To complain or not to complain?

[Spud17]

What do you do if you experience bad service or terrible food at a restaurant? In this case I’m not talking about merely mediocre or bad food, but something really off-putting in some way, such as exceptionally bad service, or something amiss with the food, or anything that makes you really angry. Do you confront the staff about it, or simply never visit the place again? If you have complained, does it make any difference?

Fortunately, i can count the number of bad restaurant experiences on one hand, and whether i complain or not depends on how bad it is, and where it is. If i'm in a cheap cafe, i'd probably never visit again, but if it's an expensive place and dining there is a special occassion, then i'll definitely express my disatisfaction/disgust etc to the manager or supervisor. One Chinese restaurant i visited served their meals covered in hair from the staff, and when i pointed this out, a waiter replied 'oh, you no like black hair?' The only thing to do in this case was to call the city food safety/standards office, who turned up while i was still there arguing with the staff.

I know many people though who won't complain no matter what, you could serve them a plate of poo and they'd just pay their bill and leave. What's that all about?

[srijantje]

no,i usually complain which here doesn't make much difference,so i usually leave with the words"you just lost a customer"

[Mark]

It depends.

If there is something in my (or one of my friends) food then I will call a waiter over let him/her know, but if it some employee being rude or intolerable conditions I agree with SJ . . . I just put a big red X on that restaurant mentally.

No point in wasting time on it.

[LZA]

My wife will say something, like if it isn't cooked enough or too much, etc. I've never complained for fear of ending up with a snot burger or a vanilla loogieshake, or whatever the case maybe.

[velvetfog]

I consider complaining in restaurants to be a rather vulgar thing to do, so I don't bother doing it.
If they do something to turn me into an unhappy customer, I skip the tip, since they don't deserve it.
I do not go back there again, and I also tell my friends about my bad experience in the place.

It has been said that negative advertizing for a business establishment often spreads to six times as many people as positive advertizing does.

[sporkium]

these days, most people will just turn to yelp to complain from the safety of their home computer...

i've seen some amazingly absurd negative ratings from yelpers... back when i owned a fairly nice restaurant in malibu, one reviewer actually gave us a one star rating simply because they didn't find any of the female customers to be attractive... another decided to order something from off the menu and then complained due to the amount of time to prepare it and that they didn't like the way it tasted. although they liked the service they still decided to give us a one star. another review gave us a one star because it was too hot at the beach... one didn't like the music... one didn't like the fact that we served meat -- because meat is murder... one didn't like the name of our place... one felt they were being judged because another customer looked at them funny...

the vast majority of the time, i don't give a flying fuck about complaints... it's the serious ones that got my attention:

did you have an issue with your food not meeting your expectations?
did the service you were provided not meet with your expectations?
did you fear for your safety at any time while patronizing your establishment?
were you or another member of your party molested by a clown or mime while in the parking lot?
did some swede have an issue with the concept of a toilet and smear his feces across the ceiling?

those are valid complaints that require immediate attention... especially the complaints about clowns and mimes... they are a really big problem.

that is pretty much how most restaurants deal with complaints as you can't please everyone.

but here is something to consider: the vast majority of customers are douche bags.

lousy tips, letting their crack-head feral kids roam wild, demanding their their meals be comped because they didn't like them (but liked them enough to lick the plate clean), bad manners, hygiene, lewd behavior, sexually assaulting my staff, destroying our restrooms...

the restrooms are particularly bad... i don't know where these troglodytes keep coming from and what they do in the restroom... but when my bus boys and bar backs would rather quit than enter the restroom - let alone clean the restroom - there is an issue.

i've seen customers do some of the most foul things (especially the pasty, disgustingly fat european tourists that waddle in while wearing vintage 1980's neon tank tops and far too short denim cutoffs... and sandals with tube socks). they were always the worst. one time in particular, there was a table full of what i can only describe as euro-trash. they ran up a 500 dollar bill. they were loud and obnoxious the whole time. there was food on the floors, the chairs, the light fixture above the table. they occupied that table for nearly 3 1/2 hours. they left a 54 cent tip... and a used menstruation pad.

that was the day i declared that all foreign entities dining at my establishment had to eat on the patio (that way i could just douse it with bleach and hose it off afterward)... this excludes the asians... they are always very polite, tip well and clean. very, very clean.

the industry is standard... the customers aren't.

[LZA]

People are so desensitized I wonder if they look down on people and think of them as "just the help" which in some demented way, gives them permission to mistreat them. They don't realize these are real people with feelings and can be affected by stuff like this. If you haven't worked in a customer service environment, you just don't know how tough it is. Just like I read an article about people at Disneyworld thinking it's funny to let their kids punch the characters...People are assholes, and if you're in the customer service/hospitality industry you're in for the smackdown. I spent 2 years as a customer service rep for an insurance co, and I hated it. The bad outnumbered the good by far.