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In the Townhouse bar today

donfers

I was walking by the place, felt a bit hungry and an offer on the blackboard outside caught my eye, it advertised fishcakes s/w (served with) side salad + chips 8.50, I thought I'll have some of that so I entered the place with my girlfriend. She ordered that for me and soup for herself. Sat down and waited for the food.

The food came and the soup and fishcakes were fine but there were no chips, we thought maybe they'd arrive a bit later on a side-dish but after a few minutes none came, so I thought to myself maybe I read the board wrong and maybe it had said fishcakes s/w salad OR chips, so I wandered out again to look at the board and sure enough the big plus sign was there, it had indeed said salad + chips.

Now normally I am quite passive and easygoing and the last thing I want to do is make a big fuss about a few fries but when we asked the girl who brought our food "are the chips coming", she said no and that the offer was just for fishcakes and salad, then I said the board on the outside of the restaurant advertising your specials says different, she then said that "her board" said it was just with salad.

I have no idea what or where her board was but she then offered to bring us some fries which no doubt would have been added to the bill as she had already made it clear that we the customers were wrong and that "her board" (wherever it may be) was the authority in these matters. At all times during the discussion we were polite and no voices were raised. We just accepted it and finished our food. I certainly didn't want to get into a shouting match over some chips but the principle of the way we were treated there still bugged me.

On the way out for the third time, we checked the board (we hoped by now, having informed them of the fact that they were advertising a misleading special, they would have changed it) and again it said salad + chips. At this point another employee appeared and we explained that the board should be changed as we had just received salad and no chips. She was very good about it and apologised and offered to bring us some chips but by that stage we were leaving anyway and we just said don't worry about it.

The food was nice but we were a bit disappointed by the false advertising and implication that we were wrong in the first place. I believe it was an honest mistake although I do know for a fact that it is common practice amongst certain businesses to make misleading or blatantly false advertising claims to drag the customer in and then shame the customer into paying the full price as most of us dislike confrontation or complaining especially about small additions to the prices, we don't want to look tight or petty.

I don't know if the better man in those situations just shrugs his shoulders, accepts it as one of those things and gets on with it or takes the staff to task and makes a big rumpus about the whole issue. That's the thing, I'm not sure what is the best way to handle those situations with integrity, advice needed on the best thing to do in these cases please.

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copacetic

you handled it ok, the first person you asked should have brought you the chips straight away, no questions asked. Bad service. However she did offer to bring them, I would have taken them and not paid if they were added to bill..

Melty

I frequent the townhouse for lunch quite a bit, but was disappointed to see they had put up their prices for race week. usually find the service to be of a good standard though

JJayoo

The staff in the townhouse are lovely, and there is one girl who is STUNNING:D

TheCosmicFrog

Terrible service. It's common knowledge that if a business advertises a certain product for a certain price, then you have a legal right to that exact deal; it's essentially a contract.

I have no doubt it was a mistake, but they should have just given you a plate of chips, apologised and changed the sign.

<insert sign-of-the-times statement here>

TerrorFirmer

Any decent employee; and by decent I mean not necessarily on a personal level, even on the basis of employment; would have brought a side of fries and apologized for the inconvenience.

End of. Honestly, I guaranteed if you wrote to management of this complaint they would be more than apologetic. Don't blame the Townhouse for this. Blame an utterly needlessly stubborn employee.

copacetic

TheCosmicFrog wrote: »

Terrible service. It's common knowledge that if a business advertises a certain product for a certain price, then you have a legal right to that exact deal; it's essentially a contract.

It may be common knowledge but that's entirely false. Advertising is an 'invitation to treat', you have no legal rights and it's certainly not a contract.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055787420

Captain Darling

Whats if like for lunch actually (food and price wise)? I never thought of going down that far for lunch.

pleasant Co.

copacetic wrote: »

It may be common knowledge but that's entirely false. Advertising is an 'invitation to treat', you have no legal rights and it's certainly not a contract.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055787420

Do you know if the same rules actually do apply for hospitality?

As far as I can tell from this instance the only available, displayed price ("invitation to treat") was the offer on the board. You can't really change your mind after the real price flashes on the till, considering you've probably already eaten, if the same laws were to apply.

I would have to imagine hospitality has it's own set of regulations that differ from the usual consumer laws.

I do realise you were only correcting an error made by cosmicfrog, but it'd be cool to get some clarification on this all the same.

TheCosmicFrog

copacetic wrote: »

It may be common knowledge but that's entirely false. Advertising is an 'invitation to treat', you have no legal rights and it's certainly not a contract.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055787420

Thanks for the correction

edit, reminded me of something

Fuinseog

Melty wrote: »

I frequent the townhouse for lunch quite a bit, but was disappointed to see they had put up their prices for race week. usually find the service to be of a good standard though

ca bhfuil se?

copacetic

Mactard wrote: »

Do you know if the same rules actually do apply for hospitality?

As far as I can tell from this instance the only available, displayed price ("invitation to treat") was the offer on the board. You can't really change your mind after the real price flashes on the till, considering you've probably already eaten, if the same laws were to apply.

I would have to imagine hospitality has it's own set of regulations that differ from the usual consumer laws.

I do realise you were only correcting an error made by cosmicfrog, but it'd be cool to get some clarification on this all the same.

I'm not an expert but I don't see why hospitality wouldn't be covered by contract law?

In fact you are in a stronger position as you order and have received your food before you pay, you would be entitled for instance to refuse the food altogether when your chips don't arrive.

