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How 'Cheap' people can be??


FeiPo I just feel that I need to ask this question, is this normal in Dubai? Story One: I am working in a restaurant. Just a couple nights ago, there are 2 couples in the restaurant, ordered a bottle of white wine from Chille. So, one waitess took the order went to the bar and found out that just a minute ago, some people (30 people) has taken all the Chillean white wine, so she went back to the table and told the 2 couples about how we ran out of the wine they choose. I was very suprise that when the waitress came to me and ask for my help.... she told me that the couples choose another wine from New Zealand it cost 50dhs more then the Chillean wine they choose originally, and the couples told the waitress that we have to charge that the Chillean wine price for the New Zealand wine. So I went to the table and one of the woman told me this ' SINCE YOU CANNOT OFFER SOMETHING FROM YOUR MENU, YOU WILL HAVE TO CHARGE US LESS OR GIVE US DISCOUNT'. Then I told her that we are a restaurant, we will run out one or two items everynight, and we cannot give thing out free or five discount everynight. Then I suggest her to have another Chillean wine which is 20dhs cheaper than the orginally chosen one, then she said that she did not want a lower quality wine, she wants a similar quality or better quality... bla bla bla and she needed not to pay for the extra since it was our fault that we ran out of items ... (I was wondering at the time why she did not ask me to give her a bottle of Dom Perignon and charge her the Chillean wine price?) Then this coversation (argument) went on for about another 3 minutes, they were not happy that we did not give discount for them and the whole night they were complaining about this and that. Have you seen anyone 'cheaper'? Mind you the Chillean wine was only 160dhs if only judge the quality of the wine by price, 160 dhs is the second cheapest wine in the menu, and.... she was talking about the quality?? These 2 couples stayed in the Burj Al Arab. Story Two: 4 people came to the restaurant, ate and gone. After 8 days a lady from the 4 people wrote a complaint email to us, saying that they were regular customer, and 8 nights ago they ate in our restaurant, and being treated rudely and the food was very bad also there was a rude 'waiter' being rude to them all night. also, because of the bad service and bad food they left very early and she did not finish most of the food. We worte them back and asked them what name they used to made the booking and so we will look into the rude waiter, then we got a email back and saying that we have been sarcastic, and no intention to look into the matter. The same night, this lady send an email to the general manager of the company, and complained about she did not get a reply from us yet... so we dug out the bill for them, and while we could not remember any of the customers had compaint about anything on the night and could not see any record of any complaints or we could not remember there were dishes that people did not finsihed or left large portion (this is our procedure, if customer left large portion of food, staff will tell the manager and the manager will go to the customer to check out if the food was wrong) anyway so we looked at the bill, the orders were taken at 8pm and the checked out time was 11:15pm and there were 3 bottles of wine consumed. One funniest thing was that there were no waiters attenting to their table, there was a waitress.... and about the 'rude' attitude... ... we never found out what the rude waiter had said or done to them being accused 'rude'. Now, can anyone of you do the same? I mean being not happy in the restaurant, food is bad, service is bad, but can you stay for more than 2 hours and have 3 bottles of wine? and can you not complain on the same night if things were that bad, but instead write an email not the next day but 8 days after? Huh.... guess what happen after all the drama? YES!!!! They were in the restaurant 2 days after the initial compaint enjoying a free meal for 4. Well... guest where are these cheap people come from??
Jeevan will read the stories later, inbetween u popped outta nowhere :shock: where have u been lately panaghoy fei, is there a summary?? im so lazy to read long posts :D Jeevan hmm, people can get down to that levels to get freebies, pathetic attitude. XRW-147 Read the last line and take a guess. gtmash I am cheaper. My only drink at any restaurant is Pepsi for Dhs 1. And I don't complain if some places charge Dhs 10 for a can. Rich people whine about everything because they think they're better than everyone else. Uae_Me hmmmmmm, well actually since the resturant is a high quality resturant , the store should be bigger and offers more variety. Cuz the prices are much higher than the Mall's resturants. so it should not happen , and drinks , is somethink can be kept in big amount not like the meet and chicken !!!!! they might cut a long distance for this so they got angry Anywayz i'm against the wine at all :)) i'll read the story two laterzz :) XRW-147 mashy mate, there's cheap (1 dhs cokes) and there's cheaaaappp (skints). ^ian^
I get a little irritated in some places where you order about 4 different bottles of wine and none of them are in stock... but I've never asked for a discount... that's just off.
