Reader Dan begs our pardon for not having a more egregious complaint, but would like to share his irritation at Buffalo Wild Wings refusal to substitute breaded chicken tenders for naked ones. Lest you assume that Dan was asking for something unreasonable, he writes:
Now keep in mind I wasn’t asking them to scrape bread off my tender or invent some new, exotic expensive dish. I was asking them to just toss in the 4 naked tenders they sell on the menu instead of the breaded ones. I think we can see where this is going. The waitress told me they can’t do that. I was dumbfounded because this seemed like such an easy request. I asked her why and she said the cook can’t do substitutions.
Buffalo Wind Wings stood firm. Dan was not allowed to have naked tenders with his combo, forcing him to purchase less food and resulting in less money for Buffalo Wild Wings. Read his entire email inside.
Dan writes:
Hi guys,
In the grand scheme of things, this is no big deal. It’s not as though InfoUsa is stealing my pension and forcing me to live on dog food or a douchebag at Lycos is erasing all my email but it’s still a fucking irritant to say the least.
I went to a Buffalo Wild Wings in Indianapolis last Wednesday for dinner. The $10.95 ribs and chicken tender combo looked tasty so I wanted that. However, I’m carb conscious and wanted my tenders naked (without breading) which is fantastic since BW3 sells those right on the menu next to the regular breaded tenders for the same price. So I ordered my combo and asked the waitress to substitute the 4 breaded tenders for 4 naked ones. Now keep in mind I wasn’t asking them to scrape bread off my tender or invent some new, exotic expensive dish. I was asking them to just toss in the 4 naked tenders they sell on the menu instead of the breaded ones. I think we can see where this is going. The waitress told me they can’t do that. I was dumbfounded because this seemed like such an easy request. I asked her why and she said the cook can’t do substitutions. I pointed out they sell naked tenders for the same price, can’t he just cook those instead of the breaded ones. She said no again, but I held firm and asked her to check, since there seemed to be a huge lapse in logic here. So she left for 10 minutes (TEN MINUTES!) and returned and said “they” whoever “they” is told her that can’t be done. Since I was famished enough to eat the menu (which turned out to be more flavorful then the naked tenders) I ordered the 6 piece naked tender for $5.95. So they in essence gave up an extra $5 sale to give me 1/2 of the order I originally wanted!!
I can understand if naked tenders didn’t exist on the menu or they were more expensive (although I would have paid the premium) to substitute, but there was no reason why they “CAN’T” substitute, rather they “CHOSE” not to do it, and in turn lost $5 and a customer for life.
Dan
So sad and unnecessary. —MEGHANN MARCO
(Photo: Wikipedia)
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Maybe you should have asked to speak to a manager, or asked the busboy for a new table with a new server.
There is a restaurant in Nashville that sells sauce that is THE KIND. Bdub’s (as we call it here) are rank amateurs in BBQ wings or bbq anything.
That restaurant in Nashville that sells their sauce I recommend shall be nameless since they don’t advertise here but my guess is ____ Nicholson loves it too
This past Saturday was the VERY FIRST time I visited a local Buffalo Wild Wings. Normally not a place I would visit because… well I don’t like wings/hot wings. But while searching, I discovered they have the BuzzTime trivia my wife likes – plus they have ribs that my wife likes – and best of all, popcorn shrimp on the kids menu which my sons loves.
So Saturday, we went there. My wife ordered the ribs/chicken strips combo – she asked if she could get a plain unbreaded chicken breast instead of the strips – where she was told that they had naked tenders, which are like breaded strips – but without breading and grilled – so my wife got that.
No problems at all. Played 2 games of trivia, had a great meal, and plan on eating there often now that we learned we liked the food and can play trivia while we wait.
I used to work as a cook during my stay in college. The reason why they didn’t want to substitute the breaded tenders for the other ones was most likely because they didn’t have them. All of that kind of chicken comes in bags of frozen pieces and to cook them the food is thrown in the fryer. Cooking regular chicken in a fryer would make it fall apart and become unateable. It would have been possible to cook them in a frying pan but I don’t know if they actually had any naked chicken to be cooked or the available equipment.
I really hate the tabs in IE7. I norally wouldn’t even be using this but I’m typing this from a school computer. I hit alt+r instead of alt+t, I had to retype everything…. damn it.
Jack Nicholson FTW! He would’ve had the waitress scrap off the breading all by herself.
