WORST customer care ever - Am I being unreasonable?

[dollybird1000]

Hello fellow MumsNetters,

I rarely post on her but I have experienced the most most outrageous customer care from a cafe. I'm still in disbelief.

Bear with me - its a long one -

Scenario:
So I regularly visited X cafe as lovely coffee/food and quiet ( so you'd think they would want to keep customers ) either just before I collect my 3yr daughter or after I drop her at nursery school.

So I would imagine I have spent at least £100 in there since the beginning of Term. Visting 2 to 3 times a week.

Yesterday I collected my daughter and 3 year olds being as they are .. as we got to the top of the road - near the cafe - she announced she needed a wee and was desperate.

I thought - no worries " quick we will just nip in my fav cafe and you can go and then maybe we will stay for a treat "

I went into the cafe and just happened to say " oo do you mind if she quickly nips to the toilet"

For the sake of clarity - I will be DD and the cafe BH:

The member of Staff I asked turned and said bluntly
BH: " No you have to be a customer"

DD: " But I am a customer , I come here regularly .. pls can she just go to the toilet shes desperate"

BH: " Well you will have to buy something then "

DD: " Are you serious ?"

BH: " Yes you have to buy something the toilet is only for customers now " again - NO sorry our any notion of understanding..

DD: " Are you telling me my 3 year old cannot use the toilet .. really ??.. I think your attitude is disgusting, I am shocked .. I am a customer.... er"

By the time I had to leave as my daughter HAD to go. I left saying

DD: " I want to speak to the manager"

BH: " Hes not here, he will be in the morning"

DD: " I am totally disgusted by your attitude and I will be back to complain"

BH : " you do that "

The staff was rude, blunt and totally got my back up - I was so so so angry on behalf of my daughter.

I had to take her out to wee on the street ( which is ok as Im not uptight about those things ) and would have just done that in the first place.

SO I went back this morning and spoke to the manager. I AM ASTOUNDED this place has ANY customers still- really-

me DD: " Hi , Im sure you have heard about an incident that happened yesterday regarding my daughter needing to use the toilet quickly - and the response I got and gave "

BH Manger : Bluntly " Its not a public toilet and yes I heard about it "

DD : shocked " um seriously you treat your cutomers like this ? Also this lady was quite rude in her mannner .. instead of saying " im really sorry my manager has told us strictly we cant allow non-current customers to use the toilet "

BH Manager : " well apparently YOU were rude and aggressive "

DD: " Yes I said the attitude was disgusting as I was furious , and your member of staffs manner was so abrasive "

BH Manager : " well its your word against hers "

DD: " I cant believe it, well you have definitely lost a customer "

Where upon the Manager just shrugged..


I am SO shocked. I have never in my life experienced such appalling attitudes towards customers or children.

If they had a sign up stating toilets for customers only OR if I kept going in after school and letting my daughter use the toilet and not buying anything OR if I had never been/use the cafe. Or if it was for me.. not a 3 year old.
I might ( might ) feel differently.

I am also very sad as I loved going there and was planning to take my mum there today to show how fab I thought it was.

I would also like to add - they only take cash , I had none on me but had planned to go to a cash point and return for a treat... although the staff did not know this.

I am posting on here for many reasons :

1. Am I going mad ? Was I wrong to think I could nip in for my daughter to use the toilet??
2. Has anyone else experienced this in cafes - and how did you feel ??

Comments / Replys Please .. !!

[Littlegreyauditor]

Good grief OP you must have little to bother you

[Theodorakiss]

Middleaged makes a good point. I still didn't hugely care for the tone but who knows what people are going through?

[middleagedwoman]

I can actually understand something being the last straw. It isn't good, but most of us have had one small thing tip us over the edge in this way. But the few times it has happened to me, I have always been very embarassed afterwards.

I think the OP was upset that in a cafe where she was a regular customer and felt a sense of belonging, the waitress didn't recognise her at all and treated her like a stranger. Suddenly all those warm feelings of belonging vanished.

