The Consumer Complaints Blog

I received absolutely horrendous service at a bar this weekend in Richmond Hill called the Crown and Phoenix. It is at the intersection of Yonge and Weldrick. I figured I would share my experience on here because it would be a public service to do so.

I made a reservation for 14 people for Saturday night for my birthday. As soon as we got there, one thing went wrong after another.

First of all, the waitress was not able to even balance a tray. She spilled Coke all over me, thus staining the expensive dress I showed up in and destroyed some of the birthday presents I had received. And I got cut with flying glass.

It was karaoke night there, and the DJ they hired was a pompous jerk. There was at least FIVE MINUTES in between each performer. He actually told one of my friends, who had given him her song just as karaoke was starting for the evening, that the reason why she had to wait almost two hours to do her song was because he did not like the song she had chosen. We only stayed after that because we had a large group of people coming and some of our friends had not arrived yet. Meanwhile, not only did he sing FIVE songs of his own, but my fiance and another friend of ours didn’t get to do their second songs.

The worst part of the evening though? The bill. We had a group of about 14 people, so some people left earlier than others. They gave us a hard time about having separate bills for our large group. However, some people who left early asked for a separate bill for their stuff so that the rest of us were not stuck paying for their stuff. So they got billed for their stuff and paid. When the rest of us left, not only were we billed for the stuff that our other friends had already paid for, but we were also billed for stuff that nobody in our group even ordered!

STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THIS BAR!!!!!!!!!!!

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

This is my story of Starbucks, their terrible customer service and lack of care.

On September 24, 2010 I was at a Starbucks with my mom. We were waiting for her drink to be made and decided to split a piece of pumpkin loaf. I bit into the loaf and felt a crunch, but I assumed it was one of the pumpkin seeds and bit again. I instantly felt a pain and strange feeling in my mouth. I spat the piece out of my mouth to discover a small grey stone. I immediately took the stones to the barista and she profusely apologized while filling out an incident report. I asked if she wanted to keep the stone, but she said no and wrote down all of my information.

It is now almost December and I have been playing phone tag with the corporation for months. I have spoken to 11 different people and have been given 6 different case numbers to which I have to report and explain this frustrating situation every time I call. Each person tells me something else and tells me to wait for a representative to call. I was asked the best times to be reached, but of course the only time I receive phone calls is to my answering machine while I am at work and they are rare.

I went to the dentist to discover my teeth were severely damaged to the point of needing filing and porcelain veneers. My teeth were perfect, my parents had already spent over $5000 getting braces, filing and bleaching. Due to the damaged teeth, other teeth are now becoming damaged as the sharp edges chip away at existing teeth. I now need the removal of my brace wire and cement, mouldings for my teeth, porcelain veneers and 8 teeth filed. All because I decided to trust Starbucks and their products that were tainted. I would like to believe that the high prices and friendly people ensure safe food, but clearly they do not.

How the stones got there I am not sure….was my food dropped on the ground? Were they baked inside? No one knows. All I am aware of is I am an extremely frustrated consumer that has realized clearly Starbucks as a corporation does not care about their products or consumers.

After writing this message I received a letter from Starbucks (Nov 29, 2010. It states “ It is with my sincere apologies that I must inform you that Starbucks does not feel we are responsible for your damages and therefore must respectfully deny any claim you may file as a result of this incident.” Not responsible? Was the product not sold over your counter, from your store? Did you not take my money? Are you saying you don’t care what is in your products or who eats it? What if I was a small child? What if I was a high power business man? Would you treat this situation any differently?
All I know is I will never purchase an item from Starbucks again. I will tell every person I know this story as a warning so they know the type of company Starbucks is, and to be careful before biting into any product they sell.

I never wanted a big pay out or attention, all I wanted was for my teeth: that were damaged eating a Starbucks pumpkin loaf to be fixed and returned back to the way they were. I was passed around for 2 months and now have been told that I don’t matter and my issue although due to their product, is not their responsibility. Thank you Starbucks for caring about the little people and the products you sell.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I am so outraged by the experience I had at Spice Route last night that I have to say something!

