Hi Joe,
I was hoping you could post this to let make other people aware of the horrific experience I had at the Flying Crane Cafe in Princess Anne last night. My mother had 2 gift certificates for free pizzas which she won at a benefit for breast cancer in Crisfield a few weeks ago. Last night she was entertaining friends and ordered 6 pizzas from the Flying Crane. Upon arrival to pick them up, we found only 2 of our pizzas were ready since they had run out of pepperoni. So the young lady tending the counter asked us what other kind of pizzas we wanted. No one had called us before we got there to tell us about this.
Keep in mind we had a house full of guests at our home, waiting on us, and were told it would be another 15-20 minutes before our food was ready. I simply asked the girl how can a pizza place run out of pepperoni? I mean, Food Lion is right down the street, and I'm sure they knew well in advance if there food supply was running low. Also, I told her that us having 4 fresh pizzas and 2 not so fresh pizzas was not ok, and that I would like the other 2 remade also. I said nothing out of line and nothing to offend her. I was only trying to help resolve this situation so we cul get back to our guests and get them fed.
She began mocking me, getting smart with me saying "you know what, its been a really long day and I dont know what you want me to do", and seeing the shocked look on my face she said "what?, , what?" and began getting loud and irate with me for no reason. At that point I told her I didnt like her attitude, and I tried to difuse the situation by going outside to sit on a bench while my mother stayed waiting for our food. While walking out the door she yelled "LOVE YOU!!". I returned inside after about 2 minutes and went up to my mother and quietly said "Mom, I dont think we should stay here and give these people our money after how rude we have been treated". At that point the young lady looked up and began yelling at me again, saying incredibly unkind things, screaming at me, and was creating a completely innappropriate scene. I asked if there was a manager available and as I said that an older man came out from the kitchen and grabbed her from behind by her shoulders to get her away from me. She broke free from him, continued screaming expletives at me, and he grabbed her again and was able to shove her away from the counter. All the meantime she's yelling "oh lets go girl, its gon' be real, its gon' be real!", which I interpreted as her wanting to fight maybe?? However even though the man was some kind of manager, he did nothing whatsoever to help resolve the situation.
Keep in mind, the restuarant is about a third full of customers, who had just spent their hard earned money to have their Friday evening dinner here. They also did not deserve this kind of treatment. I did nothing to deserve being treated this way, and my mother who is not in good health especially did not deserve this kind of treatment. The whole reason we were event here to begin with is because we had gift certificates that were won at a BREAST CANCER BENEFIT. How do you think the coordinators of the benefit would feel if they knew this is how the recipient of those certificates was treated? How do you think breast cancer vicitims would feel?
I want to make people aware of how poorly run this establishment is, and how awful my mother and I were treated last night. I hope the other patrons of the restuarant were a refund of some sort after having to witness that. I'm wondering if anyone else has had an experience with this young lady and if you havent had the pleasure of dealing with her of this place, I would highly suggest you spend your money elsewhere. After we left I called Dominos, quickly placed an order, picked them up and was treated with respect and gratidude. Thank you Dominos!!
i was there. yes the girl was out of line, but you were clearly provoking it. how dare someone question you miss! i cant work in fast food or any other food service because of people like you.
ReplyDeletehowever, my firends and i did get a good laugh of you getting called out from that high'n'mighty attitude of yours!
Thanks for the info. They'll never get any of may business and I will be sure to spread the word. It's amazing to me that you were treated in this manner. Hopefully, the woman was fired, but I doubt it considering the "Manager" did nothing to difuse the situation. They will be just another fly by night pizza joint. Some business owners just don't "get it". They won't be business owners for long.
ReplyDeleteIm sorry that this happened but I don't think the business should be put down over an irresponsible, out of line employee. I do hope that they get rid of whoever did this. The owners are good hardworking people and are trying very hard to keep their customers. I love their food too!
ReplyDeleteLadyLiddy, how can you act on one side of the story? What makes this account "the truth?" Read the post above yours before you start to spread rumors that could hurt someone's livlihood. Just because Joe reposts a letter doesn't make it fact!
