I think its important to note how many were in his party. Was it two persons total? Was it ten persons total. What was the total bill that the OP expected the restaurant to comp? Was it 2,000nt or 20,000nt. There is a difference.
And this was not at a five star hotel in Las Vegas. If it was and it was a couple or even 4 people at a dinner, I would think the hotel would comp the meal. But that’s because its a different venue and five star hotels have much more at stake.
This was a small independently owned restaurant. To demand to see the OWNER was out of hand. The OWNER expects his or her manager to handle the situation. And she did by trying to defuse your anger (which wasnt working because you expected to be comped the entire meal and nothing else will do) and offering you compensation she can do.
At the end it was such a scene she just kicked you out. I dont think you or any members of your party should return.
I admit I wouldve been pretty pissed too and probably wouldve wanted some sort of compensation. But if i was with a group of ten? I wouldnt expect everyone should be comped.
That dish comped and a round of drinks for the party should more then do it.
At least it wasnt part of a cockroach or a foot from a rat. Less dangerous then a screw but the ick factor goes up by a factor of ten .
Whether someone in the group tried to pull a scam to get a free meal or not, the restaurant cannot determine that. So for the time being they should take it as it was their mistake, unless the same group has tried to do the same thing previously. Most people wouldn’t do this and I doubt it is a common occurrence anywhere.
In addition if this happened to me I would also absolutely refuse to pay for the entire meal as well and if they wanted to call the police I would let them. No need to get rowdy, as you have the picture of what happened. I would just walk out and tell the manager if she wishes to call the police that is fine, but I will show them the picture of what happened. I doubt they would call the police and lose face over it.
I don’t think the OP was unreasonable at all. This Bu hao yi si garbage is really annoying as well when it is obvious the person couldn’t care less but is just saying it to be ‘ke qi hua’ - sometimes making a scene gets you the desired results, embarrassing or not. A few bu hao yi si from a person who looks like they don’t care just makes me angrier and they are probably wondering why it is having an opposite effect on me, versus a local.
If I read correctly, they ended up not paying anything and were kicked out. And free to disparage the restaurant as much as they want. So they got what they wanted.
Tommy you is right, I just clocked the OP said it was a birthday party - perhaps comping the whole meal might have been too much $$$.
Not really, when a few bu-hao-yi-si can make the problem go away. Why investigate further? That’s often the ROC attitude. It seems equally, if not more, absurd to suggest that the OP and friends went to a restaurant with the express intent of inserting screws into an entree (note the OP hadn’t even received his food yet, and all but one of his fellow diners were still eating), AND THEN post about their experiences on here.
I’d give that possibility 1-2%, rather than 10-20%.
You’re labelling the OP and his fellow diners as possibly dishonest, unreasonable, loud and bullying. I don’t read that. The situation escalated after the party did not receive an apology for the incident (just the usual bunch of bu-hao-yi-si). I’d say that this experience qualifies for a touch more than a few utterances of that famous phrase.
This stinks of a high level of restaurant cha-bu-duo, and sometimes you got to take a stand against that. Well played, OP.
I disagree. Finding screws or a needle in food is a serious problem. It could mean contamination or security breaches. Look at how airlines react when someone finds such things in the catering. Becomes worldwide news. Now I know it is not so serious in just a normal restaurant, but it could represent a lack of cleanliness or inattentive/careless cooks/dishwashers/waitstaff. I think the OP was perfectly within his/her bounds to get pissed off. There is such an indifferent culture" in Taiwan for service in many respects and I truly think people in the service industry should aim for exceptional service.
If a customer found something like that and I managed a restaurant, I would be mortified. I would offer a bottle of wine, free dinner, and say sorry 100 times. News gets around fast.
If you were the owner, or if you were the manager who had authority from his boss to do that. It’s highly doubtful this the manageress involved in this incident had any such authority, and it’s likely she was offering as much as she understood herself to be authorised to offer.
I sympathize with you, Tony, for having your party spoiled by the discovery of this alien object in the food.
I sympathize at least as much with the hapless manageress, who found herself on the receiving end of so much unpleasantness. She did apologize repeatedly (不好意思 can constitute a proper apology here, if said with sufficient sincerity in the right tone of voice ), but your party wouldn’t let it go, blew a gust of dissatisfaction into a typhoon, and disturbed every other customer in the restaurant. We can presume that she went as far as she believed she could in attempting to assuage the perturbingly unrestrained anger with which she was confronted, but it wasn’t enough for some members of your group, and she was as helpless as hapless in being able to do anything to stem the rising tide of fury directed against her.
