Recession and ripoff.

In a recession, I suppose that as people and business does get more and more desperate to make that extra buck, that will make the difference between a positive bottom line, or a break even or even a loss.

However, when you stoop as low as deliberately charging the wrong prices, and when called up on it, look at you as If you were some idiot with the audacity to ask them to correct it, and when pushed, fix half the problem, leaving you even more fuming, while demanding they fix the rest.
Sometimes, it’s not the money, but more the principle of the whole thing, and especially so after leaving a good tip.

I went in to this restaurant called “Made in Belfast” with my wife, had a lunch, for which they have a lunch menu with a lower price.
After we left, we realized that we had been overcharged, paying the dinner menu prices.
When challenging them, they only paid back half the difference and tried to keep the receipt, which I had to demand back, and I had to repeat the procedure.
After talking to others, others seems to have experienced this as well, but never bothered to challenge them on it.

Another day of making this extra buck, is to skimp on what you deliver.
We later went to Cafe Vaudeville in Belfast, and had a dinner.
My wife had a chicken with potato gratin, and I had a sirloin steak.
While there were nothing majorly wrong with the food itself, it was pretty bland and non-tasting.
The portion control had taken its severe toll, leaving little on the plate.
The £20 steak, was a relatively sad little skimpy bit of sirlion in the middle of the plank, with a tiny bowl of sauce, a small bowl containing a few decorative salad leafs, and 8 “triple fried” (whatever the the point is with that) fries in a small cup.
The chicken wasn’t any better, with a tiny amount of gratin on one edge of the plate, and some chicken on the other end, and some green cooked up goop in the middle.

Taken these experiences, i can only assume that it is now par for course to alienate your customers, taking as much as you can in one go, only to lose them as returning customers (and getting bad press about it, as a result…).

Made in Belfast and Cafe Vaudeville, I hope it was worth it, losing us as returning customers.
Made in Belfast – what’s worth more, the £4 you tried to scam off, and making noises about it when calling you up on it?
Cafe Vaudeville – Not serving value for money, is a costly mistake these days. Hope you too find it worthwile, and we were not the only ones unhappy with your offerings. for a £20 meal, I really don’t expect to leave hungry, that I have to go find something else as well.

I could have complained on location, yes, but that wouldnot have helped any of you, as after we’ve gone, it would have been business as usual, and none of you would have been none the wiser to the methods.

 

As to the proprietors?
Before you start screaming blue murder and telling me that I am telling porkies, and can not be…
This is something you should have thought about, before you tried it.
These are all genuine, first-hand experiences, on the 28th of April, 2012.