My cell phone was stolen at this restaurant. It was within feet of me when it happened. I take responsibility for turning my back on it momentarily, while attending to my son ... (still playing games solely because the food hadn't come in the hour after it was ordered). BUT ... That's not the reason I'm posting a complaint. I'm posting to share the staff's response when I sought help.
(1) The worker said, and I quote, "Oh, that happens a lot here."
(2) I asked if I might borrow a phone, to call my own. "Sorry. I don't have a phone for you." And then she walked away.
(3) I followed her to the toy stand, and asked if they could make an announcement, including the promise of a no-questions-asked reward. The initial response, "We don't make announcements."
(4) I searched the floor for 15 minutes -- and then returned to the front, to ask again. At last, a worker was told to make an announcement -- with zero effort made to get people to listen. In a video arcade full of screaming children, with nothing first quieted (and no mention of the reward, not that it matters), even I, the person who was listening for it, couldn't hear what was said.
(5) I wandered the floor for another 30 minutes, to see if I could spy the phone peeking out of a pocket or purse, on a table, or even in someone's hand. I finally asked for help again. This time, the manager, seeing how upset I was, told me I should just have called the phone upon discovering it was missing. "I can't call my phone without a phone." He offered me his own phone, at which point I called (no success, of course) and text messaged myself a reward offer (no success, alas).
(6) I finally gave up and left, with my very patient child in tow. We got food at a Carl's Jr. drive-thru.
(7) I called them that night and again the following morning. No luck. No real sense that anyone was looking (except for perhaps the manager, who was very nice when he realized how upset I was ... I have to give them that).
So ... Here are my takeaways.
1) The place is a hotbed for cell phone theft.
2) If you report a missing phone, they won't lift a finger to help you unless you grovel (and really will behave in a manner that communicates just how few sh_ts they have to give). They finally conceded a little, I think, because ... They don't really want a struggling, crying, single mom, standing with her six-year-old, at the front of a crowded restaurant -- upset not because she really cares about the phone, but because she was too busy to back up the thousands of photos she took of her child in the prior three months (including a first ever and very special trip to New York City) Okay, they didn't know the struggling, single mom part. But it shouldn't have mattered. I am a person -- a customer in their restaurant -- where crimes apparently happen on a regular basis.
3) Most of the people working there were unconcerned at the level of being actually mean.
I'm a really nice person, and I was very nice when this happened. Upset, yes. But not harsh or yelling or unreasonable or anything bad. (I realize readers have no reason to believe this, but it's true. Candidly, I'm not sure I would have been as nice if my first grader wasn't with me. But he was, and I was really trying to keep it together given what I felt was a meaningful loss -- including financial costs now coming my way for the new phone.) How I was treated, after a theft took place in the store (even if my own inattention contributed to the possibility of that theft happening) was really, really, really offensive and upsetting.
Chuck E. Cheese: Where a kid can learn just how much mean people suck. I've taken my son to multiple outlets of your company over the years -- and pumped in money I probably didn't have. read more