Most these restaurants (Apple bee’s, Chili’s, ..) don’t actually COOK the food but rather get them pre-seasoned, cooked and frozen. Throw on the grill and get it ready in 15 minutes. Perhaps they couldn’t find frozen bag with naked chicken.
The only solution I could come up with was that perhaps the wings are flash-frozen, like McDonald’s fries. They may cook the wings halfway with no or little sauce, let them cool, then flash-freeze them. From there they might be put in a deep fryer and continue being cooked. I only knew about the flash-freezing process from reading Eric Schlosser’s book “Fast Food Nation”.
@Moosehawk: I don’t know. I’d rather my waiters/waitresses wouldn’t try to make small talk with me. I want them to get my drinks as soon as they can, take my order as soon as they can, and only walk by every 5-10 minutes to check on my drink. If I wanted to chat with them I’d be having dinner with them, not my table companions. Not to say I’m rude to wait staff, but I think their job is to get my food and drink as efficiently/accurately as possible and that’s it.
I believe the naked tenders are grilled as they come on skewers.
The breaded tenders are deep fryed.
The cook was just being lazy since using the deep fyer is less work then skewering chicken and grilling it.
Many years ago while working at a popular southern california amusement park hotdog stand, customers would ask me for extra pickles on their hotdogs. So instead of the usual 3 pickles, I would put 5 or 6. One day the manager saw me do this and told me that doing so “screwed up their inventory” and I wasn’t to put more that 3 pickles on any hotdog. The pickles came in big 5 gallon plastic tubs packed by weight. To this day I have no idea how adding a few extra pickles to a customer’s hotdog to make the customer happy would screw up any pickle inventory. I knew very well the manager didn’t count each and every pickle in the tub. I remember raising this concern at the time but got the ever popular “If you don’t like it, there are other people who want your job.” So from then on, three pickles it was. Sometimes the waiter doesn’t have a choice. I agree with some of the comments above, don’t go there again, and send a letter to the main office telling them why.
Hey, that’s from picture is from the movie 5 easy pieces!
That shot is from Eugene, Oregon.
I had an even more bizarre “No Substitutions!” experience when the Rogue Brewery opened up a pub here. (in eugene)
They had this extra fancy burger made from happy cows, and it came with their very own blue cheese.
I tried to order the extra-fancy organic happy cow meat burger, but with different cheese.. and, nope, cheddar was NOT ALLOWED!
It was a laughingly strange experience, and in spite of loving their beer, it was my only visit to the brewpub..
@synergy:
I agree with you — I don’t like chatty or chummy waitstaff. I really hate it when they come to the table and say “And how are WE doing today?” I don’t know about YOU, but I’m hungry, so please cut to the chase and take my order.
@jitrobug:
Burgers made from happy cows? That’s hilarious! I’m a carnivore, but I have to laugh. Are the cows really that happy when they’re DEAD?
Maybe the cheddar wasn’t organic and the bleu cheese was, and if the cheddar went on there, the organic happy burger wouldn’t be so organic (or happy). Still, bleu cheese seems to be something that people love or hate, so it seems disingenuous to nix substitutions.
@monolithic: They did have the naked tenders because that’s what he ended up ordering. He could get them as a separate order but couldn’t get them as a substitution for the breaded ones.
Boo hoo. You’ll get over it. If it’s that big of a deal, leave the restaurant and quit clogging up Consumerist with this junk.
BW3 is ass. There is/was one on Lincoln in Chicago, and I have NEVER had a good experience there.
But it was silly not to speak to a manager.
Also, as a former fast food manager, I can tell you that there are just enough cheap-asses out there who will place an order, pay for it, and then say “oh, by the way, can you make that a double?” so they don’t have to pay extra out there to make it miserable for the rest of us who are just disorganized thinkers. That’s why I preface any request with “How much will it be to substitute X for Y?” That usually makes it work just fine. If it doesn’t, and I’m feeling particularly ornery, I’ll play it this way: “OK, I don’t care what it costs, just put 5 ribs and 5 wings on a plate with some fries and charge me whatever you think it costs.” I find that people who are being unreasonable are completely stymied by unreasonable reasonableness.
This is the kind of stuff that makes customers stop coming back. It’s not a HUGE deal, but it a really, really stupid policy. Reminds me of Target’s exchange policy.
Anyway, if you’re carb conscious, you should probably stay away from BWW anyways. 
