Dear Editor,
I attended a meeting at a company in the vicinity of Regent and Hincks streets which ended way past the customary stroke of lunch. With hungry eyes and an empty stomach, I was intent on finding the nearest eatery. Aaahhhh, there is Church’s, my first choice would be creole food but I followed the dictates of my stomach and hopped into Church’s Chicken. I joined a line that was moving fairly efficiently, the call from my stomach made the 3 or 4 minutes wait feel like half of an hour. At the cashier I placed my order then waited another 10 minutes to be served.
While waiting, a series of events unfolded that if I had one, I wouldn’t wish on my dog. There was a lady three persons in front of me. As she was about to collect her meal she realized that it didn’t contain the piece of chicken she ordered, so she enquired from the person who was packing the meal who pointed out to her that her receipt did not contain that item. So the lady said to the cashier, “man I asked for a piece of chicken an you ent put it in”. The cashier then started off in an angry verbal monologue that soon became an argument between herself and the customer. It seemed never ending, so I interjected and cautioned the cashier not to perpetuate an argument with a customer and she should rather apologise for not including the item, cash it and move on. That did not help, after serving that lady the cashier then went into another bout of loud irate monologue.
Then came my time to be served, my order number (448 from the bill dated Oct. 28 @ 14:34) was loudly proclaimed with a list of every last item I ordered, for everyone in the restaurant to hear. At this point I objected to the fact that every iota I just purchased was read out to the entire restaurant, I was told it is “company policy.” This company policy infringes on my right to whatever privacy of transaction I am entitled to. Granted that the food is sold over an open counter (and all the publicity that comes with it), that doesn’t give the company the right to squeeze every last ounce of privacy and dignity left in the transaction by making a public announcement of every last item I had just bought. An announcement of the order number is sufficient to call attention to the customer that his order is ready. The company has a duty to protect, as far as possible, people’s right and dignity to privacy of transaction, I urge the policymakers at Church’s to review this policy forthwith.
There was still more indignity to come. I was served all my items in multiple paper bags all placed into a larger plastic bag. I indicated to the attendant that I was eating the meal in the restaurant and I would not be comfortable eating directly from the bag. She handed me a waiter and said your bill has “to go” and told me I should have ordered “eat in” at the cashier. I explained to her I am not familiar with the system and I didn’t say that to the cashier. I thought that when I got to the person actually serving me, I would have been able to say how I want my items to be served. I then asked for one of those open dine-in boxes to transfer my food for a comfortable eat, I was told I needed to pay for the box. I strongly objected because it is not my fault that I was served this way and the responsibility falls to the company to provide such utensils. By this time I was being verbally attacked during the four-way crosstalk which ensued, the cashier, the lady who packed the meal in bags and the actual person who called the number, all against me. I stood there wondering how did I find myself in this hell hole? I asked to speak with the supervisor, to my utter astonishment the person who was carrying out the most loud-mouthed verbal attack identified herself as the supervisor. Shocked out of my depths I asked if there was anybody else in the restaurant who was of similar or higher position that I could speak with. I was told that there was another supervisor, the loud-mouthed supervisor subsequently went to the back and in my hearing related the incident to supervisor number 2 who proclaimed “al yu try wid he, me ent got time for nonsense”. I was then told the supervisor could not come because she was busy, yes too busy for a paying customer. Apparently this too is a company policy, argue with the customer to prove who is right and to ignore legitimate customer complaints.
Another young lady who had nothing to do with that work area emerged from the back and apparently realizing that her colleagues were messing up badly and that I was adamant that I be served properly or my money returned, opted to give me the required utensil. Would you believe the supervisor told her she must pay for the utensil?
This matter is highlighted here in the hope that management urgently addresses staff training issues and issues of customer privacy, the Guyanese people deserve better than this kind of shoddy abusive treatment. Too many of our people go to these places and are subjected to sub-human treatment and believing that they have no redress but to cower to the barking of cashiers and counter attendants. Service oriented entities such as Church’s must be held to the highest standards of quality and professionalism, the public deserves a peaceful pleasant experience when visiting such places.
Yours faithfully,
Lenno Craig
