Here’s proof that bad customer service, like haggling and buyer’s remorse, is a universal human condition. A woman in Brisbane, Australia saw an ad for 50% off the bill at Casa Flamenco, a local restaurant, so she and some friends went out for dinner. The experience wasn’t good—untrained waiter, mediocre food, small servings, long wait time, and despite the half-off coupon the meal was surprisingly expensive for the value. The woman—a restaurant marketer—wrote a polite email to the restaurant with some professional feedback and suggestions on how to improve service.
Here’s what the restaurant wrote back to the woman:
Dear Lorraine,??your are an idiot we dont need your feedback.
(Thanks to Amelie!)
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“your are an idiot” indeed
dear lorraine,
we are idiots and would like to tell the internet we suck. thanks, casa whatever
that’s a great self-pic, ben.
That restaraunt clearly fancies itself a pitbull on the pantleg of professionalism.
Wow. What a great restaurant. Although, long wait time, expensive, sounds like they’re making plenty of money despite the lousy service, so I guess that’s why they didn’t want her suggestions.
Is this one of those restaurants that pride themselves on their quirky customer hating as a niche market?
What’s the source of this story?
Well, you know what they say, just because they ARE in business doesn’t mean they SHOULD be…
Short, and to the point. Very well written, if I may say so myself…
Ed Debevic’s opened in australia?
Short and to the point. Very well written, if I may say so…
dear lorraine,
we wanted to call you an idoit in a run-on sentence.
Restaurants that advertise 50% off the bill or a free entree generally need to do that for a reason. I’m not surprised that she didn’t have a satisfactory experience.
@DeltaPurser:
I suppose. If you consider “your are” to be well written …
She should have went to Casa Bonita….Eric Cartman gives it a glowing review.
I had the opposite experience at the WOW Wing Cafe in Bowie,MD recently. The wait staff was bad and the food was over-priced and of mediocre quality, and the beer selection was uninspiring, but when the waitress finally broke the final straw by charging the pitcher price for my single draft beer I compained to the bartender who sent the owner to my table, I was comp’d my meal and original beer AND given a free beer.
I’m still not likely to return there because Buffalo wings shouldn’t cost $.80 each PLUS $1.50 for celery and blue cheese, and I like beer that has a taste – but if those things don’t concern you, the owner of the WOW in Bowie “get’s it”.
As a restaurant owner I want to know if something is unsatisfactory. I would rather have the opportunity to make it better than have a customer simply not return, and bad mouth my establishment.
I wonder if she responded, “no u”?
Last year, my family and I went to a new “gourmet” restaurant in Worcester [it seriously presented itself as such and was apparently believing its own image]. The food literally was lower quality than the mass-produced crap I’d just worked in a college cafeteria serving. Like the OP, we had a 50% coupon from the newspaper, which was useful as the entrees were priced at about 20 bucks each. It was actually a terrible day already for my family [cancer diagnosis] and the laughter I got from the restaurant’s absurdity was the first “relief” I’d gotten all day [although that's very relative]. We didn’t get the mockery as they did, but let’s just say such restaurant shadiness is not unique to down under. Sorry for the threadjack, it just brought back that memory.
Something makes me think that untrained waiter gained access to the restaurant’s email account… I doubt any serious business owner would risk his or her business with such a petty email.
Just see if they’re open in six months.
Had a similar experience many years back before I became fabulously wealthy (in my dreams, anyway).
Wife and I went to swanky place to celebrate our anniversary, taking advantage of a mid-week special.
Food was all right, not awful, but the service was the pits, ranging from hostile to indifferent. Wrote a very polite letter to the owner, who subsequently called me and proceeded to angrilly rip me for daring to complain!
This was many years ago but I make a point of bad-mouthing the joint at every opportunity, and “salute” them whenever I drive by.
Arturo’s Ristoante
6750 North Federal Highway
Boca Raton, FL 33487
your are stupid for going to that restarant
@radleyas:
Lyndsey Nagle: Do I detect a note of sarcasm?
Professor Frink: (With sarcasm detector) Are you kidding? This baby is off the charts, mm-hai.
Comic Book Guy: Oh, a sarcasm detector, that’s a _real_ useful invention.
(Sarcasm detector explodes)
———-
Good god, I love that scene. Probably almost as much as I love seeing it played out in web forums.
Hey, what was that explosion?
Oh hell.
I just figured this out.
It’s Australia, see? So the remarks go counter-clockwise, or _opposite_ to ours in the northern hemisphere.
So instead of an insult, it was a polite thank you note.
Duh! I just wish we’d all seen this earlier so we wouldn’t have wasted our collective ire.
@Antediluvian: Twelve thumbs up? What the hell is that??
____________
Homer, we need a food critic that doesnt immediately ‘poo poo’ everything he eats.
Naw, it usually takes me a couple hours.
Stupid Brisbanians, always complaining about something.
I have a great restaurant story also. I went to “On The Border” restaurant in Northern Virginia a couple of years ago. I ordered a normal meal as did the wife. I couldnt get a drink refill for begging. Neither could my wife get anything. The salsa had an odd taste to it but oh god the food!!!
