So, I wanted Teppenyaki for my birthday party with my friends. Made the reservation two weeks ago. About 45 minutes ago, at FOUR-THIRTY, two and a half hours before dinner, the steakhouse called and tells me that there’s a gas leak, and there’s no dinner service tonight.
Did they not realize they sprung a leak this morning? At their lunch service?? Apparently, not. And what are they going to do to compensate me? Nothing. “I’m so sorry, nothing I can do, sorry!” Sorry and 32 dollars gets me dinner, pal!
After frantically calling the other two Teppenyaki places, I found one that can seat my entire party. Now I have to hunt down a dozen people working and not answering their phones, and make sure they know we’re at the opposite end of town. Fun. :mad:
Oh, man. I hate to diminish the frustration of trying to rebook a large party at the last second, but your anger may be misplaced.
First: did you consider the possibility that the gas leak occurred at 4:00-4:30, not in the morning or at lunch? It’s entirely possible they couldn’t have warned you earlier because it hadn’t happened yet.
Second: that’s pretty good service, to call you and let you know, rather than have your group turned away at the door at the time of your reservation. They were doing well to think of their customers.
That said, having to rebook on short notice totally sucks.
Would you have rather them ignored the gas leak until later? It sucks to change plans, but at least they didn’t try and half-assedly fix it or gamble on an explosion. I mean, putting tape over it or just making sure it was ventilated would be the first options for many places that just don’t care.
Let me get this straight. You’re pissed off that a restaurant that had a dangerous leak that could have seriously injured or killed its staff or customers didn’t schedule the accident so as not to interfere with your birthday?
I look forward to next year, when you Pit the sky for raining on your picnic.
See, as a landlord (well, my family manages properties) I can appreciate that shit happens unexpectedly, and that it’s not the restaurant’s fault. However, I would have expected a gift certificate, or something, or even for him to have left a message on my voice mail. He didn’t. Sorry I didn’t post that at the beginning of my pitting. I had a “missed call” on my cell and non-chalantly called back ten minutes later, assuming he was confirming the booking.
So yeah, it’s my party, and I’ll [del]cry[/del] throw a pissy fit if I want to.
Bad enough that they’re losing so much money because of a loss of business. It wouldn’t be good for them to compound that loss by giving out gift certificates. They should have left a message though.
Count yourself lucky that they not only called you to let you know, but gave you plenty of advance warning (two and a half hours early is a whole lot better than thirty minutes before the reservation or no warning at all). Imagine if you had showed up with your whole party and only just found out then. The proper response here is to thank them graciously for letting you know ahead of time, roll with the punches, and generally not whine like a little bitch.
Also, count yourself lucky that you live in a first world country where you can afford the extreme luxury of sitting down to be served your fancy exotic foods from halfway around the world at all. Sorry, but “I had to frantically search for a Teppenyaki restaurant with only a few hours notice!” is not a problem that anyone is going to give a flying fuck about.
