Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The Source of Frustration
Saturday evening Shelly and I took advantage of our babysitting swap program to go out to eat at a fancy restaurant in DC. In May, I had received through a work contact a gift certificate for $150 for this particular place.
We went back in May and spent $77 on good but still overpriced food. The waitress gave us a receipt showing that we still had $73 of our $150 left. She told us to bring the receipt in the next time and it would act as our gift certificate for the remainder of our credit. So we saved it and brought it in on Saturday.
We had a great meal. My chicken was excellent and Shelly enjoyed some kobe sliders ($4 mini-hamburgers). When it came time to pay our $80 bill, we handed the waitress the receipt from last time and my credit card to cover the difference. She left to go process it.
That's when the fun started. Over the course of the next 20 minutes or so, we were approached three times by two different manager-level types. Rather than describing each frustrating conversation, suffice to say that we were informed that the restaurant's official policy was that any unused portion of a gift certificate is forfeited (in fact, it goes to the waiter as a TIP!). We protested that this is not what we were informed, as evidenced by the fact that we saved the receipt for six months, showed up again, and ordered $80 worth of overpriced food. Back and forth, back and forth. They tried to convince us that the line saying "No cash refund for any unused portion" on the gift certificate meant that we forfeited the store credit. Then they tried to go halvsies, claiming that's what would be "fair for everyone," essentially offering to allow us to only pay $40 for a meal that was all-but-$7 already paid for. Yeah. Fair.
We resisted and resisted, insisting that they honor the full value of the certificate until the manager threw up her arms and said, "Fine. I'll pay for it. I don't want you to be unhappy" in a very guilt-inflicting tone of voice. She even went so far as to try to stop us from paying the $7 difference and the tip, but we prevailed on that, insisting that we were just trying to be honest.
I'm not posting the name of the restaurant to shame them because in the end they did the right thing and honored their gift certificate. But it didn't come without a fight. Next time I try to use store credit at a restaurant, I'll talk to the waiter BEFORE ordering. If we'd done that this time, I'd have missed out on an excellent but overpriced dinner.
We went back in May and spent $77 on good but still overpriced food. The waitress gave us a receipt showing that we still had $73 of our $150 left. She told us to bring the receipt in the next time and it would act as our gift certificate for the remainder of our credit. So we saved it and brought it in on Saturday.
We had a great meal. My chicken was excellent and Shelly enjoyed some kobe sliders ($4 mini-hamburgers). When it came time to pay our $80 bill, we handed the waitress the receipt from last time and my credit card to cover the difference. She left to go process it.
That's when the fun started. Over the course of the next 20 minutes or so, we were approached three times by two different manager-level types. Rather than describing each frustrating conversation, suffice to say that we were informed that the restaurant's official policy was that any unused portion of a gift certificate is forfeited (in fact, it goes to the waiter as a TIP!). We protested that this is not what we were informed, as evidenced by the fact that we saved the receipt for six months, showed up again, and ordered $80 worth of overpriced food. Back and forth, back and forth. They tried to convince us that the line saying "No cash refund for any unused portion" on the gift certificate meant that we forfeited the store credit. Then they tried to go halvsies, claiming that's what would be "fair for everyone," essentially offering to allow us to only pay $40 for a meal that was all-but-$7 already paid for. Yeah. Fair.
We resisted and resisted, insisting that they honor the full value of the certificate until the manager threw up her arms and said, "Fine. I'll pay for it. I don't want you to be unhappy" in a very guilt-inflicting tone of voice. She even went so far as to try to stop us from paying the $7 difference and the tip, but we prevailed on that, insisting that we were just trying to be honest.
I'm not posting the name of the restaurant to shame them because in the end they did the right thing and honored their gift certificate. But it didn't come without a fight. Next time I try to use store credit at a restaurant, I'll talk to the waiter BEFORE ordering. If we'd done that this time, I'd have missed out on an excellent but overpriced dinner.
Comments:
I can't imagine even spending $150 at one sitting. Even at an extremely overpriced restaraunt. I guess if you order wine too.
But still, that is a bad policy.
But still, that is a bad policy.
Okay, now I'm dying to know what the restaurant is, given that I ate a lot of good (but over priced) food when we lived in DC.
That is one heck of a lousy policy though - and would be enough to keep me from ever going to them again.
That is one heck of a lousy policy though - and would be enough to keep me from ever going to them again.
The restaurant's name is actually hidden somewhere in this post. But you may not recognize it because it just opened up early in 2008.
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