Frigid Applebee's and the (sucky) response they gave us.

[sld72382]

Applebee's used to be one of the few chain restaurants we ate at. Not anymore, and here's why.

Down here in FL, I understand the need for A/C. However the applebee's near our (now former) house kept the place frigid. As in, you needed a freakin' jacket to be able to eat and not feel uncomfortable. That doesn't fly with me.

My mom asked the waitress if she could get someone to turn the A/C down. Not off, but down.

After a couple of minutes, a manager came over.

Mom: Did you guys lower the A/C?

Manager: Your waitress asked me and I can't.

Mom: Why not?

Manager: That temp is preset for the waitstaff. You're not the one running around all day.

Me:

Mom:

Mom, After we pay to me: I'm never eating here again.

OK, I know that a restaurant needs to keep its staff comfortable. However when it gets to a point that the patrons are complaining, something needs to be done.

His response made it sound like "To hell with what you want" and that's why we don't eat there anymore.

[MoxisPilot]

Wow.

See, I don't particularly care for Applebee's (we have one here on the base and it's total crap, but I also lived in FL and dealt with those franchises); they don't seem to care about customers -at all-.

Chili's, on the other hand, I miss terribly. The one I went to in Tampa treated the customers AND employees well!

[Snowbird]

I'll repeat the wow.

The Applebee's near me is so hyper about customer service that it's almost too much to handle. They now have little control boxes that allow customers to summon the wait staff (which just makes me cringe every time I see it, I can only imagine the SC abuse of that feature), and the manager always makes a stop at every table before the check arrives to see if everything is alright.

My mother and I both deal with a medically related aversion to cold, and hers is rather severe. If I was told that by the manager, I would have taken it to the next level to complain.

I've been tempted to do the same about their music level honestly, because I generally can't hear half of the table's conversation(and my hearing is just fine, I can't say the same for my mother's) and I've asked several times for it to be turned down but I've never noticed a difference. Why should I have to bellow over dinner?

[Bright_Star]

They made it sound like the staff aren't allowed to sweat. I've been to Florida, yeah it's hot , yeah I understand about the need for AC, BUT when you go someplace to eat & it's so cold that it's uncomfortable then that's a problem that must be resolved.
You oughta contact corporate & let them know.

[PepperElf]

WOW.

I know my parents issues with things being too cold - mom and dad are both seniors, and on top of that mom's on coumadin (a blood thinner). So some place that chose to freeze them out would not be a place they went back to.

I went to one place (Red Robin) where they didn't turn the heat down (we were roasting) but they did move us to another table that wasn't right underneath the blowers, so we were comfortable.

Perhaps applebees could ahve done that at least

[Andara Bledin]

I've only eated at Applebee's once, and whatever they spice their food with is just not appetizing to me or Nekojing, so we're rather glad that we had a gift card for the one time we ate there.

The service, however, was just fine. No loud music, and the temperature was pretty much what you get in most restaurants in the area.

I'd have a chat with corporate about that place with the dick manager. He's really doing the whole chain a disservice.

^-.-^

[Dreamstalker]

The main thing I don't like about Applebee's (aside from the annoying-as-hell ads) is that I could never get steak the way I like it. Somehow, medium-rare or medium translates to well-done at the location we used to go to (the one time they did do it right was a two-minute back-and-forth of "are you sure?"...yes I'm sure, I'm not asking it to be raw, just pink and still juicy).

[tropicsgoddess]

It wouldn't have killed them just to turn down the AC a smidge, but wow. What a sucky manager and one that's not the linguine for vertebrae type.

[Amina516]

To play devils advocate, I can kinda understand why the manager said what he did.

I work in an operating room. Anyone thats had surgery before can tell you its FRIGID in there. Partially for bacterial control purposes, but the other part is that the operating room staff (AKA ME!) get sooooo damn hot in the damn sterile gowns and gloves we have to wear, that its ridiculous. Other workers have gotten to the point that they pass out from being so hot while operating. Sounds odd, but until youve been there and experienced it, it may not be understandable. Especially when you walk into a room and see the wall monitor says its 65 degrees fareinheit and Im still hollering for someone to turn it down before I sweat to death. I can kinda understand wait staff with heavy trays running back and forth feeling the same way.

That being said, Id be interested in knowing that the actual temp was.

And yes I agree that it is VERY uncomfortable to eat will youre freezing in a restaurant.

[BethB]

When I worked at a restaurant the front was kept at normal temp, 68-70ish but the back in the kitchen was ICE COLD. It was for the servers to cool themselves from running around. I understood and dealt with it. I was but a cashier who didn't dash about from table to table.

[Anriana]

The manager could have definitely phrased that more tactfully, but I would never expect a public venue to adjust the temperature for one customer.

[sld72382]

The manager could have definitely phrased that more tactfully, but I would never expect a public venue to adjust the temperature for one customer.

I heard another patron complaining as well....

[Primer]

My school has several distantly located campuses. In their "infinite wisdom," they decided to control all thermostats remotely from one "central" location via computer. This means that the rooms register at 55F in the summer, and 95F in the winter. Due to my shoulder injuries, I have to use the overhead projector. During the summer, that would not be too bad for me, but I've been having to take summers off for surgeries. I get to sit beside the hot overhead in a sweltering classroom all winter. BTW, my optimal operating temp is 65F. What fun...not!

[EricKei]

When I worked at a restaurant the front was kept at normal temp, 68-70ish but the back in the kitchen was ICE COLD. It was for the servers to cool themselves from running around. I understood and dealt with it. I was but a cashier who didn't dash about from table to table.

Nah, that just makes too much sense >_>

Given that the kitchen is normally gonna be hot simply due to the proximity of the cooking flames, I would heartily endorse keeping it as cold as possible, and on a separatr thermostat from the dining room. I used to work at a small Italian joint that did that, when I got too warm, i'd just hang out in the kitchen next to the doors next to the dining room -- it had a vent, and was at the opposite side from the burners and oven. Worked like a charm.

Then again, they didn't do everything right. When they felt the need to build a new Walk-In, they decided that insulating the floor wasn't "worth the expense". As a result, the cooler was never, EVER, anywhere near as cold as it should be.

[Peppergirl]

To play devils advocate, I can kinda understand why the manager said what he did.

I can understand the REASONING for it, but how he said it was tactless and rude.

All he had to say was something to the effect of, "Gosh, I'm so sorry. I'm sure it feels pretty cold, but unfortunately the temp is auto controlled and we can't adjust it."

It's just like anything else, it's not so much WHAT we say, its HOW we say it.

I've developed a really good ability for telling asshole SC's to take a flying leap, but my delivery is such that they rarely realize I'm doing so.

Also, to the OP: If you've always had good experiences at this Applebees, don't let one bad experience run you off. Report it to corporate. I'm a bit biased, but it used to be one of my pet peeves when I was in the business that a customer could have 100 good experiences, but have one bad and instead of giving us a chance to fix it, they just wrote us off. - I'm not condoning what he did...on the contrary. I think he was a shit. I'm just saying, if it's never happened before, report it and give them another shot.