Christine the Curmudgeon

Srsly.  Even Christine the Curmudgeon cannot make stuff like this up!

So we have this jerk on Planet Feedback, who wrote a letter complaining that he was unable to get the Saturday Dinner Special, the chicken tenders, for $6.99. He was told that the special only went until 10PM, and he showed up at 11:30PM.  He also claimed that he had been given the special price at that hour in the past.  And now he is screaming bloody murder, and wanting to call his attorney and file a class-action suit, yada, yada, yada.  Read the letter here.

I had never heard of this restaurant, so I Googled them to find their website.  Here it is.  No wonder I never heard of them, they are nowhere near here.  In any case, I looked for anything about these specials, found nothing.  So this guy does have a valid complaint, if the start and end time of the specials is not printed nor posted anywhere.  This I don’t know, as I’ve not been inside the location he is threatening to sue.

However, they did have a .pdf version of their menu on their site.  That is where I saw that the full price of this chicken tender dinner thingy is $8.49.  Yep, just $1.50 more than the special price!  If this guy is so hard up that he can’t afford to pay an extra $1.50, he needs to take an apidexin, shut the hell up, and eat at home.

He is also whining over being made to pay $2.11 for a Pepsi, that, by his own choice, did not drink.  I swear, somebody needs to take a picture of this guy with their cell phone, post it up somewhere where all of the servers can see it, with a message underneath saying, “IF YOU SEE THIS GUY, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WAIT ON HIM.  YOU HAVE OUR PERMISSION TO THROW HIS ASS OUT OF HERE.”

If he is indeed working seven days a week, as claimed, and is making such a stink over a few bucks, how does he have money for an attorney?  I think he’s just blowing hot air out his ass.  If he doesn’t like the policy of the restaurant, he can go elsewhere.

What a jerk!  There are a lot of places that piss me off, but never enough to threaten to sue.  I just write bad reviews about them, and not go back.  But I still wouldn’t do even that over $1.50.  It would have to be much worse than the specials expiring.  Woe to any restaurant who runs out of the special two seconds before this guy walks in, before anyone had a chance to erase it off the board or spread the word among the servers that it was “86ed” (restaurant lingo for running out of something).

This guy should be blacklisted from every restaurant in the area.

Sheesh!  The things that some people complain about!  Christine the Curmudgeon read this completely stupid letter on Planet Feedback.  It’s from someone who whined because Olive Garden did not automatically give her a free dessert after she blatantly advertised the fact that it was her birthday.

I honestly do not understand this sort of thing.  Where is it written that anyone has to give anyone, anything for their birthday?  Don’t you see how easily this could be abused?  Anyone could come in, claim it was their birthday, and demand the freebie.  And what would be next?  Freebies for people who send out baby shower invitations to have their shindig at Olive Garden…a freebie for the mother-to-be? I don’t think so!

Anyhoo, here’s the stupid letter:

A few months ago, I celebrated my birthday at Olive Garden. I could have picked any other restaurant, but no, I chose the Olive Garden. Without even thinking about it, I assumed I would recieve a birthday dessert at the end of my meal. We let our waiter know that it was my birthday, and he stated that Olive Garden has a policy that says that even though a guests celebrates a birthday with us, we will not give them anything in return such as a dessert. HOW WONDERFUL! At first I thought he was kidding and he was going to come back in 5 minutes and surprise me… but no he wasn’t joking.

I belong to a social networking site. A friend of mine left a wall post that said “I went to Olive Garden for my b-day and for dessert, they brought me some of their mints with a candle on it.” Now doesn’t that sound like such a generous company that cares about their customers satisfaction? I know I’m defiantly going to want to come back on my birthday to get my birthday mints!!!! Yay! Actually NO.

0_0

That’s really sad.

I’d like Olive Garden to give desserts to their customers who celebrate their birthdays at their restaurants.

This is not to say that no chain restaurants never give away anything for customers’ birthdays.  But to reap such benefits, one usually has to sign up for their e-mail club or loyalty program.  For example, if you join TGI Friday’s Give Me More Stripes loyalty program, you not only receive a coupon for a free birthday dessert, but also money-saving coupons all year ’round.  You also earn “stripes” for each dollar you spend, earn 100 stripes and they’ll send you a coupon for $8.00 off your next meal there.

I also received a free birthday dessert coupon fromthe 99, for belonging to their e-mail club.  They also send occasional money-saving coupons.

Also, Margarita’s, a chain of Mexican style restaurants here in New England, has a mailing list where they will send you a $10 off coupon to be used during the month of your birthday.  You can sign up from their website.

Oh, and by the way, I checked, and Olive Garden has an e-mail newsletter, as well.  The sign-up is right here.  The form does ask for your birthday, so maybe they do have coupons for their subscribers’ birthdays.  I wouldn’t know, I have never eaten at an Olive Garden, nor have I signed up for this list.

