We should have turned around and walked out.

I’ve decided that my family and I are magnets for poor customer service.  It doesn’t matter where we go, restaurants, jewelry stores, wherever… we can be the only ones that experience bad customer service.    I could write a book about the awful Customer Service we have received from various businesses in the Des Moines area.  

It’s really quite sad.  To be honest, I am considering branching out and starting another blog, devoted entirely to Customer Service.    (Seriously, would anyone read that?  Would it be worth my time?)

Saturday afternoon, Husband wanted to drive over to Bass Pro Shop in Altoona, Iowa (approximately a 35-mile drive).   We shopped for a while, looking at all the latest and greatest fishing and boat equipment.  Truly, he could lust over this stuff like I lust over books.  Or shoes.  Or purses. Or clothes.

Ahem.  Anyways.

 While we were shopping at “outdoors nirvana” I mentioned to my husband that we might as well eat dinner there since we weren’t going to get back home anytime soon.   While husband was shopping, I walked to the other end of the store to Uncle Bucks Fish Bowl & Grill (bowling alley & restaurant).   I waited my turn at the hostess station, where customer service rule #1 was broken. 

I was not greeted.  The hostess, rather than saying ”Can I help you?” just looked at me and waited for me to do the talking.  I asked how long the wait was, and without even looking at me, she snipped off the response “Thirty minutes.”   I put our name in, and I was handed a pager.    I asked if the pager would work all through the store, because we were still shopping.

Her response?  “Um, YES.”

That experience alone should have made me just hand her the pager back and say ‘never mind.’  

But we waited.   I walked back over the other side of the store to where my husband was still drooling over fishing lures, and waited.  I turned the pager over, and noticed it wasn’t doing anything.   Usually, when we go to a restaurant and get one of these pagers (you know the flat roundish ones that look like a coaster?) they have a small light on the bottom that blinks every 10 seconds or so, just so you know the pager is actually working. 

This one wasn’t blinking.

After about 20 minutes, we decided that youngest daughter and I would walk back over to the restaurant while Husband went through the checkout and took our purchases out to the car.

When we got back to the restaurant, I walked back up to the Hostess station to see where we were at on the list.   I saw our name at the top of the column (party of 3), and was glared at by the hostess for apparently trying to sneak a glance into their super-secret operation.  Daughter and I stood and waited for a few minutes thinking we’d be called next.    Four parties of people (with 4 or less in their party) walked up with blinking beepers and were seated.

After a few more minutes where we appeared to be at the top of the list, I asked the Hostess about our pager:

“Is this supposed to have some blinking light on it to let us know it is working?”

The hostess ROLLED HER EYES AT ME, and said (in her best snotty high school cheerleader voice), “It will blink and vibrate when we it’s your turn.”

Um, not the question I asked, but whatever.   We kept waiting.

When they paged us, we were taken to a booth. Within a minute or two we were greeted by our server, who was very pleasant. She took our drink orders, and she brought them back quickly to our table.

Note the time was 7:00pm.

She asked if we were ready to order, and we were not. We told her we needed another minute, so she asked if would like to order an appetizer. We asked for an order of hot wings.

The menus are already at the table in a little container, but I noticed they do not have a Kids menu. Daughter was planning on ordering the Fish & Chips with a $10 price tag because we were never given a kids menu.

After about 10 minutes, our hot wings arrived, being delivered by a different server. She set the plate down and walked away.

Here’s where I will interject with yet another one of my pet peeves. It is my belief that anytime you order ANY appetizer at a restaurant, they should always bring enough small plates (and extra napkins) for each person at your table. That should be a given, and not something that we need to ask for. ESPECIALLY when appetizers are typically finger foods.

We waited and waited for the server to come back, while we cautiously all three tried to share the plate of wings sitting in the middle of the table without making a mess. The waitress stopped back and asked how the wings were, and we asked for some small plates and napkins. After a few more minutes, she finally brough them back.

We expected her to take our order at this time. She didn’t. She set the plates and napkins down and walked away. Husband and I just started at each other.

We sat there for quite a while, waiting to see when she would come back and take our order. It was 7:35 at this point, and we had finished our appetizer and our drinks.

We decided to give her one more chance to see if she would remember to take our order. Yes, we could have gotten up and tracked her down, but it became more of a game at this point, just to see how bad the service could possibly get. We saw her chatting with other servers, waiting on table all around us, and taking care of her other customers. For example, the party of 5 sitting in the booth next to us ordered after sat down and already were in the middle of eating their meal, WHILE WE HADN”T EVEN ORDERED YET!

At 7:40, we saw her heading our way again, FINALLY. We thought this would be her moment of redemption. She walked up to our table, and rather than asking if we were ready to order, she simply said, “Here, let me get these plates out of your way.” She grabbed our appetizer plates and started walking away.

That was when my husband, who had remained quiet as long as he possibly could (and it was literally killing him to keep his mouth shut one more second), asked the server to please get the manager for us.

After about 5 minutes, we finally had the manager come to our table. He was very puzzled, as I am sure the server had no idea why we needed the manager. (I actually think she didn’t even realize she hadn’t taken our order yet.) The manager was very polite, and asked if there was a problem. I had already ordered my husband to be quiet, because he doesn’t always keep his cool in these situations. I explained to the manager that we had now been seated for over 45 minutes, and we had yet to have our order taken. She had brought us drinks and appetizers, but that was it. He apologized and offered to comp our whole meal, drinks and appetizers. We declined, because we hate being THAT type of customer. The one that gripes but is perfectly willing to accept the crappy service if it comes with a free meal. The manager even offered to get us a different server, but at this point, I was tired, crabby and not in the mood to be in that restaurant any longer.

We offered to pay for our drinks and appetizers, and the manager told us it would be taken care of. We walked out of the restaurant cvery disappointed. It’s a store we enjoy going to, but a restaurant we will not go to again.

On our way home, we drove down Interstate 80 to the west. We drove past all the exits, contemplating where we could stop and eat. Daughter was starving, and husband’s blood sugar was starting to get low.

We decided on Okoboji Bar & Grill in Johnston, where we received excellent and fast service. We had immediate seating, and we were in and out of the resturant in less than an hour.

To recap…
1. Rude Hostess
2. They either do not have a kids menu or they just didn’t give us one.
3. Appetizers were delivered without extra plates or napkins.
4. We never did get our order taken.

It is my firm belief that every single time a server stops at your table, whether its to refill drinks or deliver food, they should ALWAYS NO MATTER WHAT 100% OF THE TIME ask one simple question.

“Is there anything else I can do for you?”