Service just painfully slow. Had to wait 1 full hour between the drinks and the serving of the food. When I broached the issue with the waitress, it was vehemently denied. I suggested free desserts and tea to make all things good, it was laughed off. After the meal, I went to talk with the “manager”, who denied making us wait for an hour. I even showed her the time I took the photo of their food truck when arriving, she still denied that it took one hour: “we just went into the order people arrived”. I explained that I am from the business and that I know exactly how to observe people. It seemed the last thing she would want to do is to offer a free dessert to calm things down. They have no clue about customer friendliness. The 2 coffees they later brought us to calm things down were not welcome as we don’t drink coffee. Ridiculous customer service!
-------EDITED RESPONSE, FOLLOWING THE ANSWER FROM THE OWNER-------
Dear Owner,
Thank you for taking the time to answer my complaint in all friendliness. Where were you the day this happened? It would have been better to talk to the boss than to their employees.
Let me set the record straight because you are presenting slightly false data. As attested by the time stamp on the photos I took: we arrived at 13H10, took pictures until about 13H15. We sat down at that time, and then we ordered our drinks probably around 13H20. Contrary to what you are stating, we DID want to order our meals WITH the drinks, which the server refused. First false statement on your part. This is very unprofessional and awkward, she said 'let me get your drinks first and then you can order food'.
That's when I started counting the one hour wait time, because we were ready to order and were refused that.
As you state, probably because of the timestamp or your ordering machine. we ordered at 13H37.
Yes, I am from the industry and I have a keen eye for tables and the arrival of patrons, as I was a waiter for 5 years, in an upscale restaurant. I can guarantee you that there were at least three families with children that came after us and that were served before us. I am not responsible if your server and manager cannot serve the patrons in the order they arrive.
You conveniently say that the food arrived at 'about 14H15', which is not correct, it was more like 14H25, attested by a picture my wife took of her plate at 14H30. So we waited from timestamp to timestamp a full 48 minutes and if you add the time from which we were ready to order and was refused that, it is exactly 1 hour (from about 13H20 to about 14H25).
The server did not keep us informed throughout, she never stopped at our table, never asked if we needed another drink. Yes she was friendly and smiling, but she was very INEFFICIENT, and so was your manager, because they completely forgot and neglected us.
I did suggest in a joking way that getting a free dessert would smooth things out, which, because your server is not well trained by you, she took as a joke. I thought making a small gesture like this is an industry standard, but it seems your establishment would rather confront customers than offering a 3 000 FCFA churro which costs you 1 000 FCFA or less. That's a bad calculation and bad training of your staff.
We then waited some more, no bill came, no server came. So I asked the server to talk to the manager. When I talked with her, in a respecteful and friendly manner, she kept on saying 'we served people in the order they arrived', which is completely incorrect, all she needed to say is 'I understand your frustration, let me offer you the drink of your choice and a dessert to share with your wife', and everything would have been fine. Since when do you argue with customers? It's when I saw and felt this resistance that I got aggravated and went back to my table, until then, my exchange was friendly.
It took that much aggravation for her to finally realize that the establishment had upset and frustrated a patron who only wanted to have a nice time on a Sunday lunch.
Thank you for improving your operations in the future!