Complaint Review: GOLDEN CORRAL BUFFETT

Look at it this way, have you ever sat in a Golden Corral on a Saturday morning for the breakfast bar? If you have, then you will notice that more than HALF of the patrons who order the BREAKFAST buffet will happily sit for two hours drinking coffee and reading their paper while the breakfast buffet changes over to the LUNCH buffet. Then they will gladly go and help themselves to the lunch buffet knowing that Golden Corral cannot legally charge them for a second meal since they never left the restaurant. This is why they charge for to-go cups, they are just trying to make up the money lost on obese families who take advantage of their dining policies every single week. If people weren't so greedy, then this wouldn't be a problem.

This is just a family-style place where they prepare schlock food and try to make it presentable with LOTS of meat tenderizer and other things...

THIS IS NOT MAXIM'S OR LE CORDON BLEU OR EVEN A FIVE STAR RESTAURANT.
I DON"T THINK IT WOULD EVEN BE A DOT IN THE BOOK OF FINE CUISINE!!

THEY HAVE TO MAKE MONEY ANY WAY THEY CAN TO COUNTERACT THE LOW PRICES THEY ARE TRYING TO CHARGE WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE VERY HIGH COST OF FOOD DUE TO THE JACKING AND GOUGING OF BIG OIL TO MAKE US PAY MORE.

SO IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT THEY ARE DONG, SNEAK IN YOUR OWN DRINKS OR DO NOT EAT THERE.

EAT AT A MCDONALD'S OR SOMETHING...

First of all, I found your remark very understandable, if not somewhat long winded, but you are right. Golden Corral does knowingly rip people off.

I do know what I'm talking about. My father was a co-owner of a franchise down in Raleigh, NC. So, I'd say that qualifies me as an ex-employee, since his status was my status, also. He was also a corporate executive.

Golden Corral knows exactly what they're doing, and your complaining won't matter squat to them. That's a good maneuver; holding up the higher priced glass and making it look like that's the standard size cup. Since you pay ala-cart for the drink and get free refills, why not try and charge the customer $2.50 opposed to $1.50? Over the course of 300 customers filing through the doors (more like, 1000 every evening) that's a $300 increase in the bottom line for GC. Quite a hefty profit over the course of a year.

Here's another fact of Buffet dining; owners add yeast to all there breaded foods so after the customer ingests it, it swells up in the customers' stomachs. Nice, huh?

Still, I have to say, even knowing that, I still liked to eat at GC, after my father retired and sold his interest in the Raleigh store. Nostalgia, I guess. I used to frequent the Eastlake, Ohio store until I got salmonella poisoning while I was eight months pregnant, from eating their roasted chicken off their buffet. I was a casualty of that franchisees penny-pinching practice of not turning the heaters on the buffet up enough to keep bacteria from growing on the food--just to save on electricity. I almost lost my baby. I partially blame myself, since he had also shut the hot water off in the restrooms to save money, and that should have been a huge red flag. But I also knew that buffet wasn't hot enough and was so hungry I just didn't care.

That was the last time I ever ate buffet food. And, luckily for the denizens of Lake County, Ohio, that GC is out of business due to its owner's greed!

Do yourself a favor--don't go to GC ever again.

I have to say that I agree and disagree with you. First off, if you are eating at a buffet, it's all you can eat, and complaining about being handed a to-go-cup versus a small cup is probably the least of your worries. The whole unhealthy, contaminated food by little bitty hands and snotty noses turns my stomach in the first place. However, you stated that you SAW on the price list that the to-go-cup was extra and you asked. That is what the establishment is expecting you to do. It is posted. If patrons are too busy paying attention to something else or getting things together for their kids who can't handle holding a tray themselves, that's not the restaurant's problem. Again, it is posted. If people don't have a problem with the price they are being charged or question the amount when they get up to the register, then they are good to go. They should have checked their receipt and talked to a manager.

With the price of drinks nowadays, we always get water. You get ulimited refills at buffets anyway, so I'm sure people got their money's worth. If I recall correctly, it is the patrons job to go through the line and be responsible for what they pick up before getting to the cashier. You did the smart thing and asked first. It's not your problem or Golden Coral's problem others did not think the same thing.

I get tired of people complaining when they fail read the postings. Most places, if you are not happy with your receipt because you are charged for something you didn't realize you were getting, will make good on that. Unfortunately, in your report, you don't mention that you asked to speak to a manager at the time, but simply began policing other people's cups. In this case, your best bet would have been to just bring it to a couple people's attention and let word of mouth work it's magic. You seemed to waste more of your time making a fuss over a $2.50 cup you didn't even pay for that it was worth. See, word of mouth. Now I know if I ever go there, God forbid in all its ickiness, to make sure I don't pay for the to-go-cup. Mission accomplished.

First of all, this "complaint" should have not been filed in the "employers" section of the site. Your "complaint" is not with them as an employee. It is a consumer complaint that you have lodged against the restaurant. There is a "restaurants" section on this site.

That aside, I am still left wondering what your complaint actually is, because you have not done a very good job of explaining it.

Now...if I am understanding this correctly, you seem to be upset because you were served your drink in a cup that was meant to be offered as a "to-go" cup...and for an allegedly higher price than what the normal cost of a drink.

So why did you not insist on a beverage being served to you in a "normal" container for the lesser price? You seem to allude to the fact that there was a different price, but you never get around to stating that this was the case. You also do not state that you paid were charged and paid a higher price.

Is it possible that they were using "to-go" cups because they were short on "normal" cups or glasses at the moment you decided to pop in for a meal? Is it possible that the restaurant used those cups to allow patrons to depart their establishment with something to drink "to-go" without being charged extra for it? Personally, I love it when a restaurant offers me something to drink when I leave. Come to think of it, Golden Corral is one of those who does this routinely.

A couple of random thoughts: If you are so pinched for pennies that you cannot afford to pay for a drink when you belly up to a buffet bar, then maybe you ought to stay at home and cook your own meals.

And if another patron were to accost me in a restaurant in the manner that you stated that you did while there on your visit, I would request management to please ask you to mind your own business.

I visit Golden Corral's location near where I live here in Northwest Georgia a couple of times a month, and at no time have I ever left unsatisfied with my meal, the service, or have ever felt that I had been ripped off in the least sense of the word.

I guess some people will find anything at all to whine about.