I sympathize with the other diners, who had their dining experience spoiled by this row. If I had been there, I might have been tempted to come over to your table and suggest to those getting most worked up that they might consider toning it down and seeking more appropriate means of presenting and obtaining recourse for their complaint. Such as writing a complaint addressed to the owner, and impressing upon the manageress that she must bring the matter to his attention and have him communicate his response to you. Or something else, but not going ballistic in a way that affected everyone else in the restaurant.
As I said, I sympathize with you for encountering such shocking negligence by the restaurant staff, which could have had dangerous consequences if the screw had been unwittingly swallowed. But I do think the matter could have been handled better, possibly by the manageress, certainly by those in your party.
If you were the owner, or if you were the manager who had authority from his boss to do that. It’s highly doubtful this the manageress involved in this incident had any such authority, and it’s likely she was offering as much as she understood herself to be authorised to offer.[/quote]
And there is the problem right there.
The so called ‘managers’ with no actual power to enact any resolution. Don’t call yourself a manager if you can’t resolve something to a customers satisfaction, especially something so serious as this. And if she is not empowered to help, then she shouldn’t have refused getting the owner involved, when it became obvious that this group wasn’t going to be satisfied with what was offered.
Essentially, you can’t help? Then shut up and get out of the way to let me talk to someone who can.
If you were the owner, or if you were the manager who had authority from his boss to do that. It’s highly doubtful this the manageress involved in this incident had any such authority, and it’s likely she was offering as much as she understood herself to be authorised to offer.[/quote]
And there is the problem right there.
The so called ‘managers’ with no actual power to enact any resolution. Don’t call yourself a manager if you can’t resolve something to a customers satisfaction, especially something so serious as this. And if she is not empowered to help, then she shouldn’t have refused getting the owner involved, when it became obvious that this group wasn’t going to be satisfied with what was offered.
Essentially, you can’t help? Then shut up and get out of the way to let me talk to someone who can.[/quote]
Unfortunately, bosses are usually bad - she / he probably would of taken the meals out of the managers probably already small pay check. But, the OP did deserve to have all the meals free, considering they weren’t eating them after they found the screw. (right?)
[quote=“Omniloquacious”]
If you were the owner, or if you were the manager who had authority from his boss to do that. It’s highly doubtful this the manageress involved in this incident had any such authority, and it’s likely she was offering as much as she understood herself to be authorised to offer. [/quote]
Have you ever worked in a restaurant? Surely you must understand that managers or manageresses (as you refer above) in most restaurants have a wide degree of latitude in what they can do (discounts, promotions, give aways etc.). It would have been very easy to say “free meal for you, let me serve you some of our best alcohol, and let me give you a further sampling of our menu.” Such attention would have calmed things down. If you don’t give this authority to your staff crew, you are basically hiring mindless sheep that will piss off more customers with their indifference. Sounds as if the hired help really need to learn the learned art of customer service.
Not if you’re under express instructions from the owner not to bother him/her except in the event of a major emergency, such as the retaurant catching fire or gangsters coming in to smash the place up. I’d say it’s more likely than not that the manageress was acting under just such instructions.
[quote=“ChewDawg”][quote=“Omniloquacious”]
If you were the owner, or if you were the manager who had authority from his boss to do that. It’s highly doubtful this the manageress involved in this incident had any such authority, and it’s likely she was offering as much as she understood herself to be authorised to offer. [/quote]
Have you ever worked in a restaurant? Surely you must understand that managers or manageresses (as you refer above) in most restaurants have a wide degree of latitude in what they can do (discounts, promotions, give aways etc.). It would have been very easy to say “free meal for you, let me serve you some of our best alcohol, and let me give you a further sampling of our menu.” Such attention would have calmed things down. If you don’t give this authority to your staff crew, you are basically hiring mindless sheep that will piss off more customers with their indifference. Sounds as if the hired help really need to learn the learned art of customer service.[/quote]
This is a restaurant in Taiwan, Chewy, not in Vancouver, London or New York. You must understand the difference, don’t you?
If you were the owner, or if you were the manager who had authority from his boss to do that. It’s highly doubtful this the manageress involved in this incident had any such authority, and it’s likely she was offering as much as she understood herself to be authorised to offer.[/quote]
And there is the problem right there.
