We’ve all been there. In that uncomfortable predicament where we know something isn’t right and want to complain but aren’t quite sure how to go about doing it. I am the sort of person that hates to complain. I just want to see things done correctly and it irks me when people takes short cuts or are less than competent.
So this week at our local coffee shop, there was an unusual amount of flies. To be quite honest I had never even seen a fly in the place in the two years we have frequented the shop. At first I thought I was seeing things when my friend pointed out two flies, candidly sitting on pastries behind the glass and going about their business!
I was slightly dumb founded, so my friend piped up, “what’s with all the flies?” I almost dropped my coffee, as I did not expect the direct question. The server responded that they always come out when they are cleaning up at the end of the night. Obviously, I was not comforted by this response.
Anyway we left and convinced ourselves that it was a one-off, as it had never happened before. However a day later we returned to face the same situation. This time we were told that the owners were addressing the matter. The flies were still on the food and the back door, opening out to a dumpster was left wide open. We suspected that this is how all the flies were getting into the building. When we expressed the solution to just keep that door closed we were told that it was too hot with the door closed. When the entire building is clearly fully air-conditioned, this just did not make any sense.
So as resistant as I was to making a formal complaint with the franchise owners, we took steps to make them aware of the problem. We like the servers and the close proximity of the shop, but we’re not setting foot in that place until the situation is cleared up.
Have you found yourself in a similar circumstance? We’d love to get your feedback and read your own experiences.
You have all rights to complain. I once had a similar situation where I was sold sub-standards goods. I complained to the owners who were not very helpful. I took it to the Head Office and they got a severe warning. I don’t want to mention any names here but I am glad I did it because it made me feel a lot better…Glad I got it off my chest.
Let us know how they respond? Have you heard anything yet?
Thanks
Melinda.
Yea sorry to hear that about a place you like. It happens everywhere though. To be honest if you knew what health inspectors find in their inspections, you might never go out for anything ever again. Of course they fix the issues or get shutdown. Still some places can be degree or two from safe and not so safe.
I’ve worked for a Steak N Shake when I was a teen and remember this one girl always coughing or picking her nose..not kidding here…and then serving food. I once asked to wash her hands and she got all pissy with me.
I’ve been out to dinner with my folks one time and my mom order a salad that came with a catipiller. lol live! and crawling!
I’m sure plenty of people have had hair in their food.
One of the worst was I use to work at a bar/restaurant here in Chicago that I worked at for a year and 9 months into it developed a huge roach problem. Imagine being behind a bar and your customer is talking to you and your nonchalantly taking an ashtray and sliding it across the bar to smash the 325 million B.C. bug. Little trivia there, as they date back to as far as 325 million year B.C. the Carboniferous era was the time during 325 million years ago. Roaches were so abundant then that some scientist refer to this as The Age of Cockroaches. lol
And of recently of a couple years ago while on a service call to fix a cooler in a kitchen at a BBQ place here in the Windy City. I had to pull the cooler out from the wall which was close to the cooker. First of all you didn’t walk across the floor, you SKATED across the floor. You should of seen the grease on the walls behind the cooler. I have never eaten at that place again.
Sorry if this turned into a food nightmare. lol I guess you just got to put it out of sight/out of mind, when you go to places.
I have a nice fresh joke for you people) How many letters are in the alphabet? Nineteen. Because ET went home on a UFO and the FBI went after him.