Dhanistas problem

[komal]

I bought a voucher from livingsocial for my dad as a gift.

The voucher expires today and as I just realised this earlier I decided to go in and book a table.

As I walked in there was an angry cyclist who also had a voucher and had called to use it a few days ago but the chef had been in an accident and they were closed for 5 days.

After much complaining he got a card with something scribbled on it, not sure what.

I told them I had a voucher and asked if there were spaces free to which they replied no. I accepted this and, slightly dissapointed, called my dad to let him know.

Two men walked in whilst I was making the call and that's when I realised they were empty and I decided to go back in and ask if I could squeeze in before they get busy.

As I was standing behind the men I heard the conversation, it went like this:

Two men - "have you got tables free tonight?"

Manager - "erm no not really..have you got a voucher?"

Two men - "no"

Manager - "ok then I can squeeze you in, come in" (!!!)

 

I was understandably rather annoyed by this and as the two men walked in the manager seemed rather surprised to see me standing there and I said "I thought you had no space tonight, why did those men just get a table?"

He replied with "they don't have a voucher, i can't just fill the place with people who have vouchers or I won't make any money"

I then replied " so you didn't make any money from these vouchers?" To which he replied "I can't talk to you"

 

What can I do about this?

[PeteM01]

Alienating customers like this doesn't seem to be a very sensible policy! I bought a couple of these vouchers and just phoned up 30 minutes before turning up. They didn't have an issue then (mind you, this was a weekday lunchtime and a mid-week early evening). This won't make you feel much better, but the food was as good as ever!

 

I wonder if a lot of people started to turn up as the deadline was reached? You can imagine that this would be difficult for a restaurant but surely they should have anticipated this?

[willj87]

I wish I'd seen these vouchers, I had a great curry when I was last there!

[chinaski]

I think the incident says a lot about these deals in general. I had the Kitchen one and when I tried to book they were at full capacity for 3 weekends in a row and then the deal expired. Livingsocial refused to refund. I also had the Dhanista's one which never got used.

 

The problem is that restaurants are part of the hospitality industry, and I sometimes get the distinct impression that although they're initially pleased at the increase in foot traffic through the door, they soon realise how little, if any, profit they are making for a considerable amount of stress. As your experience shows, sometimes you're just blatantly not welcome. I'm going to lay off buying restaurant vouchers - it just doesn't seem worth the forced smiles.

 

It certainly worth a try at a refund though as this was clearly a case whereby tables were available and you were simply turned away due to a monetary concern. But that's not your problem, they didn't obligate the voucher agreement and you should get your money back.