Bad Service Rant
You know, if there's one thing I really dislike it's being treated like a moron when I'm buying something from someone. This happened to me yesterday, and I'm still fizzing about it.
I was working yesterday, telling people all about the Miracles of Modern Technology at an agricultural show in the depths of the Borders. It kept threatening to rain, although it never did, not properly. We decided, two colleagues and I, that we would treat ourselves by walking over to the village hotel for lunch. That's the Grapes Hotel in Newcastleton. One of my colleagues even went over beforehand to book a table, just to make sure we would get in quickly, as we thought the place would be packed.
When we went over at one, the place was just about empty, which surprised us, but we thought, great we'll get dealt with much more quickly. Some hope. Fifteen minutes later we were still standing at the bar waiting for them to attend to us. The boy behind the bar had to be the slowest barman in existence. The wee waitress who rushed around didn't actually seem to be doing very much. We asked if someone would take our order, the wee girl said the boy should do it, the boy said the wee girl should. That was when I started to get annoyed. They eventually agreed the wee girl should do it, and she took our order.
Half an hour later, we were still waiting for them to bring the food. I don't know about you, but that's at the margins of acceptability if I'm in a restaurant at dinner time, and the menu's warned that because they don't just bung things in a microwave, the order could be delayed. It's certainly not acceptable for a bar lunch, especially when the place is half empty. Don't get me wrong, when the food eventually came it was delicious. I just wish I had had more time to savour it.
Over the past few years, I have actually started to complain about things. Very unBritish, I know, but there you go. So when we paid for our lunch I complained about the length of time we had to wait. It was the hotel owner I complained to. Oh, he says, I make no apologies, this isn't McDonalds, all our food is freshly cooked.
What, steak pie and chips? Gimme a break! However, since I believe my eyes were beginning to glow red, my colleagues wisely dragged me from the premises. But I'll know not to go there again.
What really enrages me about this incident, is how rude the man was. That was completely unnecessary, but sadly typical of the attitude of many small businesses in this country. No wonder the place was half empty and all the locals had gone somewhere else.
I was working yesterday, telling people all about the Miracles of Modern Technology at an agricultural show in the depths of the Borders. It kept threatening to rain, although it never did, not properly. We decided, two colleagues and I, that we would treat ourselves by walking over to the village hotel for lunch. That's the Grapes Hotel in Newcastleton. One of my colleagues even went over beforehand to book a table, just to make sure we would get in quickly, as we thought the place would be packed.
When we went over at one, the place was just about empty, which surprised us, but we thought, great we'll get dealt with much more quickly. Some hope. Fifteen minutes later we were still standing at the bar waiting for them to attend to us. The boy behind the bar had to be the slowest barman in existence. The wee waitress who rushed around didn't actually seem to be doing very much. We asked if someone would take our order, the wee girl said the boy should do it, the boy said the wee girl should. That was when I started to get annoyed. They eventually agreed the wee girl should do it, and she took our order.
Half an hour later, we were still waiting for them to bring the food. I don't know about you, but that's at the margins of acceptability if I'm in a restaurant at dinner time, and the menu's warned that because they don't just bung things in a microwave, the order could be delayed. It's certainly not acceptable for a bar lunch, especially when the place is half empty. Don't get me wrong, when the food eventually came it was delicious. I just wish I had had more time to savour it.
Over the past few years, I have actually started to complain about things. Very unBritish, I know, but there you go. So when we paid for our lunch I complained about the length of time we had to wait. It was the hotel owner I complained to. Oh, he says, I make no apologies, this isn't McDonalds, all our food is freshly cooked.
What, steak pie and chips? Gimme a break! However, since I believe my eyes were beginning to glow red, my colleagues wisely dragged me from the premises. But I'll know not to go there again.
What really enrages me about this incident, is how rude the man was. That was completely unnecessary, but sadly typical of the attitude of many small businesses in this country. No wonder the place was half empty and all the locals had gone somewhere else.