This is the actual letter I sent to the Maitre D'...
Rusty Scupper Restaurant
501 Long Wharf Drive
New Haven, CT
06511
203-777-5711
Attention: Maitre D'
Regarding: Poor Service on Saturday 14 June by Steve V.
Dear Maitre D':
I was in New Haven last week for a professional conference meeting.
On Thursday 12 June three of us came to the Rusty Scupper for lunch, which was very good, and the service was excellent.
After this experience, I decided to recommend for a group of five of us to dine at the Rusty Scupper for dinner on Saturday night 14 June. I made a reservation, and we arrived and were seated outside, which we requested.
The waiter that we had was rude, abusive and annoying. I believe the receipt read Steve V. He was very slow, and did not tend to our needs as he should have.
Our reservation was for 7:00, and the place was practically empty. It took over an hour for us to receive our food, for which we complained to the waiter. He did come back three times to make excuses, but with no reasonable explanation. He just kept saying it was coming
We did ask the waiter for some form of compensation, asking for free drinks, or desserts, but he would not even try to amend the situation in any way. He simply said that he had no authority, and that what we were asking is a management decision.
After waiting an hour, it began to get cold outside, and we wanted to go inside. Since we had not seen the waiter in a while and the food had not come yet, we decided to try to move inside, at which time two young women were bringing the food out.
We asked if we could go inside, and they said no, that the restaurant was packed, and there were no tables.
What is worse than this, is that after the food did come, I decided to make a trip inside to verify the situation, for which I notice six empty tables (at least).
So I went back to the table We even had to ask the waiter to bring water He was the worst waiter I have ever seen. We kept complaining, and he did nothing. He basically just said that he just works there. What a shame
The manager did stop by quite inappropriately, and did nothing to help the situation. He did not ask us anything pertinent and neither the waiter nor the manager ever made any apology for the situation, or did anything to make us feel better about the terrible service.
After such an aggravating evening, you could imagine how we did not want to tip the terrible waiter, especially since he made no attempt at all at providing good service, so we left him very little, which he should have been grateful for, since he was so obviously useless.
Well, he never did come to get the money, so we just left the cash on the table, and headed for the car.
When we were almost at our car, the once slow and useless waiter runs out of the door toward us, yelling at us, and saying very abusive things. He was using a threatening tone as well as vulgar language.
It very much upset us, after waiting forever for the food, and getting poor service, as well as freezing outside.
Maybe if he would have moved so fast while he waited on us, as he did when running out the door, he would have gotten a better tip.
Your restaurant embarrassed me in front of my colleagues, by providing such poor service. I am disgraced about recommending your restaurant, and apologized to my colleagues for my poor decision making, which cost us a lot of money for so little
I can tell you that I will make sure not to recommend your restaurant ever again. You should know that I do have very much influence over many people of high status, that will never come to your restaurant after I tell them how terrible your wait staff is if they ask me.
I am writing this letter to let you know that your wait staff is costing you customers, both new and returning.
If you have any sort of integrity for your business, you should contact me with some form of compensation to diminish the damage done.
For, if your restaurant is to go on, you must learn to treat customers the way they should be treated. If your restaurant fails to do this, you will eventually end up with an "Out of Business" sign on the door.
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