The Battle of Ghirardelli Part 2

Miss the first party of this story? Click here.

.....He turned from behind the counter and said, "I understand you have been waiting a long time however we did have several employees call in today and when we are busy it's our standard to deliver ice cream to our guest in about 20 minutes."

(Can we just stop for a moment to reflect on how absolutely ridiculous this guy sounded? It's STANDARD for it to take 20 MINUTES to deliver ICE CREAM!?!!? This is not a gourmet meal - it's scoops of ice cream in a bowl!)

Unsatisfied with his answer I reiterate that it has taken 25 minutes so far and we still don't have any ice cream! Clearly I was getting on his nerves so he gave me the same speech over again and told me he couldn't do anything about it.

I stormed back to our table and joined my loyal side kick and the rest of our party. As I was done retelling what had just happened at the front with The Manager, FINALLY our ice cream was delivered.................melted.

Melted! Maybe it's because they hate me, or maybe it's because they put ice cream in a steaming hot glass, or maybe it's because they let it sit out too long.....whatever the reason is - it was melted. Runny. Not worth $31.

My dream had already been crushed by the 25 minute wait and the poor attitude of the employee, supervisor and manager. The fact that my fantasy peppermint ice cream was melted in my bowl was just icing on the cake of this awful experience.

Our party ate mostly in silence, irritated that it took so long and disappointed with the final product. I sat boiling in my chair baffled by the lack of care or interest in our problem from the manager.

When everyone was finished they gathered their stuff and walked outside. I, however hung around for a minute looking for Tom The Manager. I wanted to tell him that his delicious ice cream was delivered to us melted like soup.

After a few moments of glancing around I found him at the cash register with a long line of customers waiting to place their order. At this point I didn't care too much how big of a scene I made so I walked in front of all the people and cut Tom off mid-sentence with another customer.

"Tom, just so you know, not only did we wait 25 minutes for our ice cream but it was melted too!"

He glanced over in horror and realized that he hadn't gotten rid of me earlier and told me to hold on a moment while he finished with the customer. I waited patiently.

Once he was finished with the customer, I again told him that this had been one of the worst restaurant experiences I had ever had, that his attitude along with his staffs' is unacceptable and that it was insane to have to wait 25 minutes for melted ice cream.

Then I finished with saying, "Tom, I know you run a busy restaurant, but don't you think in times like these you should be grateful for every customer that walks through the door? You don't really seem to care."

Most likely shocked at how passionate I was about melted ice cream and looking for a way to get rid of me, he asked me what we had ordered. I recited our order and about 2 minutes later I walked out with $33 in my hand. Through a strange twist of fate I had somehow made $2 off of this experience - clearly he rang it up wrong, but I wasn't complaining. His reasoning for giving me my money back? A long wait is ok, but melted ice cream isn't.

Basically he just wanted me out of my face. I guess I got what I wanted, although I wasn't really looking to get my money back. I was looking for an apology and some ownership over what had happened to us.

Many times when we go through an awful experience either at a retail store or in a restaurant, it's not always about the money. More times than not it's about authentic understanding and an apologetic response from an employee.

So I got my money back and still left annoyed - I will never go back again.