Made a polite complaint, company now going crazy!

aliasojo

zaksmum wrote: »

When I posted a negative review of a guest house B&B the owners rang me to complain about the review and then next day Trip Advisor removed the review. When I asked why, they said the owners had said the review was "irrelevant".

So Trip Advisor can be a waste of time.

Wow. That makes a complete mockery of the review process.

adouglasmhor

Ronaldo_Mconaldo wrote: »

This kind of problem wouldn't happen in America. They'd roll out the red carpet for customers and fall over themselves for people willing to use their services. In this country it's "the shop shuts at 8pm, hurry up and finish shopping and get out!!!" over the PA system (well that kind of thing) and customer service staff who look at their customers as though they're an inconvenience.

Don't talk pish, I have had and seen appaling service in the States, including a friend who ordered the vegetarian special as advertised on the menu in a diner, to be served a bloody steak while staff and regulars laughed at her. Nice stereotyping though.

londonTiger

zaksmum wrote: »

When I posted a negative review of a guest house B&B the owners rang me to complain about the review and then next day Trip Advisor removed the review. When I asked why, they said the owners had said the review was "irrelevant".

So Trip Advisor can be a waste of time.

what did you write in the review? probably was irrelivant if tripadvisor deem it so. Some people complain about services that the b&b doesn't provide. I did an online ad campaign for a b&b webite clearly said no wifi, yet the guest complained about that in the review.

Another reviewer complained about the food dirt in the microwave and the fact that there was no restaurant. That is why b&bs are b&bs, if they had a restaurant they would be called a hotel. Also b&bs are owner operato businesses. No owner can be on duty 24 hours, a guest uses the microwve and gets food everywhere - big deal. It's not fair to write a bad review over that.

adandem

Terrible CS OP, they don't deserve your custom.

On the other hand our local Starbucks lets people sit there all day, even plug laptops in and set up office!! I often see men set up base whilst their partners and children shop. Lovely facility but annoying if you need a seat!!

londonTiger

i do consulting for small businesses, I always find it hard to get through to owner operator business. They're too invested in the day to day process so they can't see the bigger picture.

I personally wouldn't have bothered writing. Chances are they've put a lot of time thinking about their policy and they're firm in their decision.

randomnut

If they are having problems with people using a small coffee shop as just a waiting area then yes they are right to try and encourage people to turn the seats over.

However, if the signing seems rude, then the customer does have a point to complain.

So in effect, both are right.

Pound

It looks like the cafe owners are probably frustrated at the performance of their business and they needed someone to rant at.

Callie22

I wouldn't have bothered writing to complain about the tone of the sign, but coming from a catering background I wouldn't ever have put anything so rude and unprofessional in 'my' shop. The reality is that if you have a 'sit-down' catering establishment then you're always going to get extremes of custom - from the family of ten who all have a three course meal in an hour and a half to the pair of pensioners who ask for 'one pot of tea, with an extra cup, and some extra milk, and some extra hot water' and then sit there for hours drinking it. That's just the nature of the business.

It's the same with shops, you'll get one customer who comes in and spends £100 in five minutes with no bother, and the next customer who takes an hour of an assistant's time before they grudgingly spend £1. However, it's utterly unprofessional to do something that makes any customer feel unwelcome (and I would include in that anything that sets 'regulars' above 'visitors'), and to post up someone's complaint in the shop with a stroppy teenagerish reply is just mind-bogglingly crass. If I saw something like that it would totally put me off going into a cafe or restaurant, and it seems to me that the owners of this place know little (and care less!) about real customer service. It looks very much to me that they've opened the wrong sort of business in the wrong sort of place.

Herongull

It looks to me as if the coffee shop may be inherently non-viable. The OP said that they keep getting new owners because they can't make it work.

If you have a coffee shop at a railway station, airport or on the High St, then these can work because you get a mixture of people - some wanting a quick coffee before rushing off to catch a plane or train and others with hours to kill between flights or train connections. It is normal to use coffee shops as meeting or waiting places eg some people using the High St one may be waiting for their partners to finish shopping, but other customers just want a bit of a break from shopping and don't want to stay long.

As long as the coffee shop has the right number of seats and the right mix of customers, it can all work out.

It may be that most of the driving range coffee shop customers are waiting for people to finish, and therefore the mix is wrong. Why would anyone just want a quick cup of coffee there? If everyone's golf is finished, they probably want to head off home or off to lunch or whatever.

So the new owners get frustrated with the waiting customers and want to drive them away (and get sniffy if anyone complains), but perhaps there are no people who just want a quick cup of coffee in that place?

Perhaps the driving range needs to lower the rent or even subsidise the coffee shop, so that people (including waiting partners) enjoy using the range. Instead they just let it keep changing hands while each new person tries to make it work, loses lots of money and has to walk away?

mttylad

Is it the original letter on display?

Go take photographs (close ups) showing it on display, of the staff in the shop.
When they ask why tell them you are gathering evidence for the forthcoming court case. IMO it will soon be removed, or you could then rip it down yourself.


Or wallpaper paste works well outside to put your own notices up