Reader Andrew and his friend Chris went to Dairy Queen and had a crappy experience. Chris decided to send Dairy Queen the entire story of his life, but before he ran out of characters on the web form, he did manage to mention that a certain DQ was understaffed.

We get the impression that Chris didn’t really think anyone was going to read his letter. Well, it seems that Dairy Queen does, in fact, read their email.

Who knew?

Chris writes to Dairy Queen:

Hello there,
First of all, my name is Chris and I have been a long time consumer of Dairy Queen. It is the oldest dining experience memory that I have, this should prove that to you; the first DQ that I went to was in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, and I remember dipping the saltine crackers into my water glass at the age of 5 (yes, a glass cup, this proves how long ago this was…crackers on the table and glass cups). Since we are in the trust tree and I’m being honest and putting everything out there, I still dip crackers into water when I have the chance, it reminds me of the old days.

Anyway, I LOVE Dairy Queen, so do my best friends. For example, this evening I took a picture on my camera phone of my two friends eating their blizzards and sent it to four of my friends back at home. I don’t like going to McDonald’s, Burger King, or Carl’s Junior. I live in SD and there are times, like tonight, where my friends and I say something along the lines of, “it’s been way too long since we have had some DQ, but I need some hot eats too…” This then requires us to drive 40 minutes north of Pacific Beach San Diego to Encinitas to find the gold pot a the end of the rainbow. I hope whoever is reading this is realizing what DQ has meant to my friends and I growing up. Speaking of that, I grew up in Eugene, Oregon where my best friends and I would frequent the DQ on the corner of Coburg Rd. and Willakenzie. I have probably delivered $5,000 gross profit (sales- $10,000) for DQ in my lifetime thus far. The restaurant is spectacular, service is amazing for how many customers are constantly flowing through the doors, overall experience grade= A. (FYI, I’m chatting on line with my friend who lives in San Francisco, I told him about what I’m writing you guys right now, here is his part of our convo: Steve: i do miss our DQ back home man, I only ate there once last time i was home…me: ya seriously,so legit, we took it for granted. that’s for sure…Steve: for some reason, it’s just better)

Back to the point. We travel up to this DQ in Encinitas every now and then because we WANT DQ that bad. It takes us back to our hometown days, post sporting event parties, high school lunches (hundreds of them), family dinners, etc. This DQ that we go to is horrible for a couple reasons EVERY time, and before I go any further I want to say that all of these reasons fall onto the shoulders of whoever “owns” this particular restaurant, NOT the employees. So, here it is; 6:00 pm dine-in time and there are TWO high school kids working the entire place. TWO KIDS. There is a line of 15 people waiting to be served. God forbid you order real grill food (like us) because they have to actually cook and take orders at the same time. This leads to burnt onion rings and fries. It took us 45 minutes to get our food, then we had to go ask them to make our blizzards because they were so swamped. There was no manager. I’VE REACHED MY MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF CHARACTERS NOW! I have more to say…..

Beth, from Dairy Queen, replies:

Dear Chris,

Really, Glass cups? How old are you, 100? I made sure to make the font of me e-mail extra big so you would be able to read it.

Thank you for contacting International Dairy Queen, Inc. (IDQ) and bringing your experience to our attention. IDQ works with each of its independent franchise operators to ensure that we are offering our customers the best products and service possible during every visit, and we are very sorry to learn that you have been disappointed in the Encinitas store! I always find it amazing how large SD is and there are probably 3 stores and they are all in Fashion Valley…

Your web comments were too great, I enjoyed the personal touch, so thank you for the smile. I was just curious, being a Minnesotan, I couldn’t care less, but, being from CA, how does it feel to have someone from New York, a mets fan nonetheless, catch #756?

Your comments have been documented and forwarded to all appropriate IDQ personnel for their review. Additionally, we have forwarded your concerns to the independent franchise owner of this restaurant for their information and investigation. I have also sent along several gift certificates in the mail for you to use toward a future purchase on me.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your experience with us and please have a fantastic weekend!

Best Regards,

Beth

Beth Carlson
Consumer Relations Specialist
International Dairy Queen, Inc

Well, Beth. Being from Chicago ourselves, we don’t care about Barry Bonds either, but whatever takes the focus off the Cubs getting swept by Houston is fine with us.

Er, what a nice letter.

(Photo:Brian Wallace)

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