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IHOP Complaint - # 3144 @ 5985 University Pkwy in Winston-Salem,NC - Bad food, Bad service and Unacceptible Management
Bad food, Bad service and Unacceptible Management - Complaint
WINSTON SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA -- My husband and I, along with our 18 month old daughter, went into the IHOP #3144 on University Pkway in Winston Salem, NC on Monday Nov. 5, 2007 to eat lunch. We were seated by the host, who was about the only decent person working there. After a few minutes our waitress finally came over to take our order. I tried to ask her about what kind of veggies they had(that our daughter could eat) and see just looked at me with a confused look on her face. I had to explain my question three times before she finally got it. She took our order and went away. A few minutes later she came back with our drinks. A few minutes after that with our appetizers that didn't have the sauces it was supposed to have. So, we asked her if we could get the sauces...she said, "sure. I'll get them for you." Yet another few minutes ticked by and still no sauces. But the waitress made her way over to the table next to ours and took their orders. I had to go get the sauces myself from another waiter.
While we waited for our food the people who came in and ordered after us got their food and was about half way done eating when we finally got ours. The waitress brought out a couple of plates and said she'd be right back with the rest. I got my steak order before the salad( she brought that out to me about 10 minutes after my actual meal) and she didn't bring the popcorn shrimp that was supposed to be with my order. She had the nerve to sound surprised when I mentioned the shrimp to her and asked me if I still wanted it. Well, Duh. I wouldn't have ordered it if I hadn't have wanted it.
My husband asked a near by waitress if she would send the Manager over and she wanted to know why(I didn't think it was any of her business but I didn't say so). My husband told her that we had a complaint about our waitress. A few minutes later the so called "Manager" came over to our table. We explained to him how poor our service had been (even the people next to us chimed in and told him how bad of service we had gotten) and all he did was offer to take the appetizer off of our bill. I didn't like it but didn't argue. Then he said that he would get the shrimp I had ordered. By the time he got back to the table my husband and I had both lost our appetites with more than half our food still on our plates. We waited about ten more minutes to see if someone would bring us our check. No one showed up. Our waitress wouldn't even look in our direction so we could ask her for it.
We saw the "Manager person" again and asked him for the check. When he brought it over he was trying to explain where he had taken off the appetizer when I said I didn't understand why we should have to pay for a meal that wasn't great by any means and where the customer service was horrible. He crumpled up our bill and said he would take care of it. No problem. When we were leaving he walked us to the door and told us to have a good day. I said thanks and was ready to go. When we got to our car another customer came up to us and told us that as soon as the Manager walked back in the door he wrote our tag # down off of our car. My husband went back in to ask him if and why he had done that. The manager told my husband that he had written our tag # down "for the safety of our customers".
What??? My husband asked him what kind of since does that make??? He said we were the ones who had bad food, bad service and horrible customer service and we never raised our voice even once (Lord knows I wanted to)? But, they needed our tag # for the safety of their customers. Riiiight. When we asked for the # for the home office we were told that it was a independently owned so there was on one else we could talk to about our service. If anyone out there knows how we would go about contacted the owner of IHOP store # 3144 Inc. at 5985 University Pkwy in Winston Salem,NC 27105 PLEASE write us back.
Needless to say, we will not be going back.
While we waited for our food the people who came in and ordered after us got their food and was about half way done eating when we finally got ours. The waitress brought out a couple of plates and said she'd be right back with the rest. I got my steak order before the salad( she brought that out to me about 10 minutes after my actual meal) and she didn't bring the popcorn shrimp that was supposed to be with my order. She had the nerve to sound surprised when I mentioned the shrimp to her and asked me if I still wanted it. Well, Duh. I wouldn't have ordered it if I hadn't have wanted it.
