One fateful Friday evening my husband and I had Happy Hour appetizers and beer at Rock Bottom Brewery and Restaurant in Awhatukee. We suffered food poisoning that was bad enough to warrant seeking medical attention. I know we are not the first people to get food poisoning from a restaurant, but I think everyone should know how poorly this, supposedly reputable national chain restaurant and its insurance company, Gallagher Bassett Services, Inc. Handled the situation.
The food poisoning symptoms lasted all weekend long and into the following week — Monday we saw our internist who, after we told him of our severity of symptoms and the time of onset, immediately prescribed Cipro antibiotic. He told us to return if we were not improved within a week — he said our ailment was most likely caused by exposure to E. Coli bacteria.
As a service to the restaurant and to the general public I called the location where we had eaten just several days ago. I was told go call corporate, which I did, and was told their insurance company would be contacting me within a couple of days. This did not happen. After a week I googled the insurance company and called them directly.
Weeks went by with no communication even after I mailed them copies of all of the documentation they asked for — my doctor was kind enough to include a handwritten explanation as to why he did not request lab work on the day we came in — we were both severly dehydrated. He knew, because he is a medical doctor, that we would respond to antibiotics. His notes clearly stated that we were suffering from Acute Bacterial Gastroenteritis —food poisoning.
After all this I still had to call Gallagher Bassett and beg for an estimated time of resolution — a couple more weeks went by and finally, when I got ahold of our claim representative she flat out denied our claim. Apparently, notes from a medical doctor were not sufficient evidence to hold the restaurant liable for our illness.
Very disappointed I contacted the corporate headquarters risk management department for an explanation. They put the responsibility back onto the insurance company and said "we're here to run restaurants not handle complaints" What did we get for our pain and suffering and being jerked around for 2 months? Nothing — no compensation and no apology.
A formal complaint has been filed with the Maricopa County Health
Department.
This restaurant clearly has no regard for the well being of its patrons.
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