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It is important to do everything you reasonably can to keep customers happy, especially after your business makes a mistake that impacts them.
What would you do if someone accidentally opened a bag of chips and a can of salsa for the wrong kids birthday party, so the one that should have had it missed out?
That is what happened to the guy in this story, so he apologized to the parents and offered them a discount and free replacement food, but they refused to accept it and kept saying how upset they were, even though they wouldn’t let him fix the problem.
It seems like the parents just wanted to act like victims. There was nothing more he could do. Read through the full story below and see if you agree.
Home-brought items are mixed up, parents milk the incident from me but refuse any kind of help I offer
I work as a manager at a children’s birthday facility.
Kids birthday parties are always a lot of fun.
The birthday parties end with food and gift giving, and often times the hosts will bring in some snacks like chips to go along with the food they’ve ordered from us.
We always label their items the host has brought in, so that their “server” of sort knows what is theirs.
Oh no, the parents aren’t going to be happy about this.
Anyway, tonight I’m closing and take my 30 in the back room while the second shift manager stays up front.
I come back around 7:30 pm, our last party has already arrived at 7 while I was on break. Around 7:45 pm their “server” (an employee) comes up to the front desk and tells me that her party hosts stuff was mislabeled, and was being used for a different party.
This isn’t the end of the world.
She says they took their gift bags and chips/salsa, and that she was able to take back the gift bags before anyone touched them, but the chips/salsa were already opened.
I try to figure out WHY their stuff was mislabeled, but can’t get an answer from my staff, so I just go talk to the host of the party who’s chips/salsa were taken from.
They are being more than generous.
I apologize to him and tell him that I’ve discounted their bill after I heard about the mishap, to which he says that isn’t sufficient for the lost food.
I tell him that I can also offer him free food from our kitchen along with the discount, and that again I apologize for the mistake.
He says he doesn’t want the free food, and he’ll talk to me later. So, I say alright and go call MY boss, the owner of the business.
Odd that he doesn’t want the discount.
He tells me what I offered was more than enough, so I leave it at that.
An hour later, the host dad comes up to pay. I show him his bill with the discount, and he tells me it’s “insulting to him” and that he doesn’t want a discount at all.
What principal? It was a mistake.
He insists I take it off. I do, but I ask him what more I could have done to remedy the situation aside from apologize and offer alternatives.
His wife chimes in at this point and says that “it’s not about the food. It’s the principle of it. It’s their daughters special day!”
He can’t do much more about the situation.
And at this point you guys… I’m tired, I’ve tried everything, and honestly it’s just a bag of chips and a container salsa. AND IT DIDN’T EVEN HAPPEN WHILE I WAS ON THE CLOCK.
I say, again, “I understand and apologize but I’m now a little confused as to what you want from me.”
These people will never be happy.
The dad says he wants nothing, but that he and ALL of his friends who heard me offer the discount felt I was insincere and insulting to offer it.
I told him that I genuinely wanted to make sure he heard from me face to face so that he knew I was trying to fix the situation ASAP, and didn’t mean to insult him by speaking to him (that’s kind of my job).
He said he would have rather I not said anything (???) and that it doesn’t matter, I’ll be “hearing all about it on social media.”
At least he still tipped the server.
I say “okay, I don’t know what you want from me at this point but I’ll go ahead and remove the discount.”
I informed him that the owner will be contacting him too. He tells me that’s fine, and that he made sure to tip his “server” because she was fantastic.
You can’t please everyone, that’s for sure.
I said “I’m happy to hear that and I’ll let her know.” And that was…it. It was one of the few times in my life that I’ve EVER encountered someone so hellbent on being unhappy no matter what I tried to do.
Even after asking them what I could do for them, they never answered me. And now they’re going to tell MY boss that I was insulting and insincere and they’re going to blast me on social media because I tried to fix something that happened not even on my watch, while I was on my break.
He did nothing wrong. He’ll have to just let it go.
That’s all. I’m just upset. Usually parents don’t get to me but this one was SO personal.
I didn’t even MAKE THE MISTAKE. Ugh. Anyway, I just needed to get that off my chest.
You can’t let people like this get to you. They are just trying to make themselves out to be victims of something when in reality, it was just a mistake.
Let’s read what some of the commenters have to say about this story.
Yup, make everyone buy the food onsite.
This is a smart suggestion.
Don’t give those customers a second thought.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who was denied a raise for “not being dedicated enough,” but then went on to discover what was really going on behind the scenes.
They might have wanted the whole party to be free, which is crazy.
This commenter might have an explanation.
You just can’t please some people. There is no reason to get upset with this.
Even if the chips and salsa incident hadn’t happened, you can bet they would have found something else to complain about.