![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Okay, now I'm in the mood to write about it without breaking everyone's profanity filters in the process.
For those of you from Winnipeg: the restaurant in question is Tubby's, located on the corner of Stafford and Grovesner, a couple of blocks walk from my current apartment. Its proximity was most of the reason that myself and a couple of other friends -- call them T. and R. -- had gone there for the last couple of weeks for coffee and a light supper before going to the AD&D game that R. and I play in every Saturday night. T. and R. had never been there before, and were very favorably impressed with the quality of the food (which was excellent).
Wish I could say the same thing about the guy who owns the place. In the course of maybe twenty seconds, he convinced me that I'll never go back to his restaurant again.
To recap, the food was excellent, the prices reasonable, the waitress pleasant and efficient. After the meal, we took our bill up to the front counter to pay, and I went first, electing to use Interac. And that's where the trouble started.
The cash register has NO readout visible to the customers. The owner (I recognized him from the cartoons and caricatures that were posted at the front of the restaurant) ended up punching in my charges (since we'd received a bill that combined all our orders), but did so in such an uncertain manner, with so many cancellations and re-punches, that I wasn't sure he'd done it correctly. My suspicions increased when he quoted me a price of $15 and change -- about three dollars over what I'd estimated my meal would cost.
So to double-check, I asked him if he'd given me the a la mode price on the ice cream (a difference of $1.75 over the full serving) and charged me for a cinnamon bun slice rather than a whole cinnamon bun (also a considerable price difference).
He ignored my question completely.
So I started to restate it. He gave me such a glare that, I'm sad to say, I crumbled and rang through the Interac charge (yes, I need more practice on some skills!) However, I rediscovered my spine after ok-ing the purchase, and asked again -- this time for a receipt from the cash register, since this, I thought, would give me the individual prices rung in, and thus ammunition to ask for a refund if warranted.
With a sigh of disgust, he grabbed a receipt book -- yes, a receipt book -- jotted down the items in a barely legible scrawl, with no prices, put the total amount at the bottom, and slammed it down on the counter in front of me.
"Excuse me," I said, "but I think you overcharged me on --"
At which point, the yelling began.
Owner: "How much do you think it's over!?"
Me: "I'm not sure, I haven't calculated the --"
Owner: "How much do you think it's over!?!?!?!"
Me: "Well, I though it would be about twelve dollars, but --"
So disgusted that he wouldn't even look at me, the owner yanks open the change drawer, pulls out a toonie and a loonie ($3, for non-Canadians) and SLAMS it down on the counter in front of me. Honestly not knowing what else to do, I took the change and stepped aside so T. and R. could pay their bill.
Then the adrenaline hit. Enraged, humiliated, and completely bewildered, I wandered up to the front of the restaurant and started looking at some of the cartoons posted on the wall as a displacement activity, lol... but could not distract myself from my own "WTF?" reaction. I mean... really? What had just happened here? Had I just been treated like a lying piece of shit by the OWNER of the restaurant where I'd just dropped the price of a meal? A restaurant where T., R., and I might well have continued coming every Saturday night before our regular game, for a total of about $40 a week?
Repeat: WTF???
Ooh... even posting about it makes me furious all over again. I'm seriously considering what I can do at this point to give that idiot owner the equivalent of a sharp, hard smack on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. Writing a letter to him won't work -- the guy is pretty clearly psycho, or at least off his usual medication (I honestly can't believe that he's like this ALL the time, otherwise he wouldn't have any customers left! Or maybe he just hates short, red-haired women!).
However, a letter to the restaurant association he belongs to, OR to the Winnipeg Free Press's food critic, might do nicely.
I'm still considering my options. Grrr.
For those of you from Winnipeg: the restaurant in question is Tubby's, located on the corner of Stafford and Grovesner, a couple of blocks walk from my current apartment. Its proximity was most of the reason that myself and a couple of other friends -- call them T. and R. -- had gone there for the last couple of weeks for coffee and a light supper before going to the AD&D game that R. and I play in every Saturday night. T. and R. had never been there before, and were very favorably impressed with the quality of the food (which was excellent).
Wish I could say the same thing about the guy who owns the place. In the course of maybe twenty seconds, he convinced me that I'll never go back to his restaurant again.
To recap, the food was excellent, the prices reasonable, the waitress pleasant and efficient. After the meal, we took our bill up to the front counter to pay, and I went first, electing to use Interac. And that's where the trouble started.
The cash register has NO readout visible to the customers. The owner (I recognized him from the cartoons and caricatures that were posted at the front of the restaurant) ended up punching in my charges (since we'd received a bill that combined all our orders), but did so in such an uncertain manner, with so many cancellations and re-punches, that I wasn't sure he'd done it correctly. My suspicions increased when he quoted me a price of $15 and change -- about three dollars over what I'd estimated my meal would cost.
So to double-check, I asked him if he'd given me the a la mode price on the ice cream (a difference of $1.75 over the full serving) and charged me for a cinnamon bun slice rather than a whole cinnamon bun (also a considerable price difference).
He ignored my question completely.
So I started to restate it. He gave me such a glare that, I'm sad to say, I crumbled and rang through the Interac charge (yes, I need more practice on some skills!) However, I rediscovered my spine after ok-ing the purchase, and asked again -- this time for a receipt from the cash register, since this, I thought, would give me the individual prices rung in, and thus ammunition to ask for a refund if warranted.
With a sigh of disgust, he grabbed a receipt book -- yes, a receipt book -- jotted down the items in a barely legible scrawl, with no prices, put the total amount at the bottom, and slammed it down on the counter in front of me.
"Excuse me," I said, "but I think you overcharged me on --"
At which point, the yelling began.
Owner: "How much do you think it's over!?"
Me: "I'm not sure, I haven't calculated the --"
Owner: "How much do you think it's over!?!?!?!"
Me: "Well, I though it would be about twelve dollars, but --"
So disgusted that he wouldn't even look at me, the owner yanks open the change drawer, pulls out a toonie and a loonie ($3, for non-Canadians) and SLAMS it down on the counter in front of me. Honestly not knowing what else to do, I took the change and stepped aside so T. and R. could pay their bill.
Then the adrenaline hit. Enraged, humiliated, and completely bewildered, I wandered up to the front of the restaurant and started looking at some of the cartoons posted on the wall as a displacement activity, lol... but could not distract myself from my own "WTF?" reaction. I mean... really? What had just happened here? Had I just been treated like a lying piece of shit by the OWNER of the restaurant where I'd just dropped the price of a meal? A restaurant where T., R., and I might well have continued coming every Saturday night before our regular game, for a total of about $40 a week?
Repeat: WTF???
Ooh... even posting about it makes me furious all over again. I'm seriously considering what I can do at this point to give that idiot owner the equivalent of a sharp, hard smack on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. Writing a letter to him won't work -- the guy is pretty clearly psycho, or at least off his usual medication (I honestly can't believe that he's like this ALL the time, otherwise he wouldn't have any customers left! Or maybe he just hates short, red-haired women!).
However, a letter to the restaurant association he belongs to, OR to the Winnipeg Free Press's food critic, might do nicely.
I'm still considering my options. Grrr.
