ANGELES CITY – Working folk usually thank God for Fridays because it usher in weekends sans the grind of usual work: on to church with the family and then on to a mall, a picnic out of town, or a restaurant named specifically Thank God It’s Friday (TGIF).
Things, however, can turn out otherwise, Friday or not, as in the case of a family whose encounters in a local TGIF branch turned out to be the embarrassing version of Friday the 13th, with its own Freddy Krueger to boot.
“It was a dinner of embarrassment at T. G.I .F’s Marquee Mall branch, caused by a certain disrespectful waiter named ‘Yhan’ that overrode what’s supposed to be a cozy dinner for the customer and her guests on two separate nights last week – first last Tuesday and second last Friday,” said an aggrieved customer who asked not to be named for now.
She related that last Tuesday, she was with a visiting Korean friend at the restaurant, with one sporting the name Yhan on his breast as waiter.
Even before he served dinner, the waiter offered his customers the so-called Bistro Circle Card which, he explained, was supposed to entitle customers to a 20 discount in diners affiliated with.
TGIF is part of the “Bistro Circle of Restaurants” that includes Italianni’s, Fish & Co., The Stock Market, Flapjacks, Pig Out and Krazy Garlik.
The customer said that since she’s into condotel, real estate and newspaper business, she has been familiar with such discount cards being offered for free in other restaurants and similar business establishments.
“This Yhan came in rather persistent and was able to have me fill out the form for the card privilege,” she recalled.
She and her guest were then served dinner and were later billed P2,500 for it. And because she already had a new Bistro Circle Card, the bill was shaved 20 percent.
“We were just taking a little time off at our table when Yhan came over again and surprised me with a demand for another P1,000 purportedly to cover for the cost of the Bistro card membership,” the complainant said.
Since Yhan had not cited previously any cost for the card, she said she preferred to return it.
Yhan said, however, that the card could no longer be cancelled and added : “Ako na lang po ang magbabayad sa discount card since hindi ko naexplain na may bayad.”
The dinner story could have ended there without any Freddy Krueger yet surfacing, until another encounter with the same customer the next Friday.
While Yhan was not the waiter this time, he nevertheless approached his ex-customer and remarked: “Di ba ikaw yung kumain dito nung isang gabi? Dala mo ba yung discount card kasi sa akin pinapa abono ng management yung card.”
The customer, however, did not have the card with her, prompting Yhan to return to her table twice, at one point remarking loudly: “Paano ko makukuha yung card, pwedeng ibigay mo nalang address niyo at telephone number para kung di niyo mahatid ako nalang kukuha”.
The customer lamented that “the management clearly fell short in requiring their service staff to be respectful and sensitive in dealing with their customers, not to mention his severe malicious actuations in the dining area.”
“They were short in fully orienting their front service workers of ethics and their marketing promotions.”
She said the incidents “caused us confusion and embarrassment” and that the restaurant management “owe us an apology.”
Punto interviewed TGIF day shift manager Chi Sicat who said she was not aware of the incidents.
It was learned, however, that the waiter was given a dressing down by his superiors after the first incident and was reportedly told that he should have retrieved the card instead of allowing his customer to leave with it unpaid.
The offended customer said “the issue is not anymore about the cost of the discount card but how he repeatedly exhibited unacceptable manners that are malicious in words and disrespectful in actions for a pleasant and professional company like TGIF.”
Yhan and the night shift manager could not be reached readily to give their side on the complaint.
