One Bad Experience Can Ruin a Company

Eight years or so ago (I'm not sure how long exactly but it was soon after we moved to Michigan and we've been here almost 10 years now) my wife and I went out to Perkins. She had always loved eating there as a kid and wanted to eat there again. We went in and no one was in the place. Literally, no one. We thought there had been some sort of hostage situation and the workers taken to the back. After a couple minutes and creating some noise, a waitress showed up and seated us. A few minutes later we saw a couple other waitresses and a few other customers came in as well.

We looked at our menus, decided what we wanted, then started what I'd call "the great wait." We waited and waited and waited. It didn't seem that long since we were talking and enjoying ourselves but by the time the waitress came over to take our order, 20 minutes had passed.

Our order was taken and we started waiting again. The first 15 minutes or so weren't that bad, but then we began wondering if our food was ever going to arrive. After half an hour, I asked our waitress where our food was. She said she'd check. She returned and said there had been a mistake and that our order hadn't been submitted, but that they were working on it now and it would be out shortly (any minute).

Fifteen minutes later, I asked again and was told it would be out any minute now. Fifteen minutes after that, we were so disgusted and couldn't get our waitresses attention that we simply got up and left. We haven't been to a Perkins since then and, whenever we see one, my wife makes some sort of comment about how bad their service is, how it's not a great place to eat, etc. -- even if it's not the Perkins where we were treated poorly. In other words, a place she'd loved as a kid and had remembered fondly was now classified as a "bad" restaurant simply because of one very bad experience.

Shoe Money had a similar experience. One bad trip lost a ton of business for a restaurant.

There really isn't a personal finance application to this story other than to realize that we all have lots of choices when it comes to buying goods and services and if someone isn't treating you well, you can always go somewhere else. From a business standpoint, these stories highlight the need to make every experience a good one and if something bad happens to address it immediately to take care of the customer. Otherwise, you'll not only lose that customer, but lose the many more people that they tell about the experience.

Have you ever had a very bad experience with a business that caused you to refrain from shopping/eating there again? If so, please share it with us all in the comments below.

Comments

[wsbsteven]

Oh I could write a novel on my bad experiences but I'll just share a couple.

I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch and a coworker wanted me to pick up some for them too. We both ordered the three chicken strip meal with different sides. I pickup the food and return to work to find that they didn't give me any chicken. Instead of chicken they gave me biscuits. Of course they got my coworker's order correct. I still can't understand how you think biscuits can replace chicken. It was even in the proper chicken container with my sides. I was so mad and I got my money back.

Rally's (or Checkers depending on where you live) was a place of constant problems also. I get my food without ketchup/mustard and they like to just scrap it off and claim that it's plain. I just lift up the bun and can see it plain as day. The worst thing they did was steal my change. I go to pickup my order and they give me my food and say 'have a nice day'. I tell them I didn't get my drink and they give it to me and say 'have a nice day'. I tell them I didn't get my change and they say, 'I gave it to you'. I look at my hand and my empty wallet and say, "no you didn't". Well after some arguing the employee gets the manager who backs the employee's story. I say whatever and leave minus my $3 and change and don't return to a rally's for five years.

Chili's is another place that has upset me. I'm on a lunch break with my manager and time is limited. I place my order for one of their burgers without mustard (like with rally's) and I get it with mustard. I sent it back and they return the exact same burger to me with a different bun. I could tell it was the same burger because I cut it in half. All they did was redress it and not cook me a new one. I finally complain to the manager who have them make me a new burger to go (my lunch period was over) which of course, had mustard on it. It was many years before I returned to a Chili's.

[FMF]

Steven --

My suggestion is that you learn to like mustard. ;-)

[RJ Bell]

I had a mortgage loan with Wells Fargo. I wanted to refinance/streamline a VA loan for a better interest rate. My credit is excellent. I called and went through the process with a local loan officer from Wells Fargo, but never heard anything back from her for over three weeks. Several calls back to her went unanswered. I called the national mortgage service line from the Wells Fargo web site and was told someone would contact me. I again called the loan officer I originally talked to and she asked me to switch to a FHA/Conventional loan because she didn't know how to do a VA loan. I told her about my conversation with a loan officer from the web site mortgage service line and she asked me to call them back and maybe they would know how to do a VA loan, she had never done a VA loan and couldn't do one for me. I again called the mortgage service line and talked to another person who gave me a rate quote and several answers, but said they would refer me to someone local. I explained I had tried that and how they had said they didn't know how to do a VA loan and this was how I wanted to proceed. They couldn't answer why she couldn't do a VA loan but promised help.