But basically, these businesses are rewarding you for being frequent customers, and allowing them to market to you via email.  They will NOT just hand out a freebie to any old dumbass who walks in and demands it!

Oh, and Jess…just because you and your friends on Facebook bitch about this situation, it’s NOT going to change anything. It just makes you look stupid. kthxbai.

Here’s a gem that Christine the Curmudgeon just read on Planet Feedback.  Link to letter plus comments.

I am very disappointed in my latest trip to Sam club in Spartanburg SC. We visited on 06/12/2010 and we drive over 45 minutes to get there only to find the coolers were out and we were unable to get what we came for so we came again on 06/13/2010 and purchased the items we came after. In that bunch of stuff we purchased 3 containers of Sycamore Farms Chicken Salad only to find once we returned home that the date expired 2 days before that. Needless to say I called the manager and his response was to return it and they would make it right. Well this is the least he can do I would think as I will have to drive out $10 worth of gas plus waste 2 hours to return it this weekend. Needless to say I am very disappointed and I feel the store needs to do a better job in checking these items. The manager did not even ask the brand or nothing so that he could pull the remaining expired containers nor appologize and was very short.

Refund for the product plus compensation for the cost of returning it

First of all, she should have checked the dates on the merchandise before buying it, ESPECIALLY if it’s a long drive to get there and back.

Second, I don’t know much about South Carolina, but is it really that uncivilized where people have to drive 45 minutes each way to shop for groceries?  There’s NOTHING closer?  In my opinion, the only reason to drive so far just to go grocery shopping is if there is absolutely nothing decent that is closer.

But I suspect that this person goes to a warehouse store such as Sam’s Club because of the perceived savings over the local grocery store.  Nothing wrong with that, IF the store is within a reasonably short driving distance.  But if you go to Sam’s Club because it’s cheaper, yet 45 minutes away, how much money are you REALLY saving?  Especially if you are using as much as ten bucks worth of gas to get to.  It reminds me of people who get into their ginormous SUVs to drive to a further-away gas station where the gas is 5 cents cheaper per gallon.  It costs them more to get to this out-of-the-way gas station than they are saving in gas costs!  Do people not do the math?

In any case, people need to ALWAYS check the expiration dates of stuff before they buy it!  Even I do this, and I have grocery stores that are less than ten minutes away!  It’s just that having to return the item is a time-wasting hassle, even if it only costs two bucks worth of gas to get back to the store.  I check everything, even canned items, health and beauty stuff such as weight loss products, even beer. Yes, beer can go bad after a time.

It may be Sam’s Club’s fault for putting expired product on the shelves, but it’s still up to the consumer to check, and then point this out to the manager while still in the store.  It’s not the store’s problem that they are a 45 minute drive away from this woman’s house.  Yes, the manager should have at least asked what item it was when she called, so he could remove it from the shelves.  But the customer deserves no other compensation other than an exchange for fresh product, or a refund.  No gas money.  Sorry.

This example of Planet Feedback stupidity is not about a dumb letter, but about a dumb business.  Christine the Curmudgeon was angered to read this letter today:

On Monday, May 31, 2010 I purchased an Insignia Flat Screen TV for $259.00, along with the Black Tie Protection Plan from the Addison, IL location. When I arrived home, I plugged the tv in and the picture had a line going through it. Obviously, I purchased a defective unit. I packed the tv up and brought it to Best Buy in Bloomingdale Il which is closer to my house. I spoke with managers, Samantha and Doug who told me that the screen had impact damage and that they would not return it or exchange it for a new one. I explained to them that that was unacceptable and that I paid $300+ for a defective television. They stated that I could take it to the original location where I purchased it from and they may accept the exchange. The managers were extremely unsympathetic of this situation and upset me so much that I began crying in the store. I then took the tv back to Addison where I spoke with a manager named Sean who was extremely rude and condescending to me as I explained that I had only purchased this TV 3 hours beforehand and I was stuck with a piece of junk. He also refused the return. I suggested that this may have been “impact” damage could have been done in a warehouse or loading and unloading dock and that this was extremely poor customer service. The only thing that Sean did was refund our Black Tie Protection Plan.

All I would like is for my daughter to have a new working tv. I would like to exchange this television for one that works. I paid $300+ for a damaged television and I feel that Best Buy has stolen $300 from me. On top of that they refused to help me, and made me feel like I was the one who damaged a tv that I purchased only 3 hours beforehand.

What horrible customer service!  Does Best Buy really want to go the way of Circuit City?  They will if they keep treating people like this!  This reminds me of when we got a new stove some years ago, it had a defective thermostat, and Circuit City, where the landladies bought it, refused to take it back or fix it.  We were finally able to get it repaired for free from the manufacturer.

