Bad customer service

Yesterday morning on our way to Montagu, we decided to stop for breakfast at Wimpy North Bound. Sitting down at our table, it started with two waiters that could not agree on who is responsible for serving us. This was however resolved between the two of them without too much trouble.

Being very excited about using the "FNB on the go" voucher that allow a free meal every 3months, we asked the waiter to explain to us how it works as this will be our first time making use of this offer. Process was explained and we asked her to indicate to us which meals were included in the offer. Upon this we were informed by her that ALL breakfasts and burgers on their menu were part of this offer except specials as the one advertised on their pamflets. We continued placing our orders -she then suggested we place the FNB order seperate from the rest of our bill to make the process easier...this was done.

Our food was then served...all, except for a meal we ordered for our 4 & 2 year old to share -this order the waiter apparently forgot to place and we then ended up sharing our own meals with them while waiting.This was however easily forgiven as food did not take too long to come out and she took the liberty to share it in for them in advance. We were however just informed with serving of their meal that eggs were prepared medium - they prefer soft, but under the circumstances we accepted without making an issue and moved on.

The waiter came to take our voucher numbers just before we were done with our meal. A few minutes after that she came to call my husband to be present while the vouchers are being loaded. He came back minutes later to inform me that he was now told that apparently the two meals we ordered were not covered by the voucher. The waitress then came to explain that she was not aware that the meal did not form part of the offer and suggested that we now combine the bill and then use the vouchers....this would now however mean that we will be liable for an extra R150 on the bill. Obviously we were not happy about this, especially since we took the liberty to confirm with the waitress before placing our order to avoid something like this. We requested to speak to the floor manager. Floor manager came and informed us that she was not sure what to do and suggested that we speak to a different manager(I assume he was the branch manager). The floor manager left to call him upon which the waitress in a quite unprofessional way indicated to us that she refuse to pay in if it gets to that point. She then disappeared upon which I indicated to my husband that I feel a more reasonable solution would be to charge us for a meal closest to the price range which is redeemable by the voucher and we can then just pay in the difference -which I feel would still be little unfair, but with my hubby also being a waiter back in the day, we usually try our best to be more understanding than most clients, ensure we give a decent tip and avoid complaining unless we feel there a real need to (as in this case). The manager, introducing himself as Christo finally came to our table, accompanied by the waitress and floor manager. However, being a manager in Human resources myself, I feel this person do not have a clue how to manage. Firstly, it seems he did not have a proper discussion, or maybe even any discussion with the waitress prior to attending to us. He came there with his mind already made up and to this point I'm still not sure where he got his info from. According to him, the waitress indicated to us that all meals on the wimpy menu is included except specials and special meals. He then continued by telling us that this meal (mixed grill breakfast) is apparently a special meal only prepared by them -this is however a ridiculous explanation as the meal forms part of their menu and can also be found at other wimpies and is even advertised on the wimpy website -seems as if this manager do not even know their brands products.

I then indicated to him that the waitress firstly said nothing about special meals and secondly already admitted that she was under the impression this meal is covered -upon this he then just looked at her. The waitress then indicated that they (I assume herself and the floor manager) already decided that they will ring up a different meal and she will then pay in the R60 difference. This as I've indicated, would have been my suggestion and I would have even been more than happy to cover it. However, after their manager tried to blame us for their mistake I was at the point where I didn't really care how they covered the difference. You would expect a manager to come to a client and solve a problem, however, it feels to me he only made things worse. I suggest that wimpy provide proper training to their staff and their management before introducing new promotions to the public.