Good restuarant complaint letter? update: received a personal response

[TheNinja]

Dear Sir or Madam,
I'm not sure who to contact about this but I just wanted to make your company aware of an experience I had at the Hungry Hunter Steakhouse in LOCATION, California. My wife and I go out to eat at least once a week and we also buy gift certificates for people quite often. We have eaten at Hungry Hunter steakhouses before and have had great experiences, which is why I was so disappointed with my last one. It was on March 5, 2004.
We were out to eat with another couple. First of all our waitress obviously did not want to be there and was anything but friendly (I understand people can be having off days though so this in itself wasn't a big deal). However, after we received our orders, we found many things wrong with it. In fact my meal was the only one that was totally correct. My friend's wife's steak was supposed to be medium well and was less done than my medium steak (again not a huge deal in itself but it adds up). My friend ordered sauteed mushrooms and received mash potatoes instead, while his "medium" prime rib was what most would consider well done. Finally my wife's "well done" steak was medium RARE at best! By the time they put her steak back on the grill and got it back out to her the rest of us were pretty much done eating as we didn't want to let our food get cold.
Thank you for taking time to read about our experience and if we decide to vist the restuarant again, I hope my next one is a little better.

Thank you,
NAME

UPDATE: REceive this back today:
Mr. Staley8,
Thank you for informining me of your last visit to the Hungry Hunter at
LOCATION, CA. I would like to offer my sincere apologies for your
disappointing experience. Please contact me at (xxx) xxx-xxxx (local number, must be the local manager of that steakhouse).

Maybe I'll get some certificates or something. Or maybe he'll just tell me that I should say something that night. Who knows.

 

[RossMAN]

I would follow these how to write a complaint letter guidelines.

Do not send it to that particular restaurant (unless it's a one restaurant chain), send it to the district or regional manager.

 

[TheNinja]

I was going to add some comments but decided to keep it more professional. I was going to say stuff like:

"My wife's supposedly well done steak was rare at best, and at one point I thought the steak was going to get up and walk away b/c it might have still been alive I'm not totally sure"

or I was going to end it with,
"If I wanted mediocure steaks and subpar service I'd go to AppleBee's and save myself some money"

Would that be better?

 

[Yossarian]

Originally posted by: Staley8
I was going to add some comments but decided to keep it more professional. I was going to say stuff like:

"My wife's supposedly well done steak was rare at best, and at one point I thought the steak was going to get up and walk away b/c it might have still been alive I'm not totally sure"

or I was going to end it with,
"If I wanted mediocure steaks and subpar service I'd go to AppleBee's and save myself some money"

Would that be better?

none of that childish crap helps.

 

[ScottyB]

That was on my birthday.

 

[Vic]

Pardon me, but your letter is childish and ranting. Your sentence structure is deplorable.

My tips on eating out and service -- I eat out OFTEN, and I can tell you that the time to complain is when you are at the table, not 3 weeks later. If they correct their mistakes promptly and courteously, then fine. If they don't, then inform the manager. If that doesn't work and the manager won't do anything for you, then stiff the tip and inform them that you won't be returning and why. In that event, a letter might also be appropriate, but it should be sent in within days, not weeks.

If your food is late, or cold, or improperly cooked, or otherwise screwed up, the time to tell your server is right then and there. Give them an opportunity to resolve the situation. Your server cannot control the cooks and does not test the done-ness of your steaks before serving them to you (because that would be both unfeasible and virtually impossible). If your server fixes the problem(s) promptly and with a smile, then all is well (I sometimes tip extra then). If they are rude, act like you are being rude for bringing the problem to their attention, or suddenly decide to stop giving you good service because they think they already lost their tip, then they did lose their tip (and I always tell them why, even if they ignore me so badly that I have to write the reason on the receipt).
I am VERY generous when I receive good service, VERY forgiving when bad service is promptly and courteously corrected, and VERY unforgiving when bad service is not corrected and/or compounded with rudeness.

My advice: screw the letter and the restaurant and don't eat there again. To complain almost 3 weeks later is too late.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

My advice: screw the letter and the restaurant and don't eat there again. To complain almost 3 weeks later is too late.

 

[DrPizza]

I agree, it's way too late, 3 weeks later.

Do you have any idea how many people simply claim bad food/service from restaurants in an attempt to get free food? It's a very common scam. From my point of view, working part time (mgr when I'm there) at a pizza shop, if you call to complain about your food more than 3 hours after you receive your food, there's nothing I'm going to do about it, unless I recognize you as someone who eats there every single week, and who was waiting to talk to me because they know me.

But, honestly, if the food/service was really bad, a gift certificate 3 weeks later isn't going to make any difference as to whether the person will continue to patronize the establishment.

There are only a couple of possibilities:
1. You're so pissed off that you won't be back. Giving you a gift cert. or something isn't going to help.
2. Thanking you for bringing the problem to my attention, "I'll make sure I get to the bottom of this and find out which staff person is responsible for the mistake." i.e. you're not getting a gift certificate
a.) you'll continue eating there
b.) you'll swear that you won't be back, but you'll be back in about 2 months. (note, there are some people truly pissed enough to never return... covered in (1.))
3. You're trying to scam me.

Unfortunately for any honest people, I'm able to figure out over half of the time that it's a scam attempt. I ask for a description of the employee "it was a girl" and there wasn't a girl working that night, or as has happened too many times to even be funny any more, their claim of bad food is for something that's not even on the menu.

 

[TheNinja]

I don't really expect anything from it. I was just on my lunch break, got bored and remember that I never wrote the company the letter that I said I was going to write. At least I was honest about the date, I could have put yesterday's date or something. I just wanted to write the letter and now I feel better

 

[Kelemvor]

I got Rocky Rococo's to change one of their entire policies by writing them a complain email a couple weeks ago. You just have to write it in such a way that you are obviously not happy but don't be an ass (not that you were). I agree that complaining about that specific meal should have been done to the manager at the time it was happening but you might score a gift certificate or something out of it anyway.

Good luck.

 

[TheNinja]

I received this as a reply:

Mr. Staley8,
Thank you for informining me of your last visit to the Hungry Hunter at
LOCATION, CA. I would like to offer my sincere apologies for your
disappointing experience. Please contact me at (xxx) xxx-xxxx (local number, must be the local manager of that steakhouse).