Restaurant business sense, or lack thereof

[Gaybutton]

There were a couple articles in the local English language media this week saying a man ordered a lobster dinner in a Walking Street seafood restaurant, got a bad lobster, and the restaurant refused to refund, replace his dinner, or otherwise compensate him, saying he had already eaten most of the lobster before complaining. Based on the Pattaya Mail article (see: http://www.pattayamail.com/news/inspect ... ter-142909 ) the restaurant has its own side of the story.

My own opinion is the restaurant might have been right, but it was a mistake to refuse any form of compensation to a complaining customer. The result was an angry customer and the restaurant ending up named in the local media. The negative publicity probably cost the restaurant a lot more than just giving the guy a refund or something else so there wouldn't be any hard feelings. Most people don't complain in restaurants unless there is really something to complain about.

The Pattaya Mail article also says the health department inspected the restaurant after the complaint and found borax, fungicides, bleaching powder, and formalin were all within the legal limits. Great. Within legal limits or not, I don't want ANY of that in my food, no matter how minuscule the amount and no matter what the reason might be. For all I know, maybe all the local seafood restaurants do that, but since this one was actually named, guess where I won't be eating.

Many Thai owned restaurants, along with many other businesses, refuse to refund or compensate when something goes wrong. Personally, I think that is poor business judgment.

I won't name the restaurant, but not long ago I ate in one of my favorite farang owned restaurants. There were bits of plastic in my soup. I called the manager over. He immediately apologized, replaced the soup, and deducted the price of the soup from the bill. Doing that really didn't cost him anything and the rest of the dinner was fine. I left as a happy, satisfied customer.

Sometimes a restaurant's attitude baffles me, though. Again I won't name the restaurant, but about 3 or 4 years ago RichLB and I ate in a deli style restaurant. RichLB wanted a half bagel as a starter. The manager refused, saying what's he supposed to do with the other half of the bagel? RichLB offered to pay for the entire bagel, but wanted only half to be served. The manager still refused.

It reminded me of the diner scene from '5 Easy Pieces.'



Apparently "The customer is always right" does not apply in Thai restaurants. In my entire life I have only walked out of restaurants twice. Both were in Pattaya. The first one I walked out of was one where our 'Barmy Army' group used to eat weekly - farang owned. That night it seemed to take longer than usual for our food to be served. After waiting a full hour, that's when the waiter informed me they were out of what I had ordered. I asked why he didn't tell me that when I first ordered. The response was the typical sheepish smile. I ordered something else. Meanwhile, everyone in our group was nearly finished eating by the time I was served. And when my food finally came, it was the wrong order. I don't know what they were serving me, but it wasn't what I ordered and it was something I didn't want. I pointed that out to the owner. The response was a shrug. That's when I walked out, never to return. None of our group ever returned. Lousy, unacceptable service with no form of compensation and not even a hint of "I'm sorry" from the owner ended up costing him a guaranteed weekly group of at least 10, sometimes 15 or 20 customers. He lost all of them. It wasn't long after that the restaurant went out of business.

If decent food, good service, and at least some form of acceptable compensation if something goes wrong is too much to ask, I'll be doing my eating in restaurants where it isn't too much to ask.

[RichLB]

This topic makes me smile. There are so many instances where restaurant policy veers far off what I think makes sense. One of my petty peeves is background music played so loud dinner conversation is impossible. I know, I can ask for it to be turned down, but I don't like to do that and prefer to just eat at a different restaurant. Adding to my irks (is that a word) is the increasing tendency of some restaurants to hire Cambodian staff who speak no (or little) English and even worse, speak no Thai. I'm no linguist, but I do speak sufficient Thai to be understood by most Thai nationals, but it's annoying when there is no way to communicate to the waiter what I'm asking for. And my final peeve concerns the disappearing act of staff when trying to pay my bill. This is surprisingly common. Wait staff are usually prompt when one is prepared to place an order and they usually do a good job delivering the meals (not always with starters first), but when it comes to getting the check...where do they go? It's not unusual for me to have to get up from the table to hunt them down somewhere in the restaurant.

Well, that's enough moaning a groaning this afternoon. Overall, though, I confess most of the restaurants in Pattaya do a great job

[lvdkeyes]

We ate at Cafe Des Amis the other night and the music was loud enough we had trouble holding a conversation across the table. Asked the waiter to turn it down. He went and talked to owner and nothing happened. A short time later the owner was near our table and my friend asked the owner to turn it down. His reply was "This is restaurant music, not background music." Whatever the hell that meant. He did turn it down though.

[Gaybutton]

His reply was "This is restaurant music, not background music." Whatever the hell that meant.

That is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. Can't they figure out that customers aren't interested in excuses? Can't they figure out that customers didn't go to a restaurant to have an argument with the owner, waiter, or anybody else? All the owner had to do was turn down the music a little bit. What would that have hurt? Once you left he could have turned it right back up again. But nooooo. Instead he had to come up with something ridiculous first.

I have yet to ever be in a restaurant - anywhere - where any customers called the owner over and said, "Would you mind turning the music volume up a little bit?"

I don't know about anyone else, but when I go to a restaurant, I'm there to eat and enjoy a conversation with my dinner companions. I'm not there to listen to music or have to shout to talk to my table companions. If I want to listen to music, I'll go to a concert. I don't mind if it's low volume background music that doesn't interfere with trying to talk with the people sitting at the same table with me. But I mind very much if the music volume does interfere and I mind even more if the owner starts giving me a bunch of shit about it.

[colmx]

I have yet to ever be in a restaurant - anywhere - where any customers called the owner over and said, "Would you mind turning the music volume up a little bit?"

I have often been in pattaya restaurants where I wished that they would turn up the music, so I wouldn't have to listen to the boors and bores 2 tables away talking loudly about their previous nights off or broken heart or scam story!
[For clarity I am not referring to any member of this board with my comments!]

[thewayhelooks]

My pet peeve is toddlers who run around a restaurant as if it's a playground, often screaming their heads off, while their parents ignore them. Why can't they tie them to a chair and stuff food in their mouths to shut them up. Or better still, leave them at home. Tied to a chair.

[Gaybutton]

My pet peeve is toddlers who run around a restaurant

I think that's another example of poor business judgment. While I realize restaurant staff doesn't want to get into confrontations, when people, including children, are behaving in a manner that affects the other customers, that's when it's time to step in. I don't have any objection to parents taking their small children with them when they go to a restaurant, but when they ignore their children misbehaving and bothering other customers instead of teaching their children correct and appropriate behavior, the restaurant staff should either insist they control their children or throw them out if they won't comply. I imagine these are the same kinds of parents that permit their pre-teen children to ride around town on motorbikes.