Relish Gourmet Sandwiches

Customer’s Statement of the Problem:“I walked into Relish, placed my order, and asked the girl that was assisting me if I could speak to a manager. She approached the manager (who was standing 10-12 feet away from where I was) and told her that I'd like to speak with her. The young lady came back...

and told me, "If you'd like to speak with her, you need to make an appointment". I was puzzled by her response, and told the young lady, "well thats not very good customer service". She said "sorry, thats what she told me to tell you". I sat there for about a minute, and walked back to the register and told the young lady, "I'd like my money back and if you can cancel the order". I addressed a young man standing next to her that I knew was a relative to the owner. I've gone to Relish since the day they opened multiple times a month. Thats how I know who he is. As I was telling him about my initial complaints, the manager then walked up and started asking what was going on. I told her, I was wanting to talk to her in the first place, but she made no effort, so I was explaining to the young man the issue that I was having with the customer service at the restaurant. She then tells me "people come in here all day trying to sell me something" I then told her "I'm not selling anything, I just placed an order to go". At that point she points at the sign and reads it to me, "we have the right to refuse service to anyone". I told her "I'm not a transient or solicitor." At that point she got upset and proceeds to walk around the counter as if she was gonna get physical, and she tells me, "leave". I told her I'd be leaving once I was given my money back. As I was walking out I told her, "you should be ashamed of yourself for the horrible customer service skills you provided". The two issues that I wanted to take up with her were never even brought up to her, because she wouldn't make time for me, because I had to make an appointment to address them. I did make the young man aware of them, and he was very understanding and he apologized for the poor customer service. I have never been treated so badly in any business. If anything a manager would say that they would address the issue, and I would maybe get an apology. I wasn't wanting anything for free, I just wanted to let a manager know that I had waited on hold for 8 minutes trying to place an order, and continued to dial, and got nothing but voicemail every call after that. I had to place the order when I got there, and figured I'd have to wait another 20 minutes on top of that. I was upset that a person would act the way she did, and figured I'd address it with the Revdex.com. Thank You for your time!”Customer’s Statement on [redacted] and [redacted] 11/2/2015:“I have been going to this business at least twice a month since the day they opened. Love their food, and I refer everyone I know. Today I had the worst experience I've ever had at any restaurant. I don't complain ever, in fear that someone in the kitchen will do weird things to my food. I asked to speak to a manager after I placed my order. She's standing in clear view, and she tells the young lady, "tell her to make an appointment if she needs to talk to me". REALLY??? How convenient would that be for me to go back an address my issue. As I proceed to talk to the young man that I know is family to the owner, then she makes time to come and ask what's going on. When I address the issue she tells me, "people come in here all day trying to sell stuff". I wasn't selling anything. I had placed a to go order. I guess that was her assumption. Then she points to the sign that says "they can refuse service to anyone". Did she think I was a transient??? Unfortunately lady I'm a local business owner and would never raise my voice to a customer and tell them to get out. I told her to give me my money back, and good bye. They're in the wrong business of customer service. I told her, "she should be ashamed of herself", as I walked out. I will NEVER go back to this business. You resolve issues that customers have, not tell them to leave cause you don't want to hear them. Beware..... They'll leave you on hold for 8 minutes, and keep the line off the hook as well, that way you have to drive there and wait another 15-20 minutes for your order. And the time prior to this incident they told me that my order would be ready in 20 minutes, and I get there and it wasn't ready. Took them an additional 18 minutes to figure it out. I guess you could say, "it was time for them to go". And I'll make sure I tell all my friends and clients that I've referred to come with me.”My Statement Below 11/18/2015:First of all, anyone who is going to read the above complaints must ask these very simple words: “Well, what did you do for them to react way?” Or “Why would anyone just out of nowhere mistreat you?”So, the day was Nov 2nd  a beautiful early fall weather kind of day. The sky was blue and the sun brightly shining with the hint of welcoming fall breezes. The complaint’s incident occurred slightly past midday. It was a busy day for us, so even though our lunch rush already passed, we still had quite a lot of patrons dining in. I was wiping down tables, serving trays to customers, and basically keeping the dining room tidy and helping with kitchen staff run for anything that they may be running low. I was having a conversation with a new customer dining with us for the first time answering questions as he was inquisitive about our process of making the Cubano sandwich. Most people think just slab a few slices of cheese and meat together in between a baguette and that’s it, but it’s a lot more than that. Anyways, during our conversation, our cashier for the day came to me and said; “There’s a [redacted] here to see you.” I said; “I don’t have appointments with anyone this afternoon. Did she say what it was about?” She answered; “No, she would not tell me after I’ve already asked her what this is about.” So