[Misc] Complaining. In restaurants or in general…

[The Clamp]

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...?

Oh dear Lord!!! I hope not
It was explained that it was a bit of the blue packaging that their food arrives in. I really hope that’s true.

 

[BNthree]

When I try to complain I always seem to come across too gruff so my wife generally does it too we’re together at the time. She has a very middle class accent and is personable so pretty much always gets whatever the issue is sorted.

 

[lawros left foot]

Being a chef myself, I do complain if things aren’t right with my food if I eat out, however, these are some of the ‘ complaints’ I have had about food I have served up,

“There’s grass cuttings in my salad”
it was chopped chives.

“There’s maggots in my salad”
it was brown rice.

“This soup is cold”
It was chilled cucumber and mint soup.

“This tuna is off”
It was tinned tuna, I had just opened the tin, it wasn’t off at all.

“I’m wheat intolerant, but I can eat Yorkshire puddings “

Do you serve any gluten free meals, apart from omelette, gammon steak, roast dinner, salmon, ?”
Me, I can do Ham salad , egg salad,cheese salad,smoked mackerel salad, prawn salad, you tell me what you want, I ll see what I can do “
“No, we’ll go somewhere else, you don’t have any gluten free choice”

 

[amexer]

Mainly frequent small mid price to upper restaurants or pubs and often a poor meal is a one off and always felt unfair to head to straight to trip advisor where a few bad comments can ruin a business. Over years on the very few poor experiences have sent an email to owner. Without exception they have always been very appreciative of my feed back and although not something I was looking for have given a good incentive to return

 

[essbee1]

Being a chef myself, I do complain if things aren’t right with my food if I eat out, however, these are some of the ‘ complaints’ I have had about food I have served up,

“There’s grass cuttings in my salad”
it was chopped chives.

“There’s maggots in my salad”
it was brown rice.

“This soup is cold”
It was chilled cucumber and mint soup.

“This tuna is off”
It was tinned tuna, I had just opened the tin, it wasn’t off at all.

“I’m wheat intolerant, but I can eat Yorkshire puddings “

Do you serve any gluten free meals, apart from omelette, gammon steak, roast dinner, salmon, ?”
Me, I can do Ham salad , egg salad,cheese salad,smoked mackerel salad, prawn salad, you tell me what you want, I ll see what I can do “
“No, we’ll go somewhere else, you don’t have any gluten free choice”

I think those are reasonable comments myself Lawro

 

[Yes Chef]

Being a chef myself, I do complain if things aren’t right with my food if I eat out, however, these are some of the ‘ complaints’ I have had about food I have served up,

“There’s grass cuttings in my salad”
it was chopped chives.

“There’s maggots in my salad”
it was brown rice.

“This soup is cold”
It was chilled cucumber and mint soup.

“This tuna is off”
It was tinned tuna, I had just opened the tin, it wasn’t off at all.

“I’m wheat intolerant, but I can eat Yorkshire puddings “

Do you serve any gluten free meals, apart from omelette, gammon steak, roast dinner, salmon, ?”
Me, I can do Ham salad , egg salad,cheese salad,smoked mackerel salad, prawn salad, you tell me what you want, I ll see what I can do “
“No, we’ll go somewhere else, you don’t have any gluten free choice”

I want to give this 100 thumbs up

 

[Badger]

Does anyone else get annoyed/embarrassed when they go to a restaurant with a "question person"? Those people who can't just pick something off the menu and order it. They prepare a long list of questions to ask the server and usually ask for substitutions. There are occassions where you might have a question or two but I swear there's people who get some kind of satisfaction from it and feel like they know better than the chef.

 

[Yes Chef]

Does anyone else get annoyed/embarrassed when they go to a restaurant with a "question person"? Those people who can't just pick something off the menu and order it. They prepare a long list of questions to ask the server and usually ask for substitutions. There are occassions where you might have a question or two but I swear there's people who get some kind of satisfaction from it and feel like they know better than the chef.