ReplyDeleteThe days of good customer service is over. Anytime I experience this type of behavior at a business, I never go back. I've been working in a customer service driven industry ALL MY LIFE. Regardless of the circumstances, there is NO EXCUSE for the employee's behavior. She should have been fired on the spot, prevoked or not. I completely stand by my post.
ReplyDeleteYou know what? At the end of the day, they have a $2.50 lunch special, which is a bargain, the food is good, and there is always a nice local crowd there, so I'm going to keep eating there and i'm sure they will do fine with one less haughty customer.
ReplyDeletewe eat there sometimes 3 times a week. never has anything even close to this happened. whoever wrote this letter has to be exaggerating, the staff is friendly and intelligient and again i have never witnessed anything like this situation that was described. the food is amazing and so affordable they are practically giving it away. go there yourselves and see before you judge. and yes sometimes restaurants run out of items and that does happen , its not that unusual and im sure not intentional as the writer seems to think
ReplyDeletePersonally it seems to me that this customer was trying to engage the employee into a fight. The prudent thing to do would have been to just cancel the order and left. When you ask a "loaded" question ("how can a pizza place run out of pepperoni") you are provoking a smart answer. Read the book "Emotional Intelligence."
ReplyDeleteGet over it!
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like you didn't plan ahead. I've met people like you and we call you the high and mighty! You complain when evrything is great. It's called "bitchin".
LadyLiddy, you stand by your post, but you only have one person's account of what happened. How do you know it even approaches the truth of what happened? I didn't read where YOU experienced the bad behaviour, so where do you get off advising people not to go there?
ReplyDeleteSo they ran out of something and you got upset and because of your bad experience everyone should stay away. Get over it. You yourself said you only went there because you had certificates for two free ones and decided to order more. The Crane isn't Dominoes, they aren't assembly lining pizzas out the door. The are a locally owned business in a town where it is hard for a small place to remain open. I would venture that with the events and town and with college ending it was a hard time making an order as to not over or understock their supplies. I would say that your attitude, the one which can easily be seen by the post you made had a lot to do with how you were treated. I've only been in this restaurant twice and on both occassions I was satisfied with the food and service. I know my son and his friends look forward to going there when they get home from school on the breaks.
ReplyDeleteClearly the restaurant was wrong from the beginning. Who makes two pizzas out of an order of six and then expects the customer to wait 20 more minutes and take 2 old pizzas and 4 new ones? Wierd. This could have been avoided with a phone call to choose alternate ingredients. My guess is that the girl screwed up and didn't want to own it and then acted like a lunatic. I would have been furious if I was dining with my children having to witness that nonsense.
ReplyDeleteif the lunch special is $2.50, Then the help must be making less than a walmart employee, you get what you pay for. Personally there's only one restaurant in PA that I would bother to eat at, and this ain't it!
ReplyDeleteThe Flying Crane is the best place to eat in Princess Anne and your ridiculous story will not make me stop eating there-in fact, I can't wait to have a good laugh with the FABULOUS STAFF! They have the best pizza outside of Specific Gravity and way better prices than anyone around! Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteSome of you people just do not get it...the customer is always right,even when they are not.And I do not care how "small" a business is,a pizza place should not "run out" of pepperoni and a customer who calls in way ahead of time should not have to wait another half hour,by which time the other 2 pizzas would be cold,to complete their order.This employee needs anger management at the very least.
ReplyDeleteTrying to engage a customer in a physical altercation is NEVER acceptable behavior. It amazes me that people are defending it.
ReplyDeletesounds like a load of crap since the only dominos in that area is in fruitland or pocomoke at least an hour round trip. the flying crane has a good rep with nice people. sounds like sour grapes to me over pizza... oh free pizza at that.
ReplyDeleteAre you serious LadyLiddy? Exactly what was the answer the customer was looking for when the question "how can a pizza place run out of pepperoni" was asked? This customer was looking for a fight. I would have said no thanks to the other 2 pizzas and left. I'm not one who cares if I get in the last word. I live a calm stress free life. Getting into an argument over pizzas for goodness sake is just plain old stupid. Then to continue to dwell on it to the point of writing this post is borderline obessive.
ReplyDeleteYou are ALL missing the point! Unless you were there, you have no idea what really happened. I think that is the point, Lady Liddy. You tell people not to go someplace based on hearsay. NEVER a good idea!