I was called by another local mortgage officer from Wells Fargo who said he could help and would gather the information and application I had submitted. He called me 10 days later to say he was ready to do the loan, but couldn't offer the rate the Wells Fargo mortgage officer had promised me before. He said to call the national mortgage line and they could do it for me at the rate quoted. I again called the mortgage service line and was told they had no information on me. It had now been over 6 weeks trying to get a loan completed by this time. I then sent a e-mail to the corporate officers asking why no one could do a guaranteed loan and what do I have to do to get a loan done by Wells Fargo. It was my hope as a current customer they could be of help. I received a reply a week later saying to contact a certain person and they could help. By now it was almost 2 months and nothing was done. In frustration, I called another mortgage officer from another company who took my application and completed my loan and closed it within 2 weeks for several hundred dollars less than Wells Fargo said they could do it.

To this day, I cannot understand how a company can have people in positions that can't do a simple VA loan. It was enough to convince me to sell my Wells Fargo stock and stay away from the troubled financial stocks even with Wells Fargo being rated better than most banks. With the problems banks are having and the chance for a guaranteed loan, I still can't believe they couldn't do a loan in a timely and professional manner. This makes me wonder why federal authorities can support with tax dollars an institution that can't do a simple job. To make matters worse, I had asked that if possible my loan not be sold to Wells Fargo because they didn't know what they were doing and I would prefer another company when my mortgage was sold. Unfortunately, Wells Fargo was the one who bought my loan when it was sold. Talk about feeling like I'm back into the septic tank again!!!

[Reid]

That type of service is completely unacceptable. Word of mouth can make or break a business. National add campaigns are nice, but small businesses don't have access to that. You have to be paranoid since some people look to pick nits, and then exaggerate a story for 20 years.

[SaveBuyLive]

Only a few particularly bad experiences stand out in my mind.

Companies I will never patronize again:

Qwest - I can't actually think of anything they did right on the first try.

Bank of America - The bank of endless fees for everything.

Also, a local auto repair shop is on my list to never use again.

[RobF]

What I absolutely hate is dealing with people who make no effort to show empathy or apology and simply tell you how it's the fault of upper/absent management. Do you mean to tell me that you can't say I'm sorry that happened, I'll pass your complaint along; or Interesting idea, I can't change that, but I'll tell my boss. Most customers are happier just feeling like someone got their pain.

As far as experiences, how about trying to pick up something at Farmer Jack and getting out quickly?

[Al Howard]

I've had the Big Wait at Cracker Barrel, so don't go there. KFC is a challenge, but better now.

[John Z]

Had a similar experience at Longhorn Steakhouse when it opened in Paramus, NJ. I had been there once or twice before and went there for lunch during the work week.

After waiting for 15 minutes for our order our waitress came back and told us our order was lost and if we would re-order. We said no, we wanted to pay for our drinks and leave (to go next door to Burger King!). The manager came over and apologized, but what he did next is what bothered me and my fellow diner. He offered to bring lunch to our office. Now, I had already been in there for almost 30 minutes and was pretty hungry. Who knew how long it would be before I'd actually see some food, especially given their track record that day!?

What would have been better, in my opinion, would have been for the manager to acknowledge the error and, to prove to us it was a fluke, give us a voucher for a free meal. That might have gotten me back into their establishment, but to date (that was 5 years ago) I haven't been back. Moreover, I now drive business away from them because anytime someone mentions the chain I tell them my experience.

[Tara]

Sounds like our local Perkins...

First, 15 minutes to take our order.
Wait 20 minutes for our food.
*clang* *bang* *crash*
Wait 10 minutes for the waitress to tell us that *was* our food.
Wait 20 minutes and ask for our food again.
Ooops, they didn't resubmit the order after they dropped it.
Wait 20 minutes AT LAST for sub-par food.

