Outback Steakhouse customer service stinker

[MushyMushy]

Would you have done the same thing we did?

We went to Outback today for a late lunch/early dinner and we arrived at 3:14 rotfl2: yes, I'm anal, I looked because I was worried they weren't opened yet). They weren't busy at all, so we got seated right away, and we spent a bit of time looking at the menu, trying to figure out what we were in the mood for. We were all starving and decided to get the works -- appetizers and all.

We sat and sat and sat. Five servers walked past us, and we were pretty patient wondering when someone would acknowledge us. At 3:35, I said, "Let's give it 5 minutes, then leave," and DH and DD agreed. At 3:42 (I was being generous with the time ), we got up to leave. DH asked for a manager and told him the problem (politely) and the hostesses got all upset and said, "Well, you should have come and told us you weren't being waited on!" DH responded to her that if he's paying $70 for a meal, he shouldn't HAVE to go searching for service.

I ended up being glad we left because we found the absolute best seafood place ever, and the server there actually apologized for being at our table too much.

I don't know, would you have gone searching for service? They kind of acted like we were silly for not doing it, but honestly, we're pretty patient people and don't expect too much, but at the same time, we do expect service.

 

[tiggersmom2]

Oh honey, let me tell ya a story!!!!

We went to Outback with my then 3 year old. Everything was going well until it was time to order. I ordered my son a kid's meal (which comes with a drink) but told the sever to not waste a cup b/c he never drinks it. He rolled his eyes and told me "if I was too cheap to pay for a kid's drink, maybe I shouldn't be eating here"

First off the darn drink COMES with the meal and I was just trying to them a favor by not wasting a cup!!! I talked to the manager and he was just blah.. He didn't see this as a big deal.....we left. This was in Warner Robins Ga...horrible, horrible customer service.

 

[LilyLake]

This happened to us once when we were at an upscale restaurant. It must have been our anniversary, because we go out for a fancy dinner once a year, at the most. We sat, and watched other people come in after us, and be waited on. We both thought it was pretty funny. I finally went up to the host and nicely asked "How do we get somebody to come to our table?" He was mortified! We got free appetizers out of the bargain, and it made for a memorable evening.

That being said, I can definitely see myself doing the same thing you did. They should have their act together.

 

[mommasita]

No, I agree with what you did, but I would not stop there. I would definitely go to higher ups on this one, they would "hopefully" want to know what kind of service is being NOT offered.

 

[becjlek]

That has happened to us twice and different restaurants. One was a Perkins and the other was a local Greek place. We waited for about 30 minutes each time and no server would come near us.

 

[LadyyRedd]

Took a friend of ours out for her birthday last weekend to Outback. Called at 6:20pm for call ahead seating. They said it would be about an hour, but show up at 7 in case they can seat us earlier. We get there at 7. They have no pagers, say they will call us over the speaker in about 15 minutes. At 7:20, they hadn't called, so I went in to see how long it would be. They said about 15 more minutes. Fine, not a problem, they are a little busy. At 7:40, still hadn't called, so my sister went in to see. They said we're sorry, we're busier than we thought, about 15 more minutes. Ok. 8:00, we still hadn't been seated, so I go back in and ask. They said we're sorry, we're really busy, about 15 more minutes. 8:20 still not seated, so I go in and ask what the problem is. We're sorry, we're really busy, we need to have open tables to seat you. I said I understand that concept, but they've told me 3 times now (not including this time) that it would be "15 more minutes" and it's now an hour and 20 minutes later. She said we're sorry, we have a party of 22 taking up 5 tables and another party of 16 taking up 3. I said that if they knew it was going to be that long, they should at least be upfront about it being a longer wait time so I can make the decision to stay or go, but the way they did it, they duped me into staying. The manager apologized profusely. I asked how many parties were in front of me. The boy standing there said 2 parties in front of me. So I stood there and counted them down (out loud!!! ) as they were called and seated.
We were finally seated a few minutes later and the manager did come over and tell us to choose any appetizer on her, so we got the Cheese Fries - Layered. And our server was really awesome.

