I had taken a client out to a Mexican restaurant in Woodland Hills yesterday. Normally I like the food and service in this place and everything started out fine, but it went downhill from there within an hour.
It was after the lunch rush and the buffet had been closed. We were sitting in the back and as our meal wore on, the waitress appeared less and less. Now mind you, we were a party of four. We had all ordered full meals and drinks (no alcohol). There was even a lady in a wheelchair with us. You would think someone would be more attentive to us than they were just because of her, but no.
When the waitress didn’t show up for 15 minutes and our disabled friend grew tired, we knew we had to get the bill and leave. With the waitress nowhere in sight, I turned around to scan the place and found that two booths down were SIX waiters and waitresses taking a break. They were all either in the booth or clustered around it, chatting and laughing. I stared a minute or two, hoping one would catch me staring, be embarrassed and come over, but no.
I finally decided to pull out the BIG GUNS. Warning my party of what I was about to do, I turned my chair around and sat there, staring at these employees. Want to take a guess as to how long it took them to finally look over? FIFTEEN MINUTES! Then, what did they do after they caught my eye? They took another FIVE MINUTES to send someone to get our waiter!
What went wrong here? Why will we NEVER return? Let’s review –
1. Our waitress should have come around at regular intervals instead of less and less as our visit wore on. We were a party of four, dropping over $60.00 in food and drinks. You would think she might consider we would leave a nice tip for her if we liked the service.
2. The waitress should have been extra attentive to our party considering we had a disabled person with us.
3. The off-duty employees should have been in a back room during their break time, unseen by patrons of the restaurant.
4. They SHOULD NOT have ignored us under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! If they are on the floor, even if they are on their way TO THE BATHROOM or BREAK, their job is to at least let someone else on shift know if a customer brings a request to their attention!
Grade? Sorry, El Torito, but you get a BIG FAT F!
Have your own customer service horror story? Add it here in the comments. C’mon, give us your worst!