Complaint Review: Outback Steakhouse Restaurant - Fredericksburg Virginia

Employee: I feel you just proved poster right. If selling by weight, it should say as much. If you say full rack vs half rack, people expect a full rack or half of the rack. The term full or half when selling by weight is misleading. If you’re cutting the rack to fit your weight limit, it’s not full. If the animal has 16 ribs in his rack and you cut off two ribs to fit your weight limit, it’s not a full rack. Just like if you won a bucket full of change and finds it’s only filled 3/4 of the way. Wouldn’t you expect a full bucket? Only to hear it’s actually 5 pounds of change after the fact is a misrepresentation of what you should be receiving. The term full shouldnt be used if you only care about weight.

 I appreciate that the former employee who filed a rubuttal probably does believe that the ribs are sold by weight and that may or may not be true, but here is my experience.

At two different Outback Steakhouses, one in Charleston, SC, and one in Augusta, GA, on a total of three different occasions, I got cheater racks at Outback. In the first and second case it was 8 bones. Those were both in Augusta. I got 7 bones in Charleston. When I complained in Augusta, no one said it was by weight either time. They just adamantly said it was a full rack. This despite my very competent argument that by definition, a full rack of ribs could not be a partial rack and that a full rack is about 12 to 14 bones.

In the Charleston Outback, when I got only 7 bones and complained, the manager came out and said "oh, yes, youa re correct, it should have been 8 bones." I told him "no, it should have been a Full Rack like you call it on the menu." He was nice about it, but he disagreed and acted like he couldn't even understand the concept of what the word "full" meant. I pointed out that it had obviously been cut since there was a jagged edge on one side, so if you cut something, you, by definition, do not have a "full" anything. He still looked like he didn't understand, but this is when he or the server who was standing next to him (can't remember which) said they sell them by weight. I then asked "how much weight for a full rack?" He stared at me for a moment, looked at the server, and she shrugged. They didn't know, so I doubt it very much.

I thought of a great illustration after the fact that I would have loved to use: "If your wife said she was giving you her full love, but you found out she was sleeping with you 2/3 of the time, but she was sleeping with someone else 1/3 of the time, would you be getting her "full love"? Nope.

Back to the story: I then said that this would be fine if they advertised it as X ounces of ribs. He couldn't come up with anything to say, but just said he would send out some more ribs. I was almost done eating when two more bones came out. The server asked if this would be okay and I said "no". She didn't know what to say except sorry and I told her it wasn't her fault.

I would have no problem with the smaller rack iff they called it a large order of ribs or gave the number of ounces like I mentioned earlier, but to call it a "full rack" is obviously a lie at worst and a gross misrepresentation at the least and I am not sure the distinction matters that much. It puts me off completely and makes me not want to go back at all, despite the fact that they have many items that I enjoy. I mean, if they are willing to lie about this, what else aren't they telling me the truth about?

I worked for Outback for about a year in a location in Ohio, and I'm pretty sure the image your report paints of Outback is very deceptive. Outback would never do anything to intentionally falsely advertize their product, and just because you paid $16.95 for them doesn't nescessairly specify that there has to be more than 6 ribs on them. I'm pretty sure the ribs were very meaty. You make mention to other places, I was at Ryan's Steakhouse the other day and my Girlfriend ordered a full rack and even though she got 12 ribs, they weren't all that meaty. If this was truely a false advertising issue I am sure more people would have reported it, and the BBB would be involved. Seeing as this hasn't happened, I'm guessing your report is not telling the whole story. I'm also pretty sure if you would have read the menu in further detail or asked the waitress for clarification, you would have been told that Outback sells their ribs by weight, and not by size.