| rev:text
| - And the Worst Customer Service Award in Phoenix goes to...
Mama Gina's.
I don't even know where to start. I'm pretty fair in how I rate businesses on Yelp (check out my other reviews), but let me just say that this place belongs on Kitchen Nightmares.
I had purchased a number of restaurant.com certificates to this place, and used a few of them awhile back. The pizza was...okay, but time had passed and we decided to give it another try and use up the remaining certificates I'd purchased. So we entered the restaurant, and first thing, let them know that we would be dining on one of these restaurant.com certificates to which they had no problem. They took down the numbers and sat us at a table. The server asked us what we'd like to order so we went with their white pie, as we remembered that being the better of the pizzas we'd tried last time. He walked away, and returned minutes later to inform us that our certificates were no longer valid and asked what we'd like to do. We told him to give us a moment to think about it, and he left us there to go over our options. We had a Groupon purchase with Opa Life, right across the courtyard, so we decided to go that route instead. We packed up and were about to leave, assuming that he put a hold on the order, when he approaches us with the pizza we told him to hold off on. He realized he'd made a mistake and nervously returned the pizza to the kitcken.
As we were on our way out the door, a woman we can only guess was the on-duty manager yells at us from across the restaurant to stay put. She approaches us and let's us know that she is going to call security on us. We are in a moment of shock, and explained the situation to her, which she should have fully understood as she was the same person we'd given the certificates to in the first place. BUT she continued to cause a scene, and told us that she'll "let us go", and that she would normally call security on people who don't pay for their food. Ummm, we hadn't even touched the pizza, nor did we have any intention of ordering it after discovering the certificates I'd purchased online were no longer valid. As for the server, he denied ever coming over to our table and being told to give us a moment.
What a ridiculous scenario this was. I've eaten at many restaurants here in the valley, mostly pleasant experiences, and never in my wildest would have pictured a manager (?) confronting and threatening to call security for deciding not to dine there. It was clearly their mistake, and they turned their mistake into an embarrassing and completely uncalled for situation. I'll never step foot in this business again, and I will make sure anyone I know who may consider dining here thinks twice about it.
----------------------------UPDATE------------------------------
In response to manager/owner Lisa's reply:
Lisa, you are absolutely right that it was a simple misunderstanding. The problem is that a simple misunderstanding turned into an accusatory and embarrassing situation. We should have been free to exit the restaurant without being pulled into a dramatic scene initiated by a staff member.
When the server approached us minutes after ordering to inform us that the certificates, that we had explained upon entering the restaurant that we'd be dining on, were invalid, and asked us what we'd like to do, we told him verbatim, "Give us a few minutes to think it over. Thank you." That should have put a halt on the order and the awkwardness that followed. Businesses usually practice a "customer is always right" type of environment, and I don't always agree with it, but this incident was the polar opposite of that concept; initiated by the staff and escalated when they confronted and threatened us in front of other customers. I've eaten at many restaurants. I've seen good customer service, mediocre, and bad. This was the equivalent of things we'd seen on the Amy's Baking Company episode of Kitchen Nightmares.
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