I was SO annoyed that this happened and they didn't offer us anything. We have small children, too, which makes the wait unbearble.

My husband that I was being impatient and I let him pay the bill before the management literally got a pie in the face. I told him we better get a hefty discount or a free meal after that. HE DIDN'T EVEN ASK!

If they had done anything to acknowledge the problems, I would be in a different place.... free meal, free dessert, 20% off, SOMETHING.

[MBirchmeier]

I feel much the same way about Quiznos. I love their food, but the way the individual franchise locations are ran and operated is so random. Sometimes the service is good and the store is clean. Othertimes, not so much. It's to the point where I'll avoid Quiznos if I don't know what the individual location will be like I will pass in favor of something else.

[MonkeyMonk]

My biggest beef was with United Van Lines. We completed a cross-country relocation and a nice end table we owned was crushed during the unpacking when a couch shifted position and fell on top of it. The delivery person even wrote a note on the bill of lading explaining exactly what happened. I submitted the insurance claim and was promptly denied. I appealed and was denied again. I explained the situation to a call center rep who had me jump through a bunch of hoops (e.g., fax them the bill of lading w/ the note from the mover since their copy didn't appear to have the note) and then was denied a third and last time.

Three years later we got relocated again and when we were assigned United we called the relocation company and had them switch us to Allied Van Lines. Move went smoothly and even through the scuffed the legs of a chair we owned pretty badly they sent a repairman to our house with a wood repair kits who corrected it so well you can't see it. I will *never* do business with United again just because of a minor runaround. My wife has since also risen very high in HR and I know for a fact that this incident caused United a lot more future relocation business than just ours.

[rdub98]

I would like to make a suggestion to anyone that experiences bad service like that. If you patronize someplace and get that kind of service, don't just walk out. That doesn't mean bubkiss to anyone. Get up, on your way out, ask to speak to a manager and give the full details of your experience along with the name of the person that served you. Tell that manager that they lost a customer for that night, but give them another chance, especially if you like the food. If on the second visit you get the same service, do the same thing, but this time tell the manager that that was their last chance and why. Then go home and notify the regional manager or headquarters what you experienced.

These businesses aren't going to get any better if you don't tell them what is wrong. Just my $.02.

[finco86]

Burger King! I very seldom go there because the service was very poor at many locations across the country when we were on a trip once.

The only control most of us have is where we spend our money. A business gets two shots at doing a good job. If both visits are bad, I move on to a place that does better.

[Bad_Brad]

Comcast. I called them wanting to add a few sports channels that they offered via their sports package for $4.99 per month. My next bill, I expected to be about $5.50 to $6.00 higher (including taxes / fees, etc). Come to find out, the next bill was about $50.00 higher. I call Comcast to ask what the heck is going on, and they tell me that to get the sports package, I was required to upgrade three tiers of service, meaning I had all kinds of HBO and premium stuff I didn't want. Of course, the sales rep on the phone originally did not tell me that.

I moved to Verizon FIOS shortly after that, even though it's slightly more expensive and has some functionality that I don't need or use. Never going back to Comcast, ever. I'll go without TV before I go back.

[Jim]

I've had problems with 4 separate local restaurants. Problems we've had : 1) band tuning up in the bar with amps set to 11. 2) waiting forever then having the server forget our order 3) waiting forever and having a server *refuse* (politely) to take our order 4) waiting forever when we were the only people there. I won't go to any of those places again.

I had several problems with Chase bank years ago. I wouldn't voluntarily go back but unfortunately they bought out Wamu where our checking is.

[Bargain babe]

I found a massive, black fly in my salad at Panera Bread in New Jersey once. It was huge! Not a regular house fly. I don't eat there any more. Other than that, I use bad customer service as a way to negotiate a perk. I got an iPhone recently and I knew they were expensive but I wasn't expecting my first bill to be $1,241! I called up customer service and turns out AT&T had forgotten to activate my data plan. Long story short, instead of railing against the agent (it wasn't her fault anyway) and canceling my contract, I negotiated a credit for one month of free service.

Be nice, explain your frustration, and ask the company to make it up to you.

