Monday Morning Motivators

To:  Corporate Customer Service

Reason:  The message below was emailed on 12/27/06 after our experience *********

I am from Ohio and regularly eat at the Restaurant near our home in Maumee.  While visiting with my daughter and son-in-law in Providence, I suggested that we eat at the ************ that was very near her home. 

Since my daughter has an 11 day old infant, we thought it best to call ahead (we do this in Ohio and it really cuts our wait time).  I had my son-in-law, John call ahead at 5:30pm.  We requested the next available sitting for 6 (six) people which was 7pm.  We were given the number “702” and requested to arrive 15 minutes early. 

We did all this and arrived at 6:45pm.  I went to the reception stand and noticed a hand written sign that said wait time: 20-30 minutes.  I gave my number “702” and assured the woman with an orange baseball cap and retainer on her top teeth (she will be called “Orange Hat” from this point forward) that we had arrived and our entire party had arrived.  Orange Hat told us in an exasperated tone that we were early and would have to wait 30 minutes.  Well, we said, okay and we planned on being seated at 7:15pm. 

At 7:20pm, my husband went to ask when we would be seated and Orange Hat said “We are on a different clock, so you have really only been here 15 minutes”.  Now he was puzzled by this and came back and asked us what we thought this meant since he, too, is from Ohio. 

At 7:30pm, my son-in-law went and asked when we would be seated and he was told in a very surly tone by Orange Hat that if they had known we were a large party, they would have told us it was a 90 minute wait.  I guess waiting from 5:30 to 7 on the Call Ahead doesn’t count as even part of your wait time. 

At 7:45 pm, I got up and walked past Orange Hat and asked 2 of the 4 women standing around in Texas Roadhouse shirts to please explain what “Call ahead” meant.  They politely explained that procedure we had done and also the same way it is practiced in Ohio.  At that point I explained that we had called at 5:30pm, got a 7pm sitting, arrived at 6:45pm as suggested and have been waiting with the 11 day old infant for an hour and wondered when we would be “allowed” to have a table.  One of these very helpful women took our number 702 and had us seated in 1 (one) minute.  Now, when we turned into our booth, we noticed the clock in the kitchen that was 15 minutes slow!!!!!

Our server, Oscar was very pleasant and a helpful and the food was excellent, thank you. 

Now, which of these was most exasperating (this is multiple choice)?

1.  Orange Hat treating us as unintelligent morons (oh, did I forget to mention that out of the 6 of us we hold 10 college degrees?)

2.  That the ************ has a “secret time zone” that is 15 minutes slower than Eastern Standard time?

3.  That Call Ahead still meant we had to wait 1 hour (60 minutes) when the sign said 20-30 minute wait?

4.  That no one even cared and said “Gee, we are sorry this is happening to you, could we give you a cup of coffee while you wait”?