But IMHO, such a popular restaurant, on the busiest night of the week, should have told a party of 22 and a party of 16 that they just simply couldn't seat them together. They were holding tables empty for a while just to have enough for them to sit beside each other. Whenever I've gone out in a big group on a weekend night like that, we're always well aware that we probably won't get tables next to each other. I'll probably get flamed for that, but that's just NOT a way that you keep loyal customers!

And we got seated next to the party of 22 - 22 9 year olds!

Kimya

 

[wheeler1]

Is this the place where the waitstaff will insist on scootching you over so they can sit down while they tell you the specials etc.? I HATE that. Not sure why....Please please do not plop yourself at my table uninvited. It annoys the crap out of me when they do this. Some 20 yr old pita, all cutesy, treating the patrons as if they have never dined out before.

Not sure...maybe its not the Outback.

 

[tiggersmom2]

Is this the place where the waitstaff will insist on scootching you over so they can sit down while they tell you the specials etc.? I HATE that. Not sure why....Please please do not plop yourself at my table uninvited. It annoys the crap out of me when they do this. Some 20 yr old pita, all cutesy, treating the patrons as if they have never dined out before.

Not sure...maybe its not the Outback.

Yes, it IS Outback and it never fails, the women scootch over to my husband and the men scootch over to me....so freakin' annoying!

 

[goofinoff]

Oh honey, let me tell ya a story!!!!

We went to Outback with my then 3 year old. Everything was going well until it was time to order. I ordered my son a kid's meal (which comes with a drink) but told the sever to not waste a cup b/c he never drinks it. He rolled his eyes and told me "if I was too cheap to pay for a kid's drink, maybe I shouldn't be eating here"

What? OMG! To the OP, I would have done the same thing only I think you guys were much nicer than I would have been!
A coworker of mine just went to the Godiva store in our mall and wanted to buy her sister in law some truffles so she asked how much they were. The girl behind the counter told her how much each one was (I forget) and my friend replied with "Wow." Now, the "Wow" could have been percieved as "Wow, that's expensive" or "Wow, that's not bad". The girl said "Well, it's not Hershey's!" My friend was stunned! She told her that she couldn't believe she said that and wanted to talk to the manager. Get this...she WAS the manager!!! My friend told her again that she couldn't believe she said that and she said "Well, we hear that all day and we are tired of it!" My friend told her that she didn't care how many times a day she heard it, she was completely rude and insulting for saying that. She told her that she was in retail and was horrified at this type of customer service. They wanted her to take the chocolate for free. My friend refused and went to another candy store in the mall.

 

[goofinoff]

Is this the place where the waitstaff will insist on scootching you over so they can sit down while they tell you the specials etc.? I HATE that. Not sure why....Please please do not plop yourself at my table uninvited. It annoys the crap out of me when they do this. Some 20 yr old pita, all cutesy, treating the patrons as if they have never dined out before.

Not sure...maybe its not the Outback.

UGH!!!! I hate that! We were there once with my girlfriends for a girls night out and I had gone to the bathroom. When I got back the waiter was in my seat AND MADE ME WAIT FOR HIM TO GET DONE! I was like "Um, can I have my seat back?" and he said "In a second, sweetheart, I'm almost done!" Excuse me! Get the you know what out of my seat!!!

 

[poohandwendy]

I wouldn't have handled it that way. I wouldn't wait more than 5 minutes without asking why we haven't been approached by any server. That usually gets the ball rolling FAST. And if we had problems after that, yes I would leave and complain to the mgmt. Most of the time though, the issue is miscommunication between the person seating and the waitstaff.

Human errors happen, I would definitely at least give them the chance to rectiy the situation and I would not wait until I was really pissed. If your table hasn't been greeted in the first few minutes, it's very likely your server doesn't know you are their assigned table.

 

[MushyMushy]

TM2, that's horrible! I would have been so ticked.

Mommasita, DH is definitely going to complain to corporate. We had bad service the last time we were there too, but we chalked it up to one bad waiter. Now I'm not so sure.

