The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

[Agent H]

And those same employees probably talk about how great they are since they're "Disney".

The place is lost. They lowered the standards so much over the last 5 years it's going to take a while to hire and train enough good staff.

I would bet money on that not being the case.

 

[chadwpalm]

Here is the complaint I submitted:

Hello! My friend and I used Mobile Order yesterday at Hungry Bear separately. Each of us had a different problem with not being able to eat part of the meal. When we mentioned it at the counter we were both scolded and lectured on not ordering properly. They did not offer to modify our food.

In my case the cole slaw is too spicy. I asked if I could swap for mandarins (not an option online). The CM made me remove it from the tray (why?? It was still on their side of the counter away from me), trashed it in front of me and grudgingly gave me one fruit.

My friend's sandwich came with jalapenos. She hadn't seen the option to remove them online. When she picked it up and said she couldn't eat them she was told she should have ordered correctly and dismissed.

I could see teaching us at somewhere we might frequent often but at a possibly once in a lifetime restaurant shouldn't they focus more on making us happy with our dinner? Instead we were made to feel bad and incompetent and had to deal with our food as best we could.

Thank you for your time and attention.
****

Which meals did you guys order?

Edit: NVM, I see now the Smoked Beef Brisket comes with Picked Jalapenos.

Not to question the validity of your statements, I'm baffled by these two:

"I asked if I could swap for mandarins (not an option online)."
"My friend's sandwich came with jalapenos. She hadn't seen the option to remove them online"

When I try to order in the app (surprisingly you can when not in the parks) I see this:

Before even adding it to the cart it asks which side you want (where you can choose between the oranges and coleslaw). Kind of unmissable, actually.

On just about all the items there is a pulldown to customize your selection. In this case you can say "No, Thanks" to the jalapenos.

Maybe you guys don't have screens as tall as mine and didn't know to scroll down to see those options?

I don't disagree that even if the customer makes a mistake that there should be good customer service to make it right, but at the same time they are dealing with large quantities of orders and I understand their frustration. I know a lot of people hate mobile ordering.....or technology for that matter.

What I didn't include because get-off-of-my-lawn-ok-boomer is that when I was a kitchen lead in the '70s, it was all about making sure that the guests were happy. If that required substitutions, modifications, or an abject apology, full refund and free replacement meal then so be it. Even if the plate had been licked so clean that I needed the receipt to see what they'd ordered.

Help me understand......are you implying that if you completely finish your meal and lick the plate clean, if you weren't happy about the meal in some way you are entitled to a full refund? I wanna make sure I'm reading that correctly.

 

[chadwpalm]

People who don't expect good let alone adequate customer service are the reason we're in the cesspool we are today.

There's two sides to every coin. I've worked customer service and know there are a lot of entitled people who are never happy about anything. There are also a lot of people who like to abuse the "customer is always right" adage and act abusive toward employees. People like to abuse policies and it removes the companies trust in the customers to always approach things with certain reasonability.

Employees are humans too and have breaking points and don't want to be yelled at or treated like garbage all day either.

There should be a sense of mutual respect in both directions. Sorry, but the customer isn't always right. Sometimes when people (or companies) take an inch, society expects a mile.

 

[mickEblu]

The real issue I see here is passing on those great beer battered fries for coleslaw or mandarins.

 

[Parteecia]

Which meals did you guys order?

Edit: NVM, I see now the Smoked Beef Brisket comes with Picked Jalapenos.

Not to question the validity of your statements, I'm baffled by these two:

"I asked if I could swap for mandarins (not an option online)."
"My friend's sandwich came with jalapenos. She hadn't seen the option to remove them online"

When I try to order in the app (surprisingly you can when not in the parks) I see this:

View attachment 846738

Before even adding it to the cart it asks which side you want (where you can choose between the oranges and coleslaw). Kind of unmissable, actually.

On just about all the items there is a pulldown to customize your selection. In this case you can say "No, Thanks" to the jalapenos.