My husband asked a near by waitress if she would send the Manager over and she wanted to know why(I didn't think it was any of her business but I didn't say so). My husband told her that we had a complaint about our waitress. A few minutes later the so called "Manager" came over to our table. We explained to him how poor our service had been (even the people next to us chimed in and told him how bad of service we had gotten) and all he did was offer to take the appetizer off of our bill. I didn't like it but didn't argue. Then he said that he would get the shrimp I had ordered. By the time he got back to the table my husband and I had both lost our appetites with more than half our food still on our plates. We waited about ten more minutes to see if someone would bring us our check. No one showed up. Our waitress wouldn't even look in our direction so we could ask her for it.
We saw the "Manager person" again and asked him for the check. When he brought it over he was trying to explain where he had taken off the appetizer when I said I didn't understand why we should have to pay for a meal that wasn't great by any means and where the customer service was horrible. He crumpled up our bill and said he would take care of it. No problem. When we were leaving he walked us to the door and told us to have a good day. I said thanks and was ready to go. When we got to our car another customer came up to us and told us that as soon as the Manager walked back in the door he wrote our tag # down off of our car. My husband went back in to ask him if and why he had done that. The manager told my husband that he had written our tag # down "for the safety of our customers".
What??? My husband asked him what kind of since does that make??? He said we were the ones who had bad food, bad service and horrible customer service and we never raised our voice even once (Lord knows I wanted to)? But, they needed our tag # for the safety of their customers. Riiiight. When we asked for the # for the home office we were told that it was a independently owned so there was on one else we could talk to about our service. If anyone out there knows how we would go about contacted the owner of IHOP store # 3144 Inc. at 5985 University Pkwy in Winston Salem,NC 27105 PLEASE write us back.
Needless to say, we will not be going back.
Comments:
Posted by Skye on 2007-11-05:
Did you and hubby cause some type of ruckus??? I would like to hear their side of the story. They apparently felt some kind of threat or retaliation could happen, and wanted your license plate number. Crazy stuff.
Posted by zzrokk on 2007-11-05:
While you should expect competent, quality service, I think that you and hubby wanted 5-star service from a "pancake house".
"What kind of 'veggies'?" Try READING the MENU.
JMHO
"What kind of 'veggies'?" Try READING the MENU.
JMHO
Posted by Hugh_Jorgen on 2007-11-05:
I imagine the manager just wanted your tag number so he has a record of who he gave a free meal to. So if you come back in a week and try the same thing they will know you are repeaters. No real reflection on you, just that there are people out there that make a habit out of getting free meals out of restaurants.
Posted by Skye on 2007-11-05:
Did they have highchairs??
Posted by jktshff1 on 2007-11-05:
HJ, good point
Posted by SloMo on 2007-11-05:
You got your meal for free(as much as you ate), what else did you want? Perhaps the manager's first born!
Posted by zzrokk on 2007-11-05:
Skye, I am glad that you asked that. How could I forget?
Posted by WaxRash on 2007-11-05:
Who goes to IHOP for steak and shrimp?
Posted by trumania on 2007-11-05:
Wow, you had some terrible service. I've only had to suffer the same fate at dine in restaurants one or two times. It's funny too how they seem to get pissed off when you point out the bad service. *shrugs*.
I go agree with Hugh_Jorgen though, it's likely they jotted down the license plate for record in case you tried it again....unless he wrote it down to file a police report to say you ate and ran. *shurgs*.
Even though IHOP is a franchise, each individual store MUST still abide by Corporate polices. This is why they can't create their own food items, it's not approved by corporate. They may try to say they don't answer to anyone but the individual owner, but that is absolutely not true!
IHOP has a huge interest in how customers feel about their experience at any IHOP restaurant because if you think it's bad at one place you're likely to think the same of another location, which leads to no profit for the store owner, and no profit to the company.
If you're really upset about the situation I would strongly encourage you to write about your experience at the IHOP Contact Form here: http://www.ihop.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=62
and, I would also lodge a complaint with the Better Business Bureau against that specific location and... if you noticed anything that was not up to code on the health side, give your local health department a call, let them know what you saw and ask them to perform a surprise health inspection (which they almost always do when someone calls to complain).
Good Luck!