I bet they were British, those guys really know how to whinge. Concord There are scammers the world over. In many places people are trained to spot this kind of thing - which in your case it seems they did the right investiagation but screwed it up by giving them a free meal. I hope you told the cook to spit in their food. The wine story is just outrageous and you are right how good could their 160 dhs wine be! I think I know where they are not from as they would get the sh!t kicked out of them for trying that kind of scam. The other scam, I've heard, is for people to send a "drycleaing" bill to the restaurant claiming that something was spilled by a waiter/waitress. Of course the garmet was never drycleaned and they just get say 50 dys in the mail. Who would go thru all that trouble. Except if you send the same "bill" to 1,000 restaurants = 50,000.00 and the chances of getting caught are slim in a big city!

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FeiPo so... if you are in the supermarket, they ran out of the salad dressing that you want to buy, and they also ran out of the normal butter that you prefer. Do you ask for discount on your shopping? Or would you go to the general manager of Spinneys and ask them to chrage you the price of Kraft dressing for the most gourment italian dressing? Try this... go to BMW showroom ask for a 318 if they are out of stock, write to the CEO and ask them to charge you the price of a 318 for a 645. You might get lucky!! Concord
can you spell "rethorical"... ask them next time they come in for a new free meal. and don't forget to spit on their food. Uae_Me
C'mon don't compare a showroom with a super market :lol:
if i own a supermarket i'll tell all the managers to act good in these cases and give free pieces for these people , cuz i own a supermarket i have to arrange everything the people used to get from here , to competite the othe markets ofCOURSE gtmash
I heard the same thing from courier-service employees. FeiPo
Then you will go bankrupt very soon... coz the amount of people here in Dubai trying to get free stuff are unbeleivable. Also, they will try to do anything and make up any story to get what they want.
For the case of mine, they accused the staff being rude. They have no consideration about what kind of trouble the staff will get. He might get fired!! Uae_Me :D Think about quality not quantity. its kind of advertisement and fine for me at the same time :) i should earn the love of my customers :wink: scot1870
Er, the Brits actually have a reputation for not complaining and just never going back! We don't like to cause a scene you see...
Back on topic, actually in the West case 1 is very common. By theory of law in the UK for example, if you ask for something as advertised for a price and isn't available on the menu, they should offer you a product of same or higher value for the same price. In the case, if the differential is quite high the restaurant can refuse, but if it's a small change then as the mark up restaurants put on wine is so high, they normally let it past. I can say with utmost confidence that your restaurant would still not have lost money on the wine had it given it, though clearly it was within its rights to say no. As it is, you'll have lost a customer for good, so was it worth it to lose a few dirhams on the wholesale cost of a bottle of wine? MAC
what theory of law. do you have any citations or are you just trying to show off (so others think you know "law"). let's see smart man :roll: and if it takes more than 5 minutes to reply it means you = not smart. Purple Complex ^^^ Odd man... Yes Brits take pride in courtesy and not blatantly offending people, unless we're having a really really bad day or being utterly inconvenienced. The two events as you mentioned are only to be expected in that line of business. It would be nice if we lived in a perfect world with no problems, but until then we're just going to have to put up with the 'cheap' attitude.
