The Whiskey Creek Experience
I'd be truly amazed if I ever have such a horrible customer service experience as I did Sunday night at Whiskey Creek in Mitchell, SD. Full story follows.
After Tour de Kota day one, which ended in Mitchell, I called a friend who I used to work with at USD who now lives in Mitchell with his new bride. I asked if we could shower over at their place and then go out to eat. The decision was made to go to Whiskey Creek which is fairly new to Mitchell but came with high recommendations.
When we arrived, it was busy, but not overwhelmingly so. Our waitress came over for our drink order. We ordered three different margarita's: Adam had one without salt on the rocks and Maria and I each were to be blended and we ordered four waters to go with it. After about 10-15 minutes Adam asked a passing waitress if our waitress could stop by as we hadn't seen her in awhile. Well, she came with our drinks, two of which were wrong and no water. Adam stated to her that he asked for no salt and she took his drink back and brought one back without salt. Mine wasn't blended, but I wasn't picky so I didn't say anything. We ended up asking for water five times before it finally arrived.
We are not sure what set her off as we were being polite. Was it the drink fiasco? Was it because we asked to see her because she hadn't been by? I have no idea, but she wouldn't say a word to us.
When she came to take our food orders finally, Adam ordered an appetizer along with his order and then we all started to order. When she came to me and asked what I would like for a side, I asked what the soup of the day was. She said "It's Chili but you probably won't like it". Okay, I'll have the fries. After she left we all looked at each other with the 'What the hell was that all about' look.
The meal arrived with no appetizers. When Adam asked about them she said "Oh I forgot to put the order in. Do you want me to do so now?" Adam said that he would just stick with the food without the appetizers. She did come back to refill water glasses after being asked and promply spilled a fair amount on the table and on Laura's plate.
Adam had enough by this point and went to find the manager to discuss her attitude. Long story short, the manager came by in a little bit to apologize (after he talked to her) and said that he was writing off the meal, but couldn't write off the drinks due to company policy. That was the one good thing that happened. I was impressed that he was willing to do that and will probably help me go back again when I'm in town.
The bill came and we decided that we would take it up front as we really didn't want to deal with our waitress anymore. When we did the girl up front said that our server would be our cashier. DOH! Adam asked if there was any way we could avoid that but there wasn't. She did take my credit card back to the waitress. While the ladies waited up front Adam and I sat at our table waiting for her. She came by sat the bill on the table and actually said the following verbatim: "Feel free to not leave me a tip either". Dumbfounded I looked at her and said "Okay" and I didn't leave her one. Quite the opposite: I put the biggest ZERO on the tip column and totaled it.
I'm sure you are either laughing like mad right now or think I'm making this up, but I guarantee you it's all true. Many of you out there know Adam so feel free to ask him about it. It was the craziest thing I've ever witnessed from a customer service perspective.
Adam, I'm sorry that we had such a 'wonderful' experience eating out, but thanks for making my present to you and Maria cheaper! We will do this again sometime soon, hopefully with better results!
2 comments:
Mr. Brady also forgot to mention that the food was VERY delayed and that they forgot to provide the salad that Laura was supposed to get with her pasta meal. Let's also NOT forget the very nasty look that she shot to the table as she walked by after being notified by the manager that we had given poor reviews to the manager about her "service". (if you want to call what she did a "service") After the last comment that the waitress made about not leaving a tip I was moved enough to attempt calling Whiskey Creek back and telling the manager about the comment, but lucky for her, the business is new enough that the phone number isn't in the phone book yet or listed on either 1-800-Free-411 or 1-800-GOOG-411! Next time I will go somewhere a little bit more focused on Customer Service...I think Burger King or Subway would have been more customer oriented than she was.
i had an entirely awful experience once with a waiter who, sensing our displeasure near the end of our meal, pulled up a chair and asked "do you guys not think i am doing a good job"? To which we outlined all the stupid crap he did, including:
1. Grabbing a used straw out of an empty cup of pepsi and putting into a fresh glass of water. (two mistakes in one there).
2. Dropping silverware into my cup of soup.
3. Failing to deliver the correct order to our table.
4. Upon pointing out the incorrect order, turning to my friend (who is admittedly quite large) and telling her - "You really should eat this turkey sandwich with a side of fruit, it's better for you". (rather than the patty melt & fries she ordered)
At least the manager comped your meal. We ended up paying for that farce of a meal. I believe I wrote "Are you kidding?" in the line for the tip.
I had to walk by that place for a year (it was on my work/home route) - I never saw that waiter in that place again.
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