Bad Experience #3

Last Monday my husband and I had to go to SM to buy diapers for Kali. I didn't get to eat properly the whole day so come 5pm my stomach is rumbling and I can't think straight. I told Lay to choose a place to eat since my mind is at that time stationary. Usually when we got out to eat I would always suggest a place, but this time I left that task to him. We walked around SM Fairview's annex building and chanced upon Dimsum and Dumpling's. We already ate there once but it was a long time ago so I agreed on his suggestion to eat there. A crew was standing outside trying to entice passers by to their restaurant showing their menu. I immediately sat on a booth and rested my tired legs while Lay procceeded on the counter to order. There were only 2 tables occupied. The restaurant doesn't have a door so the loud music coming fron the atrium can clearly be heard where we are seated. Jollibee was singing his heart out to the kids participating in their program. He might be dancing too, but i'm not with a kid that would strangle me to get up and check out the show so I didn't get to see his dance moves. I ordered their Chopsuey Rice with chicharon while Lay ordered Fish Fillet. He asked me what would I want to drink and at that time my preference was soda - Coke to be specific. They don't serve Coke. Alright then, i guess they might be selling Pepsi products only, that would do for now. They don't have Pepsi either. Hmm, hmm, hmm... I'll get iced tea if they don't have soda. All of their iced teas are mixed with other stuff. There's no regular lemon iced tea in the beverage line up. There's an earl grey tea which sounds refreshing. It's not available. I asked for water instead while Lay got a pineapple infused iced tea which tasted disgusting for me. My food arrived after about 7 minutes and I told Lay I couldn't wait for his food to arrive as I need to eat already, I just gave him spoonfuls of rice with chopsuey, careful not to place chicharon on it since the chicharon could really damage your teeth if you're not careful. While I was eating my bowl of chopsuey rice the music outside surged and people started to clamor their way to the banisters to check out Jolibee and his celebrity guest, including 3 staff of DND and their shift manager. No one was left to man the restaurant, nor the guests. They were clapping along with the people unmindful of our needs. It was more than 15 minutes already and Lay's food hadn't arrived so we called the attention of the guy who took our order when he came back realizing that we might be needing something. He proceeded to the window of the kitchen and shouted at the cook and we heard him say "hindi mo ba narinig kanina?" . Apparently, Lay's food was not prepared because the cook didn't hear the order. We thought the guy would approach us to apologize but he just said "sandali lang po" and then went outside to check out Jolibbee again. Grrrrr.....!!! I wanted to talk to the manager but he was busy texting while drinking iced tea behind the counter. Lay didn't want to be confrontational that time since he was on his uniform and identified with our brand. After another 10 minutes his food arrived. The crew just mutterred an insincere apology. I was finished eating my food and just waited for Lay to finish so we could go home. Halfway through his meal he saw a small strand of blue plastic. This is becoming irrititating in so many levels. This particular restaurant is struggling to stay in the business since not so many people go there to eat. We always pass by this spot and I can only recall a few times that they are half filled with customers. If they would really want to stay in this business they need to reflect on their weakness. And that is the people they hired to work for them.

Bad Experience # 2

As a manager I need to conduct a meeting of my partners every 45 days. Most often than not we would hold our meeting in our company's main office in Makati. But when there are times that there's no available conference room we would hold our meeting in a different place. Post-Christmas season there were a lot of reservations in our main office that is why we need to find another place that would fit at least 15 people, is quiet and affordable. Since our site is in north quezon city we decided to make a reservation at Elyong's Grill and Restaurant located in Commonwealth Avenue, North Fairview. A day before our meeting I personally visited the site to check their function rooms and inquire about the price. The receptionist showed me the videoke lounges that could sit at least 15 people and is priced at P2500 consumable of food and beverages. The package is good for 3 hours and in excess of an hour you have to add P300. I had to make an immediate decision as we don't have much time anymore so I proceeded to give half the amount as deposit. The day of our meeting would also be the birthday celebration of three of our partners, Dennis, Josh and Bevz. They brought a cake which the staff of Elyong's charged for P100 corkage.

Aside from the videoke lounges, Elyong's also have bamboo huts which are scattered all over the vast area. Some of the bamboo huts are small that can sit 6 to 8 people but there are also bigger huts that can accomodate 20-25 people, most of the bigger huts are elevated which also provided a nice view of the posh subdivisions nearby and at night offers the view of the city and its dazzling lights. You might be wondering why I am still giving a description of this place and not go directly to my rants, well, I guess it's just fair to let the people visualize the good things and try to weigh in the end if they still would want to try it out. Now the bad things. Upon getting there we did not ordered food yet since we need to conduct our meeting first and having food in front of you would surely distract people. After about 2 hours we ordered the food and drinks, they arrived in time to feed our hungry stomach. Probably in the minds of the staff after serving the food we don't have much need for them so they kept on ignoring our requests. We requested for water and after 20 minutes of waiting we followed it up. Still no water. They are not even concerned that we might choke and die at that moment, ok so that's a bit overreacting. But my god! Its just water! We are not even ordering perrier or swiss water, just plain nawasa water. I went out of the room to check if there are a lot of customers. Around 10 of the huts were occupied and 4 of the lounges. So there are a bit of a crowd that Sunday night. I don't freakin' care. They are in the customer service business and I am sure that they know that Sundays are family day and they should expect a lot of customers. They should be the one to make adjustments to staffing. After about 40 minutes our water arrived. We also ordered 2 buckets of San Mig Light that we also followed up about 3 times or more. Since we have a cake that we need to eat we also requested for forks and plates. Those requests were also ignored. All in all we waited for the stuff we requested more than an hour to arrive. You might be thinking more than an hour is too much and why didn't we get mad or complained. We are too engrossed in our conversations and catching up of each others' lives that we didn't notice the time, we are also enjoying singing to our hearts and laughing over each ones funny antics. We are not even in a hurry to leave the place. But that doesn't mean that we don't deserve the kind of service we expect. We arrived there around 5 pm and around 11 pm we decided to pack up and leave so we asked for the bill. Which is another story. Another long wait. I am really itching to talk to a higher up to complain but I am about 6 months pregnant that time and I don't need stress to add up to my already tired mind and body. I just went to the cashier area to ask for the bill since I cannot wait anymore for the servers and I badly want to go home already. That's how bad it was. Even getting the bill would cause you precious time. For me no amount of extraordinarily good food can compensate for good service. And take note, their food is just ordinary.

Bad Experience #1

When Flavours of China opened in SM Fairview last year my husband and I wanted to know if they are as good as the other chinese restaurants we have tried in the past. We tried their Yang Chow fried rice and two other dishes. I think their menu is a bit overpriced considering that the taste is not so good. The service was bad. I am a very patient and considerate customer. But when the staff can't recover from a bad service experience I really make it a point not to go back to their place. Well, it just so happened that our food had a strand of dishwashing sponge. The green scouring part of the sponge. How it ended up there was something that wasn't explained to us by the staff. They offered to change the food, something I would be grateful for if they had apologized first. We asked for the bill, now that's another story. It took a long time for them to give us the bill and the change. And when we were roaming the mall to buy stuff I checked the receipt again only to find out that they overcharged us by almost P200. A dish we did not even ordered. I did not want to go back so I just asked my husband to get the money from them. One complaint in a day is already bad. But two complains from one customer is a disaster. I think the management should reorient their staff and their managers on how to properly handle dismayed customers.