[Misc] Complaining. In restaurants or in general…

[happypig]

We were staying in a hotel a few weeks back. One evening's dinner was included in the package. Being fish-eating veggies (or pescatarian to be precise) I ordered cod and chips.
"Sorry, Cod's off"
So I ordered Sea Bass.
"Sorry, that's off too"
That left me with Pea Risotto or Halloumi Tagine with Couscous. I ordered the latter with a side order of chips.
It took an hour to arrive and, when it did, the couscous was cold, which meant the tagine went cold too.
I complained to the server, she took it back to the kitchen and came back out saying "Chef says couscous is served cold here, but I could microwave it"
I told her to take it to the kitchen, put it in the bin and tell Chef he's a ****.
Oh, and the side order consisted of 10 (ten) chips.
Had it not been included in the package I would have refused to pay, as it was I agreed that our drinks and side order wouldn't be charged.

Mrs H enjoyed the risotto though.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I will ALWAYS send back food in a restaurant that is badly cooked or not what I ordered.

And I will go into a cold sweat of anxiety just before I engage the waiter just in case it's ME that's wrong. Even when the wine tastes of vinegar, my chicken is still running around and I've been served a child's desert. Because the chef probably knows better, even if he is some minimum wage commis who was washing pots two days ago and selling skunk a week before that.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Last time I personally (now it's the misses) complained about anything was about 10 years ago when i thought I found a finger in a jar of lloyd grossman. Got a shit load of vouchers

Sent from my SM-A326B using Tapatalk

 

[WATFORD zero]

I will ALWAYS send back food in a restaurant that is badly cooked or not what I ordered.

And I will go into a cold sweat of anxiety just before I engage the waiter just in case it's ME that's wrong. Even when the wine tastes of vinegar, my chicken is still running around and I've been served a child's desert. Because the chef probably knows better, even if he is some minimum wage commis who was washing pots two days ago and selling skunk a week before that.

There are only two types of cook. The type where you go for the experience and the taster menu and you eat what the chef has cooked the way the chef wanted because that's the deal, and I appreciate it's labour intensive and expensive produce. And, each to their own, but I have generally found those to be overpriced (with a few exceptions) and should be done if it's going on expenses and I'm not paying.

If I am paying, then the cook is employed to cook what I want. And, even when it's a bit labour intensive and the produce is expensive, If I want my steak cremated, then cremated is what I want, I am the customer and that's what I want. 99% of cooks come under this bracket. I tend to eat most things rare, but that is beside the point. (And Al dente means firm, not f***ing raw)

Thank you for letting me get that off my chest

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Last restaurant incident was at a self service Chinese buffet where they added a £4.99 service charge.

When I reminded them that we had served ourselves and asked how would they be paying us the fee this soon shut them up

 

[Worried Man Blues]

If it's service or poor food probably just don't go back, unless it's the wrong food or something really incorrect. The only thing I really complain about is real ale when not in good nick, discreetly of course.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I always highlight issues with a meal .... complain seems a very strong word.

The weirdest one ( or most embarrassing I guess ) was a restaurant in Hove. I won't name it but pick a number between 1 and 10.

Anyway, the starters tasted of nothing .... literally nothing. Sent them back and said I wouldn't be paying for them. The mains were also tasteless and the veg was lucky if it had seen hot water for a second. I suggested to the waitress that maybe they could sell the baby turnips as cannon balls. Then came dessert - creme brulee. It resembled runny puke. By then even the waitress was laughing it was all so bad. In the end all the food was scrubbed from the bill and the waitress got £20 for her excellent service. Mrs WS and I then went and spent the saving at Hove Place on wine for the evening. Always pays to complain .... but nicely.

 

[The Wookiee]

Tripadvisor/Google reviews - the one thing that really annoys me about them is the Mr and Mrs Smiths complaining about the meal/service they have just had at the restaurant they have eaten at every Last Friday of the month for the past year.
Yes they have the right to complain but why not write good reviews for all the other good meals they have eaten there !

 

[South Stand Bonfire]

About 20 years ago when living in Poets corner in Hove, I ordered a floor sander over a weekend. The manager in the hire shop was very obliging and said I could collect in on Thursday night and return it on Monday morning for the same 48 hour hire rate.

DIY weekend turned up so down I went to the hire shop and was served by a very surly South African. The computer was down so he had no records of my order which then had to be duplicated by hand. Eventually he gave me the sander and I said I’d return it on Monday morning. Ok. He said that will cost more. Not in the mood for an argument I left and went home annoyed but resigned to having to deal with such jobs worth in life.

Anyway, literally 6 months when recounting this tale to a friend I suddenly realised that the shop I collected the sander from was not the one I samecas the one I originally ordered it from.

Just proves that the customer is not always right.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I will always complain if it's not what it should be, and I consider the establishment culpable, no hesitation. My level of politeness would depend on the nature of the establishment and the degree of my disappointment. There is a wide range of judgement at play, here, though....

On the one hand I was at Chez Nico, around 35 years ago, and saw a customer thrown out for asking for some salt

On the other hand, we had lunch in a pub restaurant run by some firends, and didn't complain when one of us found a catterpillar in the cabbage

Ten years ago I had lunch in The Flask in Hampstead and the food was OK, but we waited 30 minutes after the table had been cleared for the bill. I even went after the waiter asd asked for it. He stood grinning and fiddling with something, in a staff area. Ten minutes later we decided to pay downstairs at the bar. There were no customers but the two staff ignored me while having a conversation. For several minutes. They could see I was waiting.

So, with a heavy heart, we left.

