Well, where to begin...
My younger sister flew into town, and so it was a special occasion, and we had decided to try somewhere upscale for afternoon tea service. (We are tea enthusiasts.) My mother heard good things about Carolina Crossroads, so I called and made a reservation via telephone.
My husband was originally going to join us for tea but could not make it due to work obligations. (He's in the military and could not find someone to take his duty section, so he could not take off as we'd hoped.) So me, my sister, and my mother went to Crossroads and once inside the restaurant corridor, were greeted by a female manager at the front podium who found our name on the list and literally (I'm not joking) yelled at us, ""WHERE IS YOUR FOURTH PERSON?"" And we responded, ""Well, it's just the 3 of us, our fourth person couldn't make it."" Then she snapped again, ""WELL WHERE ARE THEY?"" (As if we owed her an explanation of the actual whereabouts of the missing person in our party.) She began to rudely explain to us that per their reservation policy, if you do not cancel (or inform them that someone can't make it) within 24 hours then you have to pay for their tea service because the food is pre-made.
We had NO PROBLEM paying for the food, that was not the issue. (Even though we were NEVER explained this policy by the reservation specialist on the phone when we'd called.) We had expected to come and spend a lot of money. The issue was the way we were treated. The way this staff person (a manager, by all accounts!) yelled at us was not only shocking and unprofessional, it was the type of behavior that gets someone fired in any other restaurant.
Against our better judgment, we decided to stay because we didn't want to ruin the afternoon. But apparently our servers were aware of the debacle also, and while pouring our tea the server remarked in a very sarcastic tone, ""Well now you know for next time."" (There won't be a next time.)
So the manager later came up to us while we were dining to let us know that she spoken with the reservation specialist (and the reservation specialist ADMITTED that she had not informed us of their reservation policy), but the manager still did not offer us any apology or show any regret for her temper tantrum. Instead, she said that we wouldn't be required to pay for the missing person's food. We responded we would be glad to pay for that food..because that was never the issue with us.
To top it all off, our food was just average. The tea tasted flat and the tea accompaniments tasted stale. We left still hungry, and went to eat somewhere else within 2 hours after leaving this place. I've never been more disappointed (and offended).
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