^ian^
Which must be all the time. Seriously, it might be a few brits that spoil it for the rest of you... but you only have to venture to MOE to see the whinge parade. Chocoholic First off you can't compare a supermarket to a resturant. Secondly as a resturant it is your responsibility to be able to offer every item you have on your menus to every single customer that you will have. Now if you had a booknig for 30 people, obviously these people are going to consume much more than just couples or smaller parties, so you make allowances for that. Chilean wines are extremely popular and I would say that you should have more of that kind of thing in stock than anything else. There's not much excuse for running out of drinks. Food, yes it happens on occassion, but wines etc you can stock and keep. This is the mark of a good stock taker and budgeter, to constantly check what is being used and and what rate and to make sure that the most popular items are always available. Sorry but on the wine front, you didn't perform. You should have done everything you could to keep a happy customer, remember that old phrase 'The customer is always right?' (we know not always true, but how you deal with the situation can make or break a customer relationship). Had it been my resturant, I'd have given them the slightly more expensive wine at the same price, as a goodwill gesture, on the understanding that any other purchases would be at the regular price. Ok so you lose 20 or dhs, but you keep your customer happy, and they remember what you did to resolve the situation and will likely bring more business your way. The other story is clearly a scam. Chocoholic Also bear in mind that there are a lot of mystery shoppers in this town. BEing argumentative and not resolving a problem, which is your problem not the customers, would have had serious marks against you and your company. XRW-147 Hmmm interesting... So we can safely conclude it was Chocs in her 'mystery shopper' hat pulling one over FP. Chocoholic Er no, not this time, but you never know. I just have a lot of experience i the customer service area and sometimes you just have to do things to keep people happy. FeiPo
This is exactly the kind of mentality/attitude I am talking about. Where are you come from that you can get discount like this? What makes it different between a supermarket and a restaurant. Are we both trying to do our business and keep customers happy? Are we both buying stock from supplier and sell it to customer? What makes people think that they can get discount because of a restaurant running out of some items? I agree with customer always right when they ordered something they don't like, then fine we will change it for them, or they tasted the wine and decide they did not like it, then fine we will change it. If they did not like the dish they ordered we will not even charge the dish. If something goes wrong we provide some complimentary desserts, if someone's birthday we provide a complimentary cake, if someone's anniversery we provide a couple of complimentary drinks. But asking to paid 160dhs for a bottle of 210dhs wine is 76% more, beside they are nothing similar one is from chille and the other is from New Zealand.
Try to walk in to Luis Vutton and look into their catelog and see how many of them are not available. Or even look into the catelog that Mango or Morgan sent you every season see how many products they were out. FeiPo
Oh I am very good at treating customer with a big smile and never been rude to them. It wasn't an argument with the customer, only I did not give the discount. And I even suggest them to go to the restaurant Al Maraha (I think the name is right) in the Burj Al Arab they were staying. (maybe they will get discount there since there were staying in the same hotel!) scot1870
You should spend more time studying and less time chugging yourself off in front of your computer.
To the topic starter, you're comparing sales prices, not wholesale price. The restaurant doesn't lose 50dhs, it loses the opportunity to gain 50Dhs more sales. The only money it "loses" is the difference in the wholesale price, given the mark ups on wines probably 10Dhs-20Dhs on this bottle. As I say, if it means they come back again then it's worth it.
It's certainly not a scam and as I say is very common in the West. As Chocoholic says, you're obliged to provide what you say you will at the price. You say mockingly that Louis Vuitton wouldn't entertain this but believe me it does apply to them too!
Interesting debate anyway in the two polarised opinions, one that the business has all the power and the other that the customer has the power. Particularly interesting in that it seems to be the people from capitalist countries (where businesses are perceived to have more power) favour the customer is right argument. sage & onion
To be perfectly honest I could never imagine making a fuss if they didn't have a particular wine in stock or asking for discount because of it. These kind of people are seriously not living in the real world, they just need a swift kick back to the Council Flat that they came from. freza Scottie,
Louis Vuitton does not consider itself obliged to provide availability of all its catalogued items or to keep all their shops stocked with all of their latest lines; of course their customers are aware of it. Lack of inventory doesn't make luxury brands and their retail stores any less customer-service friendly; but it definitely makes them more exclusive - some of their limited lines are therefor more sought after precisely because they're not available to everyone.
Not every business aims to be inclusive (as supermarkets do) actually many strive to be exclusive ; it's perfectly fine to draw lines as to the what type of people some businesses attract. If that means not catering to the demands of the obnoxious, opportunistic and tacky - so be it.
One last thing - that pompous attitude doesn't make what you state any more relevant, quite the contrary.
Good times. JojoHK Maybe thats the reason i hate doing customer service. Coz i can't stand their attitude :P There was a time i pick up the phone & yelled 'Wassup?' lucky it was only our receptionist in the office. lol XRW-147
Pulling your leg kitty.
