Not so "Friendly"

This post is about poor and pitiful customer service, but with a happy ending. But not a "Happy Ending Sundae, because they wouldn't give me one, even though I paid for it.

What the hell am I talking about you ask? Let me break it down for you:

Labor Day weekend my mother in law came to visit. We hadn't moved into our new place yet, so she got a hotel suite so we could stay with her for the weekend. Things were already cramped enough at my mom's to add another family member to the mix.

My dear husband was working. It was Sunday. The Diva and I were in charge of entertaining for the morning/afternoon. Around lunch time, we thought it would be a good idea to feed The Diva. (Makes sense, right?) There was a Friendly's right next to the hotel, so I ran in to place a to go order while my mother in law waited in the car with a sleepy, hungry diva. I followed the sign to the to go counter like a good little customer. And I waited, and waited. A guy behind the counter looked at me exactly three times before coming over and asking if he could help me. So, I ask for a menu to place a take out order. He brings me a menu and disappears. After 10 minutes he comes back over to the counter. I tell him I am ready to order ( I've been ready since about two minutes after he put the menu in my hands.). He tells me that he can't take my order. That he doesn't have access to the register to ring me up. That he will have to ask someone else to take my order, but they are just so busy that he is going to wait a while before asking anyone to help me. He is totally serious. Then he disappears. I am still wondering what he is doing assisting customers at the take out counter if he isn't even allowed to do the job.

So after a really long time, and several dirty looks from me (I am a bit passive aggressive), he gets someone to ring up my order. I order a meal for myself and a meal for The Diva. My mother in law wasn't hungry. The Diva's meal was supposed to include a drink and an ice cream. I gave her my drink order, but she never asked about the ice cream so I kind of ASSumed that maybe they would ask me when the food was ready and make the ice cream then. Miss Cashier took my order and hauled butt away from me, so I couldn't even ask if my ASSumption was correct. She didn't give my my receipt, I took it out of the register myself. Then and only then do I see a giant sign that says: "If you are not given a receipt with your order you will receive a gift certficate. Well, crap. But I wanted the receipt because they way things were going, I just knew there would be more issues. Miss Cashier had told me that it would be 15 minutes for my food. So I went to the car, drove over to the hotel so Diva and MIL could be settled while I went back out to complete my quest for lunch. I arrived back at the restaurant after 15 minutes. After 25 minutes Mr. Not So Helpful appears again, handing me two greasy boxes. No bag, no utensils. No ice cream, no drink. So I ask Mr. NSH for my drink and my ice cream. He tells me "Well, I can give you the chocolate milk, but I can't give you the ice cream, because the cashier didn't ring in the kind of ice cream you wanted." I looked at him in disbelief. After taking a bit of a breath I said, "But I PAID for the ice cream. It was INCLUDED in the price of the meal." Mr NSH replies "Sorry, I can't give it to you." At this point most people would have probably asked to see a manager. But I had already spent an hour and 10 minutes dealing with this and I had a hungry, tired two year old to worry about. So I took my stuff and left. I fed my girl, and then I called Friendly's to let them know about just how happy I was. There had just been a shift change, so the manager on duty took my story, took my number, and told me I would be getting a call. She said that the situation was unacceptable and that I would be hearing from someone soon. 3 days later I get a phone call from a number I don't recognize. It is the manager who WAS on duty the day I tried to purchase a simple take out lunch. She asked me to tell her what had happened so that she was sure she had it all right. When I was finished, she seemed to be pretty appalled. She said she too had a young child and understood how frustrating the situation was. She couldn't believe ALL of the things that were done wrong throughout my visit. She was very nice, and did a ton of apologizing. Then she told me a gift certificate was in the mail and that if we ever had a problem again to ask for her personally. 3 days later we got a 25 dollar gift card in the mail along with an apology letter. So Friendly's redeemed themselves, and it's a good thing they did. They have a lot to live up to with a name like Freakin' FRIENDLY'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!