As a former employee of Bdubs for several years , I would have gladly subsituted the naked tenders for him. I’ve done it before, and the kitchen had no trouble with it as long as it was noted on the order. Bdubs has bad service because it has a strange “service model.” People get confused, should they order up front or from a waitress/waiter? The waiteresses/waiters spend more time working on their tables than taking out the orders from the front counter, forcing other busy employees to do that duty. While I do agree he should have spoken to the manager, sometimes the owners of the indivdual resturants set rules which make no sense. As cashier, I had to stand all the ketchup/mustard/mayo packets so they were standing upright, instead of just throwing them in there.
it’d be nice if we could get this many comments on a post that actually … meant something.
i kind of agree that this isnt that big of a deal.
i mean, i feel like this has happened to everyone at least once. no big deal, just stop going there and call/email their customer service.
on the other hand, the bright side is you got to eat less of buffalo wild wings, considering their food is terrible this situation seems like a positive.
Ok, the abundant references to naked tenders in this post are starting to bring out the 13 year old in me.
*snicker*
@FranktheTank– What do you mean I could have been better about this? I didn’t throw a hissy, didn’t call the waitress a whore I jsut asked her to check if they could make a simple subsitition (and they did cost exactly the same on the menu). I didn’t storm off in a huff, just ordered something different.
@jeffislouie: I asked the waitress if she could check about that policy, I didn’t think she would go talk to the cook (assuming she talked to anyone) for 10 minutes before she got back to me. At that time, and I was with other hungry people, I just ordered something different than hold up everyone’s meal.
@elrefai: they did find a bag with naked tenders since I ended up ordering those to eat
@billybastion: for all those bitching about this not being important—all i did was mail this to consumerist, it was up to ben/megan to decide to post it. You think it’s trivial– take it up with them
Something like this just happened to me today at my local BWW.
I’m trying to cut back on drinking soda, so I asked the waitress for water. A few minutes later she came back to take my order and clued me in to a few lunch specials that included a soft drink. I ordered a chicken wrap special ($7.55 on the menu) without thinking about how it would play out with my water. Keep in mind, the exact same chicken wrap meal, without the soft drink, is $6.79 on the regular menu.
At the end of the meal I received the bill: $7.55 plus tax. I was never offered a soft drink (not that I wanted one anyway). Not a big deal, I thought, I’ll just have the waitress correct the price to the regular meal, because that is essentially what I ended up with.
I explained the situation. She goes to ask her manager about it, and a few minutes later comes back and says “Sorry, I can’t change it. The price is what it is. I can give you a soft drink to go, though.”
I begrudgingly took the drink because I didn’t feel I should have paid extra for something I didn’t get in the first place. I can’t believe that they’re incapable of changing an order after the fact. Needless to say, I was not happy.
In defense of the waitstaff, usually it’s an overstressed, underpaid cook making those types of decisions; I’ve been in the dining industry for some time, and I’ve never worked with a cook that likes making substitutions – it throws them off, and takes an extra minute. Personally, I believe in customer service, and that extra minute is worth it to create an extremely satisfied customer, as opposed to one who leaves unsatisfied.
damn IT! now i have a craving for wings. thank GOD Hoagies + Wings is right down the street. mmmm…hoagies + wings….it’s in LA for anyone who’s interested:
http://www.hoagiesandwings.com/
I’ve been a waiter at a point for five years of my life, and though I considered myself considerate and courteous, there were some who were not so.
Some servers just don’t want to be inconvenienced. It could be easily done, but it most likely (if it is not in the automated system as an option) needs to be told to the cooks, usually in some form of writing (a hand-written ticket) so that they don’t forget. It is very unreasonably, because not only is the company loosing business, but the server in question is loosing valuable tip money, not only by letting her bill shrink, but by refusing a very simple and doable request.
I’m assuming that your waitress just simply did not feel like taking that extra 30 seconds of effort, and instead of actually asking “them” if it could be done, instead stood her ground and refused to do a damn thing about it. It’s sad, but it happens. Some people just are not plain cut out for customer service, or human interaction for that matter.
@jitrobug:
You beat me to it! I drive by that Denny’s every day on my way to work
I love BWW. The quality of service really comes down to the individual restaurant; I’ve been in several and have had several degrees of helpfulness among them. I was there last night, actually, and had the friendliest waitress ever. She actually said “bless you” to me from halfway across the room when I sneezed. That’s service.
