"I heard you berating my staff for having to wait"
The owners of an Indian restaurant have hit back at a customer who claimed they waited an hour and a half for their food to arrive.
Preston’s Sai Surbhi is regarded as one of Lancashire’s higher-rated restaurants for South Asian cuisine.
However, one recent customer was not happy.
In the TripAdvisor review, titled ‘I Would Rate 0 If I Could. Extremely long waiting times’, the customer said:
“Ordered only two curries and a bread that still wasn’t ready after 1h 30min of waiting. When asked how long the food would be, the same answer was given ‘shouldn’t be too long now’.
“I ended up getting a full refund which was challenging as I was told NO three times by the staff member and I that I can wait for my food.
“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, clearly the staff need training.
“No organisation and understaffed. I can’t comment on the food, if it was ever put on I would assume it was overcooked.”
Sai Surbhi responded to the review, claiming the customer “berated” staff members and “threatened” to give a bad review because their order was “10-15 mins late from its allocated time”.
The response said: “Your order had an allocated time of 9:30 pm, you were kicking up a fuss at 9:40 pm. Your refund was processed by 9:45 pm.
“How you were waiting an ‘1hr 30min’ for an order that was refunded within 1 hr since the time of the phone call made placing the order which you showed us, just shows again your nature.
“As it was a Saturday night all orders were all allocated 45mins-1hr. Minimum. Because we are that organised and we know how long our kitchen takes.
“We don’t just knock out curries, we make each dish individually so it’s not just a case of ‘I only ordered 2 curries’.
“After I heard you berating my staff for having to wait, which she repeatedly apologised for, I stepped in and explained to you we had your order down for 9:30, it was now 9:40 pm.”
The response stated that the dishes ordered took “longer to cook” than other meals and the restaurant was busy at the time.
Sai Surbhi accepted that the order was running late so it offered the customer a discount.
“You had ordered the lamb shank (excellent choice) a very tender dish that is slow cooked so the meat falls off the bone in a delicious curry sauce, and it takes longer to cook.
“We are busy, so it is running late (there was a full restaurant to view).
“As I explained this to you, you abruptly instructed us that on our website we are offering 15% discount off which you should be entitled to.
“Which my team member then informed you that this discount had already been applied without you even realising or asking (You’re welcome).
“Following this information of no further discount you then threatened you’d be leaving us this bad review for being kept waiting, as if you should have been compensated?
“So we told you to go ahead with your review. Had you not done this, things would have been different.”
“I then left to check on your order which was minutes from ready. Upon my return five minutes later you stated you wanted a refund. I said no, correct. As I told you then, I will tell you again. I don’t like the way in which you spoke to me or the threats of bad feedback because you’re order is 10-15mins late from it’s allocated time.
“You then apologised and I instantly began actioning your refund.
“Whilst your refund was being actioned at 9:45 pm your food arrived which we sent back to the kitchen.”
The response ended by referring back to the customer’s original claim that they could not “comment on the food” because they didn’t get to eat it, the management said it was ‘great’ and later enjoyed by staff.
“Correct, you can’t comment on the food. But it went down a treat during our staff meal at the end so we can tell you it was great!”
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