Treated Like Garbage at Chili's

"When we received our bill the beers we ordered near the end of Happy
Hour were regular price, which is a difference of about $3 per drink.
I asked the waiter (who's name was Kyle and was wonderful!) to take a
look at it and fix it."

For starters, Kyle(your server) should have noticed the price
discrepancy ******BEFORE******* he handed it to you. Secondly, if he
would have, then after he should have presented the situation to the
GM. If he couldn't fix it, he should have told you all about the
situation. Legally, Kyle couldn't charge you a price that it wasn't,
so you say how "great" he was, I would have left 8% tip at the most
unless he would have taken something off the bill such as at least a
soft drink or tea either from the manager or from HIMSELF. I feel the
***SERVER*** is the person CHARGING YOU, so that person is at fault
for ANY and I mean ANY type of overcharge UNLESS the manager hands you
your bill or another server does, which is VERY HIGHLY UNLIKELY.

Your server should have been ON TOP of this situation to be
**RESPONSIBLE** enough to HAND YOU A CORRECT CHECK. Also, you NEVER
KNOW, he could have easily done it on purpose to get a higher tip from
the higher check amount. My husband and I have been PURPOSELY
overcharged before, so it IS possible.

WHY not punish the person that rung you up and gave you your bill? You
act like he was such a great server, but the bottom line is HE DIDN'T
CARE ONE BIT ABOUT YOUR MONEY, so WHY THE HELL CARE ABOUT HIS?

Your server can notice a wrong price JUST AS THE CUSTOMER CAN. There
is NO EXCUSE for your waiter to have handed you a check with a more
expensive price than what you are supposed to pay.

I don't get WHY you feel that your server is INNOCENT here? Your
server charged you the full price and didn't bother to ***VERIFY***
that all the prices were indeed correct BEFORE he handed it to you. I
cannot believe you think your server is an innocent party in this.

Honestly, since he apparently rung it up after happy hour was over, it
was his fault even more so. He also should have told his GM that you
all truly did order BEFORE happy hour was over with. Considering the
GM wouldn't budge, I do NOT feel by LAW that you had to pay those
prices and your server should have paid the diffence out of his own
pocket considering he apparently caused the situation to begin with by
not ringing it up before happy hour was over with and the fact that he
didn't verify your check. He obviously didn't care about your money
any.

HOW could you want to leave any more than 10% for someone that can't
take money out of HIS OWN POCKET to fix the situation considering it
was 100% his OWN FAULT? Did you base the tip on the non-happy hour
prices? I bet you didn't. He won and you lost money. I guess there's
sucker born everyday. You are nieve it seems.

While I agree that this should have been a relatively straightforward
fix to the problem, the fact that you over dramatized the situation by
saying you were "treated like garbage" (How? They crammed you in a bag
and put you out on the curb?) makes me wonder if there was more to the
exchange than what you wrote here.

Ultimately, you say this incident won't stop you from shopping there
in the future (which is a good thing) and you indicate that you
refused to pay the difference and had it removed. So I guess I'm
wondering what's left after all that?

I've never had anything like this happen, and it sounds quite
bizarre.

I would agree with anyone who suggested something is missing in the
telling of this story. The apparent attitude of the manager is
unacceptable. The business about taking the "decorative clock" off
the wall, for example, is inappropriate. Was there something said,
and the way it was said, that caused him to behave that way?

I don't know - this simply doesn't make sense as reported. If Kyle
made a mistake and rang the drinks in late, he should have reported
that to the manager or the manager should have asked him about it
(since the customer was challenging it). The only explanation I can
think of for the manager's position (not his attitude) is that Kyle
said he rang the drinks in promptly (lied).

I am wondering if some attitudes/comments got in the way of this being
properly resolved. If this had happened to me, my response to the
manager's comment about ringing in would have been to have him ask the
server if there had been a delay. This situation is quite unusual.

I kinda disagree with everyone on this one - I feel like something is
being left out. You seem to be going out of your way to let us know
how great your server was which raises a bit of a flag for me. I
remember my old restaurant days and it was alway easy to be the hero
and say "I'll see what I can do for you" whether or not I could really
make something happen. Maybe I got you a free dessert or something
off your bill. If I couldn't, and even if I knew I couldn't in
advance, it was always "well the manager wouldn't let me do it". I
save face - look like I'm looking out for the customer - and it's not
my fault (locking up a decent tip). If this server was so awesome he
would have known the rules and got your order in on time - no manager
needed. Again - I think something's missing here - good luck with
your complaint.

I am with you on this one. The GM was out of line and should be
forced to apologize.

I am puzzled because anytime we have ordered drinks at our dinner
table, the servers generally have to place the order in the computer,
the bartender gets it, prepares the drink order and the server picks
it up and delivers it to the customers.
That's the way its done at our local Chili's, Applebee's and Ruby
Tuesday's.
Never had a problem with timed happy hours when they do this.
They must do it differently in other places.

I have to agree the price of the drinks should be determined when you
place the order.

I completely agree with you on this! Every bar/restaruant that does
happy hour considers the pricing at the time you ordered, not the time
the drinks were punched in. The GM was tactless, and you were right in
refusing to pay for the difference.

Also, I'm glad to see that you are giving the server, Kyle, a good
comment. :) Hopefully he will hear about it.

Overall, your letter is what a complaint letter should be, rational,
reasonable, and informative.

Good letter. The GM is an idiot. The customer has total control over
when they order the drinks but they certainly have no control over
when the order is "punched in".

This is a good letter, and I think completely justified. However, I
think you hung your waiter out to dry, because this should get back to
the GM. But, I think that Chili's handled this situation wrong, and I
think they owe you an apology.

or should it read?

Put another waiter on the barbie.

I agree that the GM should have been more cordial and probably should
have adjusted her bill from the get go.

However, the part I take exception to is recognizing the waiter ( in
writing ) for what part he played in what we call call Good Waiter /
Bad Manager or Working the Gratuity by aplogizing etc.....

This feedback, as written, will no doubt get back to the manager and
in my mind all parties would have have been better served if this
feedback had stayed on point.

Just a few random thoughts.

BillR.

Good complaint letter. I agree with you completely -- it's about WHEN
you order, now when it gets punched into the system. In fact, many
times I've had bartenders or servers say to me, "Just so you know,
Happy Hour is over in five minutes, so do you want another round
before then?" I love that they're proactive that way.

I hope you hear back from Chili's, and I hope they give you a gift
card of some kind! That manager needs a talking to!

p.s. I was born in Cedar Rapids and am from Iowa city. Howdy,
neighbor!