Smokehouse Blues

I went to Smoke House Blues in early December. A friend took me there to celebrate having a job interview, after having been laid off almost a year and a half ago. I was wearing the only pair of interview pants I had, which were brand new (bought for ... more

I went to Smoke House Blues in early December. A friend took me there to celebrate having a job interview, after having been laid off almost a year and a half ago. I was wearing the only pair of interview pants I had, which were brand new (bought for this interview). There was a nail sticking out of the booth, which snagged my pant leg, and cut a hole in it. I bought it to the attention of the server, who said he would take care of the nail right away (which he didn't). The server took our order, that took 20 minutes to get. He kept apologizing, gave us some bread to tide us over, but it took too long to get to us. The bacon cheeseburgers were good, but the sweet potato fries were burned. They gave me different fries when I asked, and those were too well cooked (but I didn't say anything). I asked to speak to the manager. He wasn't there, so I talked with the evening manager. When I told him about my pants, he looked and saw the damage and told me that they would give me a $20.00 gift certificate for the restaurant. I couldn't use the gift certificate, as I didn't live in Ann Arbor, and hadn't had a job in 1 1/2 years. I wasn't going to drive an hour to go out to eat when I needed to be careful with my gas money, plus that didn't help fix my (new) pants. I told him that I wanted my pants replaced, and he wanted a receipt. I told him I could get that. He said they would have to talk with their lawyers, that he would pass on the info and my phone number to the day manager, and that I would be contacted the next day. Two and a half days later, no call. I called, talked to the manager who said he had been too busy to call. He said they had talked with the lawyers, and they needed to make a police report in order to file a claim about my pants. He said the owner, who would only do 20.00 gift certificate. I told him that wasn't ok with me. I couldn't afford to buy new pants, and they should replace them as they were damaged there. I also told him that they cost under 42.00, which isn't a lot for dress pants, and that if they needed to file a police report to go ahead. He agreed to take this info to the owner, and would call me back in two days. Once again, he didn't call me. I called again, talked with another employee and asked if the manager was blowing me off (regarding why he didn't call). I got a call within 10 minutes. The manager said that the owner wouldn't do what I was asked, again offered the 20.00 GC, or for me to drop off my pants to them (which they would sent to their cleaners to be fixed). I asked him to ask the owner to call me. If they wouldn't pay for new pants, they could help me buy new ones (20.00 GC or 20.00 cash to put toward new pants). I wasn't going to give the only pair of dress pants I had to a restaurant that didn't seem to care I couldn't afford to buy new ones, didn't care that they damaged them, and didn't call me when they said they would. I also talked with the manager of the restaurant about customer service, how poorly they were doing by treating me that way, and he didn't care. I had called the police station to ask about filing a report, they said they don't take reports for things like that, and that restaurant was playing a game with me. When I told the manager that I know he lied about that (the lawyers saying they had to file a police report, etc), he denied even saying it to me. It's just surprising to me how the whole situation played out. When I lived in Ann Arbor, I used to go to Smoke House Blues to dine in or get take out 5 to 6+ times a month, with the bill being around 25.00 to 45.00+ each time. Now, even if I moved back to Ann Arbor, I won't ever go back to that restaurant, and I tell all my friends about what they did. I can't say that I know people aren't going back there anymore, but I hope it impacts how people think about going there. Who wants to support a restaurant who does that to it's customers? less