Same, am glad restaurant days are behind me. scot1870
Not in that example, though there are times when it would be obliged to fulfil orders as the restaurant has done. I'll be extra pompous and not tell you what they are :D FeiPo
Tell me about it... try Dubai. Everyday having smile to these axxhxxxs thinking that they are someone special coz they are earning a lot of $$$ in Dubai, thinking they come spending $$$ we have to lick their toes to make them happy!! While they are earing good $$$ here at the same time they a a tightaxx to spend money, asking for discount, complain to get some freebies!!! Well.. sorry some people just have to work for living and have no choice but smile to these axxhxxxs everyday!! Rosbif71 was the nationality of these people ever divulged? I would have put money on them being Russian myself! FeiPo
actually, I think russian are very easy, they have money and they don't care about it. Never got any complaints from russian. They are good spenders!!
Out of so many different nationalities, only one nationalities will complain for freebies. Those are the one have high income, earning good 'package'. alexandra @ FeiPo no wonder u got so annoyed but u should take it easy and try not to get so affected by their nags as hard as it may be otherwise u will end up crazy after a while:wink: Chocoholic FeiPo, get rid of the attitude! With the wne scenario, it is your duty to be able to provide every item you have on the menu to the customer. It is NOT their fault YOU ran out. It's not always about people wanting to get freebies - how narrow minded is that! - but some people just know what they like and that's that. If your outlet is in a hotel, which I assume it is, did you go to one of the other places to see if they had any stock? You missed the point completely. richiec
I must say though if you are a busy eatery....good management would have sufficient stock levels! In the eyes of the customer it is not an excuse to say we are out of stock. This is not their problem either. Even so the couple went a bit OTT. I wouldn't bother myself. However, you are there to provide sales and service.
Personally I would choose something else. I don't drink alcohol anyway so if coke was out I would take...orange juice.
Customers will be angry if you have a menu and can not provide what is on it. Does the menu state subject to availability? Maybe it should, because then that is what you fall back on in these circumstances. freza Ironic you should state that........
feipo's post is illustrating how some customers can get really nasty attitudes, how some even commit shameless scams. I think she has every right to vent her frustrations.
So restaurants should always stock up, yes, agreed, but sometimes they run out of stuff - big freakin deal! No need to make a drama out of it and no need to take it out on employees who have no control over the inventory situation. If the customer is dissatisfied they can request the manager and complain. But making a fuzz about it and pestering for discounts is not only unreasonable but just plain obnoxious and tacky. Chocoholic Not at all. Anyway it's pointless to argue the thing, the point is I would have handled it differently, but then everyone's different. But the upshot would be a disatisfied customer goes away. And hey everyone keeps saying what's the big deal for a customer to pay an extra 20 Dhs, well on the flip side, what's the big deal if an outlet loses 20 Dhs to keep a customer happy that would generate more business for them. The second issue FeiPo had is absolutely a scam, but the first issue in my humble opinion could have been dealt with better. FeiPo
you are right! I did not miss any point. I agree totally it is my duty to stock up, if it run out it's my fault, if the supplier cannot supplier enough stock is also my fault, there is no excuse, coz customer will not ask you about your supplier, if you are our is your fault. BUT it doesn't mean people can use this as an excuse to ask for discount. I got complaints sometimes about food, sometimes about service, but trust me, the people who truely want to make a comment or they truely not happy about something will just tell me or the management. NOT asking for a discount!! And certainly will not come back to eat for free <--- with the attitude like 'I am giving you one more chance (for free) it is your pleasure to have me to give you one more chance to make me happy' PUKED!!! if the food is so bad and the service is so bad why come back?
My point is to those 'cheap' people, making excuses to get freebies. I am in the hospitality and totally understand what is a customer satisfaction, but hey sh*t happen... ... I try my best to do my job, but there is no excuse for people trying to push to get discount and think that they entitle for it. And I mean those people are nasty, they treat the staff like sh*t, shouting or talking very loud and got angry over one item is not available out of 100 items? I do not know how angry you will get if a waitress come to you and say sorry madam today's lobster is out. Tell you what at the end they all say one sentence 'you have to do something about it' or 'you have to do something to compensate me'
You know what, I feel ashame to walk into the restaurant where I made a complain 3 days ago to eat there for free!!! If I decide to go back and give it a try again, I will pay! If my favourite item is not on the menu, I will walk out. If I need to express my disappointment I will write a comment card, or complain to the manager. I cannot ask for a discount on something else to compensate the item they are not available. What is the point of it? Does the discount makes it taste like my favourite one?