I’ve been buying my electronics lately from Buy.com.  They offer free shipping for most items, and they have much better customer service.  I’ve never gotten a defective item from them, but I know people who have, and they’ve gotten replacements with no trouble at all.

Others who have commented on this letter have shared similar experiences with Best Buy.  Okay, so they have great prices, but what is the point of it, if you end up being stuck with a defective product?  I’m going to be very careful as to what, if anything, I’ll buy there in the future.  Even if they sold wrinkle cream, and I read many a good prevera review, saying that the best could be had at Best Buy, I’d still be hesitant.

This woman should go to the local consumer reporters and complain.  Maybe being on the news in a negative light may shame them into giving this woman a refund, or a new TV.

Christine the Curmudgeon wants to know…if you go into a restaurant and order a burger, and ask them to omit the tomato slices because you are allergic to them…or just don’t like them…do you expect a discount on that burger?

Probably not.    It’s not the same idea as getting a term life insurance quote, where you might receive a discount for being young and healthy. It’s just a lousy tomato slice!

But this guy thinks he is entitled to a discount because Burger King was out of tomatoes.  Behold this latest dose of Planet Feedback stupidity!

I went through the drive-thru window of a Burger King located near Culebra and 1604. I asked for a burger with everything including cheese. The employee said they had no tomatoes. I asked if I got a discount for having no tomatoes and she said no. I asked her if this was the manager’s decision and she said yes.

I reckon we won’t be eating anymore at Burger King because of this policy of charging the same price for a lessor burger.

Have the existing manager of this Burger King or the new manager of this Burger King apologize to me personally for this huge mistake!

I found the following review online:

WE just moved over here to Culebra and 1604, my husband ordered a Texas double cheesburger meal and within hours of eating from here he became VERY VERY ill from food poisioning. He vomitted throughout the night and into the morning. Luckily I ate something different as did my kids (we had chicken tenders). I know that had we not ate there he would have been fine, I WILL NEVER, NEVER eat at this Burger King again!!

How much does a slice of tomato cost, anyway? I know the tomato crop has been hurting this year, due to weather conditions, but still, not having one lousy slice on a burger is not really going to make much difference in how much it costs to make said burger.

And he’s calling this a “huge mistake”?  Sheesh!  Once I went to Dunkin Donuts and ordered a bacon, egg & cheese breakfast sammich on a croissant.  I opened it and started to eat it, only to find that they gave me sausage instead of bacon.  This was a mistake, but not a “huge” one.  I didn’t feel like going back into the store to complain, we’d already driven away, anyway.  Not worth the time and effort.  I just ate it the way it was.

The thing is, I don’t have much luck with Dunkin Donuts and their breakfast sammiches.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times they DIDN’T screw mine up, and this isn’t just one location…it has happened at several locations.  Another time, they left off the meat completely, I ordered bacon, but didn’t get that, or even sausage, even though I paid for bacon.  Once again, it wasn’t a big enough deal to go back into the store and argue about, or write a whiny letter to Planet Feedback over.  Often, they don’t heat the sammiches through…one time, they served me a sammich that was not heated AT ALL.

I did send an email to DD corporate about the problems with heating the sammiches correctly.  I didn’t ask for anything; I just wanted them to be aware of something that I feel is a problem, much more of a problem than BK running out of tomato slices.  I did get an apology and their assurance that they’d look into this issue and re-train people.  That hasn’t happened, because I had the same problems months later.  So I just go there for coffee drinks now, they’ve never screwed up my Vanilla Bean Coolatta (yet).

My idea of a “huge mistake” is when you stay at a hotel, and something like this happens.  Yep, when there’s a shit stain on the sheet, that’s a mistake.  Even then, I didn’t complain at the time, because it probably wouldn’t have done much good.  I did send an email to corporate, but got no response.  In any case, we will not stay at this location again next time we’re in the Mystic, CT area.

Planet Feedback is a joke.  I won’t use them, I just read it to laugh at the stupid people who write in about stupid crap like this, and often demand freebies.  When I do have complaints, I take the time to find the corporate website and get contact information, and send my complaint there.  It’s much more effective, for the most part.

Oh…and what does the food poisoning story have to do with the tomato issue?  It’s a good reason not to eat there again, but it has nothing to do with the complaint at hand.  And even so, I’d not bother writing a letter about it.  Mike got food poisoning after eating at the Wendy’s near the Burlington Mall.  I got food poisoning years ago from the McDonald’s at the Charlton rest stop on the westbound side of the Mass Pike, on the way to a trip to Cooperstown, NY (the rest stop was being renovated at the time, and McDonald’s was all there was).  Neither of us died, but we won’t eat at those places again.

I prefer to pick my battles carefully.  I mean, if I wrote letters of complaint over every single little thing that pissed me off, I’d be doing nothing but!