Our dining out experience last night. Thoughts?

Restaurants usually only have *one* chance to keep me as a customer. I don't tend to give one a second chance unless there are extenuating circumstances and they've been very, very apologetic about the situation.

I called a restaurant once, asked for the manager and told him that we were sitting by the window and were still waiting for our water and to place our order after almost 25 minutes and that we thought our waiter had quit or something. Boy, he was over there in a flash and our dinner was comped. We returned several times to the restaurant and were well pleased.
 

Just be glad you weren't dealing with airline etiquette. We all know how that can end. "For the sake of the children honey, avoid eye contact and never tell them no ".
 
Lon said:
I think you should share you feelings with the owner in a nice way.
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I did better than that-I posted a review on our local Facebook Restaurant Review page (knowing that the owner frequents the page) and although she did try to make excuses for what happened,she finally realized she was just making herself sound ridiculous and they took care of us on our next visit. Seems to me that it`s tough for any restaurant to make it for as many years as they have-almost 30 years-and especially in such a small town. The only other one I have seen here is our friend`s Mexican restaurant and they still get rave reviews after over 25 years in business. The restaurant where we had our terrible experience has been owned by the same two women since it opened. Not long ago,one of their son`s took it over. He is a great chef but now I`m wondering why they have the name of some other chef printed on their menus. Just making way too many changes I think.
 
So many businesses have forgotten what it's like to be a customer. I functioned as a training manager for a large company and conducted what I called a "field trip". We would go over to our competitors, sit too far away to hear what was said and I would ask my people, "who would you want to take care of you and who don't you care to do business with". Just by observing the workers mannerisms, my trainees would inevitably come up with the same observations. I explained that the customers were depending on people to provide and enhance a service that, in most cases, was an adventure or treat for them and they were spending their hard earned dollars to allow them to remain employed. My whole purpose was to let them realize that, like it or not, every customer is left with an impression, and the quality of that impression is dependent on the quality and your understanding of your obligations. Customer service has suffered tragically over the years through employees feeling that they can do things the way they want to without fear of retribution.
 
It sounds as if they did overbook, and got caught overbooking. You have to weigh if the service and meal, with the exception of that incident, is worth going back for another meal.
 

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