to march is lazy butt back into the kitchen and make a new batch of tea.

I am, on almost all occasions, a very good customer. Unlike a lot of my friends, I have worked in a restaurant busing tables and serving people. I know what kind of horrible job it can be. Whenever I go to a restaurant I always tip between 15-20%- always. I also do not mind paying for excellent service because on the flip side I know what it should be.

The fact is I could spend MY money anywhere. In this free country- this (still as of yet) free market- I chose to visit this particular restaurant and pay an obscene amount to eat and drink. I know they are making money off of me and I don't even care. So, is it too much to ask for them to show me that they know the same thing? I guess so.

The older I get the more the apathy and lack of work ethic from some younger people absolutely infuriates me. I grabbed the general manager's card on the way out the door and I fully intend on sending Craig Bolles and his supervisors a little FYI on the lack of customer service training some of their shift managers seem to possess.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You were warned!!

Madison S. said...

you should have come to On the Boarder with us we had Great service!

Christina said...

Well ooooohhhhh myyyyyyyy, lol! Hope company wasn't bad too!

Lynn said...

Chedder's and Bad Service are synonymous!! I've been preaching this for years!