My take on this situation is probably this “combo” meal came in one pre-packaged carton which would have required the cook to open another carton or bag to meet this persons needs (much like at Joe’s Crab Shack where subs are a no-no).
I’ve never asked for a substitution before at BWW, so I can’t say I’ve experienced this problem, but I can say their service isn’t the best at the ones I’ve eaten at in AR, OK, and TX.
@jeffislouie: And if you get bad service, don’t like your food, or have a bad experience in any way – TELL A MANAGER.
And if you have a good experience, TELL A MANAGER. Customers don’t seem to have a problem complaining, but so few ever bother to compliment. If it’s really good, get the corporate number or e-mail address and tell them, too.
On behalf of this Buffalo Wild Wings I would first like to apologize for this guests poor experience. Our policy is to “WOW” our guests and unfortunately this did not happen during his visit. Our goal is to meet all guests needs and do whatever it takes for the guest to leave with a smile on their face.
I will assure that we will substitute menu items, though at times their maybe a reasonable upcharge.
This guest has been contacted and is willing to give this restaurant another try, and I will welcome all of you to have a true Buffalo Wild Wings experience.
Wings, Beer, and Sports All the Esstentials.
Thank you all for your comments,
Buffalo Wild Wings Castleton’s Management Team
@DeeJayQueue: Most places use the Squirrel system. Yes substitutions are programmed into them and yes they are very easy to use. And if you can’t find the substitution you need, (and it happens, people are incredibly picky), you put your finger on the little button that says “see me”. LOL is it that hard? I’ve been in the food service industry for 20 years and never once worked for a place that refused to substitute. Very occasionally they will not substitute on a particular platter, like an appetizer sampler for example. From my experience it’s always been something promotional, temporary item. The inventory thing doesn’t really matter. If two products cost the same it doesn’t matter if you are over on one and short on the other, it evens out in the long run. Corporate only cares about the end results. As long as they are turning in good numbers, that’s what counts.
It doesn’t excuse them, but I can see why BW3 as a whole has backed up that particular store and refuses to budge. That’s the corporate mentality. That store is only numbers on a page to them. They are number crunchers. And they pit one store against another, creating competition from within, to get the results they want. You can’t expect them to see things from the human aspect. They are locked up in their cubicles with their adding machines. If you want good service, you’re going to have to go to a Mom ‘N Pop.
Wow, that’s crazy to me. I go to a Buffalo Wild Wings pretty often here (in Louisville, CO) and they always have good service. And every time, I order a buffalo chicken salad with no breading on the chicken, and there’s no problem. And the waiters are friendly, too (I actually ended up meeting one of them in a sociology class, and she gave me and my parents a free round of drinks).
I just don’t want to chalk it up to a bad company when it might be a crappy waiter or manager alone.
Back when it was called BW-3 (and was still Ohio-based), he would have been taken care of.
Substitutions of equal value should be honored. As a manager of Buffalo Wild Wings, I find it very disturbing that another manager would not allow a guest to receive naked tenders instead of breaded tenders on the combo. We do not advertise that this may be done, but there are always exceptions to the rule. The #1 priority is the guest, and in this case, I believe the substitution should have been made.
There is an older couple that comes in on a regular basis and orders the an item off the kids menu which is advertised as 12 and under. Here again I allow this order to be placed as long as the guest purchases an adult drink instead of the kid drink that comes with it. This is how the guest wants their meal, and I am more than willing to accomodate their request.
Substitutions may be made as long as they are of equal value. I wish the guest had spoken to a manager on duty. This sounds like a server error. The server may have been new and was either not informed or misinformed of our policy on substitutions. Otherwise, it may have been a stubborn manager that needs to reevaluate the priorities of guest service.
@flyover: Dude, what ever. Hooters has the worst food ever. EVER. I would rather eat dog shit wrapped up in flayed skin from a giant sewer rat than eat there…
In the past year, Bdubs (as we call buffalo wild wings around here) recently opened a restaurant in Martinsburg, WV. I thought it would be great because the other two closest Bdubs are in Winchester, VA and Hagerstown, MD. Both stores in VA and MD have been great. However, the Martinsburg store has gone downhill very fast. When it first opened, there were lines after 6:00 for dinner all the time. Then all of a sudden there was nobody taking names and giving out buzzers. They would say, “just find a table.” The empty tables were overly abundant. I experienced the following four times. I would go in, sit down and wait. I waited and waited and waited. No service. Three times I just got up, left and went to Outback or somewhere else (places that still have waiting lines – even though I hate that, I think it’s an indication). The fourth time, I had enough. I complained to who I thought might be the manager and he didn’t seem to care that I’d been there sitting over 15 minutes, in an almost empty restaurant and still had not been even asked what I’d like to drink. I don’t like that the service sucks, but I also don’t like that in the near future, if this place doesn’t change the way it does business, we’ll lose what could be a great restaurant in my small town (we don’t have many cool places to go). I tried to complain to the main buffalo wild wings website, but there isn’t a link to communicate. There is a survey link, but you need a receipt and since they won’t serve me in a timely manner, I don’t have one.