And I hate the whole scootching us over thing! Stand up and do your job. Yes, we're friendly and polite, but I still don't like the over-familiarity. The ONLY time a server did it that we honestly thought it was fine was at Boma. Our waitress was incredible, and she was sitting long enough for me to write down my e-mail addy and the recipes I wanted from the chef. She was honest and said she wanted to get off her feet for a minute, so I wrote slowly so she could rest.

 

[wheeler1]

Yes, it IS Outback and it never fails, the women scootch over to my husband and the men scootch over to me....so freakin' annoying!

Ahhh, its not just me then!

 

[MushyMushy]

I wouldn't have handled it that way. I wouldn't wait more than 5 minutes without asking why we haven't been approached by any server. That usually gets the ball rolling FAST. And if we had problems after that, yes I would leave and complain to the mgmt. Most of the time though, the issue is miscommunication between the person seating and the waitstaff.

Human errors happen, I would definitely at least give them the chance to rectiy the situation and I would not wait until I was really pissed. If your table hasn't been greeted in the first few minutes, it's very likely your server doesn't know you are their assigned table.

Well, at first the time got away from us as we were joking around and looking at the menu, so that first 10 minutes went really fast. Then we waited longer just because we're patient like that. We weren't pissed, just more put out, and since we had been wanting to try the new seafood place for a long time, we hightailed it outta Dodge.

 

[happygirl]

being a server I can say it happens, sadly if a table isn't in your section 9 out of ten times you don't pay any attention, what I would have done was go up and told the hostess that no one had been by yet and then waited a few more minutes, If no one had came by then left

 

[LadyyRedd]

Our Outbacks here don't do the "sit with you" thing anymore. Too many people complained!

Kimya

 

[wheeler1]

UGH!!!! I hate that! We were there once with my girlfriends for a girls night out and I had gone to the bathroom. When I got back the waiter was in my seat AND MADE ME WAIT FOR HIM TO GET DONE! I was like "Um, can I have my seat back?" and he said "In a second, sweetheart, I'm almost done!" Excuse me! Get the you know what out of my seat!!!

Sweetheart??!!! Dont you just HATE that? I have no idea how old you are but I bet he was young. The older I get (almost 42) I hate being referred to as sweetheart, honey etc by 20 somethings. It really pisses me off for some reason!

 

[diznygirl]

We never actually eaten inside an Outback - always have gotten the curbside delivery. Didn't know about the scootching thing - thanks for the head's up!

My bad service story - we went to Joe's Crab Shack and had to wait to be seated. Fine. We waited and waited. A party came in after us and was seated right away at an empty picnic table. Why couldn't they seat US at that table??? It was because of the number of people in the party - we were four they were five. That was designated a 5+ table so the hostess couldn't seat four of us there! They also couldn't split two tables that had been pushed together and turn it into two tables for four - the computer system wouldn't let them! ARGGH!

I must have looked like I was about to lose it, or maybe the manager was just really on the ball - but she immediately tood charge of the situation, split the tables and said they would find a way to deal with it. I didn't have to say anything - the situation was handled. She explained they were trying out some new table configurations. Well, guess what? It wasn't working!

We ended up very happy with our evening - I love happy endings!

 

[rie'smom]

Is this the place where the waitstaff will insist on scootching you over so they can sit down while they tell you the specials etc.? I HATE that. Not sure why....Please please do not plop yourself at my table uninvited. It annoys the crap out of me when they do this. Some 20 yr old pita, all cutesy, treating the patrons as if they have never dined out before.

Not sure...maybe its not the Outback.

I've never experienced this at any Outback restaurant. If I had,I guarantee you I'd have not returned.
My SIL and I ate at our local Outback last night. I was craving a Victoria filet and the Bleu Cheese chopped salad. The food was sooooo good.

 

[Poohnatic]

Our Outbacks here don't do the "sit with you" thing anymore. Too many people complained!

Kimya

I worked at the Outback you went to, Kimya. I refused to sit in the booth with the customers and told them I'd kneel at the tables instead.

Suzanne