[rwh]

My bad experience was with Pella Windows about 10 years ago. We lived in an old house with window openings that were no longer square and level like new construction would be. The guy from the local Pella store came and measured. I could tell he wasn't taking into account the openings were not square and level, but I wasn't going to tell him his business.

Of course the windows didn't fit when they arrived 6 weeks later. It was December and they left one window boarded up and reordered all 5 after the contractor remeasured. Pella made us wait another 6 weeks for windows (now it was late January) because we had to go to the back of the line just like someone who had just ordered new windows.

When the windows arrived one of them was broken. You guessed it, we had to wait another 6 weeks for the final window.

And as a response to rdub98, in the case of Pella Windows there was literally nobody to complain to. The local dealer was no help; they not only messed up in the beginning but couldn't or wouldn't do anything to speed up the replacement process. Calling the home office in Pella wasn't an option; they didn't have ANYBODY on staff to take a call. They referred me to a regional office that said there was nothing they could do either.

Needless to say, we have never considered Pella Windows again.

[DW]

Tourist areas are the worst for this ... and the restaurants don't care, cause they know you won't be back anyway.

You'd think that with folks cutting back on eating out, restaurants (and servers) would be more on the ball. I know Perkins has closed a couple of restaurants around here .. wonder if the chain will survive.

[wsbsteven]

Mustard makes me ill even looking at it. We don't keep any in the house but I'm sure my wife would agree with you as it was her favorite before she gave it up.

[LotharBot]

I was in Kansas City with a friend and we went out to Dennys to get breakfast. When we walked in the door, some 17 year old kid in a Dennys shirt mumbled "hi" to us and kind of gestured us over to a table. About 10 minutes later, an unenthusiastic young woman brought us water and menus and walked away. We noticed a couple across the restaurant who were obviously upset about how long they'd been waiting, and a few minutes later, they got up to leave just as their food showed up. They sat back down, thought about it for about 30 seconds, and got up and left anyway. We'd been waiting 15 minutes and still hadn't had our order taken, and clearly we weren't the only ones experiencing bad service.

We could see a sign for Waffle House out the window, so we got up and had breakfast there. The server mentioned they got a lot of business from that particular Dennys.

[TStrump]

I think most of these situations happen because employees are so low-paid, there's no incentive to care.
If these companies would pay decent wages then there would be more incentive for employees to 'invest' more of themselves in the job.
What's the worse that can happen? They get fired from their 'McJob' and quickly move to another one.

[JP]

I have not eaten at a local restaurant for over three years now. I experienced some poor customer service and it still bothers me

I started eating at this restaurant shortly after it opened. I had recommended it to many friends and also suggested it to many visiting guests in the entertainment field with whom I had the honor of working. It was not uncommon for me to eat at this restaurant two to three times a month either with my wife or with groups of friends.

On Oct. 7, 2005 I went to dinner with seven others and had the following experience. Our group had ordered a dish called the lettuce wrap and we still had some of the mix left on the plate but had run out of lettuce. I asked for some more lettuce and was told that there would be a charge for the lettuce. I found it hard to believe that there would be a charge for some additional lettuce but asked how much and was told $1. I said okay please bring some lettuce. Two leaves of lettuce were brought to the table. When we got the bill there was a charge for $2. The manager/waiter said "I told you we would charge you for the the lettuce". He charged our group a dollar per leaf. I was upset and said so. The waiter would not change the charge. I asked to speak to the owner and was told that they were not in. I paid the charge.

Since that night I have not eaten at this restaurant. since then I have declined to join others when they have eaten there and sometimes I share the story why and sometimes I just say I anc't make it. Nor have I recommended the restaurant to any of the Artists who visit to work with my company.
I still can't believe i was charged for the friggin lettuce. and part of me feels like a chump for being hung up over a dollar. but at the end of the day it wasn't about the dollar it was about feeling mistreated and disrespected.

[Param]

MoneyMonk mentioned "...My wife has since also risen very high in HR...".
Is this fair to take revenge for personal experience via your professional standing? If they screwed up something at the corporate relationship level, I can see how it is justified, but this approach seems to be abuse of power... Any thoughts?

[RobF]

MoneyMonk: As HR staff, she would be delinquent to allow a business that could not perform to be a service provider.