ReplyDeleteanonymous 3:17, and YOU weren't there either, so shut up.
ReplyDeleteit doesn't matter if the customer provoked it or not, customer service is the key & she got a bad experience with it. of course the situation could have been handled differently with both sides, but customers should never be treated like that no matter what.
ReplyDeleteSounds like this place suffers from an idiot behinds the counter, with friends that hang out there. How dare a customer expect their food to be right & ready! If they had gift certificates for 2, that means they were going to pay for the other 4. That's a large lost sale, with even more future sales lost due to someone's inability to shut their mouth & ACT as if they had sense. If I were the writer, I would make sure that the owner knew about this behaviour, or soon they'll be out of business with the owner scratching their head, trying to figure out where all their business went. Even if the writer acted "haughty", it would in no way excuse the employee's behaviour, nor the friend egging it on.
ReplyDeleteAnon said "of course the situation could have been handled differently with both sides"......my thoughts exactly. I can't tell you how many complimentary gift certificates and other wonderful customer services I received by being the understanding customer. Sometimes I'm not even really understanding but I never let on, and it pays to my advantage always.
ReplyDeleteI work in a medical field and the bottom line is THIS: Pretty much every day is a "long day" for me and no matter what I smile at the patient and treat them as kindly as possible - no matter how it is they treat me. And sometimes it's not very nice. Grin and bear it. That's customer service, smiling and keeping your cool no matter what. The cashier sounds like a moron. No the place shouldn't go down for one employee but hopefully they resolved the problem by firing her.
ReplyDeletejrh
everyone is missing the point! leave breast cancer out of your rant. yeah for you that you went to the benefit! but leave it out of your pizza pissing match!
ReplyDeleteJoe, I think you are off base telling anonymous to shut up because he wasn't there. It's pretty reckless to warn people away from a restaurant because of some story told by someone who perhaps has an agenda. Lady Liddy had no facts that she admits to, just hearsay. In fact, the only ones who admit to being there tell a different story. You certainly are gallant to defend the Lady, but I imagine she can defend herself.
ReplyDeleteanonymous 7:52, here's the deal. As an outsider, I'm really not defending anything other than the fact that someone is challenging the author of this letter when they were not there. Here's the difference. #1, I know who the author is. I do not publish anyone's name to each letter because Jonathan Taylor and the rest of those mentally challenged people will call and harass them. Considering the author was willing to provide a name and number, I have no problem publishing their message.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, the person challenging the author is ANONYMOUS and a coward. I don't care who they are, they have no spine and I felt the need to call them out. If they want to send me an e-mail with their name and number, well, I'll then respect their position. Just know that I do have the author's name and number and for that they deserve my respect.
Where is the Flying Crane Cafe anyway?
ReplyDeleteFlying Crane has good food, at unbelievable low prices and a great wait staff. I can speak only of my experiences. Eating in or carryout lunches keeps me returning. One disatisfied customer will not keep me away.
ReplyDeleteSeveral comments in your letter make me go hmmmm. I think probably 10:26 AM comment was closer to the truth of your ordeal.
It is sad that a donation (made to an cancer awareness by Flying Crane) turned into such a nightmare for your Mother. I hope the owners of Flying Crane will continue to give support and donations to various causes and not be turned off by one bad experience.
I am the owner of a restaurant in Princess Anne, and I have heard nothing but great things about the Flying Crane. They are my competition, but we need to give credit where credit is due.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, being in the restaurant business for many years, I have had to deal with all kinds of customers. And many times, had to bite my tongue and listen to a tongue lashing for something that often did not happen. Many people make up complaints to obtain a free meal. But, if any employee in my establishment even begins to get smart with a customer for any reason, they would be fired on the spot. No exceptions. The customer is always right and if the employee cannot deal with the situation they need to call me.
What is really amazing to me is that in these terrible economic times none of us can afford to lose any customers. Whether the customer was right or wrong, I would be doing whatever I could to get that customer what they wanted so they returned.
Never eaten there and never will
ReplyDelete8:25, you are missing some mighty fine vitals at a very reasonable price from a wait person who's sense of humor is beyond compare. Your loss.
ReplyDelete