We were at Spice Route for a friend’s birthday. As we were seated at two booths (there were about 16 of us), we were told that we would have to order off a pre-set menu as there was a required spending amount. My friend who had booked the booths disputed this, saying this was not communicated to her and she never agreed to this. She had specifically asked at the time of booking whether we could order off the a la carte menu and whether there would be a minimum amount spent, and she was assured there wouldn’t be one.

My friend went to speak to the manager, who right from the beginning was rude, dismissive and wouldn’t listen to her valid complaint. While she was discussing the matter with him, the server was instructed to completely ignore us (after we were seated late and were absolutely ravenous). She wouldn’t even bring bread to our table.

The manager wouldn’t listen, but we were all starving to death so we had to start ordering food. The manager (after threatening to throw us out – for what I don’t know, talking back to him? Aren’t we the customer??) said we could order food as long as we spent a certain amount. Starving, we thought we’d give it a try – maybe we’d spend that amount anyway.

When the bill came we realized we were $220 short of the minimum amount. My friend decided the manager would have to be reasonable – we still spent close to $750. She went to plead with him again. He completely shut her down. So she said that she wouldn’t sign the bill, because she wouldn’t authorize him to charge her that much. He told her that he had her credit card number on file anyway from when she booked the tables. My friend said fine. We were gathering our stuff to leave, her plan was to just contest the amount with Visa.

Then the manager showed up at our table with four bouncers – he told us no one was allowed to leave until the bill was paid in full. He said the police were on their way. We sat there, shocked and humiliated, for 45 minutes.

The police arrived, and spoke to my friend, then spoke to the manager. The police sided with us in the end, and we paid the amount that we had spent – no more. The manager was no where in sight as we walked out of the restaurant. We were still so in shock we didn’t even think to ask the police if our rights had been trampled on.

I’ve never been held hostage in a restaurant before! It was a bizarre, surreal, horrible experience. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go there.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

My wife and I took a little road trip over the weekend and stopped for lunch at Mo’s Steakhouse located at 7 Ogle Industrial Park Rd. Vevay, IN 47043 (812) 427-2444 .

They advertise a 10 oz. “Mo Burger seasoned with jalapenos and cilantro”. Doesn’t it sound delicious? We both ordered the “Mo Burger”, well done, which includes potato wedges. There were approximately 12 to 14 people (mostly a group of bikers, not the gang type, just a group of people that apparently enjoy the open road) in the restaurant when we arrived. The waitress came back to our table 30 minutes after ordering and apologized for the delay stating they were “busy” and offered us some “rolls”. Yeah, I’m waiting 30 minutes for a burger and I get offered bread. If a lunch crowd of 14 at 1:30 pm is busy, what do they do about a dinner service?

Anyway, our food arrived 45 minutes after ordering. The burger looked like a 10 oz burger, nothing special and 4, count them, 4 potato wedges. I cut the burger in half to find it cooked barely medium and the wife’s was a little more done with a distinctive streak of pink through the middle of the patty. This is NOT well done. We wanted to get back on the road so we decided to eat the burgers, mostly around the edges which were a little more done than the middle. When we were ready to leave, the waitress stopped by our table to see if we wanted anything else. We showed the waitress the red meat and told her the burgers were not well done and there was not even a hint of jalapenos or cilantro seasoning. The waitress then proceeded to inform us “they use other seasonings too and the juice from the jalapenos and cilantro dye the meat and it just looks that way. Believe me, it’s well done.” I asked her where she got such nonsense and she told us her boss, Mo, told her that. Being a cook myself for many years, I felt it my duty to school this young lady about honesty and common sense. Too bad Mo wasn’t there for the class.