[Money Beagle]

I ditched Comcast almost eight years ago because of unacceptable wait times for service. My cable modem went out and they took four days to come repair it. The service worked for about three days and went out again. Called up and they told me it would be about seven more days before anybody could be out there. When I explained that I had just recovered from an outage, they bumped me to a higher priority...which was only going to make we wait five days. I called Wide Open West and they had me switched over the next day. Since then between cable and internet, I've probably paid $10,000 to WOW that Comcast could have had.

I also refuse to deal with Budget Trucks anymore. We were moving and made reservations weeks in advance for a truck. I called the day before and they told me that they wouldn't be able to fill my reservation, because they'd rented their entire fleet to a boat show or something else. The part that angered me the most is that if I hadn't have called them, I would have never found out until I went there the day of our move to get our truck. The fact that they didn't call me to let me know the news made it so that they will never ever get business from me again.

[Sal]

I always seem to get poor service in a restaurant that is nearly empty, like in the afternoon. The waitresses seem to completely forget about the customers and the food is usually late and cold.

[Sue]

I used to go to Perkins regularly without being wowed by the food or service. One time a friend and I overstayed our welcome when the waitress asked us to cash out because they are required to turn their tables over so many times per shift in order to keep their jobs. That and waitresses with bad attitudes made me happily dine elsewhere. After several months, I just went back there yesterday. The service and food were decent, however, the personnel were smoking in the manager's alcove maybe 15 feet from where were sitting. I guess my friend and I stayed too long visiting because the waitress started giving us the stink-eye. If I ever go back it won't be my idea.

[Adam R.]

I hate to say this, but every horrible situation that could happen in a restaurant has happened to my family in one way or another. I have never had worst customer service in my entire life then I have living near Hobbs, NM. Don't ever come here for vacation and expect any type of enjoyment while eating out.

It is now a joke to my family and friends, we call it "Getting Hobbsed"

[funny about Money]

My all-time worst experience was with Qwest, described at perhaps tedious length at FaM. It certainly was tedious while I was going through it! Most horrific customer service on the planet--NEVER do business with Qwest.

Worst restaurant experience: My ex- and I picked up his mother at the airport. It was around 6:00 p.m. She was tired and hungry -- didn't like to ride planes at all and so that discomfort was laid on top of the travel weariness, and she just wanted to eat and go home.

We went direct to Ayako, a very fancy, expensive teppanyaki-style Japanese restaurant in Phoenix that we thought she would enjoy.

They plopped us at a big table alone, where we sat and waited and waited and waited. Eventually the then-DH asked where the service was. We were told we had to wait until some other customers came in, since the "experience" entailed sitting around a big brazier and having a chef prepare a custom meal. (Meanwhile, they continued to seat people at tables around us). We'd come for dinner, mind you, not for a social evening with a bunch of strangers.

Finally they dragged over some other people, but that wasn't enough to make it worth letting a cook loose on our table. My MIL was not an especially gracious person, especially when she was tired and hungry -- she was never good at making small talk and clearly did not welcome being forced to dine with a crowd of strangers or being made to wait until enough strangers showed up before she would be allowed to eat. Her visible unhappiness, though fully justified, didn't help matters. Eventually, the new guests asked about the service and received the same brush-off.

We finally ended up walking out, after an hour with not so much as a bowl of peanuts to eat. This left us with trying to figure out where to get the MIL fed rather late in the evening and well past her Midwestern dinnertime -- because we'd planned to eat out, we had little in the house. As I recall, we landed in someplace like a Denny's.

Ayako is still in business, amazingly enough. I've never been back and never will set foot in there again.

Denny's, BTW, is another place I'll never eat in again. They served me coffee in a cup with big red lipstick kisses all over the rim. When I asked for a clean cup, I was told there was nothing wrong with the cup they'd given me -- they actually REFUSED to replace a dirty cup! Bye, Denny's!

