Manager trying to get more sales through innocent deception

Here's what probably happened. The manager saw that her staff member
was in the weeds and had a hard time keeping up. She took your drink
and appetizer order, to help her server catch up. Unfortunately
sometimes, restaurants are understaffed for unforseen reasons, and I
think it's awesome that the manager would step in and assume doing
table service duties. (I wish mine would!!!)
If she did not say, "This will be on us.." or something to that
effect..do not assume.

Most restaurants want you to be happy with the food and service...we
do what we can. We want you to enjoy yourself and have reason to come
back. We are not mind readers, however...if you are not happy..say
something! Usually we have no problem accomodating you if you have a
complaint or concern. It does not sound like you voiced your
displeasure with management, though. It sounds as if you made an
assumption, didn't get what you assumed was coming to you, and then
wrote a complaint letter afterwards.

Had you said something to the manager, I'm sure they would have done
something. Especially since it was a corporate restaurant.

If she didn't say "It's on the house", what the heck made you think it
was?

When in doubt..DON'T! When you got your bill and saw the charge, you
should have asked for that manager..and reminded her of what her offer
had been.

Too slow! Too bad

I agree with everyone else. Why did you not question the bill when
you got it?

Sorry, but you paid the tab and, at this late date, it is unlikely
they'll reimburse you.

"Her approach indicated to us that this was "on the house" based upon
they way she presented it to us..."

I'd say that this was your interpretation and perhaps not the
manager's. I'm curious how long you waited for a waiter that would
prompt the manager to visit your table and offer a $20 comp?

Anyhoo - - I don't see any deception here and as other posters have
stated - - the time to deal with these issues is while you're still at
the restaurant. This is particularly true in your case as you are
claiming the manager's "approach" indicated that your drinks and
appetizer were going to be at no charge.

I, too, am hung up on "innocent deception" because understanding what
you mean by it may help understand what it is that you believe
occurred.

My first guess is "the deception of innocents" -- there you were, not
trying to do anything wrong, and the manager came up and lied to you
in order to get you to pay more. That would fit with "a ploy by the
manager" and "happily".

My other big guess is "inadvertent deception" -- as in, the manager
did not intend to be conveying that these things would be on the
house, and so you took an action that you wouldn't have taken had you
only known what the manager intended to offer.

I think there's a third possibility here that the "she happily put the
items on the bill" bit suggests you don't mean, which is that she
intended these things to be on the house but didn't actually do
whatever she needed to do to make it clear that they were free. If
there was a chance that this might have been the case, the place to
address it was in the restaurant. And unless you watched her
gleefully announce to someone else "I told Ted that these would be on
the house, and now we're going to get an extra $3.00 tip on top of the
additional proceeds for the restaurant as a whole!" I don't think you
can really rule out this possibility.

If it was an inadvertent deception, then again the place to deal with
this was at the restaurant, instead of going over the manager's head,
because you certainly wouldn't intend to get someone in trouble for a
miscommunication.

But yes, I suppose that if you believe that this was a deception of
the innocent, then it would make sense to go over the manager's head.
After all, the manager did something wrong, right? The thing is, you
don't mention having made a point of it at the restaurant. So the
person dealing with this has probably got no evidence at all that any
of this actually happened. (Well, since most people pay by credit
card there is probably evidence that you bought some food there.) it
would have been a stronger letter if you had been able to say "We said
to the server, 'The manager indicated we would not be charged for
these.' The server checked with the manager and said that the charge
stood. We asked the server for the contact information for the person
in charge of the restaurant, and were told 'Oh, just write to us
through Planet Feedback!'" Then whoever gets your letter can go track
down the server and ask whether this in fact happened.

I tend to incline to the "inadvertent deception" interpretation here,
so I guess I'm having more trouble with not trying to deal with it (or
at least not reporting that you tried to deal with it) at the
restaurant. But I can see why someone who believed that this was a
deception of the innocent would view an attempt to deal with it at the
restaurant as futile, so I'm trying to keep that in mind.

I really don't see any deception (innocent or on purpose or guilty or
accidental) What I see is a failure to communicate. This entire
problem could have been cleared up, once and for all, by bringing the
issue up when the bill arrived.
Without knowing the original intent of the manager (was she simply
trying to expedite service by handling part of it herself, or was she
indeed intending to "make it up to you". Not being a mind reader and
not having her side of the story, I don't really see the need for
these items to be "comped" by reinbursement and or a gift certificate.

It's understandable to assume she meant on the house but on the other
hand she didn't say that.

You should have spoken to her when you got your bill instead of
writing to PF.

Yeah, sounds to me like a simple miscommunication. But like a doofus,
you said nothing, paid the bill and left. Don't expect to see that
reimbursement anytime soon.

In this case, simply say to the waiter "I'm sorry, but the manager
told us that these drinks would be on the house."

If the waiter checks and comes back and says that this is not true,
ask to speak to the manager.

If the manager says that he never intended that the drinks be free
(that he was just trying to get you something quickly), tell him that
this was not your understanding. Indicate that you are not paying for
the drinks. Be calm. Polite. Nice. But firm.

If he gives you a fight, only then do you say "in that case, you have
the drinks back" and make a motion to put your finger down your
throat.

OK, that last part is a joke (maybe). But it's the manager's
responsibility to accept blame for the miscommunication. I can
totally see how this could happen and no quality manager would stand
there, in a crowded restaurant, and argue with you. Especially if
you're load enough for other to hear "you lied to us!"

Problem here is that, once this letter gets back to the manager, he'll
have honestly forgotten about it.

I feel your frustration. This happend to me once. I cant remember now
where we were but we had some major issues with our food and the
manager offered to bring me a dessert so I picked one out. Sure
enough, we got charged for it and the messed up food. By then i was so
mad and frustrated I just paid and left. I figured it was useless to
try and fix the problem after all the other problems we had.

I hope you hear back from them and they offer you something.

First of all, what is "innocent deception"?

Anyway, I can see this being a mistake/misunderstanding in one of two
ways:

(1) The manager forgot to tell your waiter to comp you the drinks and
appetizer.

(2) The manager didn't intend for those items to be free, but rather
was sorry for your delay and was offering to help out the waiter for a
moment in order to get the ball rolling.

Why didn't you say anything when the bill was presented to you? Cat
got your tongue?

I think this was more of a case in which the manager forgot to tell
the server the drinks and appetizer were complimentary. You should
have asked for the manager when you got the check and it would have
been straightened out.

If it was a ploy, the manager would not have even bothered coming by
your table.

Why didn't you just ask for the manager while you were there instead
of paying for it and then asking for reimbursment? This makes your
story sound fishy at best.