Maybe you guys don't have screens as tall as mine and didn't know to scroll down to see those options?

I don't disagree that even if the customer makes a mistake that there should be good customer service to make it right, but at the same time they are dealing with large quantities of orders and I understand their frustration. I know a lot of people hate mobile ordering.....or technology for that matter.



Help me understand......are you implying that if you completely finish your meal and lick the plate clean, if you weren't happy about the meal in some way you are entitled to a full refund? I wanna make sure I'm reading that correctly.

I got the chicken tenders. It comes with fries and cole slaw and doesn't offer an option to swap either out.

Lol, we don't have the biggest phones but we were walking and ordering and she flat missed "customize your order" which honestly isn't easy to see anyway with old people eyes. Should she be punished for that?

And yes, that is exactly how Disneyland used to operate. I would have to send someone else to apologize because I couldn't bring myself to do it when they were obviously taking advantage.*

I'm not asking for that level anymore -- although it would be nice -- but most regular restaurants and certainly In-N-Out are more accommodating than what we got. Disney service is now below the level of a basic fast food place.

*Just to add that two friends were eating at Napa Rose years ago and saw the people at the next table pull this trick. The poor waiter had to apologize and bring more free food. My friends sympathized with him and tipped him extra.

 

[Parteecia]

There's two sides to every coin. I've worked customer service and know there are a lot of entitled people who are never happy about anything. There are also a lot of people who like to abuse the "customer is always right" adage and act abusive toward employees. People like to abuse policies and it removes the companies trust in the customers to always approach things with certain reasonability.

Employees are humans too and have breaking points and don't want to be yelled at or treated like garbage all day either.

There should be a sense of mutual respect in both directions. Sorry, but the customer isn't always right. Sometimes when people (or companies) take an inch, society expects a mile.

I've worked enough of those jobs too (see above). I still went into every encounter with positive expectations and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Do you think we deserve the treatment we got? I swear we are nice and apologetic when we ask.

Here's another example. A different friend (hm, they all seem to be troublemakers) and I were at one of those Greek/Mexican/Sandwiches/ Burgers/Breakfast etc everything fast food restaurants. She ordered a burger but forgot to say lettuce wrap. When they brought it she saw her mistake. They whisked it right back to the kitchen, fixed it, and gave us some extra Ranch cups just because.

So I stand by saying that Disney doesn't even meet the very low bar of fast food customer service.

 

[CaptinEO]

I've worked enough of those jobs too (see above). I still went into every encounter with positive expectations and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Do you think we deserve the treatment we got? I swear we are nice and apologetic when we ask.

Here's another example. A different friend (hm, they all seem to be troublemakers) and I were at one of those Greek/Mexican/Sandwiches/ Burgers/Breakfast etc everything fast food restaurants. She ordered a burger but forgot to say lettuce wrap. When they brought it she saw her mistake. They whisked it right back to the kitchen, fixed it, and gave us some extra Ranch cups just because.

So I stand by saying that Disney doesn't even meet the very low bar of fast food customer service.

I'd bet you a million dollars the Disney apologists would not stand for the same treatment they get at Disneyland if they were in a fast food restaurant. Some people in the Disney fandom will literally put up with the worst when it wouldn't even be acceptable anywhere else.

If an employee aggressively threw food away like that in front of me I wouldn't go back to wherever it was. But if it's a Disney employee people will feel bad for them. Fact is retail, fast food, etc is busy whether you are at Disneyland or in a local mall but the difference is people pay way more just to step foot into Disneyland.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I firmly believe in good customer service, and think kindness and grace should try to be given, especially if mistakes were made when ordering.

However, I also feel, if you choose to use the app to mobile order, you do have some responsibility to ensure your order is correct, and if you miss provided options on the app, you should own the mistake, see if a change can be made after the fact, or pick off the Jalapeños and move on with your life.

If there are modifications you need not presented on the app, you probably want to wait in the line to order in person.

But regardless, CM's should be kind, even if they cannot fix your situation themselves.