**Have you ever had a meal that you couldnt eat? As in your body rejected it at the table? I couldnt eat it after 2 bites. I simply could not eat it I gagged the moment it hit the back of my mouth.**
The waiter was a total jackass and refused to deal with it (after trying for 20 minutes to get some service) I ended up paying for our meal and leaving.
We were 1.5 hours from home. That turned into a 4 hour trip as I was sick all the way home. I dont think we passed a bathroom on the way home. A trooper stopped at the Ashland Exit as I didnt make the exit and was throwing up everywhere on the side of the road. When I got home I couldnt get warm. I was having cold chills all night and was under 2 quilts and an electric blanket. I missed work monday as getting too far from the bathroom was not an option.
I called the restaurant that monday and tried to get them to remove the bill. The manager said he would an that we should expect some ‘gift certificate’ to arrive. (I make a practice of never EVER returning to a restaurant with bad service under any conditions, this one was nuclear bad)
I waited and called after 30 days. Nothing happened and I told them I would make a point to let it be known what happened.
They truly were awful. Period.
@RRich: BTW, it’s Arturo’s Ristorante not “Ristoante.”
I copied and pasted the (misspelled) name from their website.
LOL!
Wow the group here is going with the original poster this is a first.
one: we didn’t get to see the suggestions she made?
two: her professional input from being a restaurant marketer? Does she write ads for the newspaper or yellow pages. Haven’t seen that job title before.
three: 50% off coupons are normally buy one meal at regular price get the next meal at 50% off. These are rarely for the entire bill. This looks better then it is as most of the time it comes to 20% or so off entire bill.
four: her table could have been rude and over demanding to the point of the restaurant saying hey we don’t want nor need customers like you.
It was the small serving size comment that made me wonder if this person was really a professional. Serving size is subjective and has nothing to do with price. Large quantity portions have little to do with quality.
BTW: chicken wings (once a throwaway by product of the chicken industry) now often sell for more per pound then chicken breast meat.
Quick! Forward that article to every restraunt review mag and Zagat’s to boot. If their management is that rude, let everyone know who surfs Zagat’s that this is worth avoiding at all costs.
It’s obviously all her fault for being a know-it-all
If you’ve ever watched “ramsey’s kitchen nightmares” you may never eat in a restaurant again. At least go around back and try to get a peek in the kitchen, or see how the trash area is maintained– that will give you an idea of the restaurant’s standards.
@bbbici: Or read Anthony Bourdain’s terrific “Kitchen Confidential.”
@Its The Beer Talking: Not there anymore.
four: her table could have been rude and over demanding to the point of the restaurant saying hey we don’t want nor need customers like you.
@Oregon: That does not excuse the response they sent her. It would have been better for them to have not responded at all. Now they’re going to be known for calling their customers idiots, admitting they ignore customer feedback, and having crappy grammar.
If they really felt it was necessary to e-mail the customer explaining why they aren’t going to use her feedback they could have explained it professionally: Our prices are competitive with similar restaurants, the waiter is already being trained, etc.
That’s pretty funny.
When did Best Buy open a restaurant?
[www.casaflamenco.com.au]
There’s the website.
I’d reply back in the same manner, but atleast use proper grammar.
@matt: Wow. That was unnecessary.
I have a friend who lives in Brisbane.
I’m sending this to him. Good job, idiot restaurant. You just lost more customers/potential customers due to your story showing up on a website halfway across the world and then getting bounced to people in your town.
You should have kept your mouth shut.
@Oregon:
There’s devil’s advocacy and then there’s trolling.
Guess which action you performed, goat-eater?
@bbbici: Ever since I saw “Hell’s Kitchen”, I’ve had a mancrush on Gordon Ramsay. It’s been made worse by my FIOS cable having BBCAmerica, and I get to watch him all of the time. I used to work in a caferteria, and in a supermarket, so I am never surprised by what I see in kitchens. Hell, even mines not ultra sterile.
@Caduceus: They probably will be. Idiots and their money part ways very often. And the people who know how to do that by serving crappy food, which no one will say is crappy, because they spent $40 on it, know how to encourage the parting.
@CyGuy: *scribbles notes*
The BF and I love wings, so it’s good to know where not to get ripped off in PG County
@bbbici: Yeah, I was going to bring up “Kitchen Nightmares” (which, BTW, is much better in its British incarnation). Having watched that show, I’m not surprised by boneheaded restaurant owners or staff anymore. It is amazing how a restaurant owner who is hemorrhaging money daily, who is about to lose his business who is buried in debt can still think that his way of managing the restaurant is in no need of severe correction. Yet, such owners are apparently not rare.
@vdragonmpc: You did report this to the local health department, right? And here’s that restaurant’s page: [www.otborder.com] so we can all avoid it!
Clearly this restaurant took their Customer Service manual straight from Uncle Moe’s Family Feedbag.
I’m from Brisbane (and lived just near that suburb up until a short time ago) and I’ve never heard of this place. I had a look and it’s some new ‘themed’ restaurant in a wannabe trendy area. What are the stats on restaurants failing in their first year? Another one for the pile.
@BayStateDarren: What restaurant in Worcester exactly would that be? Hubby and I go to Worcester probably once a week for dinner and if there’s someplace we should avoid I’d love to know beforehand..
@homerjay:
[sternly] I’ll have you know, I wandered off from the tour.