[Theodorakiss]

When I last lived in the UK we inherited this bizarre telephone provider. They used to billus 700 pounds randomly, we had 22 different numbers in 11months and for 8 of them no line! We had to sue them in the end and the director took the recordings of our thousand plus calls to them, each one where their staff had told a lie and said that he would be incorporating it in training to demonstrate the worst customer service ever! Not having a phone for 11 months cost us about ten grand.

[isshoes]

This is the weirdest thread EVER to cause such divided opinions...

[Theodorakiss]

It's irrelevant now, presumably after outing yourself and naming the cafe, you won't be welcome there anyway. If I were the owner, I would probably be proudly contacting the local press with the mn threads and squeezing some publicity out of it!

[Pobblewhohasnotoes]

Hmmm, where's the OP gone?

[toodles]

YANBU.

[pianodoodle]

I don't think the thread title is dramatic enough to describe this horrific tale.

It isn't just the worst customer service ever, it's the worst thing that's ever happened to anyone, ever.

[50shadesofmeh]

Kali I think you misunderstood me I was supporting the waitress doing what she was told and I'm sad the OP has started a smear campaign on a small business because they dared to cross her, I just phrased it wrong

[LittleMissWise]

The waitress reported the OP as being "rude and aggressive", kali.

[Floggingmolly]

Any damage to the business will actually be caused by op and her total refusal to either:

1. Accept a simple "no, toilets are for customers only"
   And 2. Get the fuck over it instead of starting a smear campaign.

[kali110]

Iv been in service industry over a decade and would love to hear the waitresses side as betting op wasnt as reasonable as she is trying to make out.

[pastelmacaroons]

The small and independent business must be doing exceedingly well to treat their regular customers with such rudeness. So, I doubt they will be hurt.

In fact full of MN tomorrow spending a fortune but outside in takeaway cups if they turn up with kids

[50shadesofmeh]

I've now been able to figure out where the cafe is and think its out of order that a small independent business will likely be damaged because the waitress refused OP's child the toilet like she was advised to do , tut.

[marriedinwhiteisback]

I think the cafe should have let the child use the loo but when they said no I wouldn't have argued. Also if the OPs dd was soooo desperate how come there was time to argue - I'd have got her outside, next to the kerb pretty quickly right outside the cafe so all the customers could enjoy whilst drinking their tea. And the next day when I ordered my coffee I'd have politely mentioned it to the manager and I bet I'd have go my coffee for free .

[Pobblewhohasnotoes]

I miss living in nappy valley. Unfortunately we didn't have 1.5 million to spend on a house.

[pastelmacaroons]

Sorry I meant to add, been in service industry and know how easy it is to be nice, and kind and human, and how stuck up and egotistical it is to not be.

[pastelmacaroons]

No I am not but I have been in the service industry and my family has.

Also right now, if I go into a cafe its a real treat for me, a real treat, and yes I would be upset if somewhere I was putting hard earned money would turn around and tell me to get stuffed when my little one needed the loo.

I have many times been in that position and it is quite urgent! They do spring it on you!

Also my poor mum has a weak bladder, and springs things like this on me, and now come to think of it my Dad too....I just feel really sorry for the elderly who cant get to loo's in time or have to worry about this reaction etc when they need to go.

Op, its Halloween after all, the witches have come out to play!

[jacks365]

Witsalmader I'll get a baby sitter and come and join you.

[LittleMissWise]

I wondered if she was the OP 50shades

[LittleMissWise]

So what if they don't want children in there? They don't have to!

[Rufus44]

I was on a bit of a pub crawl the other day (sad version only about 3 drinks) and I came up with a fab idea!!

Loo tokens, you go to the cafe, McDonald's etc and get a loo token if you don't use it there and then you can save it for another day!!! Inspired!!!

I'm a genius me!

Disclaimer, its probably a shit idea with loads of flaws but it amuses me to think of people walking in screaming "but I have a token"

[50shadesofmeh]

Pastel macaroons are you a rival cafe or OP with a name change ?