Oh dear Lonestar--how I loved thee...

Hey everyone--LIKE THERE'S REALLY AN EVERYONE!!!--about 20 years ago or so, I made up in mind that if I were to get great service or a great product, that I would be quick to compliment that service or product. I've kept true to my word over the years, and praise liberally. Let's face it--I like to go to restaurants, movies, amusement parks, etc, etc. Well, with this "praise liberally" approach, I also feel very justified to speak up--and not rudely or irrationally--and let people or companies know when service or products are NOT satisfactory. Thankfully, that doesn't happen too often. But today at lunch with my friends from work...well...just read the following "complaint" that I lodged with Lonestar Restaurants corporate office...tell me what you think...and realize as a customer, you have EVERY right to expect reasonably good service and product WHEREVER you go:

This is a complaint, and I would like to have some follow-up on this. On the above date and at the listed time, I along with 6 co-workers made our once-a-week lunch run to Lone Star. And to be honest, it may be our last time there. While the service itself was great by our server (sorry--didn't get a name), I can't say the same for the quality of the food. Three of the burgers that were brought to the table were incorrect, two of which were sent back because of the egregious nature of the problem, and the third was not although it was wrong. The initial issue with one of the burgers was that it was ordered medium rare. It came back CLEARLY not cooked properly, as it appeared that there was RAW MEAT on the bottom of the patty, and quite a lot of it. The customer who ordered it was VERY unhappy with it. The 2nd burger was ordered medium, yet it came back very pink, but clearly NOT medium. The third burger was the same condition as the 2nd, however, that customer opted to eat it as he wasn't as bothered by it.

Here's where I have a problem, and it's two-fold. It took at LEAST 12 minutes for the two burgers to be returned, and when they WERE returned, one of them was STILL not correct (it was ordered DRY--no lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, or sauce--yet it had all of it on the burger). The two customers were not able to ever eat their food IN THE RESTAURANT as they planned because of the delay in the re-issue. Secondly, and this is TRULY unbelievable, the manager found it necessary to actually get snippy and defend the "medium rare" burger as if to say that no, we as the customer were wrong. Did I miss something some where along the way that says the CUSTOMER IS WRONG?!?!? Your manager obviously needs to go back to manager school and understand the concept of MAKING THE CUSTOMER HAPPY and apologizing for the error the cook made. That was strike #1. But as I sat there and watched my two friends and co-workers load their burgers into a take home box, and then looked at the 60+ dollar tab, I could not fathom why at the VERY LEAST we were not comped for two meals. Those two guys didn't get their food correctly nor in a timely manner, AND we were treated rudely by a manager.

And this might be of interest to you. In celebration of an event in one of our lives, next week, there was going to be 8 of us coming in for a celebration lunch. We had it planned that Lonestar was the place. We have now switched our plans and Red Robin will be getting our business.

In this day and age of a crappy economy, rising food prices, and corporate earnings dropping (and I'm WELL AWARE of Lonestar's issues in the restaurant business), you would be well-advised to inform your staff members--dare I say, NATIONWIDE--to wise up and do all they can to retain customers. Because the 7 of us that won't be returning any time soon will be sure to be speaking to a great many OTHER people, and you know what they say about bad news.

I sure hope to hear from someone. And no, I didn't just type all of this for a free meal. I expect some training to occur for your employees (specifically the manager of your Tustin restaurant) so that you stand a chance to not tick off anymore regular customers.

So how'd I do???