For being annoyed at restaurant for giving our table away?

[diamondsareforever5]

Had a Father's Day meal booked for 4:30 at a restaurant today. Miraculously managed to get the kids out the house with plenty of time to get there (restaurant is 20 mins away and left at 3:45). Satnav said we would arrive just after 5 past.

Around 10 minutes into the journey, we got stuck in grid lock traffic. By the time we started moving, the satnav was now saying we wouldn't get to the restaurant until 4:40. I called the restaurant to let them know we would be 10 minutes late.

We finally got to the car park at around 4:42. I rang the restaurant again, as they have a 15 minute grace period, so I was aware that we only had 3 minutes to get to the restaurant and the car park was around a 5 minute walk away. Whoever I spoke to on the phone assured me they would hold the table.

We got to the restaurant just after 4:45 only to be told that our table had just been given away! I explained that I had just spoken to someone literally minutes before who said they would hold the table for us. The lady just shrugged and said "sorry, it's our policy" and that another table wouldn't be available until another hour and a half!

I understand that we were late and had just missed the grace period, but I was told that they would hold the table for us! AIBU to be really pissed off about this?

We did end up in another restaurant which everyone enjoyed so Father's Day wasn't completely ruined I suppose, but just annoying as I really wanted to try this new restaurant!

You've arrived outside of the grace period.

Ringing up doesn't grant an extension.

If it was a train or a plane you wouldn't have missed it I'm sure.

However your title says it is about them giving the table away.

@marcopront yes, I'm annoyed about them giving it away when they said they wouldn't. Not sure why this is hard to understand

Obviously they should have gotten a hotel room at the Travelodgr the night before. Like we all do when we have a dinner reservation cause we need to be prepared. And then a rooma t the premiere Inn on the off chance that Travelodge didn't get out booking.

Any many of the staff working yesterday would have also been fathers....fathers day is one of the busiest days of the year, yesterday was hot and humid and hellish to work in and something about 'special occasions' (mothers day, fathers day, valentines day, Christmas day!!) Seems to turn many customers into really nasty, entitled people (seemingly more so than other days).

As someone who has had to miss Christmas day with my children because I was working for minimum wage, there is nothing more rage inducing than to reminded what day it is. It's something staff will be painfully aware of. Yes the staff should have communicated more clearly but when it's majorly busy things can be missed, particularly if it was a manager on the phone who then had to be called away to deal with an issue on another table or in the kitchen.

So your title should include "when they said they wouldn't"

How hard is it to include that ?

@marcopront you are just being pedantic. My OP clearly states that the table was given away after I was told it wouldn't which is obviously what I'm annoyed about.

What do you want OP? An apology, some compensation or the miscreant sacked? Or perhaps all three and more.

It appears a mistake was made in a busy restaurant. You think it was a communication error.

You don't want to leave a bad review. Perhaps an email pointing out to the manager that a communication error was made which led to your table being given away moments after you were told that it wouldn't be.

Write the email and put this to bed. You never know they might even give you a freebie on the house or a more gracious apology that you received at the restaurant.

Do you work for the restaurant?

Of course ringing up grants an extension WHICH THE RESTAURANT CONFIRMED.

Many places use common sense and discretion. Like adults.

Wtf?
Title is supposed to be short, give basic topic.

It is clear enough from the first post that the OP is annoyed with a specific sequence of steps, which includes confirmation that the table will be kept and the table given out.

Maybe read a full post before replying?

You wouldn’t have been at the restaurant at 4.05, you would have been pulling up at the car park according to your timings. You were cutting it pretty fine, what if there hadn’t been a space? I can understand your annoyance but I think you should also be annoyed at yourself. A restaurant is going to be busier than normal on Father’s Day they haven’t necessarily got the time to tell all staff members that you’re running late, they made their policy clear and you arrived after the cut off. If you rang at 4.42 they were potentially on the phone to you whilst another member of staff was seating the others at your table. You weren’t there because you didn’t allow enough extra time, you can’t blame them for accepting the customers who were there really..

Have you read my OP? I gave myself 45 minutes for a 20 minute journey. How much time would you have left? An hour? 2 hours? It's not my fault I got stuck in traffic and obviously it's not the restaurants fault either but maybe they need to do some training with their staff and tell them that maybe they shouldn't assure customers that their table would be held when it wouldn't.

So, we agree? They should have kept the table.

And if it was a train or a plane OP WOULD have missed it, if the traffic was sufficiently bad to make the journey take all the time available and then some. If you leave a big buffer of time and then the journey takes longer, it takes longer. It's not a weakness on OP's part or that she didn't try hard enough. And I'm a massively punctual person, but sometimes things happen!

brilliant!

Guessing as it’s fathers day there were lots of people there.
15minutes is fare.
Id be annoyed if my table was given to someone else but business is business, you were late they gave it to someone else. They shouldnt have told you they would keep it past the 15mins though.
Glad you found somewhere else and it didn’t ruin the day.

Oh and by my saying 'it was Father's day' meant that they were good for the table....once Dad's in the car he wants his lunch.

"TiaraBoo
If you’re late, drop 1 person and 1 child at the restaurant door to claim the table and get the drinks in.

brilliant!"

Not brilliant since the OP explained you can't drive up to the restaurant 🤣

I should imagine you were on the phone to a different person pretty much at the same time as the greeter (not in the same place as the person on the phone) released the table. It was just a cross over.

On a busy Father's Day it would have been best if the telephone person had not told you they would have kept the table for you as clearly they were unable to put this into practice, perhaps from a logistics point of view of two different people dealing with different areas.

I agree that a mistake was made, I don't agree that it was because they weren't being nice, or that the day made any difference to how the situation should have been handled. Unfortunately staff are also human and busy, hot days make mistakes more likely.

OP all you need to do now is confirm it was a shit hole like Frankie and bennys and that your mistake all along was failing to wait for your DH to slip you £50 to take the kids out of his hair, like a good little wifey 🙄🙄

Ringing up did grant an extension as verbally confirmed by the person on the phone.

Cutting it fine by giving herself 25 minutes to park and walk the 5 minutes to the restaurant?

Do you by any chance spend a lot of your time waiting around for people?

😂 some of the posters on here are actually ridiculous! 'It had to be somewhere like Frankie and Benny's since the booking was at 4:30'... what does that even mean?! 😂

It was actually a very high end, expensive restaurant and nothing like Frankie and Benny's. But if I'd have put that in my OP, I probably would have got people saying 'do you know how insensitive it is to post that in the middle of a cost of living crisis' 🙄

Also, unlike that posters husband, my DH actually likes spending time with his wife and kids and doesn't pay me to leave the house 😂

OP, you did nowt wrong. People on here either can't read or move at a glacial pace.

The restaurant should have honoured their word by keeping your table.
As a former restaurant manager, they should have been incredibly apologetic that they messed you about. I do appreciate that accidents happen, so do you, which is why if they at least acted like they gave a shit once you turned up, you may not be feeling as pissed off about the whole thing.

There's a difference between hospitality and customer service...hospitality means going the extra mile, which they did not.