China Buffet Questionable Customer Service, Lack of Fresh Food Effingham, Illinois
I posted this review on (((REDACTED))).com, and got ripped apart by comments telling me I was being unreasonable. The complaint is below, but before commenting please consider the following before you tell me how unreasonable I am being:
-We had to wait for our children's drinks for 10 minutes. The place was not busy at all.
-Our booth they took us to (many others were open) had food in the seats and on the table, and we had to stand there for a few minutes so it could be cleaned. We asked to go to another booth, but the server didn't respond.
-None of the highchairs had working clips to safely seat our toddler
-A good 1/3 of the buffet's trays were empty, it was dinner, and had not been restocked
- We had already paid via debit
-The staff didn't seem to completely understand English
It is a pay-at the-door before you eat place, the food is decent (not
spectacular), but fair. VERY small buffet, not much to choose from. The staff was overall friendly, although hard to communicate with. The booth was dirty and needed cleaning. Lacked highchairs, and needed to restock buffet.
I took my family of 4 there on 5/26/2011 for dinner buffet. It was almost $9 per person. We paid for 3 buffets, and our 2 year old's was free. The manager took our payment at the door. It was quiet, not a lot of people eating. We had got our first plates of food (less than 10min since arrival. They forgot our kids' drinks so we waited), when our toddler had a potty accident (these are rare for him) and was soaked in urine. For sanitary reasons and b/c I wouldn't make my son sit in his
own pee, we felt we should leave. We asked the manager if we could put the remains of the 1 and only plate we had taken from the buffet into boxes to take home. She said, "$9.00 PER BOX". She understood our kid had pee all over him, knew we JUST got there, knew we hadn't eaten and just plain didn't care. We had already paid a total of $27 for one plate each (or rather, 2 bites each). I know they don't want people eating from the buffet then taking a box home, but we HADN'T been able to eat what we PAID for! Given the circumstance, who on earth would pay more to take home one box? It would have totaled $63 for a family of 4 to eat one plate each of VERY MEDIOCRE buffet food. Yeah, right! They also refused to refund ANY of our money. That is TERRIBLE treatment of paying customers. We weren't trying to cheat them out of food, and they knew that! We just wanted what we paid for (actually less! Most people eat more than one plate at a buffet).
I am AWARE that it's not the restaurant's fault my child had an accident. Perhaps I should have brought a change of clothes, but there hasn't been a need for that so I didn't. I am aware they have a policy where you must pay to get a box from the buffet for takeout. I just feel that we already paid $9 for our food, we had only one plate, hadn't been able to eat that food, and should be allowed to take it. That's all. The dining experience was not a great one....with that factored in I am upset. Please don't rip me apart here. If you don't agree, just tell me why nicely. Furthermore, expecting the staff at a restaurant (where customer service it critical) to speak English is not making a negative racial remark. Don't go there!
3 Updates & Rebuttals
mr rik
miami,Florida,
USA
You were dealing with foreigners
#4Consumer Comment
Sat, May 28, 2011
Not being mean, just stating the facts. Most foreigners are naive and pretty clueless. Your lucky they got anything right. Be thankful you didn't get a bad case of food poisoning- that little bit of extra food taken home could have just been enough to make your family sick and fighting for the bathroom.
Next time put your kid in a diaper. I hope you tipped well for the "accident". The kid got a free meal and left a pissy seat in return.
How would you like it if I brought my dog over to s**t and piss on your floor? In their country they could have probably hung you.
Ramjet
Somewhere,Michigan,
U.S.A.
Sorry
#4Consumer Comment
Fri, May 27, 2011
Sorry, but the people on the 'other site' were correct. You paid to eat there, you can eat whatever you like, doesn't matter how much OR how little. Not their fault you decided to leave.
They charge you or anyone else to take a box of food home with you. You want them to make exceptions for you because you are special. You're not. I just don't see why your problems become theirs.
They did nothing wrong.
LDHubbard
Altamont,Illinois,
United States of America
Questionable Customer Service, Lack of Fresh Food
#4Author of original report
Fri, May 27, 2011
I posted this review on another site, and got ripped apart by comments telling me I was being unreasonable. The complaint is below, but before commenting please consider the following before you tell me how unreasonable I am being:
-We had to wait for our children's drinks for 10 minutes. The place was not busy at all.
-Our booth they took us to (many others were open) had food in the seats and on the table, and we had to stand there for a few minutes so it could be cleaned. We asked to go to another booth, but the server didn't respond.
-None of the highchairs had working clips to safely seat our toddler
-A good 1/3 of the buffet's trays were empty, it was dinner, and had
not been restocked
- We had already paid via debit
-The staff didn't seem to completely understand English
It is a pay-at the-door before you eat place, the food is decent (not spectacular), but fair. VERY small buffet, not much to choose from. The staff was overall friendly, although hard to communicate with. The booth was dirty and needed cleaning. Lacked highchairs, and needed to restock buffet. I took my family of 4 there on 5/26/2011 for dinner buffet. It was
almost $9 per person. We paid for 3 buffets, and our 2 year old's was free. The manager took our payment at the door. It was quiet, not a lot of people eating. We had got our first plates of food (less than 10min since arrival. They forgot our kids' drinks so we waited), when our toddler had a potty accident (these are rare for him) and was soaked in urine. For sanitary reasons and b/c I wouldn't make my son sit in his own pee, we felt we should leave. We asked the manager if we could put
the remains of the 1 and only plate we had taken from the buffet into boxes to take home. She said, "$9.00 PER BOX". She understood our kid had pee all over him, knew we JUST got there, knew we hadn't eaten and just plain didn't care. We had already paid a total of $27 for one plate each (or rather, 2 bites each). I know they don't want people eating from the buffet then taking a box home, but we HADN'T been able to eat what we PAID for! Given the circumstance, who on earth would pay
more to take home one box? It would have totaled $63 for a family of 4 to eat one plate each of VERY MEDIOCRE buffet food. Yeah, right! They also refused to refund ANY of our money. That is TERRIBLE treatment of paying customers. We weren't trying to cheat them out of food, and they knew that! We just wanted what we paid for (actually less! Most people
eat more than one plate at a buffet).
I am AWARE that it's not the restaurant's fault my child had an accident. Perhaps I should have brought a change of clothes, but there hasn't been a need for that so I didn't. I am aware they have a policy where you must pay to get a box from the buffet for takeout. I just feel that we already paid $9 for our food, we had only one plate, hadn't been able to eat that food, and should be allowed to take it. That's all. The dining experience was not a great one....with that factored in I am upset. Please don't rip me apart here. If you don't agree, just tell me why nicely. Furthermore, expecting the staff at a restaurant (where customer service it critical) to speak English is not making a negative racial remark.