I went out for a drive after work today and ended up at Ivars - a place famous around here for Fish and Chips and Clam Chowder. When the thought of Fish and Chips struck me, I was magnetically pulled across town because I knew that was something that I could enjoy that Kerry wouldn't want even if she were here.Wow. Bad times. I'm not sure what happened to Ivars' once-legendary Fish and Chips, but it was bad enough to have me write to the company to tell them that it was bad.
And once I got in the writing mood, I finally got around to sending off that letter of complaint to Olive Garden (warning: uninvited music alert if you visit their website) about the invisible birthday cake fiasco. I'm sure it will get lost in the bureaucracy chain somewhere and when it does get discovered it will probably just get laughed at, but at least I let myself be known.
Maybe one of these days I'll summon up the will to go eat there again.
Maybe.
2 comments:
Wow, I'm really surprised that you haven't written to Olive Garden about their birthday trick until just now! Pretty much any place with half way decent customer service will usually give you a coupon or something. Just tell them how awful your experience was and how you're unlikely to eat there ever again....and then boom, coupon. Though, after that whole Olive Garden thing, I seriously doubt I'd ever eat there again, even if they offered me a free meal.
well, until this incident, it has been Kerry and my favorite restaurant, so I didn't write because I thought I could just bury the hatchet and move on.
As for the coupon, I love free stuff, but my decision to write them is about hoping that maybe I can help open some eyes as to the stupidity of that policy and the danger for them of yanking the customer around like that.
For instance, Red Robin was not even on our restaurant radar until Megan mentioned the birthday thing. Kerry looked into it and found that even though it was a few days after my birthday, they would still honor it, and we went in and had a great time. Talk about above and beyond! And it cost them a few bucks for one meal for me, and in return they got a purchase of a meal for Kerry and two new customers.
Seriously. What is a dollar for a piece of cake against losing customers over a candle on a plate. And I don't even need a fancy piece of cake. A cupcake works fine. Just something to say, "hey, we're celebrating with you."
A plate doesn't quite say that.
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