Wow. Just, wow. I just encountered a prime example of someone on a power trip giving bad service. The experience was so unpleasant that I was left feeling shaky, my heart was racing and I was on the verge of tears.
Let me explain. There is a nice restaurant near my uni which usually serves fantastic food. It's really really good, I love eating there. However, the owner or manager or whoever has a reputation for being quite rude at times. I'm nit sure whether it's just to uni students as he prefers a different clientele or what, but he can make an otherwise nice night a little bit less nice. I hadn't encountered him in a while (possibly because I have been in a habit of just getting takeaway from there) but tonight my boyfriend, his sister and I decided to dine in. The food was fantastic, our waitress was lovely and everything was perfect until it came time to pay. There were two people in front of me and it was taking a little while. The manager or whoever he is was chatting away to guy 1, who finally finished, the man in front of me paid in cash and then it was my turn. I took out my debit card to hand it over and I was told that the bank line was down. I asked if that meant o couldn't pay by Visa either, as guy 1 had stopes his Visa card on the floor so I just wanted to make sure. The manager looked at me like I was an idiot (in hindsight, yes it was a slightly silly question but I just wanted to make sure and repeated that the bank line was down. I then asked where the nearest ATM was and pointed up the road. After walking to get the money from the ATM (which was on the opposite aide of the road to the restaurant which the manager failed to mention) I return to pay. After getting my change, I said something along the lines of in the future it would be nice if they had mentioned the issue during the meal or while I had been waiting in line for about 10 mins. They manager replies (without apologising) that the issue occurred just as guy 1 was paying. I say that that's fine, but he could have mentioned something then so that I could have withdrawn money instead of waiting in line, as we were in a slight hurry. The guy glares at me, saying that he was sorry but the fault only just happened and that they were trying to resolve it. I say again that that's fine, I just would have appreciated knowing instead of waiting for so long. He then talks over and raising his voice saying that the problem was out of his hands and that it was the machine. Now i started to get defensive and reply and that while the problem was out of his hands, that informing me was not and that he could have done something about it. By this stage I just wanted to leave, so I say that's fine (or something along those lines) and start to walk away. He (while not even looking at me) says thank you and reply, thanking him for the great service.
Arghhhhh I feel so sick and horrible after that encounter! Normally I wouldn't have said anything, but I'm trying to be a bit more confident and proactive, and I knew that if I didn't say anything I would have regretted it. But now I regret saying something! I told my boyfriend that we are never eating there again, which wouldn't be so hard if the food wasn't so good and the fact that our new apartment is about 5 mins walk away!
I absolutely hate when a nice experience is spoiled by something so small and nasty. I really do :(
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
