Treated like dirt in a well known bar/restraunt

weldoninhio

percy212 wrote: »

That's not what I said, but in fact if the restaurant has any business sense they would offer SOMETHING to the OP. Cop on to yourself with your useless lazy predictable one liners.

percy212 wrote: »

they need to restore the lost goodwill by offering something else to the OP.

Thats 100%, exactly what you said.

InTheTrees

There's nothing more disappointing than experiencing crap service in a crap restaurant that happens to be in an amazing location. It feels like a con or a rip off.

So reviews are important. Get the word out there. Trip Advisor is good, tourists especially read it. And Twitter can be very effective.

dslamjack

Just to update you all,I have just finished talking to the GM of the restaurant on the phone ,after his investigation he offered a genuine sincere and very gracious apology .. which is what I thanked him for and accepted.
He was not present on the night,and made no attempt to excuse his staff for what had happened and said he was appalled at the way we were treated.
I did not ask for recompense or a freebie and none was offered and none was expected,just acknowledgement that a situation was very badly handled .. I was asked to please return and to ask for the GM who who attend to us personally .. I cannot ask for fairer than that.
He is going to find out did a member of staff take a tele booking or through the door reservation without checking the website or system and rectify their website and staff training,to make sure a customer does not have the experience we did again.
Again I thank you all for your invaluable help and advice .. and it's prove's the old add adage right - if you don't complain at the point of bad service - how would you expect thing's to improve in the future - again thank you all.

Thoie

dslamjack wrote: »

Just to update you all,I have just finished talking to the GM of the restaurant on the phone ,after his investigation he offered a genuine sincere and very gracious apology .. which is what I thanked him for and accepted.

All's well that ends well. Think you'll give them another try?

Giacomo McGubbin

Faith wrote: »

Gotta say that I'm disappointed at the standard of responses here.

1. A popular restaurant did not answer its phone after multiple attempts
2. They had a voicemail system set up
3. They had an online booking system
4. The OP attempted to book both by voicemail and online
5. He had a booking confirmation
6. The restaurant refused to honour his booking with weak excuses

"We don't check our voicemail" is not a valid excuse. The restaurant was inexcusably wrong in this scenario, so all of the snarky responses are both rude and unhelpful.

Furthermore, the OP mentions that both he and his wife don't dine out often, as they are both very unwell. I think he can be excused for thinking a booking confirmation was all he needed in this case :rolleyes:.

And finally, a quick look at his posting history indicates that he lives in DCN, which is presumably why he drove his family there. The relations were in Athlone; he brought them to his home neighbourhood.

So, yeah, it's great that he could find another restaurant nearby, but that does not excuse the sh*tty customer service and bad business practices from the original place.

I agree. It's baffling how so many people were on here defending the restaurants extremely shoddy treatment and contempt for potential customers, and asking what does he hope to achieve and interrogating and having a go at him ? Bizarre. Ireland is strange place.

percy212

You want to win a fight about the construction of a sentence? Ok you win you big fat baby.

The fact remains that Irish businesses have no idea of what customer service means, or the impact that bad service has on the bottom line. The OP is 100% correct to be annoyed, and the business needs to make an effort to correct their **** up on the day in question. Its business sense, and common sense.

You probably don't know a lot about either Smelldon.

Edit: I see the OP has received a heart felt apology. Not really good enough given the distance he traveled to honour his side of the booking he made. A bigger effort needs to be made by the restaurant.

weldoninhio wrote: »

Thats 100%, exactly what you said.

Faith

Mod Note: dslamjack, I'm very glad that you resolved the issue to your satisfaction.

I'm going to close this thread now, as it has run its course and is descending into bickering. If you'd like it re-opened, please just PM one of the Food mods.