Outback Steakhouse customer service stinker

[SwedishMeatball]

I would have thought it was just an oversight and flagged someone down to let them know that we needed a server.

 

[Forevryoung]

My boyfriend is one of those people that can and will engage a stick in a wonderful conversation (very very social, makes friends everywhere...)

His son is a waiter at Friday's (ugh) and so as long as we get the right vibe from our waiter, we usually invite them to sit with us and get off their feet for a minute while they take our order.

One waiter at outback sat with us for quite awhile and him and the boyfriend shared stories... we learned this guys life history and then DBF invited him to take a few of our fries I was dieing (It was very late and the restaurant wasn't crowded)

On the other hand, there was a older waitress one night at a steak place who RUBBED her hand on my boyfriends arm while she was talking and then called HIM sweetie. I was going to beat her up but it wasn't worth it

 

[RyMickey]

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.

Maybe I'm just weird, but I actually laughed when I read this story. I don't think I would take offense to that one at all.

 

[Disney Debbie]

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.

Do you live there? I live 25 miles from Warner Robins! I just drove by that Outback on my way to see "Blades of Glory" tonight! We haven't been there in years - the waits are ridiculous and the food is overpriced IMO. We eat at Logan's if we want a steak w/o paying a fortune, Longhorn's if we want to pay a fortune!

 

[tiggersmom2]

Do you live there? I live 25 miles from Warner Robins! I just drove by that Outback on my way to see "Blades of Glory" tonight! We haven't been there in years - the waits are ridiculous and the food is overpriced IMO. We eat at Logan's if we want a steak w/o paying a fortune, Longhorn's if we want to pay a fortune!

I live in Gray (1/2 way between Macon and Milledgeville). I so agree with you on Logans and Longhorns. We always eat at the Logans on Tom Hill and the Longhorns on Riverside. I have NEVER had an issue with any of those restaurants, great service and great food!!

 

[DawnCt1]

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!

The Outbacks near us require that the waitstaff stoop. This is a company policy for the purpose of making eye contact with the customer and being "on the same level". I think its a terrible policy. I had a pregnant waitress have to squat and I told her to please stand up before she killed her knees. She was grateful.

 

[Mom2Angels]

Originally Posted by Disney Debbie
Do you live there? I live 25 miles from Warner Robins! I just drove by that Outback on my way to see "Blades of Glory" tonight! We haven't been there in years - the waits are ridiculous and the food is overpriced IMO. We eat at Logan's if we want a steak w/o paying a fortune, Longhorn's if we want to pay a fortune!

I live in Gray (1/2 way between Macon and Milledgeville). I so agree with you on Logans and Longhorns. We always eat at the Logans on Tom Hill and the Longhorns on Riverside. I have NEVER had an issue with any of those restaurants, great service and great food!!

Just wanted to say I lived in Warner Robins for almost ten years worked on the base there. I moved back here to California almost three years ago now. I sure miss it, I'd love to move back to Georgia. And I also miss Longhorns, we don't have any here!

Debbie

 

[Sleepy]

First of all, I would never wait and wait and wait for service and then hunt it down. Bad service is never acceptable. However, given my location, if I had the chance at an Outback, I think I would wait in line for days sleeping in a tent if it meant getting some Outback food. (that's for me)

 

[WDWguru]

Sleepy, I can't help but notice your location says Naples, Italy. If you're willing to sleep in a tent for days to eat at Outback, I have to question the validity of your location!!

Now I'm a food snob and don't see what all the fuss is about Outback, and I'd sleep in a tent for days to eat in Naples, Italy!! (Wanna trade?!)

 

[MushyMushy]

First of all, I would never wait and wait and wait for service and then hunt it down. Bad service is never acceptable. However, given my location, if I had the chance at an Outback, I think I would wait in line for days sleeping in a tent if it meant getting some Outback food. (that's for me)

That's the way I feel now about the seafood place we went to! Where we live, Red Lobster is THE seafood place, so it was pretty great getting actual shore quality seafood. So Outback did us a favor.

 

[LoraJ]

This happened to me at the Cheesecake Factory. I waited 15 minutes and got up and complained. Then I was moved to another section where I was taken care of. They had just opened for the day, so there may have been some communication errors. That's probably what happened to you. There's no way I would have waited as long as you did.

 

[EthansMom]

I had a great dining experience the first two times I went to an Outback. Then the next 4 or 5 times were terrible.... excessive wait times (told a 30 minute wait and then had to wait an hour), having people come in and get put on the list after us get seated before us, having our server "disappear", waiting for our food and then having it be served cold. DH won't touch Outback with a ten foot pole now.

 

[Jeanny]

The first time I went to an Outback, the server sat down in the booth next to me, I thought she was just trying to apease me, because I had just blown the hostess out because of the long wait we had... even after checking twice to see where we were on the list.... even after, we saw people getting out of their cars and getting seated right away.. I'm sorry, we were there, the call aheads weren't there when the table was ready.

