Bad Experience at Moon River Pizza

[jacksonvilleconfidential]

I too patronize MRP quite often, and will continue to do so. Mainly because Im one of those special peeps that gets preferential treatment and gets to skip all you poor saps in line. Eat it.

That explains the reviews.

Surely you jest....Moon River has FANTASTIC pizza, which has no correlation to the service you may be getting.

[jacksonvilleconfidential]

Oh, and that was way harsh Crys.

[CrysG]

Let me see. Is the pizza worth skipping other people and wanting preferential treatment for? Let me think.......

No.

Eat it. 

[jacksonvilleconfidential]

I dont really skip people, i was just kidding.

[Shwaz]

Surely you jest....Moon River has FANTASTIC pizza, which has no correlation to the service you may be getting.

MRP is barely a cut above CiCi's quality wise... CiCi's customer service is exponetially better. 

[ChriswUfGator]

Wow.  13 Pages about one incident at Moon River Pizza.

The guy got screamed at, assaulted, embarassed, and publicly kicked out of a restaurant, all over absolutely nothing. Then, when he called to try and smooth things over, he was called a liar, blamed for their mistakes, and told to eff' off. Come on, this wasn't just some normal 'incident' where they were out of ketchup or something...

Personally (and everyone has a right to their own opinion), I think it is interesting how this thread didn't fill up with posts like "yea, I know what you mean.  Last time I was there....".

Are you really surprised that 100 different people didn't all jump out and say "OMG the same exact thing happened to me..."? This situation is so outlandish that it couldn't possibly happen that often...

And I guess you didn't notice, but several different people in this thread have said that they either had rude service themselves, or that they had heard about it from someone they knew who had experienced it. So it's not like Dan is the only one singing this song...Moon River was already well-known for their attitude before any of this mess happened.

And yes, the server did belatedly half-apologize, but that didn't happen until that hand got forced by this thing blowing up online. And even then, it was still more of this "I'm sorry...that YOU misunderstood the situation...blahblahblah" stuff, rather than a true apology for his actions.

And the people that really need to make things right in this situation aren't even the server, it's the manager and the owner, who both flat-out called him a liar despite there being multiple eyewitnesses, dismissed his concerns, and blamed their mistakes on him. If you read Dan's posts, that's the part he found the most offensive, and they have done nothing to address that.

[Steve]

Chris - take it easy.  I'm telling DapperDan that he is stupid for not going in.  He feels the way he feels, and that's totally cool (I wasn't there, so I can't say he was right or wrong).

With that said, I'm not one of those people who sees a brutal car accident on Atlantic Blvd, and because of it refuses to drive on Atlantic Blvd.  I will continue to drive on Atlantic Blvd, and I will continue to eat at Moon River.  Now, if this had happened to me, I might feel different.

It's funny - I don't always agree with StephenDare, but I think the post just above this hit the nail on the head.  It helps that Stephen has first hand experience at running a restaraunt, something I do not.

[CrysG]

Steve,

I don't see how comparing Atlantic Blvd to a restaurant works. Atlantic doesn't charge you a toll to drive on it. Atlantic doesn't depend on drivers to stay a Blvd.

[Steve]

I think you are missing the point.  I'm just saying because of one person's bad experience, that doesn't eman that I'm not going to go.

[CrysG]

Stephen,

I can only speak for myself but I'm not going back. Justin's orignal post spoke volumes about his attitude and his true feelings. Waiting 2 days and then coming online to apologize that Dan didn't understand his actions. Justin even goes on to state "it was really busy and I was quick to solve a situation in a militant fashion". Unless I'm not understanding "militant fashion" means hostile, "overly intimidating and unnecessarily aggressive" which he denied doing in his orignal post.

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

[Steve]

And I guess you didn't notice, but several different people in this thread have said that they either had rude service themselves, or that they had heard about it from someone they knew who had experienced it. So it's not like Dan is the only one singing this song...Moon River was already well-known for their attitude before any of this mess happened.

