Editor;
I went to a fast food restaurant near Beach Road on Saturday 21st April at around 9 p.m.
I ordered a double cheeseburger meal. There were some very small pots of sauce/relish by the till and the girl asked if I wanted one. I like the chilli sauce from the dispensers, so I said no thank you.
When my order was being put on the tray another girl put one of the sauce pots on my tray. I saw no reason to tell her to take it back off as I assumed it must have been free.
I went and sat down. Sent an sms to a friend then started eating.
After a few minutes I noticed the little sauce pot and thought I may as well as least try it as it was there.
Literally, a few seconds after I took the lid off and put a french-fry in the sauce, a staff member (female) stormed up to me like a Gestapo officer demanding someone’s ID papers. She said I had not ordered the sauce and if I did not give her 9 baht she would take it away.
I was somewhat in a state of shock, sitting there with my french-fry half submerged in the little sauce pot, surrounded by Russians and Germans and Indians looking at me wondering what heinous crime I had committed, and some female crazy standing over me demanding 9 baht.
I said I didn’t even want it and assumed it was free.
With that, she snatched it out of my hand, picked up the plastic top from my tray, reattached it to the little pot and stormed off leaving me holding the french-fry that was half covered in the sauce.
A German guy sitting close to me remarked that he has never seen such a disgusting display of bad customer service in a (fast food franchise) anywhere in his life.
After having eaten in (this particular chain of restaurants) in nearly 30 countries, and almost every province in Thailand I am inclined to agree with him.
It was an absolute disgrace. For an employee to risk alienating a customer over what probably cost the company less than one baht to produce makes me wonder what other acts of total stupidity that girl gets up to there.
I seriously doubt she was one of the ordinary staff there but more likely a supervisor, assistant manager or manager who felt like playing God with a farang for some reason. I was too shocked to take a picture of her ID badge. If I had done she would probably have demanded I was immediately executed, I daresay.
What did she think she would do with the sauce pot after snatching it back from me? She saw me sticking a french-fry into it (which I assume was her queue to pounce on me after waiting more than 5 minutes until I opened it) so as she put the top back on I can only assume she was going to sell it to someone else. Very unhygienic.
I have lived in Thailand, mainly Pattaya, for very many years and eat in several of these restaurants in Pattaya on a 5 or 6 times weekly basis. I have seen much bad service in Thailand over the years but have never bothered to take the time to write it down. I never seen anything so blatantly petty and downright stupid as what that employee did on that occasion. Just no sense to it. The staff in there are usually quite polite enough, bearing in mind how busy they usually are.
I had many businesses for a number of years in the UK with staff who needed to know about customer service. Anytime I had one who did anything remotely like that girl I knew they were trouble and should be got rid of before they started losing us customers.
She lost her boss one (at least) that day. From that branch anyway.
Piers Rudford
