My wife and I decided to play golf in Gananoque last Friday evening. Coincidentally, that afternoon I got an e-mail from Groupon which offered a coupon for a half-price fish & chips dinner for two in Gananoque. I purchased the coupon and then got a response from Groupon : allow up to 24 hours for "delivery" of your coupon. So, I printed the web pages that showed the transaction and headed off to Gananoque. We arrived at the restaurant after the usual rush hours and it was almost deserted. The host, a middle-aged man, met us at the door and inspected my print-out. He wouldn't commit to the deal but went away to "ask the owner". Five minutes later he returned with the bad news – couldn't confirm the transaction code so wouldn't honour our pledge. As we are about to leave, does he extol the virtues of their menu and prices ? No. Does he offer us a free salad appetizer to entice us to stay despite the Groupon denial ? Nope. He simply watches two hungry customers walk away. AMAZING !
How do these businesses stay alive ? Mob money ?!
(P.S. We went down the street to the Old English Pub and had a lovely dinner of... fish & chips ! ... and beer. Came home to see that the Groupon coupon had "arrived" and had EXACTLY the same transaction code as the pages I took with me...
MY COMMENTS:
Rule number one:
NEVER SAY "NO" TO A CUSTOMER!!
Rule number two:
NEVER, EVER, SAY "NO" TO A CUSTOMER!!
Honour the coupon and be happy that you have people walking in. Honour the coupon, even if it isn't a coupon for your establishment. At Ramekins, people would, every so often, bring in coupons from other places. Our clientele were of the "older" age group. We would figure out a way to honour them. Why not?
MY COMMENTS:
Rule number one:
NEVER SAY "NO" TO A CUSTOMER!!
Rule number two:
NEVER, EVER, SAY "NO" TO A CUSTOMER!!
Honour the coupon and be happy that you have people walking in. Honour the coupon, even if it isn't a coupon for your establishment. At Ramekins, people would, every so often, bring in coupons from other places. Our clientele were of the "older" age group. We would figure out a way to honour them. Why not?
Having run into a similar situation in Bath a few years ago, I decided never to go back to that place in Bath. I told the waiter/part owner that the second-third-time-deepfried chicken wings were burned and unedible. His reply, "No one else in Bath complains". Arrgggghh!
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