Nightmare customer service experience in Philly!
 

Yesterday I had the worst experience of my life in a restaurant, in my home town (I was visiting) of Philadelphia, at Famous Delicatessen at 4th & Bainbridge. Because this place is so popular, I felt I had to share. Plus, I'm sure there are others out there with similar horror stories. While waiting for our table - a 10-minute wait - I poured myself a cup of coffee in the area meant for take-out customers (which happens to be right where you stand while waiting for a table). While I was doing so, a woman materialized to tell me I couldn't have the coffee - I had to wait to sit at my table and order it from the waiter. I told her I'd be glad to pay for it, because I wanted to drink it while we waited. I promptly did so, paying $1.86 at the register. We had a nice lunch, and when the bill arrived, I was charged for the coffee. I explained to the waiter that I had already paid for the coffee, and he said he'd correct the bill. He then returned to the table to say that he had been told I did not pay for the coffee so they'd be leaving it on the bill. When I went to the register to clear it up, the woman who had approached me earlier - who turned out to be an OWNER of the restaurant - began shouting at me that no one saw me pay, no one remembered taking my money, and insisted that they would not remove it from my bill. I was flabbergasted. I tried to have a reasonable conversation about it, but the restaurant personnel, including the guy at the register, simply continued to argue with me. Never in my life have I witnessed such amazing treatment of a customer. Nevermind the fact that I HAD paid for the coffee, the owner of this restaurant lost a customer (and everyone she knows, plus, hopefully, people who read this) over a cup of coffee!

I love Philly, and I love a good deli, but I'll never visit Famous again

Unfortunate experience.

The owner should have just let it go.

I would not have helped myself to the takeout coffee without asking but that didn't justify your treatment.

Some establishments just have whacked out owners and you have to take the good with the bad if you want to eat there.

Interesting first post...

You don't happen to own a neighboring deli do you?

Isn't it funny how many of these extreme rants or raves are first time posts?

Nope, I actually live in New York and was visiting for the weekend. Wanted to go because there are new owners and I'd heard the place was great.

Know what helps in situations like these? Receipts.

I guess I'll still visit the deli, I don't drink coffee...

SAnParis, pure comic genius. Thanks for the chuckle.

Boy, you guys sure know how to make a neophyte feel comfortable posting on this site!

Customer service at an all-time low. One would think that the owner of such a popular establishment would cater to customers - or risk not being so popular any more. You did nothing wrong. The owner should be ashamed.

If you send us your address we'll chip in & send you your $1.86 back...Geesh. What if everyone just helped themselves to coffee while they were waiting in line ? Kudos to Brandie, I'm thinking a receipt would have worked also.

Okay, so I failed to clearly explain: the restaurant has takeout. I served myself a cup of takeout coffee -- that's what it's there for -- and then paid for it. The owner wanted me to wait until I was seated and order a cup of coffee at the table, not buy a takeout cup.

Maybe she shouldn't have poured a cup of coffee, BUT was the way things were handled that created the issue, not the $$$$ involved. Colonial Williasmburg Inn lost me as a customer a few years back over a $140.00 altercation over the bill. It was their attitude that did me in not the $$$ involved. No one wants to be yelled at, argued with or rudely treated. Goodwill is the backbone of any service business. The loss of Goodwill eventually will cost that owner far more than the $1.86 for the coffee. It may be a drop in the bucket but enough drops eventually affect the bottom line.

So what happened to the receipt ?

CChaplin, let me try and explain this from a restaurant owners point of view (not me but my husband).

You are in a busy restaurant standing in line for a table, see takeout coffee, pour a cup. No harm done.

You get to the table and forget about the cup of coffee and so does the waitress.

Not a big deal.

Okay so this happens 10 times a day at this restaurant. That is $18.86 per day. Still no biggie, do the math for a week, month and year and you'll see where it starts to add up.

It sounds to me like the owners wife snapped and you happened to be the unlucky recipient. Your one little harmless cup of coffee put her over the edge.

I'm guessing it was a problem that was starting to get out of control and ended with you. My guess is that their take out coffee set up has now changed.

Usually at takeout counters you pay first then get the coffee. You state that while you were waiting to get a table, you walked over and poured yourself a cup of coffee. Only when the owner said something did you pay for it. Maybe that set them off? Maybe they considered you to be trying to take advantage of them?

For the $1.86, I would chalk this one up as a learning experience. Don't help yourself to coffee until after you pay for it or ask if it's OK to get a "head start" on your sit down meal. That would have prevented the entire confrontation.

I'm with CChaplin on this one. Heck, I think the restaurant should offer people waiting for a table a complementary cup of coffee (especially at breakfast.) There was nothing wrong with pouring yourself a cup of takeout coffee as long as you were either going to go right up to the register to pay for it or ask the waiter to put it on the bill. This was bad customer service. Oh, and usually if I pay a small amount of cash for something I just wad up the receipt and throw it away. Perhaps CChaplin did the same thing.

I've been to a lot of breakfast places that have a coffee pot in the area where you wait for a table. It is always for the customers waiting for a table and there is no charge. Unless it had a takeout only sign I probably would have thought it was for waiting customers.

Even if it is takeout coffee, he paid for the coffee and then went on to order lunch. Who gets a receipt and actually keeps it for a $1.86 cup of coffee?

The owners have no business skill. It sounds like they are hurting financially.

GoTravel, thanks for the reasonable and informative response. Having worked in restaurants myself, as well as in other customer service roles, I do understand that there are many factors that may have contributed to the owner's behavior, and if she hadn't been so nasty BOTH when I poured the coffee and then again when she accused me of not paying, I would have chalked it up to a bad morning. I assume that if they regularly treated customers the way they treated me, they wouldn't stay in business for very long.

And PS. I wasn't given a receipt for the coffee, but if I had been, I would have thrown it away, as Suki mentions she would have done.