The so called ‘managers’ with no actual power to enact any resolution. Don’t call yourself a manager if you can’t resolve something to a customers satisfaction, especially something so serious as this. And if she is not empowered to help, then she shouldn’t have refused getting the owner involved, when it became obvious that this group wasn’t going to be satisfied with what was offered.
Essentially, you can’t help? Then shut up and get out of the way to let me talk to someone who can.[/quote]
Unfortunately, bosses are usually bad - she / he probably would of taken the meals out of the managers probably already small pay check. But, the OP did deserve to have all the meals free, considering they weren’t eating them after they found the screw. (right?)[/quote]
Good observation.
I was having coffee with a language exchange friend the other day when a cup broke in the back. She used to work in a restaurant so I asked if the workers have to pay for it and she said yes. Returned meals, broken items, etc.
This is a restaurant in Taiwan, Chewy, not in Vancouver, London or New York. You must understand the difference, don’t you?[/quote]
I think using Taiwan’s provincialism as an excuse is piss weak because it can be used to justify a hell of a lot of bad practices. To me, the standards of living in central Taipei in terms of disposable income, people’s lifestyle etc. are definitely developed country, and restaurants, especially in the more affluent areas, should have international-level service quality (especially if they are offering non-Asian or fusion fare).
Not if you’re under express instructions from the owner not to bother him/her except in the event of a major emergency, such as the retaurant catching fire or gangsters coming in to smash the place up. I’d say it’s more likely than not that the manageress was acting under just such instructions.[/quote]
The manager just has to say that some foreigners came in to smash the place up which they looked like they were ready to do
Owners hiding behind their workers and managers are an especially low level of scum. Recently at a McDonalds, the manager was standing there doing absolutely nothing so I asked her for some Ketchup. She then told the girl next to her to get me some Ketchup. I then remembered I needed one other item so I asked the manager again and she again told the girl to get it for me again instead of moving one muscle to get it for me herself.
Managers in Taiwan by and large are ineffectual and are only there so that underlings can show deference to them, not because they perform any useful role to satisfy a customer, heaven forbid. And owners if they are present scamper away quickly when there is a problem leaving it to their staff with no empowerment to help.
If I had been in the OP’s place, I would have called over the manageress, pointed it out to her, and indicated a moderate level of displeasure without implying that it was the manageress’s own fault (perhaps telling her that she should instruct the kitchen staff to be more careful, since something like that could greatly harm the restaurant’s reputation). If she bu hao yisi’ed in a suitably sincere and apologetic tone and offered to replace the dish, I’d have left it at that. If the screw had been in my small daughter’s meal, I’d have made more of a fuss about it, but still not the extent of causing a big row or making excessive demands for compensation. Only if the manageress’s attitude had been very bad, such as if she’d just shrugged her shoulders and said “It’s just a screw! What’s the big deal?” or had questioned whether I’d put it there myself, would I have exploded into rage.
If I’d been otherwise strongly dissatisfied with my experience in the restaurant prior to the discovery of the screw, I might have gone as far as cancelling the rest of our as-yet unserved orders, paying the tab for what we’d consumed, and leaving. But if everything else had been okay, I’d have been more inclined to stay and finish the meal (unless my dining companions were very strongly against it and I couldn’t persuade them otherwise).
But that’s just me. I wouldn’t expect everyone to respond in the same way.
After reading the op, what pissed me off was the buhaoyisi=sorry from the manager.
Buhaoyisi is used when u accidentally bump into someone.
Duibuqi is when someone finds aforeign object in their meal.
If the manager had said “im really sorry this happened. Let mefind out whathappenedin the kitchen. Please tellme how i can make this better.”
Thats all she had to do. How can i makethisup to u?
Its all about the attitude. But the self defensiveness is prob what id be upset about.
Thing is, this is tw, where customer service is very new. If this were chilis or acc or ruth chris or costco, they are trained to maintain an american standard of service.
Personally, one comped meal, and a round of drinks or dessert or 10% off the bill woulda been satisfactory to me, but id prefer a duibuqi over a buhaoyisi.
[quote=“914”]After reading the op, what pissed me off was the buhaoyisi=sorry from the manager.
Buhaoyisi is used when u accidentally bump into someone.
Fucking hate buhaoyisi. Hate it.[/quote]
It really depends on how it’s delivered. With a sincerely contrite expression, tone of voice, body language, and repetition, it can carry every bit as much weight of apology as any other form of words in Chinese that could be used appropriately in such situation.
