Extortion

"Customers have begun threatening to 'Yelp' the restaurant if their demands are not met. Cafe Rouge experienced this phenomenon twice within the past month when comps were demanded with the threat that a harsh review would follow on the Yelp website if we didn't comply."

Wow, that pretty much sucks. 

I know I'm largely busted in Durham, but really I'd prefer it if no one in the restaurant business locally knew I wrote this blog.  Then I'd know that any free glass of wine or the like I got was more due to my scintillating personality and winning ways than any chance I'd write up something positive for free.  And I'd like to think that I write up positive things or link to places because they have their own special positiveness, and not just because someone is buttering me up, so to speak. 

People should generally feel free to express their dislike with something -- true helpful negative feedback, especially on minor issues, is hard to elicit -- but this is just fucking blackmail.  I think if I owned a restaurant and someone blackmailed me like this, I'd comp their meal, then ask them never to come back. I guess that's why I don't own a restaurant. 

I used to have a boss who said that when he looked at shopping reports for a store -- where the company pays someone to anonymously shop the store and report on their experience -- he basically threw out the top and bottom two out of any ten reports, then looked at what was left.  Unfortunately, people just skimming Yelp or eGullet or even this blog aren't necessarily going to do that.  Of course, all my regular readers are much smarter and well-informed, right?  :)

Edit - Since I know that a few people who do work professionally in local restaurants read this blog: has the above ever happened to you or your restaurant? 

Comments

[miles]

I have to stick up for the patrons here a little. I demanding free stuff is tacky at best, but there is a gray area here, I've been treated like I didn't matter at popular restaurants on more than one occasion and what could I do? If I didn't eat there someone else would fill my seat, and often it's not up to me where I eat when I go out with a party.

So here's an example: I went to a place that was opened relatively recently by a popular local chef (which I won't name), and I got unbelievable service. I was there with my daughter and the highchair was broken and no one offered to help. Then we waited over an hour for our order before the server eventually confessed it had been lost and had to re-take our orders. Then when we asked for something fast (a pancake!) to appease my 18-month-old daughter, it didn't come out until 30 minutes later with the rest of the food. Then our order was wrong! That food was not cheap either (although, to be fair, it was good)!

I went home fuming, and the only thing I could do was write a review where I shared my frustration with my modest audience of readers. But I realized I was shouting into a vacuum. No one who read my blog cared. So I decided to at least email the restaurant my review. To my surprise, I got a very nice letter from the owner apologizing and offering to mail us a gift card so we could give the place a second chance.

So my wife and I faced a moral dilemma--we had not intended to squeeze a free meal out of our review. And we did not plan to go back. So should we accept? I decided we would and then we would give them plenty of future business if we had a good time. So I gave the restaurant my address and waited, and waited, and waited... and no gift card ever came. There was never a follow-up email. There was nothing to make me feel like my first experience was somehow exceptional. The only thing I had was a bad review and 3hrs and $50 I would never get back.

I'm sure there are some people who extort free stuff unfairly, but I'm also convinced there are many people that don't get the care and service they pay for at restaurants so you can't generalize that the business is always the victim. There are two sides to that coin.

Sorry for writing a book. Feel free to delete.

[coozledad]

Shit just happens when places accustom themselves to a minimal flow of customers, and then one of the bigger places shuts down because of a senseless killing, or an erratically behaviored rat , and all the sad-asses trudge over to your understocked, understaffed place, and expect something besides you helping them get seriously drunk.
But I'm a bitter SOB. (Can you tell I used to tend bar?)
Joe, you have the best damned bread recipes. My wife's always after me to make the new ones. We just finished two loaves of the sandwich bread.

[Joe Eater]

Miles - I'm essentially taking the restaurateur's viewpoint as given: that the customers had no right to the comp they were demanding. They certainly may have. It would have been better to hear that the restaurant had already comped x or y that month to z people, but we don't know that.

There's an old saw that the customer is always right; those of us who've worked in retail know that saw cuts both ways. In your particular case, the restaurant clearly erred. You gave them a chance to fix it; they didn't, unless someone stole a gift certificate out of your mailbox. You're completely right to complain. And you may never obtain the satisfaction that you want.

There are plenty of businesses out there that screw up. I daresay they all do eventually. The way to discern between them is in how they pick up the pieces. And yes, you still may not be happy. That's when you go somewhere else. It happens. It can happen due to a fault on either side, or both. But sooner or later, we all -- businesses and patrons -- have to decide we're done. It's ok.

Am I going to delete your comment? Oh hell no. :) I hope my response doesn't sound patronizing. And I also think you should publish your review, complete with addendum about the missing gift certificate.

Coozledad - I think in some ways this is the nicest comment I've ever received. Thank you.

One of these days I'm gonna have to post about how I actually do my JLMBBC bread these days. :)

[K]

Two observations: It is very difficult to find outstanding service so most us experience what I would call tolerable service, and customers can be awful. Some people treat restaurant staff like they are servants. Yes, we call restaurants part of the service industry, and yes, we spend our hard-earned money when we dine out, but no, neither of these reasons or any other give us the carte blanche to behave in an indecorous manner. What qualifies as indecorous? A. Not using an "indoor voice" as a parent might say, B. Anything that draws attention to the exchange of money, C. Treating others with contempt rather than dignity no matter who they are.

Asking for a free meal falls into at least one of these categories. A person may feel it is his or her right, but since when do personal freedoms trump good taste??