August 13, 2007 by Hawk.

Last month my sister sent my mom a couple gift cards for Outback. We decided to get curbside takeout from them instead of sitting down in the restaurant. We’re not big on going out to eat. The experience was less than optimal. It took them ten minutes to even notice I was in the parking lot. Even though it’s only a 10 minute ride to the restaurant the food was cold and nowhere near worth their prices. I of course subscribing to the ‘Power of the Bitch‘ wasn’t about to let this go so I sent them a calm, factual letter describing the experience. They replied promptly and arranged for the store (district?) manager to contact me by phone. He called the next day exactly when they said he would. He was, I feel, sincerely apologetic and offered us a gift certificate so we could try their restaurant again. It took two week (to the day) for that to arrive. I had been about to email them about it when it arrived via certified mail (cost them almost $6 to send!).

So we decided to give them another try. Hey, free is better than paying for it, right? WRONG! Here’s a copy, verbatim, of the letter I sent them after we ate and my rage mellowed out a little…

“To say that I’m irate would be a gross understatement. I placed my order
at 12:30 in the afternoon and set my pickup time for 6:30 PM. I arrived
shortly before 6:30 and one of your servers was out in a couple minutes
to tell me my order would be right out. I then sat waiting in your
parking lot for TWENTY FIVE minutes in 90 degree heat for my order.
TWENTY FIVE MINUTES. When I expressed my displeasure to the server as
she delivered my order at 6:55 PM she said the manager wanted to talk to
me and he would ‘be right out’. I then waited several more minutes and
of course your manager didn’t show up. I told the server I wasn’t about
to wait any longer while my food got cold, I then left. This is perhaps
the most deplorable service I have ever received at any restaurant. I
sat for a total of nearly half an hour in sweltering heat waiting on
your employees. I am NOT at all happy about this.”

If the damned manager wanted to talk, read apologize, to me HE should have been the one to bring the god damned food out to the car. Expecting me to wait while my food got cold on the seat next to me was just icing on the rudeness cake. I’ll never visit their restaurant again. They could plate their food with solid gold and I wouldn’t give a shit. Service like that is totally unacceptable.

Hawk (going back to McDonalds)

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