(no subject)

[quidditchgrrl]

I like annearchy's Wednesday Whinge. Especially tonight when I am ready to kill OMG.



I rarely get upset with poor restaurant service. Everyone is paid shit, it's high pressure, long hours, no recognition, and rarely is the person in front of you the culprit.

This evening I got unlucky.

We had a gift card for Logan's Roadhouse, which is one of those generic steakhouses-with-TVs-and-peanut-shells-on-the-floor restaurants. Fifty bucks in free food is nothing to sneeze at, so we checked the online menu so I could call in a timed order to pick up once I'd finished my spinning class.

First call in, they'd discontinued what Honeybunch wanted, so we reevaluated our choices and called back. Step one, done.

I finish working out and head over to the restaurant. It's raining cats and dogs, and I'm soaked when I get there. There's no one at the host stand, so I go to the (almost empty) bar and ask about my order. The bartender directs me back to the empty host stand, and eventually I'm met by the host (and the person who took my order over the phone).

Host: Uh, we didn't make your order, we don't have that *points to piece of paper out of my line of sight* anymore.
PBG: Which one?
Host: *Scoots paper over and points to my order, a NY Strip sandwich*
PBG: Oh, crap, okay *thinking, so WHY didn't you enter this order into the computer next to the host stand phone, realize this, and tell me this three hours ago, when I was ordering?*
Host: *stares blankly*
PBG: Okay, I'll just grab a menu and pick something else out. *reaches into host stand and pulls out a menu*
Host: *stares blankly*
PBG: I'll have this burger, instead.
Host: Your total is $xx.xx
PBG: *Gives over gift card*
Host: *starts talking to one of the servers while finishing my transaction*

I take the steps past the host stand and...there is a refrigerated case holding 3 NY strip steaks. I do a little WTF, because that's what goes into the sandwich. From past experience, when an order is messed up, you do what you can to make it right before the customer arrives, or you are waiting and prepared to apologize, comp, and scrape. (Admittedly, I left Pizza Hut in 1999, so customer service has no doubt devolved in the last five years.)

Twenty minutes later, I'm frozen and still waiting. I really wanted to grab a broom and sweep those damned peanut shells into a pile, they look so dirty.

Thirty minutes later, the host flies by to say that my food will be done "in a second," then goes away again.

Thirty-four minutes later:
Host: *blank stare* Here's your food.
PBG: Thank you (?)
Host: *blank stare* Have a good night.

If this was a busy Friday night, it would be one thing. A Thursday night with 5 tables and 5 people at the bar? So not on.

The hell of it? I missed Lost. >:(

Comments

[avadaaccio.livejournal.com]

Yeesh, sorry about that. :/

Lost was terrible anyway, you did not miss much. Actually, anything. Except the last 5 secs.

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

Dude.

I think you should go to their website and e-mail a complaint. Do eeet!

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

I think I stole the term Wednesday Whinge from ceilidh (if you do this on Tuesday, you call it Tuesday Tirade;) As for the restaurant "service", I think your experiences beats mine at Tony Roma's (the rib place) in N. Miami Beach in the early 1990s. Mr. Annearchy and I were visiting his parents, and we went out to dinner with them one night. I ordered baby back ribs; when our orders arrived, it was obvious I'd received beef ribs, rather than pork baby back ribs. My mother-in-law (a former restaurant owner herself) flagged down our waiter and complained about my meal. He said, "That's how it came from the kitchen." *headdesk* My MIL ended up calling the manager to our table; that finally got things righted. But yeeeep! What an idiot you dealt with *pets*

[quidditchgrrl.livejournal.com]

It could have all been made better had someone said, "I'm sorry! We messed up, and we are going to fix it."

It's the "not my problem" attitude that rankles with me (and probably with you and your MiL, too).

[siriologist.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I went into Friday's a few months ago. It was only about 5pm, plenty of tables, not yet busy, but a few people lingering in the lobby ... I went to the host stand and asked if there was a wait. He said yes (yet lots of empty tables ..) okay fine. I ask how long. He says "Between 10 and 40 minutes."

WTF, Can you not pin it down a bit more than that??? Why not just say I don't know and tell me why, so I can decide for myself whether everyone in the restaurant is an idiot or just the host?

[queenkatieett.livejournal.com]

You worked at PIZZA HUT?!

Do you still have any contacts who can help me work on getting some delivery action up in here? 'Cause honestly, when I want to fill myself with fat, I don't want to have to walk 19 blocks to do it.

[quidditchgrrl.livejournal.com]

Having to walk to get a pizza defeats the purpose of eating it.

[blue-eye.livejournal.com]

How long have they been in business?

[quidditchgrrl.livejournal.com]

Their website says they were founded in 1991, but I believe they've only been in the Columbus area for ~2 years.

It's a corporate chain, so they're pretty much safe from closing unless they have an outbreak of food poisoning or the INS raids their kitchen staff. :\