A week later I got a call at work from their manager (can't remeber how he got my number - may have been left when booking) asking for me to pay for the meal. I told him I tried three times, and decided to follow Ford Prefect (if you try three times, honestly, to pay, but fail, then it's on the house). I had to laugh (and did so, loudly) when he suggested that we would probably not be welcome in his establishment again.

Customers who cock staff about for merriment or profit, however, should be defenestrated.

 

[essbee1]

I will always complain if it's not what it should be, and I consider the establishment culpable, no hesitation. My level of politeness would depend on the nature of the establishment and the degree of my disappointment. There is a wide range of judgement at play, here, though....

On the one hand I was at Chez Nico, around 35 years ago, and saw a customer thrown out for asking for some salt

On the other hand, we had lunch in a pub restaurant run by some firends, and didn't complain when one of us found a catterpillar in the cabbage

Ten years ago I had lunch in The Flask in Hampstead and the food was OK, but we waited 30 minutes after the table had been cleared for the bill. I even went after the waiter asd asked for it. He stood grinning and fiddling with something, in a staff area. Ten minutes later we decided to pay downstairs at the bar. There were no customers but the two staff ignored me while having a conversation. For several minuttes. They could see I was waiting.

So, with a heavy heart, we left.

A week later I got a call at work from their manager (can't remeber how he got my number - may have been left when booking) asking for me to pay for the meal. I told him I tried three times, and decided to follow Ford Prefect (if you try three times, honestly, to pay, but fail, then it's on the house). I had to laugh (and did so, loudly) when he suggested that we would probably not be welcome in his establishment again.

Customers who cock staff about for merriment or profit, however, should be defenestrated.

<<Customers who cock staff about for merriment or profit, however, should be defenestrated.>>

More people need use that word 'defenestration' Harry. It's highly under-rated.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

<<Customers who cock staff about for merriment or profit, however, should be defenestrated.>>

More people need use that word 'defenestration' Harry. It's highly under-rated.

And it's particularly apposite in a restaurant context

 

[essbee1]

And it's particularly apposite in a restaurant context

Indeed.

"Choose you window buster, you're leaving".

 

[Westdene Seagull]

And it's particularly apposite in a restaurant context

I'm sure you pick words I have to look up on purpose !

 

[Bry Nylon]

Found a melted piece of blue plastic in with my fries today at a well known fast food outlet.

I'm guessing it was the remnants of one of those blue plasters that people in catering jobs have to use to cover a cut...?

 

[dazzer6666]

Tripadvisor/Google reviews - the one thing that really annoys me about them is the Mr and Mrs Smiths complaining about the meal/service they have just had at the restaurant they have eaten at every Last Friday of the month for the past year.
Yes they have the right to complain but why not write good reviews for all the other good meals they have eaten there !

….or those that are happy to put a tirade online, but didn’t mention anything at the venue to give them a chance to deal with it.

 

[Bodian]

My girlfriend was so annoyed with bad service at a restaurant a few weeks ago that she only gave a 15% tip.

I imagine the server chased you down the street when you left

One of the worst bits of service we've ever had was in Canada. Can't recall the details now, but my wife is a coeliac, so she ordered a ham & egg salad or something of that nature. They seemed to think that coeliac meant vegan - so she basically got three bits of limp lettuce and a tomato. We tried gently complaining and asking for what we had ordered, but they simply wouldn't do anything - and the waitress was pretty rude and unhelpful. Anyway, we paid and left (my meal was fine).

The thing is, in Canada, tips are almost obligatory - I think they make up much of the staff's pay. So we paid for the 'food' but added nothing as a tip.

She came charging down the road after us shouting and hollering that we hadn't left a 'service charge'. I pointed out that hadn't had much of a 'service', and that where we came from a tip was earned not taken for granted. She followed us quite a way further.

 

[dazzer6666]

One of the worst bits of service we've ever had was in Canada. Can't recall the details now, but my wife is a coeliac, so she ordered a ham & egg salad or something of that nature. They seemed to think that coeliac meat vegan - so she basically got three bits of limp lettuce and a tomato. We tried gently complaining and asking for what we had ordered, but they simply wouldn't do anything - and the waitress was pretty rude and unhelpful. Anyway, we paid and left (my meal was fine).

The thing is, in Canada, tips are almost obligatory - I think they make up much of the staff's pay. So we paid for the 'food' but added nothing as a tip.

She came charging down the road after us shouting and hollering that we hadn't left a 'service charge'. I pointed out that hadn't had much of a 'service', and that where we came from a tip was earned not taken for granted. She followed us quite a way further.

Yep….I was only half-joking. Not uncommon for that to happen !

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Found a melted piece of blue plastic in with my fries today at a well known fast food outlet.
Thought I’d just leave it and carry on until I had a word with myself and spoke to the manager. Got some vouchers. Probably could have got more of I’d made a fuss. But the point being, I actually hesitated about complaining. Even though there was melted plastic in my food.
Odd.

Are you good at complaining? I’m awful at it. Luckily most things I experience are satisfactory or, at least what I expected.

I’m dreadful at complaining, just can’t bring myself to do it! I remember eating raw potato’s at two different restaurants within about a month of each other a few years ago, I didn’t say anything at either place, my other half thought I was nuts!

When we’re eating out with the in-laws though, if there’s ever anything wrong with their meals they make a right loud song and dance about it - I just want the ground to swallow me up! I am incredibly British!

 

[Springal]

Literally had this at a Indian restaurant in Worthing. It bugs me as it gets rave reviews - but there is no excuse in my opinion. That said they were fairly good about it but did feel awkward pointing it out.