Jan. 14, 2008

Good afternoon -

I brought my friend to Well-Known Gramercy Seafood Restaurant for dinner last Thursday evening at about 8pm. It was my first time there, so I have no basis for comparison to past visits, but in general things were good. Service was attentive, though it took a while for our food to arrive; and the *quality* of the food was excellent. However, my "Shrimp & Turf" dish was disappointing in its *quantity*. While the steak was a nice size (and the menu had specified the size in advance), and it was perfectly cooked and of very fine quality, there were barely any shrimp. The menu had referred to them as "jumbo" shrimp, so I was quite surprised to find bite-sized shrimp - and only three of them, at that. Especially given that Well-Known Gramercy Seafood Restaurant is known primarily for its seafood, I was surprised to receive such a skimpy portion of what could easily have been the star of the meal. And although Well-Known Gramercy Seafood Restaurant is not exactly budget dining, the price of the entree also led me to believe I'd be getting a sizeable portion, which I did not.

My companion found both the quality and quantity of her meal quite satisfying, so the shrimp in my entree is my only cause for complaint. I just wanted to bring it to your attention, and explain that it's the kind of thing that can affect people's decisions whether or not to return to an otherwise good restaurant. Thanks for your time.
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Jan. 17, 2008

Jeffrey,

Thank you very much for your feedback. Sorry it took me a long time to get back to you but I have been ill. I have a meeting every Thursday with the management team of my restaurant group and my owner. This will be discussed at that meeting. Please email me your address so I can send you a gift card. This type of communication from our customers is invaluable.

Thanks again,
GM Dude

GM Dude
General Manager
Well-Known Gramercy Seafood Restaurant
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Jan. 23, 2008

Gift card for Well-Known Gramercy Seafood Restaurant in the amount of $100 arrives at my door.

I really should follow my instinct for polite but justified complaint/feedback more often.

In 1991, the parent company of Cracker Barrel announced that nobody would continue to enjoy employment at their restaurants who did not display "normal heterosexual values which have been the foundation of families in our society." They fired thousands of openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered employees - and many more they suspected to be.

I was never that big a fan of Cracker Barrel anyway, so it wasn't a big deal to me to boycott them. But I have since encouraged others to avoid supporting those stores if they could, because I thought that such a policy was reprehensible (if not, alas, exactly shocking). Every few years when I have the conversation with someone, they ask me if I'm sure it's still true - sometimes I can find evidence on the net that this policy was still in place, sometimes I can't, but I've certainly never found evidence that their discriminatory policies had been ended.

Today that changed. After their annual shareholders' meeting on Nov. 26 of this year, Cracker Barrel's parent corporation voted unanimously to revise its non-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation. Naturally, conservative groups are in a tizzy, which means that for a while at least, someone will still be boycotting Cracker Barrel.

But that won't include me. There isn't one for many miles around Manhattan, but there is one near Binghamton on my usual route to and from Ithaca. And on my next trip to Cornell for a weekend of hockey, I plan to stop in and treat myself to a snack, a meal, or whatever strikes my fancy - for the first time in sixteen years.

The person who can invent a karaoke system that automatically transposes songs to any key you want, to accommodate different vocal ranges, without affecting the speed of the songs, will end up quite wealthy.

Naturally, it won't be me, but if it happens to be you, would you mind buying me a few drinks to thank me for the idea? :-)

...I just learned that, due to poor planning and an interruption in the early stages of the data flow on my current project, there will be no work tomorrow. And I only get paid when I'm working. And the weather forecast isn't exactly promising for a bike ride.

Dammit.

If you pencil me in for something weeks in advance, then schedule something else instead without telling me... is your pencil the problem, or are you?

Yesterday afternoon and evening, I had a few phone calls with one of the sales reps from the agency that had sent me on my last contract job, about a new job that will last two or three weeks, starting next Tuesday. This time the client of the law firm has actually insisted upon no overtime, so it should work out perfectly for me since I have commitments the next few weekends. The rep told me my interview would be at 11:30 this morning, and that I should call in at about 9 this morning for interview prep; they'd tell me a little about the firm, the interviewer, and what I should expect.

I was awakened by a call at 8:20 this morning. I checked my voicemail, to learn that the call had been from a sales rep of this agency calling me to do interview prep for my 11am interview.

I'm about to call in, as it is now actually about the time I was told to call in. But given the flexibility that not working all the time gives me with my hours, I am really rather annoyed at having lost, yes, even one half hour of sleep. If you tell me to call in at 9, don't call me at 8:20. And I certainly hope they got the interview time right the first time, because I'm in no mood to rush because of their mistake.