However it's all a bit moot, as no-one is going to sue over something like this. Anywhere with decent service would have provided the items as per the blackboard offer, and somewhere with good service would have comp'd part or all of the meal also to make up for the poor initial service also.

Malice

Fuinseog wrote: »

ca bhfuil se?

If you're going to go to the trouble of writing in Irish, couldn't you also go to the trouble of putting the fadas in?

john787

Malice_ wrote: »

If you're going to go to the trouble of writing in Irish, couldn't you also go to the trouble of putting the fadas in?

maybe they're on their phone and can't put in fada's??? jeez, it is the galway forum afterall, a bit of Gaeilge wouldn't hurt anybody. I'm sure your English spelling is always perfect :rolleyes::rolleyes:

townhouse is located across from spannish arch....in the building where Bazaar used to be

Mr Cawley

TheCosmicFrog wrote: »

Terrible service. It's common knowledge that if a business advertises a certain product for a certain price, then you have a legal right to that exact deal; it's essentially a contract.

I have no doubt it was a mistake, but they should have just given you a plate of chips, apologised and changed the sign.

<insert sign-of-the-times statement here>

How are such a large number of people so sure about something that is entirely incorrect? I still would've insisted on the chips anyway

Malice

john787 wrote: »

maybe they're on their phone and can't put in fada's???

Maybe they are on their phone but what kind of lame phone would allow the ability to post on Boards but not allow you to put in fadas?

john787 wrote: »

jeez, it is the galway forum afterall, a bit of Gaeilge wouldn't hurt anybody.

Agreed but my point is that if you're going to do something, why not do it properly?

john787 wrote:

I'm sure your English spelling is always perfect :rolleyes::rolleyes:

What does my English spelling have to do with anything?

tonyhiggins

Thumbs down.

[edit]: to elaborate - fear of harsh correction, the feeling of the need to be absolutely correct when speaking Irish, so that you don't bother at all in the end is how I feel and how a lot of people would feel I suspect. This is not how it is for people coming here learning English for example - I've learned while teaching folks that you don't have to speak perfectly to get your meaning across. So how's about a bit of encouragement for using Irish rather than being pedantic.

TheCosmicFrog

Mr Cawley wrote: »

How are such a large number of people so sure about something that is entirely incorrect? I still would've insisted on the chips anyway

I heard something recently about Apple and a Mac Mini "scandal" (oh, gotta love the American media) whereby Apple made a mistake in pricing on their online store, with the general consensus being that Apple were in the wrong and should follow through with the advertised pricing. I was wrong. And to make matters worse, I was wrong on the Internet.

pleasant Co.

I don't know anything about american consumer law, but I do know that we live in Ireland so it wouldn't effect us anyway.

Pembily

I was in there yesterday and yes it did say Fish Cakes with Chips and Salad as I noticed the board on the way up from the loo after ordering my food!!!

My food was lovely but I did find one of the staff members to be quite snappy...

The person you first asked really should have brought out the chips without question

Fuinseog

Malice_ wrote: »

If you're going to go to the trouble of writing in Irish, couldn't you also go to the trouble of putting the fadas in?

no trouble to write in Irish, no fada on keyboard and no answer to my question. where is this place you speak of?

Fuinseog

john787 wrote: »

maybe they're on their phone and can't put in fada's??? jeez, it is the galway forum afterall, a bit of Gaeilge wouldn't hurt anybody. I'm sure your English spelling is always perfect :rolleyes::rolleyes:

townhouse is located across from spannish arch....in the building where Bazaar used to be

go raibh maith agat. may you prosper.

Malice

tonyhiggins wrote:

the feeling of the need to be absolutely correct when speaking Irish

Written Irish is damned difficult at the best of times and fadas are an important part of the language.

Fuinseog wrote: »

no trouble to write in Irish, no fada on keyboard and no answer to my question. where is this place you speak of?

Try pressing the AltGr key that's hopefully to the right of your space bar at the same time as a vowel and hey presto, letters with fadas on - áéíóú

DRakE

ctrl+alt+vowel

tonyhiggins

Malice_ wrote: »

Written Irish is damned difficult at the best of times and fadas are an important part of the language.

:rolleyes:

Seriously, you're a mod and you could not be more wilfully off-topic if you tried. Enjoying the death of the Irish language much?

onemorechance

Níl cead gaeilge a labhairt go h-oscailte ar an suíomh seo! Caith sé a bheidh ar chúl an bhus, siar i Teach Na nGealt!

Ba cheart duit an "+ chips" a glanadh den comhartha ar do bhealach amach!

gaeilgegrinds1

I'd have thought they would try to keep the customer happy, I had shoddy service in there before and found the staff did not seem to care, just my experience of course.

PopeBuckfastXVI

Let's keep it civil, on topic and in English please.

/moderation

Malice

tonyhiggins wrote: »

:rolleyes:

Seriously, you're a mod and you could not be more wilfully off-topic if you tried. Enjoying the death of the Irish language much?

Not just a mod but a cat mod. What has that got to do with anything? I'm just a regular user of this forum.If you think this is as far off-topic as the thread could be dragged you're very much mistaken but I'd rather not incur the wrath of the mods so I won't go any further.

On-topic: I agree with whoever said the OP should have gotten the chips when they were offered and then if they were added to the bill, refused to pay and point out the offending sign. In general I find Irish people too reluctant to stand up for themselves in situations like this.

biko

Just posts about the Townhouse led thoil.