There's a special circle of hell reserved for these people.

On complaining, I absolutely will, but I'll try not to be a dick about it. Sometimes you can gauge whether it's a one off mistake or a continuous problem by the waitresses' reaction, decent places will try and rectify the situation, other, more jaded places can get defensive or surly.

I'm mortified if food ever comes back in my kitchen, but luckily it doesn't happen very often because I'll try and make sure everything is fine in the first place.

 

[rippleman]

Being a chef myself, I do complain if things aren’t right with my food if I eat out, however, these are some of the ‘ complaints’ I have had about food I have served up,

“There’s grass cuttings in my salad”
it was chopped chives.

“There’s maggots in my salad”
it was brown rice.

“This soup is cold”
It was chilled cucumber and mint soup.

“This tuna is off”
It was tinned tuna, I had just opened the tin, it wasn’t off at all.

“I’m wheat intolerant, but I can eat Yorkshire puddings “

Do you serve any gluten free meals, apart from omelette, gammon steak, roast dinner, salmon, ?”
Me, I can do Ham salad , egg salad,cheese salad,smoked mackerel salad, prawn salad, you tell me what you want, I ll see what I can do “
“No, we’ll go somewhere else, you don’t have any gluten free choice”

I'll be along for my chilled cucumber and mint soup shortly

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

When compaints go wrong:

#1 A number of years ago British Airways did away with proper meals on domestic flights in favour of a cost-cutting roll in a bag. Just after it was introduced I was flying to Aberdeen. Choice was chicken or bacon or prob some veggie thing. I fancied chicken. Put in my order. Was mildly dismayed when I got the wrong order. Dinged the hostie. 'Excuse me, there appears to have been a mix-up. I ordered chicken. This bag says bacon.' 'No sir, that bag says ba.com'

#2. Bought a reasonably-priced Lenovo laptop out of Argos round about the same time as #1. Got it home, discovered the screen was warped and uneven. Marched back to Argos customer services and duly vented my spleen. Customer Services rep says 'Allow me to have a look sir'. Holds screen up to light. Slowly, a bit too slowly if you ask me, carefully unpeels layer of protective plastic

I don't complain anymore

 

[rippleman]

I will usually complain when the opportunity arises but in retail more than eateries as I rarely eat out except at LLF's place and there's never anything to complain about there.

Keep calm. Going all shouty from the off won't get you anywhere other than looking a bit of a tit.
Know your legal rights
Dont accept any old bs that staff tell you (eg "we don't give refunds, "you can only exchange", "we only give vouchers not cash refunds" (in certain scenarios))
Have at least an understanding of consumer law (mentioning the Sale of Goods Act 1979 often does the trick)
Try to deal with a manager if you can, particularly if there is a systemic problem

The CAB (if you can get through) and trading Standards can also be extremely useful.

Carry on Complaining! It's the only way things improve.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

My daughter worked in the restaurant at Alton Towers during her Uni years. She says that just about every single table tried it on. Like they'd order a bottle of wine, drink the bottle of wine, then complain that the wine was off. In the end it happened so often it just went in one ear and out the other. Guess she probably owes a bit of an apology to the couple of tables who may have had genuine complaints

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

I've suffered complaining, but from the waiting staff. We went to New York for a long weekend several years ago without realising that you were expected to give a 25% gratuity in restaurants. A 10% tip didn't cut it and resulted in outraged abuse.

 

[Monkey Man]

….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.

Exactly. This is quite an issue in the hospitality trade. There are certain people who fancy themselves as food critics and post all kinds of self-important nonsense on Tripadvisor or similar sites that could and should have been raised at the time, but were not. (Quite often the complaints are exaggerated or vexatious because it makes a better story.)

In my experience most restaurant owners will deal with problems there and then. It's not fair to publicly lambast someone's business if you haven't given them the opportunity to apologise or make amends.

