Not for the Faint of Heart!

A chain restaurant has lost my patronage forever. And it wasn’t so much the horrible eating experience as it was the way it was handled by the local manager. Here’s the deal.

We ordered three different sandwiches, two fries, a cherry pie, and a small root beer at the drive through. I sat at the window for seven minutes before anyone spoke to me, and then they brought all of my order at once. Except my root beer, which I had to wait for. I had to request condiments — which the customer should never have to do. (I used to work in fast food; customers are supposed to be asked if they want ketchup, barbecue sauce, etc.) I counted sandwiches and all before we left, and everything seemed to be okay. But, when I got home, I found that my pie was apple, not cherry. And my sandwich was on too small a bun (this chain puts regular sandwiches on a 4″ bun and large sandwiches on a 5″ bun), so the meat was falling out and was, consequently, mostly cold. It was then that I realised that the cashier had not given me a receipt.

All of that was merely annoying, but the annoyance turned to disgust when my son took the lid off of his root beer to drink the last bit of it, only to discover that there were ANTS crawling about in his cup and drowned in his soda.

Needless to say, I was disgusted and furious. I went online and filled out a complaint form, asking for a refund of the $17 I knew for sure I had spent. It was actually closer to $18, but without a receipt, I was willing to take $17. I also said that I would report them to the health department if I didn’t hear from them within 48 hours stating what action they were taking to deal with the insect problem.

So I got a call from the manager this morning. It started out okay, with an apology. Then he asked what I wanted him to do about it. I repeated my request for a refund. He asked for a receipt. I repeated my statement that I had not been given a receipt, but that I had spent $17 and change, and would be willing to settle for $17.

Then he made his first mistake. He said that he had the exterminator scheduled to come out to deal with the ants even though he couldn’t find “no” ants in the drink system, but if I said they were there then they must be there, and I was his customer and the customer was always right, so there must be ants in the system even though he couldn’t find them … and he went on and on. Basically, though not in so many words, he was saying that I was just lying to get my money back. Which might be plausible if I didn’t have pictures of the ants in the cup, both the crawly ones and the drowned ones. (And obviously, the insects are in the cups, and in the cups storage, not in the drinks system.) Anyway, we agreed, eventually, that I would come out between 12:30 and 12:45 to pick up my refund.

When I arrived at the store, I quietly asked for the manager by name and title. I had to ask three people before someone got him. When he came out, he did not greet me or apologize. He didn’t even look at me. He just reached into his pocket, handed me the cash, and turned. I said thanks, and he turned his back on me and walked away.

Now, if I were a manager in his position, I would have been waiting for me at the door. I would have been apologizing profusely to me, and offering me more than just my money — coupons, free meal offers, anything to appease and reassure me that there was genuine distress over what had happened to me. I sure wouldn’t have been accusing me of lying.

By the way, if I were lying, I would make up something better than ants. LOL. I’d be screaming about roaches in my sandwich, or snot instead of mayonnaise. Ants are just icky. Roaches and snot are truly gross. If I were inventing a story to get my money back, I could do way better than ants. Ya know?

Tags: customer service, True Stories