A dismal service

Have you ever felt neglected? Say in some restaurant where you can easily catch someone's attention because you are the customer and people are just not paying attention.

I just had that experience lately in a popular fastfood chain here in Manila. The place is not buzzing with people. Not so much customer and the crews were not that too busy to attend to some additional requests.

So I ordered my dinner and I thought it would be good to sip some soup perfect for the cold weather. The restaurant gives ordinary soup as complimentary so I requested one. The crew in his gentlest smile and eloquent voice said, "Okey sir your soup will be right over."

I thought it was best to wait for the soup before I began eating my meal. But no soup came. I didn't have any choice but too start my dinner. I tried to call somebody's attention but to no avail. I finished my dinner and not a single drop of soup came. Talking about a dismal service from a well-known food chain.

To my disgust, I pulled a copy of their survey sheet which they readily provide in the customer table, rated their service to the lowest grade and commented "CONCERN ONLY ON INCOMING CUSTOMERS, NEGLECT CUSTOMER REQUESTS, NEVER GO BACK TO THIS STORE" and sent it thru their text messaging system.

Apparently, a copy of the text feeds back to the store's manager such that after 30 minutes I received a call from the manager herself. I thought I could engage her to a very long discussion on her crew's behavior and proper respect to customers but I didn't have the heart. I just felt so neglected that time so I just said, "It's OK, no problem". The damage has been done and no amount of apology will going to make me go back to that restaurant ever.