 

[Weststander]

Exactly. This is quite an issue in the hospitality trade. There are certain people who fancy themselves as food critics and post all kinds of self-important nonsense on Tripadvisor or similar sites that could and should have been raised at the time, but were not. (Quite often the complaints are exaggerated or vexatious because it makes a better story.)

In my experience most restaurant owners will deal with problems there and then. It's not fair to publicly lambast someone's business if you haven't given them the opportunity to apologise or make amends.

I do really like TripAdvisor, as a long time user and contributor. It's led me to wonderful hotels and eateries.

My posts are never exaggerated or vindictive. Probably just a couple of highly critical posts out of a 100.

One was a shambles of a large hotel in Bournemouth where the management failed to deal with a real issue at the time. (Owned by a large entity). The aggressive manager spent all day posting combative and sarcastic replies on TripAdvisor to the phalanx of complainants. My sense of humour, the tit for tat made funny reading.

The other was an Austrian hotel where they did a furtive trick with the pdq machine when I paid by card at the very end of the holiday, increasing the cost and their profit.


Chancers use TA as an opportunity to try and get something for nothing off of the restaurant. When they don't play ball, bad reviews pile in from all the parties at the meal.

Where I see a ridiculously spiteful review about a decent restaurant run by nice people, my review after a meal is glowing and I say disregard the spiteful reviews.

 

[m@goo]

I always stay quiet about bad food or bad service and then complain facelessly via tripadvisor

 

[smudge]

Mrs S is a waitress in a well known Worthing restaurant, and previously worked as a Restaurant Hostess on cruise ships (where we met) & prior to that Hilton in Dubai; so very experienced & seen it all; complaints are part of the job. Mistakes can happen, especially in a high pressure busy place, who maybe have inexperienced staff.
She tells me Brits aren't so bad, but when they do complain it's nearly always genuine. It makes her laugh when guests complain about the food after finishing it all though.
Here onboard the cruise ship I'm currently on, I see the complaints report daily. Yanks, now these guys are professional and know exactly how to get something for nothing.

If you are ever in Indigo Worthing, say hi, as I won't be seeing her till February!

 

[Recidivist]

I've suffered complaining, but from the waiting staff. We went to New York for a long weekend several years ago without realising that you were expected to give a 25% gratuity in restaurants. A 10% tip didn't cut it and resulted in outraged abuse.

Yes, the expectations in New York are ridiculous.

Went to a Hilton hotel there a few years ago and was moaned at by the waiter at breakfast whose sole “effort” each morning was to show us to a table and pour coffee as it was a buffet style breakfast anyway.

Am always a bit unsure about tipping in hotels?

Is it best to tip staff at the beginning when you might not see them again or at the end when it’s too late to get any “special” service!?

My wife always tips the maids lavishly as it reminds her of her experiences when working at one as a teenager. Drives me bonkers!

Depends on the country too. Went to a five star hotel in Turkey and the staff used to really harass guests when they knew they’d be leaving in a day or two.

Personally I always try to avoid getting matey with the staff. I’m very happy to tip for exceptional service but less happy about tipping for an average job done.

Unfortunately, my wife is much nicer than me and raids my wallet for tips throughout our holidays……

Back on topic, I will usually complain about poor food, service or other issues for anything I’m paying good money for and usually succeed in getting things resolved.

The trick is to be calm, polite, factual and unemotional at the time (and write to the owner/CEO if that doesn’t work!).

Any decent business should welcome constructive comments. If they don’t they don’t get my custom again……


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Swansman]

I very rarely complain about restaurants etc. Maybe would be different if I ate at some fancy, expensive place. Would also be pissed off if I went somewhere and I was the only customer at the time and the food wasnt good. But generally speaking I'm sure most of them are doing their best and that there are logical, human explanations why sometimes mistakes are made.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

The waiter would have to gob in my food in front of me for me to consider a complaint.

Even then a part of me would feel awkward about it