I needed a forum to warn the community about the horrible service I recently received at Charlie's Deli between Lexington Park and Ridge (across from Spring Ridge Middle School). When my husband and I visited Charlie's yesterday (April 25), I ordered a salad with NO cheese and NO onions, and my husband ordered a sandwich with fries. The order was to-go. My husband explained to the girl taking our order that the last time he got fries to-go from Charlie's, the fries were so hot they melted the styrofoam container they were in, and he had to throw away the now plastic-covered fries. He asked the girl if she would please put double layers of paper or foil to prevent this from happening again. She said no problem, and then took our order back to the kitchen. Once we received our order to-go and paid, my husband asked the girl AGAIN if she had put double layers of paper down for the fries. She said she let the fries cool a bit AND put foil in the container to prevent it from melting. "Great!," we said, and then drove home.
However, upon arriving at home, we discovered that not only had the fries melted the container once again, but the girl had totally lied to us and hadn't put any foil or paper down to protect the styrofoam as we expressly asked. To top it off, they had completely ignored my request to leave off cheese and onions from my salad (I do not eat dairy so this is actually a big deal to me). Now that both of our dinners were ruined, I called Charlie's up to complain about the situation. The girl who answered didn't apologize, but immediately put me on the phone with Charlie himself.
I calmly explained to Charlie the situation, but instead of receiving an apology or offer to get a refund, he started to defend himself saying that he had cooked our food and no one told him about our specific requests. He didn't offer any apology and was very short with me and just barked "Well come get your food again" and hung up on me. I told my husband about what happened and my husband agreed that we shouldn't waste the gas money driving back there. So I called Charlie's again and asked if we could just take a picture of the ruined food and stop by the next day for our refund. Charlie started arguing with me and said that he had already begun remaking our food, and now he can't resell it. I told him that was ridiculous since only 30 seconds had passed since I had gotten off the phone with him the first time, so how could he be "in the middle of remaking our food"? THEN HE HUNG UP ON ME. Seriously, this is NOT how a business owner behaves. My husband was so angry he drove back to Charlie's and showed him our ruined food and demanded a refund. Charlie gave him a half-apology, and my husband told him that he should really be apologizing to me for hanging up on me when I was making a simple request for a refund. Then Charlie told my husband that I was the one who owed him an apology for calling him again in the middle of making our food. My husband just gaped at him, as did several other customers who overheard the conversation, then told him we would never return there and left. I cannot believe this man Charlie is a business owner, much less in the restaurant business. You should not treat your customers like it is their fault you messed up their order. Totally ridiculous. I cannot believe he would treat a customer so rudely, especially when I was being very calm and reasonable and had not raised my voice at all. I think someone should make Charlie go work in a kitchen in NYC so he can really get a taste of some unsatisfied customers!!
However, upon arriving at home, we discovered that not only had the fries melted the container once again, but the girl had totally lied to us and hadn't put any foil or paper down to protect the styrofoam as we expressly asked. To top it off, they had completely ignored my request to leave off cheese and onions from my salad (I do not eat dairy so this is actually a big deal to me). Now that both of our dinners were ruined, I called Charlie's up to complain about the situation. The girl who answered didn't apologize, but immediately put me on the phone with Charlie himself.
I calmly explained to Charlie the situation, but instead of receiving an apology or offer to get a refund, he started to defend himself saying that he had cooked our food and no one told him about our specific requests. He didn't offer any apology and was very short with me and just barked "Well come get your food again" and hung up on me. I told my husband about what happened and my husband agreed that we shouldn't waste the gas money driving back there. So I called Charlie's again and asked if we could just take a picture of the ruined food and stop by the next day for our refund. Charlie started arguing with me and said that he had already begun remaking our food, and now he can't resell it. I told him that was ridiculous since only 30 seconds had passed since I had gotten off the phone with him the first time, so how could he be "in the middle of remaking our food"? THEN HE HUNG UP ON ME. Seriously, this is NOT how a business owner behaves. My husband was so angry he drove back to Charlie's and showed him our ruined food and demanded a refund. Charlie gave him a half-apology, and my husband told him that he should really be apologizing to me for hanging up on me when I was making a simple request for a refund. Then Charlie told my husband that I was the one who owed him an apology for calling him again in the middle of making our food. My husband just gaped at him, as did several other customers who overheard the conversation, then told him we would never return there and left. I cannot believe this man Charlie is a business owner, much less in the restaurant business. You should not treat your customers like it is their fault you messed up their order. Totally ridiculous. I cannot believe he would treat a customer so rudely, especially when I was being very calm and reasonable and had not raised my voice at all. I think someone should make Charlie go work in a kitchen in NYC so he can really get a taste of some unsatisfied customers!!
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