My wife and I dined at VIllage Pizza on the square in Athens. The food was quite good, the place was packed, and our server was quite competent... here's where it went wrong:
We walked up and were told that it would be a 15 to 20 minute wait, and that they would call us. My wife asked what number they'd be calling from, the girl at the Maitre De stand said it would be an Alabama number. We said fine, and found a bench outside on the street. We waited a good 20 minutes, my wife got a call from a number in DesMoines, Iowa. It rang twice, but being from out of state, it looked like a Telemarketer. Just out of curiosity, we went to check and see if our table was ready. They said no, and my wife went back out to wait. The teenage Maitre De asked what name, and I told her. She informed me that they had given our table away. I was flabbergasted. I said, we had been called twice and asked how it was possible that in the time it took to walk down there, they'd given our table away. She stated that they had called twice.
I asked how long it would be, and she said 15 to 20 minutes. I went to grab my wife and explain what had happened. She came in and explained that we got a call from an Iowa number, and that in the four minutes it took for us to walk in and check they'd given our table away. She said that the girl who called had moved there from Iowa. I said, don't you think that a call from the midwest would look like a telemarketer when the restuarant is located in Athens? Not being one given to logical thought, she repeated "We called twice." Trying to go along to get along, I asked if it would still be 15 minutes before we could get a table and she said it would be 45 minutes.
I asked how that was possible the time had ramped up so far since I'd just a moment prior walked out retreived my wife. She said a large party came in. I said Get me a manager. So the girl went back in the back and got another waitress who came and asked if we needed help. We explianed the whole thing all over again and she said "we called twice." I attempted to explain that it was illogical for an Alabama restaurant to call patrons from an Iowa number and expect them NOT to think it was a telemarketing call. She repeated, "We called twice."
At this point, an older, blonde waitress came up and told the girl imitating a manager she needed to go back in the back and told the matre de to seat us in her section. This lady had waited on us the first time we'd eaten at Village Pizza and she is the soul of competance and professionalism. I wish that she had been our waitress, I'd have expressed out appreciation quite generously. Unfortunately, we had a different waitress who did the work, but according to my wife, seemed somewhat miffed to be serving us.
The pizza was good. The Diet Pepsi? eh, I think the syrup was a little low, but it was cold and wet. But the teenage wait staff could REALLY use some customer service training. I'm NOT a particularly difficult customer, this is the first time in my memory I've actually uttered the words "Get me the manager," but the kids running the Maitre De stand were rude and a more than a little condescending.
Beyond that, Text Messaging is a thing. It's NOT DIFFICULT to type in the words "Your table is ready" and click send rather than using an out of state phone number to make back to back calls and then act like it's unreasonable for the customer to get annoyed. DO BETTER, Village Pizza. DO BETTER!!! read more