Another restaurant we went to~ we were seated, looking at the menu's. People behind us got waited on, people next to us were seated after us and were waited on... people on the other side were seated, waited on, everyone got there food...UM, where's OUR server??

A server goes by, I asked "do you know who has our table?", Nope, but I'll find out, another server comes to another table, I asked "do YOU know who has our table?" Nope, but I'll find out. Finally, I asked for the manager! What's going on? how come everyone else around us is being served and is eating and no one has even asked us what we want to drink? He comes back, apparently none of the servers "knew who had our table"... he finally gets someone to take our order, and they bring the wrong food out. That's IT!! I'm hungry, I have a headache. I told the manager, I'm not paying for any of my food! Next time the Hostess puts someone in no man's land, maybe someone will pay attention.
I didn't give the server a tip either as our food was messed up. I usually tip 20%, but he didn't deserve it. Tip==to insure prompt service... um, not here it doesn't mean that!!!

 

[cybrkitn]

We've eaten at Outback several times and have never had a problem and have gone to a few different ones here as well as out of state. Sorry about the bad service you had.

We actually had the problem you had yesterday morning at a local diner. It's a very small one that we have been to before and was owned by a father and his daughter. In the past, we have never had a problem with service at all. The customer seat themselves (the place is that small where you can do that) then the waitress will come pretty quick to give you menus. Service was always very good.

The father retired and the daughter took it over. She now has two new waitresses working for her. We went for breakfast and it was a little crowded, but not much. DS4 and I got there before DH (who had to go to an atm). We go and get a table and 15 minutes go by and the waitresses are passing us without even an acknowledgement. DH comes in and it's about another 5-15 minutes before one of them "finally" acknowledges us. I told DH if the waitress didn't come soon, let's just pay for the drinks we got out of the case and go somewhere else. The waitress finally comes and she immediately asks us what we would like to order. I was already annoyed at this point and said "menus". We were never given menus and she wanted to know what we wanted .

I was very annoyed at the attitude of both the "new" waitresses. We hadn't been there in a while so even though the waitresses weren't really new per say, they we new to us, but their attitude needs a lot of work.

 

[Poohnatic]

This happened to me at the Cheesecake Factory. I waited 15 minutes and got up and complained. Then I was moved to another section where I was taken care of. They had just opened for the day, so there may have been some communication errors. That's probably what happened to you. There's no way I would have waited as long as you did.

That happened to me on a weeknight at CF. I got there at 9pm, well after rush and it took 10 minutes for my server to show up at my table. I was tired, after driving three hours (helping another location for my employer), so I sat. I got my drink and it took 15 minutes to come back to take my order and a half hour to get a sandwich. The server hadn't come back to check in with me. Meanwhile, the next table had issues of their own-three people got food and the fourth did not!

The manager did come by to just 'check up on me without prompting and was very apologetic. I explained that I'd been up since 5, had worked 8 hours then drove three to get there. It was now 10:20 and I wanted to get my check and leave. He comped a piece of cheesecake (that the server tried to charge me for, too!) and it took another 20 minutes for the server to show with my check!

My lesson from that experience was that I don't go to CF at dinner time! I was just fortunate on that occasion that I was dining by myself and had a book with me.

Suzanne

 

[HeatherFeather]

I love Outback food, but our local one is notorious for horrible service. The last two times we have eaten there have both had problems. I have a friend who works at another restaurant in town and therorizes that it is because this particular Outback has tip sharing, so I guess the servers don't have any motivation to do a good job since they're going to be splitting whatever they get anyway.

So, we don't eat in there anymore. I vote with my wallet.

 

[PlainJane]

I would have persoanlly mentioned something to the hostess if I had been there say ten minutes and no one so much as said they would be with us in a minute. If no one came to wait on us after talking to the hostess I would have informed a manager then left. Mistakes happen, and it's just not that big a deal to me.

ps I also hate when they plop themselves on the seat next to you, I think Outback should take a poll and find out how many of their customers dislike this practice.

 

[traviesojmt]

We had a similar incident at an Outback as well. We arrived before 5pm and was seated immediately. We waited about 15 minutes without seeing anyone. I saw the hostess walking by and mentioned to her that we had not seen a server yet. She said that someone would be by shortly. We then proceeded to watch and listen to the hostess and a server argue over who had to take our table. After waiting a total of 25 minutes, we decided to leave. We figured that even if the server came at this point, they were not happy to have our table. As we got up to leave, the hostess asked us where we were going. I told her that 25 minutes was way too long to wait and they were not even busy. She acted like we were idiots. It took many months before I bothered to return.

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

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.

I think that is being a little over-sensitive- geesh...

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

To the OP.... I def. wouldn't have waited that long..I would've waited a couple of minutes, then flagged down a waitress and said, " hey can we get some menus and go ahead and order?" ..I know you shouldn't HAVE to do that, but I would rather make a small effort, then leave a restaurant altogether
Personally, I'm not a big outback fan...I think the portions are way too big!