I asked my cashier to take her information and I will be glad to get back with her. I returned to my conversation with the other customer. His meal was served and I excused myself and continued doing light sweeping. The dining room had at least 20 customers at the time so between the soft background music playing along with the chatters and laughters, I had no idea what was going at the registers until I moved closer to the front as I was sweeping.Then I heard a woman’s voice speaking to my manager in training, in a very loud tone as if she was trying to get my attention. I heard her say; “I want my money back.” While my manager nodding his head and saying; “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” I then say to her; “Can I help you with something?” She turned towards me and snared; “So now you want to talk me?” And went off on an irate rant. I explained to her nicely and calmly that had I knew the reason she wanted to talk to me I would’ve not hesitated to speak with her. Then I also explained to her that I get a lot of people who just come in to solicit or call on the phone to try and sell me advertising, marketing resources, computerized system, you name it; and I cannot always stop everything I am doing to listen to them. This morning for example, while trying to complete two large catering orders and serving dine-in customers, a gentleman came in and said to me; “Excuse me are you the manager? All I need is a few minutes to show you this new computerized ticketing system?” Usually if I am not busy I don’t mind, or if they leave me a flyer or contact information I am usually very good at returning calls whether I am interested or not.So as I tried to explain this to this irate customer, she got even louder and kept going on about how upset she was that I would not talk to her. I tried asking her what the problem was and how I can help resolve it, but at that point she refused to speak to me. However, in her complaint she stated that I would not listen to her. She insisted on getting her money back and vocalized how she will never come back to our restaurant again and will let everyone she knows how awful our place of business is. As I go behind the register to tell the cashier to refund her money, she leaned over the register counter and drew the periphery of her face with her index finger and said; “Remember this face! Remember this face!” Then she proceeded to say: “I will never come back here again and I will ruin you on [redacted], [redacted], and Revdex.com.” (No doubt, within an hour and a half she posted on our [redacted] and [redacted] websites). At this point I can sense customers listening in so I walked around to the front of the register next to her and said; “You see that sign up there? We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. And yes everyone has choices where they want to dine and you certainly have many other choices, so please leave!”My manager and cashier said that the main problem of her causing a scene was that because she tried calling and the calls kept going straight to voicemail. We have a business to run, so no, we would not purposely put the phone off the hook so that the customers have to come in. We get a lot of catering orders, and take out phone in orders. Many times the calls are back to back so call waiting calls will go straight to voicemail. We do retrieve messages constantly as soon as we see that there is one; which she could have done. My staff said that she was upset because she said she waited over thirty minutes for her two sandwiches, but in actuality, she only waited for 9 minutes since she placed the order but she counted the time that she tried calling and the time that took her to get to the restaurant.I personally do not want to have to relent on this issue any further. We are a small locally owned mom and pop business. We employ local employees and pay all our taxes biweekly, monthly, quarterly as they deemed necessary. It is tough enough to run a small business as it is with constant inflation and employee pay increases without transferring increased prices onto our consumers. Both my husband and I work a second job to support our personal lives. I am not present at Relish everyday of the week, so if I were not there that day would it have changed the scenario? As a business owner, I do reserve the right to see and speak to whom I wish. And I do reserve the right to refuse service to anyone that cause disturbance and may pose a threat to our staff and/or patrons, just like any other business. I am sure even the Revdex.com have their own policies and rights that they reserve. In this case she requested her money which she’d received, and vocalized that she will never come back so basically she did not want to be in our facility. Now, if she would have told my cashier that she had a concern and would like to speak with me then I would’ve excused myself from the conversation with the other customer and came straight to her.I do not believe the customer is always right. We are all consumers of some sort, even business owners. I have had dealings in the past when I had to call and leave messages for managers to call me back. I’ve even come back to my vendors to dispute invoices and if the person that can resolve the problem is not available, I just leave my contact information but I don’t go and cause a scene. I respect how people run their businesses and cannot feel offended. I cannot be impatient as the world does not revolve just around me alone!I believe I am a fair and rational person. I’ve never had any problems with anyone prior to this. We have so many loyal customers that come at least once a week; some even twice to three times a week. They know us by our names and we know them by their names; as well as their orders by memory. Our patrons tell us that they come to us not only because of the quality in the food/ingredients that we serve, but also because of our superb customer service and cleanliness.