Or was this restaurant useless?

[mslevine86]

Starting to doubt myself a bit so thought I would ask for opinions.
Last night was our anniversary and OH had booked a restaurant, told him to keep where it was a surprise but knew it would probably be one of about three places.
Turned up at said restaurant and it was closed!! Ok surely a mistake made somewhere, rang them no answer, stood outside in the cold. Went on their Facebook page and there was a post from the previous day stating they were shut from Tuesday til Thursday (no reason) my OH has fb but doesn't really use it and clearly hadn't seen the post. I didn't know we were going there and don't follow the place on fb as haven't been before so I didn't see it either. Checked his phone and they had actually tried to call him a week ago, one missed call. Rang voicemail number as no notification that they've left one and there was a message from them to say can you give us a ring please? He was in work at the time and it wasn't saved in his phone so ok he could have checked who had rang him, but could but am I being unreasonable that they should have made more effort to let us know? In this day and age a text even? And if it was something like this rang more than once? He had actually rang them yesterday afternoon to confirm with them as it's a 'fine dining' type of place (tasting menu wine flight etc) and he would have spent quite a bit on the meal and drinks, when we've eaten at these types of places before they normally ring to confirm were still coming. They have a cancellation policy on the website that if the customer cancels with less than 48 hours notice they charge 50 pound per head so although they didn't answer he assumed all was ok.
I was really disappointed as was my OH and commented on their post to tell them we were stood outside and did they think it was acceptable to which I've not yet had a response and I've drafted what I think is a very reasonable message to tell them this in detail as I think we deserve an apology. Luckily we managed to get in at another restaurant after my OH phoned round a few places so it wasn't a wasted journey but it wasn't what he had planned so did put a bit of a downer on the evening.

YABVVU. What do you want them to do? Come to your house, shake your husband and make him aware of the call? They called, posted on their FB page. Your DH is at fault not the restaurant.

They may have been closed because of staff sickness or a bereavement which may explain why they didn’t move heaven and earth to call you.

It wasn't a minor inconvenience to us trying to enjoy our anniversary, that we had to ring round a number of restaurants to fit us in at their busiest time of the evening, and we did have a nice night in the end. I'm not expecting a free meal but I would just like an explanation from them as to why they didn't make sure that we knew about them being closed, I know I'm not being unreasonable about that and I have been honest in the message I'm going to send that he did have a missed call/voicemail but it wasn't seen by my OH. We were looking forward to somewhere a bit special but obviously I'm put off going there which is a shame as the food looked really nice! All I'm after is for them to take on board why I'm annoyed and hopefully bear that in mind in the future when they close to make sure their prospective paying customers aren't put out. A voicemail message on their machine saying they were closed would have let us know earlier on yesterday and we might have been able to book somewhere without stress.

First world problems.

Don't eat there. Take your custom elsewhere. Problem solved.

^”How many attempts should they make to contact customers?”

If they are going to refuse to leave a clear message in the hope they can change the booking instead of cancelling they need to keep trying until they succeed. I don’t think the OP would have grounds to be upset if the message they had left had said that they were no longer able to honour the reservation, but they didn’t. They held back on that essential aspect in order to try and maximize their business at the customers expense.

Your original post started Starting to doubt myself a bit so thought I would ask for opinions

That's really not true at all is it? You aren't doubting yourself at all. You are absolutely adamant that you aren't being unreasonable. I have no idea why you posted asking for opinions, as you are completely unwilling to consider any opinion that doesn't agree with yours.

Laiste and if restaurant used a landline to call?

The restaurant had a notification on their FB page was it beyond the wit of OP's dh to check that after he had received no answer at lunchtime, instead of just assuming that everything was okay?

