Thursday was the first day of school for my three boys.  My husband decided it would be fun to celebrate by bringing the family out to dinner.  We don’t often go to T.G.I. Friday’s because there are other restaurants closer.  Well, now we have a new reason not to go there.

Okay, I’m not going to say there was a rat on my plate or anything.  This isn’t a gruesome story.  Rather, it is a testimonial on lack of customer service at T.G.I Friday’s.

While enjoying my dinner, I took a stab of my vegetable medley (which was zucchini and yellow squash with a few red peppers) and I spied something odd-colored mixed in with my veggies.

I picked up a sizable date-tag.  It looked a lot like a price tag you see sometimes in a store, only larger.

Okay, so someone made a mistake.  No biggie.  I’m not the kind of person to create a scene.  My husband said I should say something, so when the waitress came over I said “You should ask the people in the kitchen to be more careful.”

She said she would tell the manager, and she took the tag away.  I should have taken a picture of it as evidence.

My kids, at that point, started dreaming about free dessert.  I didn’t really want that.  The more I thought about it though; there was ink on that tag.  Did any come off into my food?

Now, let’s talk about customer service… Again, I didn’t necessarily want anything free.  I wanted them to be careful.  After all, I’m not dumping $85 for a meal to have trash on my plate, right?

We waited, finished our meals, got the check, paid and left.

Nothing.

We never saw a manager.  No one apologized. (Not even the waitress).

I left thinking, Huh? My husband asked if I wanted him so say something.  I thought… no, the price of the meal was not worth getting everyone’s blood pressure up.  I figured I can do something better.

Sorry T.G.I. Friday’s… despite the mistake, you had a chance to shine.  A simple stroll out of the manager’s office and an “I’m sorry” would have made me a happy, understanding customer.

Instead, I am writing an article about my experience, tagging it, and shooting it off to 650 or so people.  And now we’re gonna chat about it.

Bag press stinks, doesn’t it?

So, I am sure there are much worse stories out there.  Bring it on!

What have you found on your plate at a restaurant that was not supposed to be there?

What kind of bad customer service have you experienced that made you not want to go back?

(This should be an interesting conversation)

Related articles

• Oh where, oh where has customer service gone? (avaya.com)
• Thoughts on… TGI Fridays (foodmenot.wordpress.com)