Waffle House
When bad employees run off good customers

In 1999 Jim Shaub purchased Waffle Housefromm Tree Top. All was well till about 5 or 6 years ago. For some reason upper managment has said to hell with the stores let"s all just make some money and go home. Service has gone down as wll as the food quality. Not to mention the stores are very unclean. Most of all management has gone down. I mainly go to dickerson rd # 706 and trinity lane# 485.

Let"s start at the begining. For years I have been going to trinity lane most of the timethe manager Diane Koch did a good job. She was unable theft, drug use or get rid of the bad employees. The main problem started when the manager's asked use customers to please let them know if we saw anybody stealing or not writing tickets, or who was sending food out the back door, or who was selling drugs. When we told them we were told it would be taken care of.

It was not instead they told the employees who the informent was and then the war was on. The employees began complaining, calling the 800 # and just plain refusing to wait on us. When we notified management about this nothing was done. At the time I thought Diane Koch and myself were friens. How wrong i was. Diana was transfered from trinity lane to dickerson rdIt was a poorly ran store but we thought it might could be improved. One of the regular customers (billy gann) that had been going in there for 25 years asked for a coffe ticket (heaven forbid) The waitress (susie) makes her money by not writing tickets.

So she told him to just leave the money on the table. We have been told in the past if noone will write you a ticket then you dont pay and to let the waitress know. At that point war was on again. They started telling management that we refused to pay so now we started writing our names on the tickets if we ever got one. This cut into Susie"s money so she began calling the 800#.

For those of you who may feel sorry for susie keep in mind that she has been caught stealing money, food not practicing proper sanitation proceduresand much, much more. Billy had left a map at his booth by accident went back to get it it was gone. When he asked about it he was told susie threw it out. HE ASKED HER ABOUT IT AND SHE THREW UP HER HANDS AND SAID I SURE DID.

He told her she was not that dumb she was just that aggravating. She ran to Diane and said he called her dumb. Diane came to our table and asked what happened and we told her she did nothing and the rule is if you find it you put it up to see if they come back. The only thing that was done was diane told susie that she did not have to wait on billy anymore. Less than a week later we came in for coffee and susie yelled out on the floor while the store was full of customers that "i'm not going to wait on that son of a b*tch" and another waitress waited on us.

Later on susie said again and on the floor "i don't care what that son of a bitch thinks". AT that point I called Diane and told her what had happened and she said she would deal with it. Later Diane said she called Bill Navel He said it was he said she said. I don't understand how that can be when there were 4 or 5 of us that heard it and alot of employees plus many ciustomers.

At that point susie made the corporate decision that she did not have to wait on me. We brought this to diane"s attention and nothing was done. We went up the chain and talked to Mark Rogan about her and nothing was done. All we have been told time and time again is we are working on it. "she is on a tight rope.

One more write up and she is gone". I find it funny that an entire management team can't make one waitress abide by the rules. Keep her from getting on the grill when she is not trained to be there, stealing, running her mouth to customers, robbing them blind, not washing her hands and for heavens sake at least put on the required hat. As soon as management is out the door off comes the hat. That's when you know she's ready to "work".

Lewis, he is the new manager by this point, saw her put money in her pocket. He said he corrected her but did not write her up cause she told him everyone does it. Well i guess if everyone jumped off a bridge we could get rid of her. No wonder waffle house is bankrupt. Well I finally got a meeting with mark rogan and ken wright. What a waste of time. They did not want me to bring Billy Gann. They thought it was going to be an allen maxey ass chewing, or to tell me not to come back.

Well it did not turn out that way Billy backed up everything i had to say. All they were really interested in was telling me was "we have a big file on you"I have asked several times to see this file it has not happened to date. If they were capable of keeping such "big files" on me seems like they could keep one or two on past employees that have robed them blind and not rehire them in two months. More than likely the only file is some complaints about" Allen is being mean to us and not letting us steal his money" Imagine that.

