My lovely wife hosted me, and another couple, for lunch at Longhorn. The occasion was birthday lunch for me, and for one of our guests.

I don't drink much alcohol any more, but I decided to start with a cocktail. My order was for a Gibson, very dry, very cold, straight up.

The waitress returned from the bar with everybody else's drink and told me that I could not have mine -- they did not have any cocktail onions. OK, I'll stick with water (you just saved us somewhere in the neighborhood of ten bucks for the cocktail, tax, and tip).

After the meal, dessert time. I was not really impressed by the menu offerings, so when the others ordered dessert, I decided to have my first drink; I ordered coffee and a B and B. The waitress returned from the bar (this is getting old, isn't it?) with no drink. Saved another ten-spot, coffee only.

I commented on this, on the website's "Contact Us" page, mentioning that we dropped close to two hundred bucks for the four of us and really expected better than this, and received this reply:

quote:

Dear V-Tail,

Thank you for your email.

Our restaurant teams make every effort to have the items and ingredients on hand to serve the food and beverages you crave. They are just as disappointed as you when they are unable to serve anything listed on our menu. Please accept our apologies we were unable to serve the mixed drink you wanted due to an unanticipated shortage in the supply of this item.

Comments from our guests are appreciated, especially when we didn’t meet your expectations, and yours will ensure we are always serving you in the best manner possible.

Sincerely,

Alondra
LongHorn Steakhouse Guest Relations

I replied, thanking Alondra for her non-answer wrapped in corporate-speak.

Leave a shit Yelp review like I do.

It works MUCH better than their lies from corporate.

quote:

I replied, thanking Alondra for her non-answer wrapped in corporate-speak.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Canned answers like this read like a script. It is better not to reply to a guest in such an impersonal way. "We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused," is meaningless.

But they are as disappointed as you are.

Not exactly obscure drinks, either.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:

Not exactly obscure drinks, either.

Unfortunately, they were pretty obscure at this Longhorn location.

I guess I'll try again next year.

Just wondering, what did you want them to say?

Knowing a few people who work for Darden, you may be better off going direct to Corporate.
Of course, it's possible you could get another canned email, but hearing stories about what corporate has done to satisfy customers leads me to believe it's worth a few minutes.
It's just a-couple-a keystrokes....

Chain restaurants are generally horrible places for any drink besides frozen concoctions and trendy BS. I don’t bother asking what beers or bourbons they have. If I can’t see the tap handles or the liquor shelf I just order water.

Happy belated birthday

quote:

B and B

I'm betting that a chain restaurant had neither Benedictine nor Brandy. A lot of those places don't even have the classic mixers and have to use a flavored spirit (e.g. flavored vodka, flavored rum) to kind of sort of make drinks.

One of my go to cocktails is a Paloma which is the most popular drink in western Mexico. Despite having a smart phone in their hand, many don't even have the gumption to google it and have to come back to ask what is in it. I'll tell them 2 ways to make it (squirt/fresca method and the real grapefuit juice method) and getting back something tasty was so rare that I just cancelled if they had to ask what was in it.

It's Longhorn.

Expecting, or even wanting, anything more complicated than a bottled beer is just plain silly. If they'd had the ingredients they would have been subpar and you'd have had a shitty drink to be unhappy with rather than none.

Be safe at places like this - order something pre-prepped.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
It's Longhorn.

Expecting, or even wanting, anything more complicated than a bottled beer is just plain silly.

Wife and I were eating at LH a few weeks ago. As usual when it is just the two of us, we were sitting at the bar (typically better and faster service). They had a specialty Old Fashioned (forget the name) on the drink menu, and since I love O.F.s, I ordered one. Drink came and tasted funny, kind of sour. I asked the bartender if she gave me the correct drink, and she said it was the specialty O.F. I told her that it tasted sour, which was quite unusual for an O.F. She replied that they were out of simple syrup, so she substituted sour mix . I told her to trade it for one of their house single barrel Woodford Reserves. Lesson learned.

quote:

Originally posted by Paten:
Just wondering, what did you want them to say?

In this day and age, you got what the last 16 people who got poor service got , ....z i p !

What I want them to say is thank you for taking the time to let us know about a problem,
we can not fix it if we do not know it is broken.

please accept this token of our appreciation, in hope's that you will let us make up for your dissatisfaction, a 20% discount on your next meal over $25.00.
with the local store manager's signature

I think if you wanted a discount on your meal you should say something to the manager while you're there.

If anyone could complain over their website and expect to get a meal discount then how many do you think they would be giving out everyday?

Happy Birthday to you !

Dear V-Tail,

After finding your post on a recent forum, using out "Customer Unhappiness Network Technology", we regret that you found our heartfelt and most sincere apology to be less than completely acceptable.

And as we are very concerned for our customer's well being, we really think you need to address this serous drinking problem you have, as it seems to be manifesting as a very frightening aggressive and angry behavior.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.

And, please patronize Red Lobster or Olive Garden, in the future.

Alondra

LongHorn Steakhouse Guest Relations
Head Customer Unhappiness Network Technology Supervisor

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Dear V-Tail,

After finding your post on a recent forum, using out "Customer Unhappiness Network Technology", we regret that you found our heartfelt and most sincere apology to be less than completely acceptable.

And as we are very concerned for our customer's well being, we really think you need to address this serous drinking problem you have, as it seems to be manifesting as a very frightening aggressive and angry behavior.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.

And, please patronize Red Lobster or Olive Garden, in the future.

Alondra

LongHorn Steakhouse Guest Relations
Head Customer Unhappiness Network Technology Supervisor

Is this you sigmonkey?

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
Happy belated birthday

quote:

B and B

I'm betting that a chain restaurant had neither Benedictine nor Brandy. A lot of those places don't even have the classic mixers and have to use a flavored spirit (e.g. flavored vodka, flavored rum) to kind of sort of make drinks.

One of my go to cocktails is a Paloma which is the most popular drink in western Mexico. Despite having a smart phone in their hand, many don't even have the gumption to google it and have to come back to ask what is in it. I'll tell them 2 ways to make it (squirt/fresca method and the real grapefuit juice method) and getting back something tasty was so rare that I just cancelled if they had to ask what was in it.

B and B is a specific product I've seen in every liquor store I've looked. I'm never without a bottle at home though it's a bit pricey.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
But they are as disappointed as you are.

And "Your call is very important to us!"

quote:

Originally posted by GregY:

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
Happy belated birthday

quote:

B and B

I'm betting that a chain restaurant had neither Benedictine nor Brandy. A lot of those places don't even have the classic mixers and have to use a flavored spirit (e.g. flavored vodka, flavored rum) to kind of sort of make drinks.

One of my go to cocktails is a Paloma which is the most popular drink in western Mexico. Despite having a smart phone in their hand, many don't even have the gumption to google it and have to come back to ask what is in it. I'll tell them 2 ways to make it (squirt/fresca method and the real grapefuit juice method) and getting back something tasty was so rare that I just cancelled if they had to ask what was in it.

B and B is a specific product I've seen in every liquor store I've looked. I'm never without a bottle at home though it's a bit pricey.

It's a distinction without a difference whether you're making it with equal parts brandy and benedictine or if you're serving the makers of benedictine's pre-mixed bottle which contains equal parts brandy and benedictine.