I think you missed the point of what I was saying.  All I am saying is that it's not like this thread was completely filled with horrible experiences of restaraunts (there are some threads on here that are like that).  But since you brought it up, I reread every post, and in Reply #49, the poster mentioned that he has had good experiences, while his roomate has not fared well, and in reply #131, the poster mentioned that he "got a sense of rudeness or 'teenage attitude'".  Other than that, there were some posts saying "I heard on the internet of rude service", and the like, but no other firsthand experiences of bad service.

Anyway, I think you missed the point of what I was saying - with all do respect, I think you were getting a bit defensive.

My only point was that while Dan and his wife apparently experienced UNBELIEVEABLY bad service, I've probably been there seven or eight times in 2009 (which is nore than once every two weeks), and I have had no problems.  I am not going to stop going to a restaraunt because of this incident.

Like I've said a bunch of times, this is my decision, not what I am recommending for others to do.

Okay, back to work and reality

[BridgeTroll]

If there is no up side to apologizing, why would anyone ever do it.

Absolutely!  I may have to add this to my signature!!

[CrysG]

Stephen,

I agree with you. Apologizing should be rewarded. But I have a hard time believing Justin was laying in bed last night thinking, "Man, I really handled that wrong. I should go apologize for it".

It was after days and days of people saying that they weren't going back for someone to finally talk some sense into him. We've yet to see a manager come online and apologize. To me it was a cop out. And in this case there is an upside to apologizing. People saying "Oh look they learned their lesson and said they were sorry, lets go buy a pizza."

[Cliffs_Daughter]

So, for someone like me who's never been there, we're left with 2 outcomes from this: either you go there because you want to see what the fuss was about, or you just join the boycott.

Well, for what it's worth after 14 pages now, I am in total agreement with Dan's decision not to return to MRP. Had this happened to us, and after reading the whole story it very well could've happened to my husband with his luck, we would've done many of the same things. A letter to the owners would've been involved as well. And I might've been ok with an apology received within 24 hours...

That Justin came forward with some acknowledgment of the situation says a little more about him than MRP itself. He's not so much trying to help the restaurant as he is trying to keep his own job. In this economy, that's a good thing when an employee can man-up to keep their position when they realize it depends on the customers' satisfaction. Don't bite the hand that feeds you (or the one whom you are feeding in this case?)

I'm also going to give him a little cred on the former USMC issue. "Militant" style really is a common fault among those who have to enter the civ workforce after service. Take my husband, for example. He was MC for years, and was out for a long time before he got a job in management. For the first year or so, he was often accused of being rather Corps-like in his style, expecting everyone to simply do what was asked/told of them. He didn't understand subtleties or true 'managing', so he was constantly upset that nobody else was able to do things the way he did. He also had a few folks quit on him as a result. Then it dawned on him that they chose to work there and were not recruited, and that he was not in 'command'. And he's finally in a good fit with his job, with a great staff and service record.

I'll say this: Justin, if you want to sway some business back into that place (or make it really appealing to some new customers like me) then maybe you should offer a more personal level of service. Come on here and make it worth the trip because YOU are willing to ensure a great meal to us. Tell us to ask for you. AND, tell others you work with to own up as well.

[Johnny]

First of all, congrats on your movie club: people like you need a support team of malcontents to contribute to cool blogs like this one. Also thanks for y'all's patronage to Moon River, where the best recipe for pizza, along with fresh produce, skilled cooks, and a great atmosphere make it a really popular place. Hi, this is Justin. Your story is wicked inaccurate. After you bicker and point your finger in the face of a 5-foot-tall 19 year old girl, who is full of apologies, gives you your money back, has a table for you to be seated, provides your wait time is no longer than anyone else's, im gonna ask you to leave. No one wanted you there while they were trying to eat-trust me, i had to explain you and your wife's verbal and circular attempt to get "justice" to everyone eating there that night.  Your order was not impeded by anything; your table selection was as good as anyone else's, and your wait time was too. You also made me out to be overly intimidating and unnecessarily aggressive. Whoa man: chill out. It really is people like you.

The apology a couple of pages back just doesn't fly after the initial response days after the event was this.  Sorry, no cookie for you...