This used to be my favorite burger in town, but the people that work there turned ugly on me tonight and caused me an intensely embarrassing situation with 2 of my friends and a roomful of customers. All over a coupon.
They issue these coupons for free burgers through email. Nowhere on the coupons does it say limit one use per person, EVER, just a limit of one per VISIT (their wording). If they are so concerned for multiple uses, that should be in the coupon print, Also, having clear rules posted, quietly taking someone aside that is violating your own personal policy instead of making a scene, and doing like other reputable SMARTER businesses do and put a bar code system in place that is unique to one user and email would seem to all be good ideas if you are going to go nuts like that in your place of business.
The weird thing is, it was part of a "refer your friends" promotion, so I was bring in friends I had referred and told what a great place this was. They had their own coupons, but since I had used one last week, they angrily refused to even take theirs! What a roomful of people saw was a bitterly hateful employee yelling at and kicking two elderly women in their 60s with walkers and a guy with a walking staff out of their store. THAT'S got to be good for your image!
The manager lady was just unaccountably angry at us, like we were caught trying to steal her purse or something. She kept going to extremes, saying things like "You can't print a coupon 500 times" and "We can't just give away our whole stock of sales, either". Like I was scheming to personally bankrupt the company, when I had just been in one time!
She was even cross-examining us about where the ladies got theirs from, somehow implying that they were trying to commit fraud! Can you imagine? At one point, she finally relented and admitted that the 2 ladies that were there for the first time could use theirs, only to rescind that 30 seconds later and kick us out.
It was really scary to see someone acting that angry at us for no reason and upset and confused us all terribly, but especially the ladies, who don't get out a lot and were very excited about coming here. They were getting yelled at and accused of things when they had never even been IN here before! You just don't treat people like that, and I am going to insist that the company needs to investigate this thoroughly.
Bottom line is, THEY are the ones with the nebulous coupon policies. I cannot be held accountable for following the clear cut rules they printed and not knowing what the secret restrictions of the day or personal interpretations are going to be. I was even told once that using expired coupons was just fine, only to have that change on me without notice a couple of times. That's when they started getting upset with me, but I have always been respectful and followed the rules, even though they were unclear, contradictory and completely arbitrary.
The tragic part of all this is, this IS my favorite burger place. They are the best by far. I have told many people that. Not any more. Sad how a couple of people can ruin that. I will not ever go through that again. read more