That’s stupid. I’ve worked at Bw3′s in the kitchen for 3 years, and I don’t think we’re supposed to do certain substitutions, mainly with the sampler platters, but we do anyway.
I agree that the servers suck. It’s gotten to the point where food would be sitting in the window untouched because the cashiers are tired of running the server’s food. By the time the food is ran, it’s cold and we have to re-make it. So I taught myself to run food, and actually gotten tips, whereas their servers didn’t get tipped.
All I have to say on this matter is BW3 or Buffalo Wild Wings or whatever name they go by now is overpriced and the wings suck.
If you want good wings, come to Cleveland, Ohio and go to Cleats, they are 10x better and cheaper.
Yes, as most people have already said – that’s stupid. But it’s symptomatic of the corporate dumbing-down everywhere. Most likely, the company has a no-substitutions policy, much like those zero-tolerance things, which really only nullify any common sense. So rather than have a situation where they can make a customer happy, they have the policy spell out for them that substitutions are not allowed, and that’s all they care about.
My advice to everyone who is bothered by these types of things is to patronize independent establishments. Usually, if there’s an owner in the premises, or at least locally, you can expect better service and customer relations.
Being the devil’s advocate, after a day’s worth of annoying needy orders, subbing something as simple as even wings can be pretty aggravating. Although if placed in this situation, I would’ve friggen substituted it.
Are you sure the server could hear you? I stopped going to the local BW-3 because the place was too damn loud. I liked the food so I would get it to go, but I made sure I checked everything before I left because there was about a 50% chance I was missing something in my order.
I eventually started driving a bit farther to go to a different location. They rarely screwed up the order, but it was just as loud.
As Keke-In-Pink mentioned I’m confused by the servers. For years I went to BW-3 without servers. You placed your order, got a number or flashing coaster, and picked up your food when it was ready from the counter. Now I’m supposed to fill my first fountain drink up myself, but a server will get me refills. I’ve yet to find another restaurant where this happens.
Kudos to BWW for jumping into the discussion.
I am a manager at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Illinois and I would totally make that substitution. I have no idea why that particular store wouldn’t. It sounds pretty ridiculous to me.
I work at a Buffalo Wild Wings as a server. Exceptions and substitutions are frequently made. However, it is up to the discretion of the manager. If you are not part of the “clique” the manager hangs out with, or if you are a server whom the management does not like you will get attitude for asking questions about substitutions or exceptions. Sometimes it is not worth it to ask the manager. They never seem to understand what you are asking them, or they are too busy to care. All they care about is where they are going to go out and drink after their shift is over.
Where do I even begin? Everything that could go wrong during a dining experience went wrong lastnight at this new Buffalo Wild Wings here in town. I have eaten at one before in Green Bay Wisconsin, but this was my second time here in Dublin, California. We were there entirly way to long, most of which was waiting for things to be fixed that came out wrong, and arguing with the “Manager/Co-Owner” I found out. Our drinks came out wrong, our food came out wrong, we were charged wrong, we were rang up wrong when paying, we had a waitress switch half way through, the manager laughed at us and didn’t offer to take care of one of our meals that came out wrong twice. He was sarcastic, very disrespectful, childish (laughing constantly). Stuttered at everything, especially when I asked for the contact information of someone higher than him, which I didn’t get, only a first name, the list actually goes on and on. I am going to be filing a complaint with the BBB if after I go in there tomorrow and try and find this other guy whose name I got, doesn’t have any compassion either. I have four pages written down that my husband and I sat down and wrote when we got home of everything that went wrong, so that we wouldn’t forget. I will NEVER eat at Buffalo Wild Wings again and will make sure that this gets out, of how I was treated. I am trying to get ahold of corprate at this time.
@Cach: