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Customers Don’t Matter?

Posted on Feb 21, 2016

Nope! Apparently customers don’t matter at all, do they Boston Pizza!?

It has been two weeks since our “incident” at Boston Pizza. We have asked for the security video to understand what exactly happened, and we have been given the run-around at every turn. If they had simply responded immediately, showed ANY amount of concern about the conduct of employees and/or patrons, we would have let it go. But their continued silence has infuriated us. I can see them rolling their eyes and hoping we’ll just go away.

Make no mistake: we WILL go away. We will never go to another Boston Pizza again. And we will rail against them at every opportunity. We will tell all and sunder how Boston Pizza does not care about their customers, they simply want you to shut up and give them your money. If you have a problem in their restaurant, they do NOT want to hear about it. They will NOT help you. God forbid a violent crime happens in their restaurant – there will be NO security video to help you. “Sorry!” *Shrug*

Listed here is the timeline of events. After numerous attempts to have the issue resolved, there has been no action on the part of Boston Pizza aside from a few tweets and two phone calls, both dead ends.

Feb 7th – Super Bowl Party. Kicked out around 5:50pm. The incident is HERE.

Feb 7th, 6:04pm – I tweet to @BostonPizza.

Feb 8th – I receive a tweet from @BostonPizza to please email with my concerns to paulsonr@bostonpizza.com. I do so at 7:26am. My email is this:

Hi there,

I am writing to you about the incident which took place at the downtown Vancouver Boston Pizza restaurant, Stadium District. This happened yesterday at the Rock 101 Super Bowl Party.
The detailed story is here:
It’s important to note that this woman is the focus of my anger, my annoyance at Boston Pizza is secondary.
However, my husband is extremely upset about the actions of the bearded “manager” who told him “this is a family restaurant.” THIS was a private party. We have a family. We have two young children – 5 and 9 – and when they asked why we were home so early, they looked as confused as we felt when we told them what had happened.
There was no scene. There was no violence or yelling or raucous behaviour. Nobody was obnoxious, nobody was belligerent. We contained our “enjoyment” of the party to our own table. If these people had a problem with us, they should’ve asked for a different table. Perhaps this woman didn’t want to be there in the first place – she was on her phone most of the time, bored and clearly irritated – so maybe she decided to make a scene just so she could get kicked out?
Whatever the case, WE were not causing trouble. We were loud, to be sure, but the whole party was loud! It was a PARTY!! We left, and I am seething. We missed out on the pool – did our squares win? We’ll never know. We spent a lot of money for this rare day out and it was ruined. My disappointment is palpable!!!
If you have any comments or information, feel free to contact me at xxx-xxx-xxxx. But please do not call me to defend the behaviour of the staff. At this point, if I had any legal recourse, I would certainly take it.

Feb 8th, 9:30am – Hubby stops by BP to speak to a manager. None is available. He is told by the staff that the manager will be in around noon. He leaves his card and asks that the manager call him when he gets in. He takes a photo of the security camera just under the tv which would have been at his back the previous day. The camera is pointed directly where the incident occurred.

Feb 8th – I receive a second tweet from @BostonPizza to please email with my concerns to corcorank@bostonpizza.com. I do so at 3:01pm. I re-send the same email as above.

Feb 8th, 3:10pm – Hubby calls BP and RJ answers. Hubby asks to see the security video. RJ says “I remember you.” and tells hubby “maybe you were too drunk to remember”, and he doesn’t have access to the cameras, and he will give us the email of the person who does, but then he’s going to “hang up. I’ve got a store to run!” He is dismissive, and gives me the wrong email address.

Feb 8th, 3:40pm – I email my concerns to the email address given to me by RJ: BernardDL@bostonpizza.com. This email bounces back.

Feb 8th, 3:50pm – I take a chance and change the email to BernardD1@bostonpizza.com. This email does not bounce back, I assume it has reached Boston Pizza. The email is this:

You are the third person I am forwarding this email to. I would appreciate some response.

We would like access to the security video from 4pm to 6pm on Sunday, February 7th, when an incident occurred at the Station District BP during Rock 101’s Super Bowl party. We want to see what occurred, and why the woman threw the drink on my husband.
I’m sure this kind of stuff happens all the time, but for us it was very upsetting. We are not trouble makers, we have never had any problems. We were not drunk – we’d had 3 pints over 5 hours. We were not rude or belligerent or offensive. We did NOT speak to the people at that table! At ALL! She just threw the drink out of the blue, then started yelling at my husband.
Furthermore, the handling of this situation by RJ Roy has further incensed us. He has been dismissive, called us drunkards, claims he spoke to people at other tables and was told there was an exchange. There was NO exchange. The video (even without sound) will show clearly that we were minding our own business, and at no time spoke to those people. The only time there was any contact at all was when the woman beside my husband told him to tone it down. Tone it down? While the whole bar is yelling and hooting and hollering because of all the football excitement??
I am livid, and I want some action. I want you to take this seriously, because I AM. It’s NOT okay. It’s NOT okay to have been thrown out of a private party for something WE did not do. It’s unbelievable and unacceptable. I think you can probably tell that I’m taking this personally, and will follow every avenue I have available until I am satisfied.
My husband stopped by the restaurant this morning and left his card with a worker, and asked that the manager call him. The manager did not. We called him at 3:30pm Monday. He gave us this email address. That’s all the help he could (or would!) give us. We would like the video secured in case it is about to be recorded over.
Please contact me at xxx-xxx-xxxx, or if you’d rather speak to my husband, you can reach him at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Feb 8th, 7:29pm – I tweet to @BostonPizza asking for a response. I am asking for security video.

Feb 9, 9:58am – I receive a tweet from @BostonPizza saying “Hi there. We did receive your email and have shared it with the team. We will follow up with you by end of day today.” No one contacts me that day.

Feb 10, 1:15pm – Danny, the Assistant General Manager of Boston Pizza Stadium calls me. He says he will talk to RJ and Chad (the franchise owner) and get back to me. He gives me a number where I can reach him.

Feb 15, 11:19am – I call the number Danny gave me. It is the number for the Stadium Boston Pizza. I ask for Danny. He is not in and is not expected until the next day. I leave my name and ask that he calls me.

Feb 16 – I use the Boston Pizza Contact Us form to request a call, and specifically ask that the STORE not contact me. I have waited long enough.

Feb 17, 9:38am – a French-accented man from Boston Pizza calls. He tells me that from what he understands, there is no security video available. The Area Manager of Boston Pizza is out of town but due back today. He will discuss it with her and someone will contact me with more information.

No one has contacted us since then.

We were publicly humiliated in their establishment, yet no one, not one person at Boston Pizza, has paid any attention. At the very least, an apology is in order. I don’t want to butt heads with Jim Treliving – he’s a frickin’ HERO at our house – but I doubt he is aware of just how long this has gone on. If HE personally told me that Boston Pizza was not interested in my petty issues, I would throw up my hands in defeat – clearly hell would have frozen over!!

We are decent people who have a small, local business. We are responsible parents with young children. We did not deserve to be treated unfairly, and we will not stop until someone pays attention. As small business owners, we can’t understand why they just don’t care?!?! It’s crazy – are customers THAT dispensable??

:-/