Monday, May 03, 2010

More Fun with Customer Service

Before I launch into another tale of service woe, I want to pat myself on the back. (Hey, if I don't do it, who else is going to? Well, Simon will, but he has to since he's my fiancé! Why is a man a fiancé and a woman a fiancée? What does the extra 'e' symbolize? Sorry...got off track...onward to the patting on the back.)

I got up at 5:15 a.m. today and went for a run/walk! It's Week 2 of my Couch to 5K plan. I alternated 90 seconds of running with two minutes of walking. It was hard, but I didn't feel like collapsing in a heap and dying during the workout.

It helps to spend the whole run/walk thinking up snappy comebacks to rude things people say to you. Sadly, I can never think of the snappy comeback until an hour later or if I do think of it, I'm too polite to say it.

Un-Stuffed French Toast

I went to brunch on Saturday at Lindey's with my friends Stephanie and Kelly for Stephanie's birthday. Lindey's is a pretty nice restaurant so you would think that customer service would be above reproach. You would think wrong.

I ordered eggs benedict and had no issues with my order. Stephanie wanted hash browns or breakfast potatoes. They didn't have any, but they offered to chop up regular potatoes and cook them instead. (No hash browns? That wouldn't happen at IHOP.)

Kelly ordered french toast stuffed with cream cheese, pecans and bananas, but she asked for no pecans. The french toast came out and she started eating it. We looked at it closer and realized there was no stuffing. We called the waitress over and she said, "Oh yeah - you're right. This is my first brunch and I didn't know what it was supposed to look like." (Um, maybe it should have something creamy in the middle of the french toast slices? )

She took it back to the kitchen and returned with the same plate. Apparently, the pecans are mixed in with the cream cheese, so they couldn't put the stuffing in the stuffed french toast. Her solution was to bring a sliced up banana so Kelly could put pieces of banana on the french toast.

So here are my problems with this:
  • What if you have a food allergy? You're just SOL?
  • Shouldn't you let the customer know something like this? "Hey, you ordered stuffed french toast, but since you didn't want pecans, you're going to get plain french toast instead."
  • They didn't have ANYTHING they could stuff the french toast with? Plain cream cheese, strawberry preserves, honey?
  • The regular french toast cost the SAME price as the stuffed french toast.
I'm sorry Lindey's. I'm sure you're a nice restaurant and all, but at IHOP, the french toast stuffing does NOT come with nuts. (Although, it is cheesecake filling, which is slightly less healthy!)

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