Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Dear IHOP

Dear IHOP executive,
I am writing to inform you of a serious issue with one of your stores, the IHOP in Fort Stockton, TX. We were returning from a vacation with family in Austin and driving back to our home in Phoenix when we stopped at an IHOP for dinner on Sunday 6/22/2008. We arrived at about 8:30 PM and were seated. We ordered a lemonade for our 4 year old and a water for our 20 month old. My husband and I both ordered coffee. After we ordered our food, the wait began. I had to ask another server other than our own for coffee, it was lukewarm at best. I had to track down someone interested in their job enough to hand me a few creamers. 35 minutes later, When our food arrived, this is what we received:
My husband received the migas meal with pancakes. Apparently, they were out of tortillas and pancakes are what they substitute with? We were not told this until later.
My vegetarian son received the kids silver dollar pancakes with bacon on his plate instead of the hash browns we had ordered for him.
I received my 3 pancakes and eggs but not my hash browns.
My daughter received the create a face pancake with no yogurt which we were told, 25 minutes later, that they were out of.
We received the two extra orders of hash browns that were forgotten after we had finished all of our other items.
When we were presented the check, we were charged for 2 kids drinks (one was water)
2 orders of hash browns (one was a substitution), my 3 eggs and 3 pancakes meal was charged as separate orders, increasing the price of them, and we were charged for potatoes that were brought to my daughter that we never ordered.

I brought all of the discrepancies on the bill to the attention of the person who brought our bill. (I hadn't seen our waitress in some time.)
She took the bill and came back 17 minutes later, saying, "We fixed it." and set it down and quickly, almost tripping, walked away. I looked at the bill and they had taken off the cost of one of the hash browns, corrected the charge of my meal, and taken off one of the kid sized drinks.
In place of the other kids drink, they had charged us for a juice instead?!
I went to the register while the rest of my family left the restaurant. When I asked the woman who had brought my check to me about the juice charge, her response was, "Well, she had a juice so it should have been charged more for that. Actually we even charged her for a small juice when we could have charged her for a large. That's all we can do for you." She then walked away. What!? By now, I was inches away from really exploding. I decided to just pay and leave. After the cashier rang up my order, I handed her the money to pay for it and she handed me back the paper portion of my change and said, "I don't have any change." I said, "What? So you're just not going to give me all of my change?" Her response to me was, "All I have left is nickles and I am not giving you those." Rather than round up to the next dollar, she just decided that it was okay to short the customer instead.
As I was leaving the restaurant, which was a 24hr establishment, one of the employees "working" put up a closed sign and locked the door. She actually refused to let someone in who had just gone out to their car for something and left their family inside!
I do not want a refund or a free meal out of this, just wanted to make you aware and let you know that I now do not have any desire to east in one of your restaurants ever again.

Sincerely yours,
Me

If I had any idea where on earth to send the above letter, it would be in the mail. I am off to secure email addys. If anyone has any idea or contact that I need, let me know...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's crazy

Anonymous said...

Did they ever let back in the person who left their family inside or did that person take it as a sign that they should start a new life and ditch the others?

Anonymous said...

OMG This is inexcusable! In addition I am sure the franchisee would be delighted to find out that his store was being closed without his knowledge. Whomever you contact to get some satisfaction in this matter (I would suggest the Franchise Business Consultant or Regional Director), please CC a copy of this post to IHOP Corp on North Brand Boulevard in Glendale, CA.

I worked for this company for years and would have been out on my behind for such pathetic service standards and callous disregard of the guest.

Michelle said...

Thank you for the contact info. I have sent a letter to the Regional Director of the Southwest area and I secured the street address and sent a copy to the address of the store to "Store Owner". I'll post if I get any replies...

Anonymous said...

Michelle,
Has anyone from IHOP corporate gotten in touch with you??

Just curious...

The former manager