Well once again they were saying we are going to get rid of her when what they ment was sit still while we find a way to get rid of you. So the meeting is over and we stopped at a different Waffle Houseout on harding, and what happens. Keep in mind we have never been in this Waffle House. We get our drink and sure enough we have to fight to get a ticket the waitress just tells us to leave # dollers on the table. Imagine that.

What was so funny is not 30 seconds later Ken Wright walks in and i let Billy tell him what had just happened. All he could do was hang his head. I did ask him if i complained to the manager would I get another page in my file? No answer. Imagine that. When we went back to dickerson rd. Sometime later we though mabey things had got better. Wrong. They were worse.

Susie started with the following. She started calling the 800# when we pulled in the parking lot. Would talk and spread rumors about us cause we smoked and drank coffee outside. Would complain to other employees if they waited on us mabey she just did'nt know what a good tipper I really was. Had a few of the "other cutomers"AKA people she was sneaking free food to call and complain about us. Began to refuse to wait on and just plain being hatefull to anyone that sat at our both or spoke to us. Took a jacket that a customer left behind home instead of turning it in.

The owner had called and left his name and # said he would be back monday. This is not hearsay we all saw her take it. A braclet was brought in that a customer found in the parking lot she said she put it in the register wrong right in her pocket it went. Billy's mother passed away at the age of 91 sweetest woman you could ever meet. Susie heard about the death and when billy came in she said " i don't give a damn about that old woman she don't mean shit to me.

All this plus the money she has stolen and free food she has either took or given away. Then a metro police officer came in and she ran her mouth to him and told him we were stalking her mind you this is a place I have been coming in for 20 years or so, but was told I was barred from coming in. ANd management was dumb enough to fall for her lies. This is how poor waffle house management has become.

Which brings us to the point we are at now. Me standing outsidedickerson rd. Waffle house with my sign that reads don't eat at waffle house. Poor service and poor management. Jim shaub is now out of waffle house and ken wright is rumored to be over another area, and waffle house inc. Has taken over. But no canges. Susie is still there, running her mouth, and robbing them blind. Lewis the manager still does'nt care.

His boss Mark could care less about anything in his division. We have called the corporate office to try and reach burt thornton the ceo. But he has refused to call back. They will not return my calls or any other customers that call to complain about susie or the managerthere are several of us that want to talk to burt thornton or terry winecoff who is over the remaining 113 stores.

We have been asked several times why do we keep coming back if it is so bad? My answer is it is the principle of it. It used to be a good place to go. Now it is like this. Management can't manage. Employees can say and do anything they like. Store can't and won't be kept clean. Noone even has on a clean uniform. They are not made to wear a belt to hold up thier pants. They will hire anyone without checking them out even if they have stolen from them in the past.

All we want is to be served no mouth and bull sh*t and to not be asked what's going on in thier store. We have told them from now on if you want to know what is going on in your stores then hire a secret shopper. They said they don't do that. Guess they are afraid to see what they might learn about thier stores. Just want to leave everyone with this if one waitress per shift per 113 stores pockets 10.00 a day in cash from not writing tickets that is 1,237, 350.00 in lost money every year. Now im not an accountant but that is a lot of money and they wonder why they are filing bankruptcy.

I hope that this reaches whomever is incharge and they see where the money is going mabey then people will understand it is time for a change. You as the customer is getting the brunt of this as many of you have noticed they had a price increase to absorb this loss I believe. Well if your in nashville and you just gotta have a waffle you will see me outside with my sign hopefully you will drive by and join my protest but if you do go in you will find susie with her unwashed hands and no hat ready to pocket your money and serve you up a waffle.

Till next time this has been another atempt to inform you by, Allen *

Alan
nashville, Tennessee
U.S.A.

Company: Waffle House
Country: USA
State: Tennessee
City: Nashville
Address: Dickerson Rd
Phone: 6152289008

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