I go agree with Hugh_Jorgen though, it's likely they jotted down the license plate for record in case you tried it again....unless he wrote it down to file a police report to say you ate and ran. *shurgs*.
Even though IHOP is a franchise, each individual store MUST still abide by Corporate polices. This is why they can't create their own food items, it's not approved by corporate. They may try to say they don't answer to anyone but the individual owner, but that is absolutely not true!
IHOP has a huge interest in how customers feel about their experience at any IHOP restaurant because if you think it's bad at one place you're likely to think the same of another location, which leads to no profit for the store owner, and no profit to the company.
If you're really upset about the situation I would strongly encourage you to write about your experience at the IHOP Contact Form here: http://www.ihop.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=62
and, I would also lodge a complaint with the Better Business Bureau against that specific location and... if you noticed anything that was not up to code on the health side, give your local health department a call, let them know what you saw and ask them to perform a surprise health inspection (which they almost always do when someone calls to complain).
Good Luck!
Posted by CrystalSword on 2007-11-05:
My husband and I won't go to the local IHOP either, the service is awful, if the waitress doesn't like your looks, you don't get waited on. We've eaten at other IHOPs where the service and food were great, if they were closer, we'd go back. The local store is a waste of time and money!
Posted by Nohandle on 2007-11-05:
Interesting you brought that up Hugh. A little over a year ago there were a rash of complaints on M3C from some members who seemed, in my opinion, to expect a compensated meal not only for themselves but every member of their party for anything that went wrong. Most times I felt they were looking for something to complain about. I really thought restaurants had stopped that entirely. I suppose it's still going on.
Summer, you and Michael had a bad experience one thing after another. You didn't have to pay for your meal which is the only plus I read into this. If you generally enjoy IHop, do as Crystal suggests, go to a location where the food and service is good.
Summer, you and Michael had a bad experience one thing after another. You didn't have to pay for your meal which is the only plus I read into this. If you generally enjoy IHop, do as Crystal suggests, go to a location where the food and service is good.
Posted by Paks on 2007-11-05:
Go here and make a complaint to Ihop corp.
http://www.ihop.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=62
http://www.ihop.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=62
Posted by Reichan1979 on 2007-11-23:
I am quite familiar with the IHOP in question (I live in Winston too!), and I have also had service problems, but I want to address the License # issue on it's own.
This particular IHOP is in a "rough" (after dark at least) area. In my experiences with their late night crowd(the Coliseum and Ziggy's Nightclub are in walking distance), they often have a cop posted at the door for security.
2 years ago, a young woman was shot in the parking lot across from that IHOP as well.
I am in no way suggesting that the OP is someone who would have done anything bad, but it could very well be that the policy for this particular location is to do this, just in case of any trouble, as trouble always seemed to find this one, at least in the past.
I would suggest visiting another location, if you like IHOP. The one on the corner of Peter's Creek and Silas Creek isn't all that bad.
This particular IHOP is in a "rough" (after dark at least) area. In my experiences with their late night crowd(the Coliseum and Ziggy's Nightclub are in walking distance), they often have a cop posted at the door for security.
2 years ago, a young woman was shot in the parking lot across from that IHOP as well.
I am in no way suggesting that the OP is someone who would have done anything bad, but it could very well be that the policy for this particular location is to do this, just in case of any trouble, as trouble always seemed to find this one, at least in the past.
I would suggest visiting another location, if you like IHOP. The one on the corner of Peter's Creek and Silas Creek isn't all that bad.
Posted by beanbagbritches on 2007-11-25:
I too agree that the IHOP you visited is in a tough area. (I have been there many times) That may be why the manager took down your tag #.
Posted by PryorsSkii on 2008-01-09:
I completely understand how you feel, I had a bad experience in Bowie, MD. I call this numeber 818 637 3131 and they did an investigation and a few people were fired. I hope that helps in your case
Posted by jane25 on 2008-06-26:
you can contact ihop corporate at either 800-241-ihop. or 866-241-ihop. im not sure which one. lmk if it helps
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