Complaint Review: Famous Dave's Restaurants - Minnetonka Minnesota

Sorry for your cease of employment.  But I highly doubt that not filling a glass with enough ice was the major issue leading to your firing.  I currently work for Famous Dave's and know how difficult it can to be to work in the restaurant.  There is a lot of work that must be completed, and Famous Dave's does its job to be sure all of the work is completed by its employees.  I don't know about you, but I am paid well for the position I am in, compared with other local restaurants, and so can not complain.

I work for Famous Dave's and I have worked in two different stores. I think alot of your post reminded me of the first one I worked in, and I hated every second of it. The management was terrible and that was the cause of all problems that came up in the store. I have transferred and I am so much happier now in a laid back environment with managers who know how to motive and do their job at the same time. Regarding the Mystery Shopping. You shouldn't be worried about it. Just do your job and you should be fine. if you make a simple small mistake it shouldn't affect you really as long as most of the guidelines were followed I will definitely agree with the responders on that. I am afraid I am going to have to disagree however with the outright anger presented by both of them. Lets be honest, Mystery shopping is not hard at all. You are given a check list and a free lunch. The hardest part is stopping yourself from day-dreaming and missing something (Which does happen). How do I know this. I was a manager for a large company based here in DC. 46 Locations around the city and many hundreds nationwide. As a part of being a manager there we did mystery shops for our other branches where the employees would not know us. So I do know how easy your job is, and I'm not trying to offend. Just chill out a bit. I think it provides a very useful gauge of service in an establishment, but don't act as if you are restructuring and redesigning service standards and systems. You're eating lunch with a checklist in this case. My advise to the author. try to transfer to another store if possible. And as the first poster said. You do need to keep your head down in a hostile environment. I did it for nine months in a crappy store. and was able to transfer out with high regards from management who hated me personally but could not say anything bad about my service or work ethic. Famous Dave's is actually a good company. And I know for a fact Corporate would not be the ones yelling at you about too little ice in a water cup. There is no standard for that at Famous Dave's unless you gave them no ice when they asked for lots of it. I get the feeling you only posted what you wanted to about your experiences.

It's not often that I'll step in and speak up but this complaint has me seeing red. I couldn't keep my fingers quiet. Your company (no matter who you work for) sets non-negotiable standards that you are expected to perform at all times. You're not in a daycare center where you're going to be molly-coddled, you're in a job and the thanks you get is the paycheck you're handed at the end of every week. In order to insure that people are doing what the company expects of them, they pay big bucks to have the stores mystery shopped. The MSer is there ONLY to view things as a regular customer would see them. They're NEVER to look for things that a normal customer wouldn't look for or notice. As long as you do your job correctly - EX: greet the customers politely, look them in the eye when you speak to them, get their orders correct and in a timely manner and give them a genuine thanks as you hand them their receipt, you should never have a bad report. If a mystery shopper comes in and finds something not up to the standards they have been instructed to look for, then what you are getting when management speaks to you is *education* on how to do your job correctly in the future. How the individual perceives the *education* is another story. Are you a person that feels any slight correction or new instruction is actually criticism? If so then you're most likely taking the instructions you get as an attack when it's actually not. How you perceive the instruction/correction makes the biggest difference imaginable between having a happy work life or feeling under attack all the time. What you might think is constant criticism and harassment might only be management telling you something you needed to do but didn't, for some reason or another. I've been in the position of working for beings that treated us like slaves and I did the thing any sane, normal human would do. As long as I was working for them, I kept my mouth shut and did my job while I spent every free moment looking for another job. Once I found that new job, I was out of the slave-labor job permanently and I never looked back. So I really find it hard to believe that you're working in the conditions you describe and ONLY complaining about them online. Why aren't you out looking for another job? Yes, I'm a mystery shopper and I find that when a MSer has something to say or is in doubt about an employee they just shopped, they usually err on the side of the employee. That MSer wants the employee to get a good report! But we won't lie and say something was correct if it wasn't. For you to get upset and accusatory to an MSer saying they "know nothing whatsoever about the restaurant business" is irrelevant. The MSer isn't being paid to know the restaurant business. They are paid to see and experience what every normal customer sees and experiences. If the normal customer is to see an inch of ice floating at the top of their glass and the MSer doesn't see that, then they are bound by their contract with the company to report that honestly. It might be "trivial" to you but for Famous Dave's to want it included on a MS report means it's not trivial to the company owners. It isn't cheap for them to hire a MS company so they're not about to waste time and effort on things that are "trivial". They do it to insure that each and every customer that enters the place will have good food and service. Chances are, if you don't give the MSer good service, then other paying customers probably aren't getting good service either. That's what causes companies to fail and go out of business. Find yourself a job outside of the customer service industry and say goodbye to Famous Dave's. Find a job that you can be happy working at. Life's too short to work in a place you hate! Working in the customer service industry takes a very thick-skin and it's not for everyone.

How can this ripoff site just post this stuff without any proof. I am a mystery shopper and don't like this unfounded complaint against others in my field. How would this person like it if I said it about him and his fellow employees at FD without any proof to back it up. Mystery shoppers are under the same strains as this person is in their job. We have to meet stringent requirements or we don't even get paid! Even if they mess up at their job they get paid...they actually have it easier than us! I do this pt, but there are many who do it full time and either way we get a lot of training by doing a lot of these kind of shops. We know what we're doing and I don't like the fact that unfounded "rumor" is put here like it's the gospel. Just my 2Cents.

Darrin welcome to corporate America no sarcasim intended. Unless you own your own business, president of a company, rich, retired, lucky enough to have a wonderful boss or have a college degree your pretty much stuck in coporate America. The best thing you can do is look out for yourself don't trust anybody. They're shaking your hand with one hand and stabbing you in the back with the other. I sympathize with your situation i've been in coporate America for 13 long years thankfully I stepped out of the rat race. Its like that all over and you'll learn what to do and not to do. Best thing is to fly under the radar so to speak. Don't attract any kind of attention to yourself whether good or bad. Go home know you did your best and leave it at work. Its unfortunate that there are millions of people working under those conditions but we do have to eat and we have to do what we have to do. Another important lesson never ever under any circumstances let them know they got under your skin they love knowing they upseted you. Surprise surprise they don't care how mad you are, in fact they're are going to go home at the end of the day and forget all about you. Oh and if you make to much of a stink they know that there are a lot more people waiting for your job to replace you. You're replaceable at a drop of a hat. Trust me been there, done that wore the T shirt So again let me be the first one to welcome you to coporate America