Poor Customer Service

Being told "no" does not equal bad service. At my work,the registers
will simply not take an expired coupon. You can't even enter it
manually.

The restaurant owes you nothing. It isn't their fault the coupon is
expired.

Have this weird feeling that i'v read this somewhere before. *Customer
trying to use expired coupon and.......

If you had foresight, one would think you should check out any type of
complication for your new clients;e.g. expiry date! It is you who lost
"customers" and personally, if a client,I would be embarassed for you.
After this event, I would be looking for vendor.

Customer service always based on training and program of the
companies. If they do not have that program you can expect the worse.

"Sweet Tomatoes lost three possible new customers and one regular that
day from such a simple interaction."

Ummm, seems to me a customer who tries to use coupons after their
expiration date, and demands freebies for their mistake, isn't exactly
a customer worth retaining.

When the coupon says it expires on July 17, that means it expires on
July 17. Not July 18, not July 19, not whenever you decide to stop by
to make good on the coupon.

Why even post on this site about this ridiculous matter? Everybody
want something for nothing! Do you think they care about losing you as
a customer? They don't so stop being a squeaky wheel and go elsewhere.
Geez!!!

Please look up the word EXPIRED. Yet another person who does not
understand this very very simple concept.

The Restaurant owes you NOTHING for your EXPIRED coupon.

Really? Wow. I mean, really? You're complaining because a restaraunt
wouldn't take an expired coupon? What makes you so special that they
should? I really can't stand people that expect a company to accept an
expired coupon just because you let it expire and feel like it should
still be valid. I bet if you had been nice and polite about it the
manager would have found some way to make your experience better, if
you really did dine there 3-4 times a week. But you probably got all
snappy with him when he first informed you he couldn't accept it.
Sheesh, people are so greedy... why should you get special treatment
just because of the recession?

Your coupon was EXPIRED. Neither the manager nor the restaurant owed
you anything more than to provide your meals to you at regular price.

And as far as the recession goes, did you ever stop to think that
maybe restaurants are experiencing losses, too, and would be even LESS
inclined to give away free food for no good reason?

Good customer service doesn't mean giving you free meals. Then the
place would go out of business. The coupon expired, it's not their
fault you couldn't read it.

it always surprises me how a place is touted as "wonderful"

until someone demands a discount and is told "no"

Having worked in Corporate restaurant settings, I agree with the
manager on this. Sure, the mgr could have gone for "superior customer
service" and accepted the 1 day old coupon and comped the free meal.
BUT, here's where it gets sticky: the manager can't submit the coupon
with that day's receipts because the coupon is expired. His only
option would be to write off the food. Home Offices are on managers'
behinds about food being given away. They are fanatical about it and
managers get in trouble for it. I personally witnessed a manager being
fired for trying to provide "superior customer service". At least, in
his mind, that is what he was doing when he did things like accept 1
day old expired coupons. To Corporate, he was losing them money and he
had to go, no ifs/ands/buts about it.

Here we go again....

last year we heard a similar dilemma at California Pizza Kitchen,
which i believe generated over 700 comments.

It would have been a nice gesture for them to honor the coupon, but if
the answer is no, then you need to accept it.

If they honor it one day after expiration, why not two? why not three?
why not several weeks later? Due dates and Expiration dates are firm.

This is another one of those letters where I am staring to think
businesses should just do away entirely with coupons and only run
in-house specials.

Sometimes you are just stuck catering to the lowest common
denominator. The people who have forced businesses to put "Warning:
Coffee may be hot" are one of these. People who insist on a business
being open to serve them after the store is closed is another. People
who can't read expiration dates on coupons and THEN can't accept that
they are unusable are yet another.

There are reasons why coupons have an expiration date. They are meant
to be used during that time. Otherwise they'd just never stick an
expiration on them.

Not willing to pay normal menu prices doesn't sound like a loyal or
good customer to me, either.

$10 says your colleagues thought it was tacky that you argued about
EXPIRED COUPONS.

"Tomatoes lost three possible new customers and one regular that day
from such a simple interaction"

You trumped what should have been a simple interaction when you tried
to use an expired coupon.

"I felt the need to advise the company of what is happening to your
customers."

Expired: Come to an end, terminate.

I felt the need to advise you on what expired means.

In this situation, I agree with Greg that it would be a nice gesture
to accept the coupon. It was one day expired! Not a week, not 4 days,
it was one day after. I once worked at a locally owned restaurant with
a very strict coupon policy - no expired coupons at all. The owner did
allow a two day grace period. Sometimes people would forget about the
coupon or not realize the date had come up already, etc., and he
wanted to make sure they were happy. More than two days after, the
policy was very clear. We were not to accept the coupon.

I think a little flexibility would be OK in this type of situation. I
don't think it was bad customer service to say no, but allowing an
exception would have been superior service, and I hate to throw it out
there, but a WOW moment. Sometimes making a one day exception to
please a customer can go a long way.

Your coupon was expired. Under your theory, they should just give a
meal away when you buy one.
I for one wouldn't have a poor impression of a business because they
refused to accept an expired coupon. Why would that make your
coworkers less than impressed? Who were they less than impressed with
-- Sweet Tomatoes or you?

I'm with the other posters. The coupon was EXPIRED already. You had no
right to get anything for free.

And the manager did everything perfectly fine and showed excellent
customer service from what I can discern.

Your coupon was expired. Why should they make an exception for you?
I really don't understand that line of thinking. If I have expired
coupons, I throw them out.

Yeah, it would have been really great if the manager accepted the
coupon. But denying the use of an expired coupon shouldn't equal bad
customer service. Why does saying "no" always mean the employee is a
bad person? I don't get that.

Makes me glad my company doesn't use coupons all that much. I can deny
giving customers early sale prices for good reason. We advertise an
item at a certain price for a certain time and it wouldn't be fair to
the other customers if we honored the price before the sale
began--what if we sold out before the sale even really began?

Also, what if this business ordered extra food for the promotion and
when it was over, they didn't have that big of an inventory? I don't
know.

But it would have been a nice gesture for the manager to accept the
coupon. Not a requirement, though.

Yes, it would have been nice to accept the coupon but not necessary.
It seems that lots of folks on this site think that exceptions should
be made for them...but when does it stop? "No" doesn't translate to
rude or bad customer service. I'm not sure...did the OP tell the
manager at the time that he wouldn't be coming back because of
this...if that's how I felt, that's what I would do.

And yes, I know that Bed Bath & Beyond accepts expired coupons...and
yes, I shop there but I give most of my business to local independent
stores so while I'm glad they do that, most of my shopping is not done
there.

Yes, it would've been great customer service if the restaurant had
taken the LW's expired coupon. But I don't think it automatically
equals poor customer service because they didn't.

I don't fault the LW for asking about the coupon. I've done this a few
times myself, particularly if the coupon is only a day expired. Some
businesses will make exceptions; some will not. Personally I've never
wrote off a business because they said "no" to an expired coupon.

I just don't get these complaints. Yes, it would have been nice if
he'd comped something, but it's NOT bad customer service to not accept
an expired coupon.

Why would he be expected to give you a free meal when your coupon was
expired??

If he did honor the coupon great, if not then its not his fault.

I like how you bring up the recession, because here's a tip, It hits
businesses as well!

So you want him to comp you a free meal on a coupon that is expired
and he probably wont get corporate credit on in a recession?