Mr Nifty and I were hospital visiting yesterday, his 94 year old mother is enduring being patronised by medics like the stoic that ladies of her generation inevitably are.
We decided to eat out before the long drive home, but the pub we had chosen is next to the racecourse, so had a "guard" on the gate to make sure we weren't just trying to get free parking by charging us £10 (refundable against a meal).
Not too much of a problem, we thought, as we wanted to eat. After the expected wait, two meals approached...but Mr Nifty's was not what he'd ordered. There was much discussion amongst the waiters - which we could hear! Oh yes, we'd definitely ordered that....but we hadn't. Not a good start.
They'd left my meal on the table, so we started sharing the chips while we waited for them to sort out the problem. The chef came over, and explained at length that he'd have to remove my meal as Mr Nifty's needed cooking from scratch and of course we'd want to eat together.
At this point, an offer of a free starter (or a drink) would have been welcome...but no.
So we waited.
The waiters continued to discuss the "fact" that we'd definitely ordered the dish we hadn't ordered.
The restaurant section was almost empty...but another "table for 2" arrived...and guess where they were seated? RIGHT NEXT TO US! Why?
Our meals came, they were ok. We ate, we left.
Guess how big a tip we left?
I decided this would be a lesson in customer service ... how not to do it!
2 comments:
And people wonder why we Brits have a bad reputation for customer service... although I think it is worse 'down south' ;-)
Shocking, wasn't it? And it's only just occurred to me - they made such a fuss about Mr Nifty's being "cooked from scratch" that I'm now wondering if my own meal had been sitting in a warmer for a while...
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