Tales of Takeout: The Follow-Up

Yesterday I wrote about my experience with a Foodler order on Friday night. At the time I wasn't sure whether or not I should name the restaurant in question. Generally speaking, I try to walk a line between expressing an honest opinion and being fair, and based on the incident and the information I had at the time, I decided to identify it.

As it happened, the owner of Eat at Jumbo's uses a Google Alert to track online mentions of his establishment, so when my post popped up he looked at Friday's orders and was able to figure out who I was, and last night he called me to talk about what had happened. He offered me a genuine apology, and said that other restaurants that use Foodler, not just his, do sometimes have problems receiving their orders (when I called to check on my order, it seemed like I was being fed a line to placate me), but Foodler also brings them a lot of business.

But nonetheless, even if my order had not been received by the restaurant, after I called it should have been processed and delivered, and the owner admitted that something had gone amiss there. He said that it was an extremely busy day, and he had taken the day off anticipating that it would be a slow day. He's obviously very involved in running his business, and wants very much for his customers to be satisfied.

I definitely was not looking to slam anyone without justification, I was simply telling a story about what happened. I may have given Foodler a little too much credit, but I felt they did deserve credit for the speed with which my customer service issue was handled. They may in fact be to blame for the restaurant not receiving my order; in the time I've been using them such a thing has not happened (until now), but perhaps there is room for improvement on their side.

At the same time, the proprietor of Eat at Jumbo's deserves credit for admitting a mistake, and for reaching out to a potential customer who had a negative experience. It made me feel like I should give them another chance, but when I do so I'll probably just call in my order, or place it directly through their web site.