I don't know if it's a sign of my age, or if I just expect too much out of people, but I have been hit with a wrath of horrible customer service. It started when I was in Baltimore with Bob and Lisa. We went to church, and opted on going out for breakfast. I'm spoiled. Living in Elk Grove affords us the convenience of going to Teddy's Diner, an inexpensive, high-quality, place for breakfast and lunch. Maybe it's not fair, but I use Teddy's as my standard when looking for breakfast places to eat. It's family owned and operated, and they care about making your dining experience worthwhile enough for you to return. Not much to ask in a service industry, right? The place we ate at in Baltimore was horrendous. While the menu boasted the history of the establishment, and promised that with the new owners, quality and service were their top priority. The promise must have either been on vacation that day, or took Sundays off.
We were seated in the lower level (it had a very nice outside and main dining area, but not enough open seating for three adults and two children), and that's where our hell began. It took ten minutes for a waitress to take our drink order, another five to find someone to offer me cream for my coffee, several more minutes to order our food, and "never" to get any refills while we waited. When the food finally came, they brought Bob's pancakes without syrup, put onions in my egg white omelet when I asked for them to hold the onions, and still refused to offer any refills. As I write this I think it seems kind of whiny, but it was really bad.
Bob and Lisa have even less tolerance when it comes to this kind of thing than I do. Bob asked to see the manager, and while we waited another ten minutes for the bartender to come in his place, the waitress kept coming over to observe us; shocked we were going to complain about her service. Bob unleashed his dissatisfaction with the experience, and we waited for both an apology and a resolution.
Both came moments later; one in the form of a simple "we're sorry" from the bartender, and the other in the form of a comped food bill. At least they did the right thing, but I don't think Bob and Lisa will be returning to the place they say they frequented a couple of times a month.
Later that day, I got the opportunity to hang out with another friend of mine, Greg, (who actually lives about 3o minutes from me) for dinner. The good news was we were not in a hurry, the bad news was neither was the restaurant. I'll give them credit for being very busy on a Sunday night, but the waiter kept coming over to tell us that our order would be ready soon. Soon must mean in about an hour in Maryland. We didn't complain for this one, but back at the hotel, we ran into someone that Greg knew. She wowed us with her own dining nightmare. Must be something standard in Maryland, we deducted.
It hasn't stopped with these two events, unfortunately. Again in Maryland, a week later, the Hilton in Gaithersburg messed up my wake-up call. This was the 3rd Hilton property since April to do that. It first happened in New York at a Hampton Inn. They forgot to ring my room for my 7am wake-up call. It happened the following week in Boynton Beach, Florida, also at a Hampton Inn. Luckily, I always set my cell phone as a back up.
When I emailed Hilton customer service, they basically sent me a standard, 'the hotel will look into it in seven business days and get back to you.' I had sent them a detailed account of the three times the problem happened, at three separate locations, and they basically just passed it off. I'm waiting it out to see how they resolve the issue.
I can name about a half a dozen more incidences--two just today. But I won't. I'm even boring myself.
I guess my tolerance for poor service is growing thin. I just expect people in a service environment to see me as their customer and treat me with respect. Does that have to do with getting older? I don't know, but I'd much rather just get good service and be done with it.
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