Cheesecake Factory
Service complaint

I am writing concerning an experience that my party had last night at your Charlotte, NC / Sharon Road location. Our entire team of 25 decided to have our annual outing at this location. We made reservations ahead of time for the desired amount of people. We knew that due to varying work schedules, we would not all be able to arrive at the exact same time. We were advised that would be okay when we were making our reservation.

Also the weather in our area was less than desirable, but we decided to have our event anyway. I relay the weather portion so that you will understand that traffic was also very bad in our area.

Our reservation was for a 5:30 to 6:00 pm arrival. Before 6:00 pm, two of our tables were given away. We made due and squeezed in as best we could to try and enjoy our evening. However, two of our party did not arrive by the 6pm time. We were all drinking and having appetizers, many of us had not even received our meals yet.

The general manager, Victor Galu, came over to our table. He interrupted our meal to tell us that the two new comers would not be allowed to be served. He referred to them as "joiners." He said that due to the people in the lobby waiting, the two that had just arrived from our party would have to leave, or go and wait in line and be seated at a separate table.

As I stated before, many of us had not even received our food at this point. I have never been so insulted in a restaurant. One of our party spoke to Mr. Galu privately for about 5 minutes. Mr. Galu's decision was that the two "joiners" could order desert only and then leave. Even though he knew that we would have been drinking and dining for several more hours as we were nowhere close to done. After that, we all left as quickly as possible.

Our holiday cheer and spirit was completely diminished. I would like to point out that the "joiners" were allowed to sit at our table for at least another 45 minutes, with no food or service, during which time they could have been served, making more money for your company.

I wanted to write you this letter because you should know that this table of employees consisted of customer service excellence winners. We spend our days trying to satisfy our customers. I guess that the standards to which we hold ourselves, we maybe take for granted that other businesses would feel likewise. I see now that these values are not held by your company. I hope that you will take this event into consideration for future suggestions on how customer service should be handled.

Company: Cheesecake Factory
Country: USA

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