[Bertha]

One that I can think of is Friendly's. I won't mention exactly where but only say in the area of Miamisburg, Ohio near the Dayton Mall.
Seems every time we went there- we had to wait, wait, and wait either for some to take our order and/or for our food.
We didn't really blame the waitress, because it was obvious (to us anyway) that they didn't have enough help. We even mentioned this to one of the waitresses.
Anyway- this didn't stop us from going to Friendly's. It just kept us from going to THAT Friendly's if we could help it.
I remember a diner in New Jersey that my husband and I liked to go to. However one day we went and we came in and waited for a waitress to come and seat us. We could see they weren't busy and two waitress were standing yakking at each other. After waiting for like about 15-20 minutes we left. We never went back there. Sad - as we liked the place but they lost us because they didn't think we were important enough to even acknowledge.
I have to mention some good service though.
Many years ago I needed a new rear-view mirror for my car. I thought- oh- they'll probably convince me to buy a whole new mirror. I went to Auto Zone. The man there was very nice and helpful. He was on the phone when I came in but he did acknowledge me and soon got off the phone. I explained what I needed and long story short- he told me all I need was some super-glue and a special thing that goes on the windshield that the mirror sits in. I think I left there having only spent about $3 or perhaps a bit more.
I called Auto Zone either later that day or the next and told them how helpful he had been and I really appreciated it. He didn't take advantage of me because I was a woman. :)

[Tara]

Hi everyone! I've been looking for a place on the web to inform people of a recent bad experience I had with a freelance graphic designer who has a company titled, "KHP Design, LLC." This company is located in Honolulu, Hawaii. When I first met and talked with the owner of this company, she seemed very pleasant, and it seemed like we would have a great working relationship. However, soon after I saw another side of her. After having a lawyer look at the service agreement form she gave me, I asked her to revise some points on it 3 times before I would even consider signing it. My lawyer said her form was very unprofessional, and he was even tempted to rip it up the first time he looked at it because it was so amateurish. The first two times she was fine with revising the form. However, by the third time her tone changed with me, and among other things, she said that if I wanted her to revise the form anymore she would have to charge me $100 more. Her reasoning was that she did not expect this process of the agreement form to take as long as it has, and she was unsure of what else was going to take longer than expected. I did not appreciate her rude comments and tone of voice towards me, but my lawyer advised me to keep the option open. This lady also told me that she challenges me to find a graphic designer who would let me revise the contract, especially as much as she did. The next day I did indeed find one such graphic designer. This lady's manner of speaking to me and interacting with me suddenly changed for the worse after the contract issue, and I eventually told her I found someone else. Since I found someone else I asked her to please give me back a picture that I gave to her to use when I was going to use her services. On the Monday I told her I found someone else, I told her I needed the picture by that week, so she told me to send her a SASE. I mailed a SASE the next day, and it should have gotten to her by Wednesday since I also am located in Hawaii. By Saturday I still had not received my picture back, so I emailed her asking her what the status of my picture was. No reply. By Tuesday I was still without my picture and without a reply from her. Thus, I called her and left a message on her phone, and I also emailed her again asking her nicely for the picture back and for her to contact me to let me know what was going on with my picture. She finally got back to me on Wednesday morning and this is what she replied back to me through email, "RELAX. It's in the mail." Needless to say I was appalled and upset at her rude email. How dare she yell at me through email to relax when she was the one in the wrong here. I told her I needed it by a certain time, and she did not get me my picture in that time frame, and I repeatedly tried to contact her to which she did not respond to until the last email, and she was telling me to "RELAX" like I am some crazy woman upset and worried about nothing. She did not even bother to apologize for not giving me back my picture in a timely manner when I told her I needed it the week before, nor did she apologize for not returning my emails or phone call in a timely manner. Before our issue with the contract she would get back to me within the day, but after the issue with the contract she would get back to me when she felt like it, which was usually after a few attempts by me to contact her over multiple days. I will give her that she did return the last email in a timely manner, but I can't help but feel that is only because she knew I was getting irritated and worried by then. Anyone considering hiring KHP Design, LLC please be aware of my experience with her. I am not necessarily saying don't do business with her. I am informing people of my bad experience with her, and saying that I chose to not do business with her and this is why. If you do not feel this was too bad of an experience then by all means do business with her. Who knows...maybe this was just a one time thing with her. I don't know. Just be aware and careful. Hopefully, she will soon learn how to treat her customers and people in general. It is Wednesday, and I am still waiting for my picture back as it did not come in the mail today either, and I am just hoping that she really did send it and that it will come back to me in the same condition I gave it to her.