Don't worry he's learnt the hard way to check missed calls! He doesn't really use fb so hadnt seen the post yesterday. Yes you're right I'm assuming reasons why they closed (I think the owner out for his birthday is a big clue!) because I am annoyed that we couldn't go and as I've said before the reason it was closed isn't the issue. They could cancel on the day and tell me this and as long as I knew about it id be ok with it. I'm not after a freebie as we didn't lose out, I'm just not happy that one voicemail that didn't actually say they were closed was the only contact we had from them. I've been really polite in the message as I appreciate they did try to contact us but I think they needed to try a bit harder.

Just be grateful you didn't put this on the restaurant's facebook page, you'd be all over the internet by now!

They should have tried harder to make sure you knew they were closed, but even if they had left a voicemail message saying that it wouldn't have helped as your DH didn't check his voicemail.
Your DH needs to take some responsibility for the poor communication too.

You think the chef closed a restaurant from Tuesday to Thursday because of his birthday?!

Loads of excuses for your dh - didn't check his missed calls, didn't have voicemail notifications on, waited until the afternoon of the day of the booking to confirm it, doesn't do Facebook - and all of those are somehow the problem of the restaurant, and it is up to them to make an extra effort to contact your dh?

Deathstare I was starting to doubt myself because I thought maybe it was more my OH fault for missing the call than the restaurant's responsibility to ensure he received the message, and whether I should just let it go or message the restaurant to ask for an appreciation of my disappointment and perhaps an apology for our inconvenience. It's a divided opinion on here and half the responses suggest my OH is a numpty for not checking and I'm self absorbed for wanting basic customer service. The other half agree that the restaurant should have made sure we knew about the closure and at the very least put that on the original voicemail they left. I agree he's a numpty for not checking the missed call but I don't agree I'm self absorbed!! A lot of the posts on here have been really helpful and I've took them into account in my reply to the restaurant which is why I asked on here.

It's a divided opinion on here and half the responses suggest my OH is a numpty for not checking and I'm self absorbed for wanting basic customer service. The last half of that sentence especially cements what @DeathStare tried to say to you, sorry. I can see why you'd be irritated by this and the restaurant could have tried to contact you again but they might have assumed if your DH didn't call them back when they asked him to that you weren't planning on turning up anyway and didn't have the time/just didn't bother to chase.

I think it's a catalogue of failures and the restaurant could have dealt with this better, but quite frankly your husband could have too. Poor communication on both sides.

Leave them a voicemail that they can ignore too

Basic customer service is phoning a customer to tell them the restaurant will be closed - which they did!!

No customer service would be just locking the doors and not doing anything to let people know.

YABU they rang to let you know, no one answered so they left a message to get back to them.

"Basic customer service is phoning a customer to tell them the restaurant will be closed - which they did!! "

No, they didn't!

You did have "basic customer service". You also have a husband with less than basic phone/internet skills or a crappy phone.

How many other people were stood outside the restaurant last night wondering why it wasn't open?

Does the restaurant have a webpage or just a facebook account?

They didn't speak to him which in my mind means they didn't make sure he knew it was closed. If it was a courtesy call to check he could still make it, previous experience with restaurants is that they try again to make sure they aren't losing out on another booking (I have had other restaurants call email and text to confirm a booking and when I didn't get back to them straight away they tried again) If they were open last night and the call last week was to confirm the booking and he didn't call them back to confirm we were still coming (which he did try to do yesterday) then they would have applied a cancellation charge if we hadn't shown up.

People don't close their business at short notice without a very good reason. They may well have had to deal with a death in the family or other sever emergency so having left a message for you DH they then had more important things to think about than run after your DH who couldn't be bothered to return a call.

The restaurant has a webpage that had no mention of the closure on as that's what he went on to to get the number to call them yesterday lunchtime.

As I've posted earlier the chef was in London celebrating his birthday as he posted on Twitter so doubtful there was also a death in his family, but I appreciate that's nothing to do with me.

I think rather than leaving a voicemail asking to call they should have just said we are closed. A text would also help.
They aren't completely useless, the VM wasn't much use tho.