I am only pointing out the black sheep!! Not saying people are not allow to complain. Consumers can make their comment anytime, but a discount is not entitled.
I have been to country like Australia, or the UK ... I have been into a pub or restaurant that they ran out of my favourite beer, and the service is almost like selfservice. I do not see any people complain about the service or asking for discount. Why do it here? I certainly did not see some customer raise their tone to the staff in those countries! Maybe the four years of living in Australia is a short time or a couple weeks visiting the UK is even shorter, but I have been in Dubai 20 months and I see it almost everyday! Chocoholic The point is, that you ran out of their favourite drink, therefore forcing them to buy something at a higher price. In my eyes would certainly not have been an unreasonable request to offer a bottle at the other price. You have to weigh up the following: a) Satisfy the customer and get good feedback. b) Make them unhappy so they bad mouth you and put other people off coming to your establishment. I know which I'd rather have. It doesn't make people 'cheap' at all. In fact your establishment could be labelled 'cheap' as you ran out of stock, and proceeded to make people have what they didn't want. Your problem, you should have offered the discount, end of. Chocoholic Also you cannot compare a bar to a resturant. Beers are mostly all the same price. And I guarantee you there's a hell of a difference between the 'cheaper' bottle of Chilean than the medium and expensive. Because people don't complain enough is the reason we have lousy service in this country. FeiPo
a) I agree b) if I ask you personally, how unhappy you will get if one wine is not available our of 60 wines? Try Cellar, Cin Cin or the Agency!! See they will give you discount like that... Chocoholic :roll: Jeevan I wont drink wine ever again Chocoholic It's till not the point though is it. You can go round and round. I just would have handled it differently, that's all. You have to think of the bigger picture sometimes. And not all people are cheap, they just know what they like, that's all. FeiPo
Right. No argue on that!
You know what you like, if I give you something you don't like with discount you will start liking it! Chocoholic Not necessarily the case at all. It's purely supply and demand. You had a demand, you couldn't supply that demand, so how do you fix it? Either you don't bother or you do something about it. Simple as. freza There are several factors that make a business sucessful and there should be limits to what a business is willing to take from customers - being taken advantage of and being scammed should not factor into 'supply and demand'
Customer service should be the top priority no one is disputing this; but other things are important too - like attracting quality customers and weeding out whiney, abusive cheapskates by not catering to their every demands. Exclusive businesses should draw the line somewhere if they truly want to be exclusive. In the end, annoying customers might end up making a business lose money by not paying full price or not paying, wasting time and by affecting employees - employee satisfaction and well-being are also important factors to a successful business; because it's easy to find employees but not to easy to find good and loyal ones. I would think that having top quality staff who treat customers right but will not stand for abuse is just about fine. A successful restaurant that does draws the line somewhere will still make money. ^ian^ Great point Freza. There's also de-marketing. Not every customer is of value to a business, and it's best if the whiny ass.hats don't come back rather than continually turn up and makes pains of themselves. Birds of a feather DO flock together... or misery loves company, either one. It doesn't matter to many business if they don't get down and grovel to the customers who cost them money, it's a good strategy anyway. It would have been a nice touch for the restaurant off it's own bat to offer the alternative at a discounted price... this would have been a nice surprise, but not to cave in to the demands of a difficult customer. gtmash
Well said. I bet Gordon Ramsey wouldn't take snot from his compatriot customers. FeiPo
Good point. Also, the bad customer making a scene in the restaurant will make other customers think we have problem with our food or service! FeiPo
Agree!! Glad someone got my point! KeithL I agree with the arguments in favour of the customers. You should have quit being such a tight arse and offered them the bottle at a discounted rate at least... if you were not willing to be haggled down to the price they were expecting. You should take whinging more positively because thats the only way your service will be good if not impeccable. Besides whats the big deal about a Chilean wine... next time you're on you're frequent jet-setting global visits, stop by at Sainsbury's and pick up a carton at 5 quid a bottle... the store manager may even offer you a discount of 2 for 1



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