When we left, the hostess / cashier was at the register talking to what appeared to be a cook about the delays in service. I handed her my check and my credit card. She processed the transaction, handed me the receipt and a pen, I signed it and handed it back to her, and she handed me my receipt all while totally ignoring me and talking to the cook. Not a “How are you?”, “Was everything ok?”, I heard your dining experience at Mo’s Steakhouse was a disaster, I will deduct a little off the bill”. Nope, nothing but dishonesty, rudeness, and arrogance.

Ps. Hey Mo, ever heard of a thermometer? I suggest you start using them. It’s 160 degrees or above for “well done”.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I’m Bill from Ottawa. I stumbled across your site while googling for “customer complaints”, and have spent the last hour or two entertaining myself with the stories and comments… well now, “entertain” doesn’t seem right, but you know what I mean. I can tell you though, Ottawa just as bad as Toronto when it comes to customer service. I have so many stories, I’m amazed anything gets accomplished at all in this world.

Now I’m a very easy-going guy, the counterweight to my bone-deep cynicism. I take most things in stride, including money, but there is one thing for which I spare very little patience, and that is stupidity. As a computer programmer and technician, retail and customer service environments have been central elements in my career, so I guess I’m a harsher critic of the jaw-droppingly moronic strangers who disappoint me every day. I’m going to relate to you my latest story, possibly the cheapest so far, regarding $2.50 worth of food. It is a cheap, but iconic anecdote of the chronic incompetence that pervades today’s youth. I’ve posted it to my own blog, but feel free to reproduce on yours if you so choose, and I will gladly link it.

McStupid is as McStupid does

This evening, I stopped at McDonalds after work (I know, junk food is bad – whatever!). Now I have a habit of placing large take-out orders, with “large” being around $40, and almost every time the McLackeys make fun of my large order, as they seem to think it is different than serving four people separately for the same items. Apparently they just can’t deal with numbers greater than two. Anyway I placed my order, and the guys dutifully prepared my food with impressive skill and speed, when another employee, who presented himself as “Steven”, ran in from the back to “help with the rush”, a rush of me! He was randomly putting things in bags and waving them over the counter, hoping someone would claim each bag. He had not been present when the orders were placed, so he had no clue who wanted what. I pointed to my receipt and repeated the list of items, and finally he packed my order, though I had to correct him several times as he was too hurried to pay attention.

Once I got home, I realized I was missing two small burgers. It was nothing big, and frankly I wasn’t about to walk all the way back just for a couple of burgers, but a credit or even just an apology would have been courteous. I called the restaurant, and wound up talking to buddy Steven. I explained the discrepancy, and he immediately got defensive, stating he was absolutely certain he had bagged my order without error, and that it was I who was mistaken. I casually restated my case, that I had eight burgers where there should have been ten, and this time he accused me of trying to cheat them out of two free burgers. I still don’t understand why he would accuse me of trying to defraud them out of $2.50 worth of food on a $42 total, but I guess not everyone is blessed with the gift of common sense. I was starting to lose my patience with this sad little peon, so I hung up and my wife called back a few minutes later. She is a far better diplomat than myself, and yet was barely able to get the employee’s name and his manager’s after much arguing, and he wouldn’t even tell us said manager’s schedule so we will be calling blindly until we can get a hold of him.

It goes without saying that the poor manager will get an earful about the many ways in which his underling has disappointed us, but I have to wonder why and how someone in a customer-facing job can be allowed to fail so miserably. He could have said “I’m sorry for the mistake, would you like your burgers ?”, an offer I would have politely declined and that would have been the end of it. Instead, he winds up with a formal complaint on his record, and the manager will be sending us gift certificates, which I will gladly accept and make a point to use when Steven is on-duty. Part of me wishes he would learn from the experience and grow as a person, but the cynic in me knows better. I can only hope Steven will find another job that is a better match to his abilities, or lack thereof. In the mean time, I will make a point to refuse service from him, when I next indulge in my favorite artery-clogging snacks.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.