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| - The food is fine...but you can find as good or better nearby for similar prices. Nice atmosphere so good for a date night.. I've been coming here for years, 7-8 times a year. But here's the problem that occurred...causing me great embarrassment. And the owner of the restaurant did nothing to help me (even though I'm a good customer).
I had purchased a $15 discount coupon for Grape Vine online from a well known, reputable company. I included this with my cash payment for the bill (which included a generous tip - I like the servers to share in any discount I get!) The server returned to the table, held up my coupon and informed me that they would not honor it - that there was a sign on their door about it (that I didn't see). As you can imagine, this was embarrassing - especially in front of my date.
I contacted the owner a day later, and she explained that the coupon company had made an error in offering coupons for Grape Vine and it had been a problem for them. She said that I would have to contact the company myself.
I suggested that if this happens again with other customers, it would be better to train their servers to not humiliate customers - for $15! I also found out that Grape Vine DOES offer a 20% discount to the public via Val Pak - if this had been offered/applied, it would have covered the $15 no problem - without embarrassing me. I consult on marketing/business for a living. This would have made me a raving fan...instead of feeling like a pest.
So for a lousy $15, Grape Vine's owner feels that being "right" is more important than keeping a customer that spends $600-$800 there every year. Over 10 years, that would be $6-8K. Oh, and what about those I'll tell about this experience? Conservatively, being right will cost them $15,000.00. No wonder the place was empty at 9:30 on a Friday night.
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