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At Cornell University, The Center for Hospitality Research has released a study on communicating complaints, showing that the severity of complaints at restaurants often corresponds with the way in which people give the complaints. The study confirms what you probably guessed -- that the harshest complaints are frequently given face-to-face, though some people offer such complaints via written letters as well.Additionally, study respondents reported that issues relating to food and food service were the "worst failures" that a restaurant could have. Researchers therefore found it "puzzling" that respondents also said that complaints about factors that unrelated related to food or service (such as atmosphere) were the main factors in determining whether a customer would choose to never return to a certain establishment. Though I might not speak up about it, I think a hair in my food or something is the number one thing that would prevent me from returning somewhere, you?
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4-21-2008 @4:49PM Laura said... If the bathroom is gross, I don't care how good the food is, I won't go back.
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4-21-2008 @4:59PM Pablojr said... The probability of my return would depend on how the establishment handles my complaint. I they showed concern about my complaint I'd probably return.If I only get a "sorry" probably not.
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4-21-2008 @6:27PM Frank said... Nope, it's all about the food and maybe the atmosphere for me. With other things I can change my habits or do something about it, but the food and the atmosphere are pretty much what they are.
Hair in my food? Chalk it up to accident.
Dirty bathroom? Use one before/after I eat.
Bad waiters? Make it difficult for them to screw it up (clearly, precise orders with little/no additions/subtractions)
But if the food is bland, flavorless or just doesn't fit what I like, it's not like I can do something about it (unless I find something else on the menu that I actually like)
Similarly, if the atmosphere is "wrong", I assume it's the owners choice/style and not going to changing (and again there's nothing I can do about it)
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4-21-2008 @6:53PM Mad William Flint said... Food has to be pretty amazingly bad for me to not return. I just don't find places that dig that deep very often.
Bad service? Buh-bye. I'm not paying what I'm paying for the rice. (This includes how they handle a complaint, should there be one.)
Something in my food once? Eh, accident. Twice? Serious mark off.
And yes, superior service or food will cause me to have the waiter fetch the manager so I can compliment them.
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4-22-2008 @1:33AM Missy said... The findings don't surprise me at all.
I'd consider a food issue, or a food service issue, something that is not part of the "intended experience", something that requires immediate attention and is something I would likely bring up in person. But unless these are re-occuring offenses, I'll probably give them another chance.
Atmosphere "is" part of the intended experience, and while I wouldn't complain if I didn't particularly enjoy that experience, I'd chalk it up to personal preferences and likely not return.
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4-21-2008 @9:38PM lizandrsn said... Luke warm buffet? Sends Liz away -- forever.
Front of the house isn't happy to see me/seat me? see ya later.
Treat my kids like less than vermin? I'll tell everyone I know to stay far, far away.
My money is as good as the next person's. I deserve a good meal at a reasonable price with decent service. Why is that too much to ask for, in many cases?
Oh, yeah -- the places I don't return to? Gone. Busted. Empty store front vacancies. They don't make it because they don't *work* to make it.
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4-21-2008 @10:22PM dragonet2 said... What the above commenters said plus I will talk with the manager if service sucks before I leave the restaurant.
The worst (and we walked out and went elsewhere) was a chain family diner that we went in and waited nearly half an hour before they said they couldn't seat us because their computer was down. Huh? It's a diner. but apparently they had no fall-back or paper in the house. Because the manager was so lacksadasical about it I wrote a letter to the chain. but I got a 'blow-off' letter back so they deserve it when they go out of business in an area.
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4-22-2008 @2:52AM Bernie B said... Nobody ever contracted anything from a hair in the food. Granted, I don't want to find one there but it's not necessarily a deal-breaker.
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4-22-2008 @3:00AM Mathi said... Some people just like to complain too. I stopped going out to eat with a friend (we would hang out anywhere but a restaurant) becase *every* time we went out she would take issue with every little detail she could, and get into literal screaming matches with the waitstaff and management. Over nothing, seriously.
Restaurants in my experience are happy to fix mistakes (and I do ask for a lot of substitutions so there have been a few errors). If ever one wasn't, I wouldn't go back, but I have never run into that. I am polite to them, they are polite to me. Maybe I am just really lucky that way.
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4-22-2008 @10:55AM Astin said... A single hair in your food? What if it's yours? or your partner's? Even if it isn't, it happens.
As Jerry Seinfeld once pointed out - we'll caress hair, kiss it, smell it, bury our faces in it, run our fingers through it... as long as there's a bunch of it and it's still on someone's head. But a single one of those hairs makes it on our food and it's a cause to freak out?
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4-22-2008 @1:53PM susan said... Noisy children running wild, loud music, rancid grease or restroom deodorizer smells, food stuck to utensils or lipstick on drink vessels, overly chatty servers, hearing "we're out of" something on the menu more than twice - all these things will put the place on my "Do Not Patronize" list.
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