That was nice of them to send you two coupons. They have a reputation to uphold.

I have one about 5 minutes from me, but their prices are high, I think.

It pays to complain, otherwise Corp would assume all things are great when in reality they're not..way to go

:lol It always tickles me to think that you tell them
how it is...bad service, bad food,dirty etc., etc., and then
they send you coupons to come again.

Hope you have better luck at the next one.

I love Chili's. But we had awful food at Ruby Tuesday's last year, uncooked lobster. And when the manager took them back to fix them, they brought back one less than they took. We will never go there again.

I am going to write an email to Pop-eyes chicken. We love the food but recently stopped at the drive through and ordered chicken, red beans and rice, fries, and a gallon of tea. They had us pull up and wait about 10-15 minutes, he brought out the bag and the tea and off we go. Get home to realize there was nothing but chicken in the box. So we go back they close at 10 we were at the drive through before ten, no one would answer the call button, so we drive up to the window and blow the horn, they ignored us, my husband reached out and knocked on the glass window and the lady steps out of the office and screams at us Closed! We honk and said come here we did not get out order, then the guy that actually took our order came out and asked what we wanted and we said the rest of our order and he screams at us you did not order beans and fries! Well yes we sure did and paid for them! So he goes stomping off and comes back with both items and says he was sorry for the inconvenience.
Well of course the fries were like ice.
Then we get home to eat our cold chicken only to find they had given us what ever they had already cooked sometime early in the day and it was like a rock, not the mild like we asked for but a mix of left overs.
So why on Earth did we have to sit and wait??They darn sure were not cooking us anything.

No excuse for that kind of stuff.

I am glad Chilis stepped up and did something for you, they should all want to hear of bad service and food it is their reputation at stake.

A couple of years ago, my daughter and I stopped at Ruby Tuesdays and she ordered something that she had seen on TV and I was getting the salad bar....When I went to get my salad, the stack of dishes were still dirty,(fresh from the dishwasher), they took those plates brought another stack and it was the same way...Finally the manager came with sparkling clean plates, (I think they just took them out of the box)...When my daughter's plate came, it was half the size of what had been shown and was burned....I did complain and received those gift cards but I gave them away, I wasn't about to go back......But, I do think you should let them know if things aren't right as well as let them know when it's good......

The same scenario happened to us at a Denny's restaurant one night. Floor was dirty and sticky and we pointed it out to the hostess (a teenager) She said it would be cleaned up immediately. After our leisurely meal we went to pay and the same large spot was visible. We pointed it out again only to get a shrug from the teenage cashier. I made an online complaint to corporate and they issued an apology and coupons for another meal. Certainly won't go to that particular restaurant again. No adult manager in sight that night and that's the problem.

Wow I went and wrote to Popeyes on their site and they just called me already asking me about it. And I told her right off I was not doing it because I wanted my food order replaced I was doing it because of the way everything went down and how horrible the food we were given was. She said she was going to check into it and find out who was working and why it happened.

She called when I was napping and I could not figure out who on Earth I was talking to LOL I hope she does not think I am a nut case!

I know that each place will vary and things can happen but I have to say I've always been pleased to extremely happy with my experiences at Chili's. I wish they hadn't closed the one that was quite close to me but a bank (my bank ironically) bought it out to put up a new building in that spot.

I'm glad to hear they took care of you. I know it leaves a "bad taste in your mouth" but it could be that it was a fluke. I don't usually drop a place completely until or unless I have several bad experiences. Maybe you could give them another try sometime.

As for Drive thrus, I CHECK everything before we drive away. My DH always wants a plain sandwich/burger, so he hates to bite into something covered in ketchup or mayo.

And this is why we rarely eat out. When we're on a day trip we eat in a local, Mom & Pop "hole in the wall" restaurant. We usually get a much better meal for a lot less $$$$$ than at a "chain" place. And the profits stay local instead of going to a corporate office in who knows where state/country. We scout out places that have a lot of cars in the parking lot. The locals know where to go.

I do the same as Teresa when it comes to drive-thru's -- I figure they think "What are people gonna do if we mess up their order? Drive all the way back?" -- so I pull into a parking spot and make sure the food is fixed how I asked for it.

Sometimes I have had to walk in and have them redo something.

When something is wrong in a restaurant, I will ask for the manager on duty if the waiter doesn't do well fixing it. It's not that I'm trying to get something for nothing, and I tell them that. I tell them because they all need to know that customers spend good money on eating out and, like the flight attendants always say, "We know you have choices in air flight" -- well, we have choices of restaurants, too. It's not like back in my parents' day when there were fewer places to choose from (at least in my neighborhood back then). I also tell them what's wrong so they can make the attempt to make it right.

Similar to what Vee posted, sometimes a lot of chains promote people to manager positions that they just aren't prepared for -- somebody's gotta be the manager, right?

I'm lucky to have found one diner place that always hits a home run with 2 things I like -- gyros and turkey clubs. So I never have to roll the dice there. Locally owned, one location.

[Joan in MN: If you still check in on this thread, I'm wondering: How did the waiter explain why only one lobster came back? Was it so undercooked that it just wandered off?]