This past Saturday was my girlfriend’s birthday. She was turning thirty, and as the age-old saying goes, “You only turn thirty once.” She had a weekend full of fun planned that included lunch with her mom and brother, a night out with over twenty of her closest friends at the newly opened and ever popular Dave & Buster’s in Castleton, and a day at Kings Island with some die hard roller coaster fans.
Saturday started just fine as her and I traveled to Lebanon, Indiana, to have some chili and German chocolate cake. I am not a huge fan of chili, but with the addition of cheese and crackers I managed to make my way through three bowls. I do not like coconut either but I forced myself to enjoy a few pieces of the cake as well. We sang happy birthday and said goodbye, as it was time to get excited about the night out at D&B.
A month or two prior to her birthday Sheryl had called the Dave & Buster’s here in Indianapolis to learn more about how they handle parties. She stated that she would have anywhere between fifteen and twenty people at her party and wanted to secure the seating arrangements as it was a Saturday night that we were planning on celebrating. They made mention to their event planning committee and sent her along her way.
When speaking with the event planning committee she was told that the only way to secure seating would be to book a party room. With the party room the participants would get access to guaranteed seating as well as a buffet that was catered by the D&B crew. The price was only $20 per person. This does not sound like a bad idea on the surface, but there was a catch. There is always a catch. To be able to secure these seats and this buffet she would have to not only pay half of the money upfront but she would only be allowed to pay the night of the party with one check. Imagine twenty people all having to spend $20 each and trying to figure out who owes who. Not to mention the fact that almost everyone at the party would be paying with a credit card.
They then proceeded to tell her that if she was to call the day of they would be able to do call ahead seating and guarantee that we had a place to sit that night. So the day of the party Sheryl picked up the phone around four that afternoon giving them plenty of time to get ready for our group, and was told they do not do call ahead seating on the weekend and she would have to come in to get the seats. This was when it started to get a little out of hand.
The hostess on the other line did tell her that she could call back closer to the time of arrival and they would be able to make something happen for us. This is where I stepped in. I picked up the phone around six and called to reserve the table. I was then told by whomever answered the phone that they do not handle call ahead seating on the weekends and we would have to just show up and see if we could get a table. So this is the now the third time we have been told something completely different and still not happy with the way it was handled. It actually was getting worse every time someone picked up the phone.
I ask to speak to a manager as I was getting a little irritated at the conflicting stories that were being told to both my girlfriend and myself. After about five minutes of being on hold someone finally comes to the phone. After another ten minutes or so of arguing I am told that there is nothing they can do as there are now multiple parties in front of us for a seat. If we called at four and there was no call ahead seating how are these tables in front of us now?
I get angry, tell the manager my side of the story, and he then brings up this event planning committee. I am sick and tired of hearing about the event planning and proceed to tell him my thoughts on that side of the things. He states that the reason they do the half up front policy is that it guarantees people show up the night of the event and it also helps them prepare the food. This I can understand. I then ask why they chose to force people to pay with a single check. He said, and I quote, “It makes it easier on us, the server, when we have everything on one check.”
This is where I lost it. I proceeded to ask him why it was about making the server and the restaurant happy rather than the customer. He said, and again I quote, “We just want to be able to get you in and out so you can be on your way.” I do not come to Dave & Buster’s to get in and out. They close too early the way it is but I come to Dave & Buster’s to have a few drinks and play video games. So this proves that Dave & Buster’s cares more about their employees and their own profits than the people that are paying their paychecks and filling seats.
So we get to the restaurant around 6:30 and proceed to put our names on the list to get a table. She hands me a pager and says it will be an hour to an hour and a half wait. This is fine, folks would not be arriving for a while anyway, and it would give us enough time to get a drink in the bar before everyone arrived. We assume that in a perfect world people would begin arriving and our table would be ready. Of course that is not how it played out whatsoever. After about an hour and a half and still nothing from the pager I headed back to the hostess stand to ask when we could expect a table.
Outside of the fact that our table was still not ready, the hostess was extremely rude. She not only tells me that the wait will be another hour and a half to two hours (after we have already waited nearly two hours to begin with) but she tells me there is another party that had just arrived that got the next big top table. Again, they tell me multiple times they do not do call ahead seating yet a table shows up and walks right to their table. Please, someone explain that to me.
So I go back to the bar for about an hour and get to the point that I am fed up with the whole waiting game. I am hungry, people are getting antsy, and I am ready to sit down somewhere. So, I head back to the hostess stand and find not one but two hostesses standing there. When I get to the podium, I notice that there are multiple tables, all in the same section mind you, empty. I tell the lady we are welcome to be split up and that all we want to do is eat our dinner. She states that it has been noted and I head back to the bar for the third time.
It is now after ten o’clock and we are still not seated. So, in my last effort to get a table, I walk up to the hostess stand yet again and all of a sudden we have a table and my buzzer begins to vibrate. We sit down, get some menus, and order our dinner. The best part about the whole night was our server. He was funny, kept my Arnold Palmer full all night, and was entertaining to the birthday girl. (The only thing that he did do that I was not happy about was asking the birthday girl if she wanted a dessert to help her celebrate. That dessert, without my permission, managed to find its way onto my tab – this after the server had stated she would not have to pay for it. I did not complain but if a server is going to charge you for something he or she needs to know that it is OK to charge someone for it.)
After this we all went to play games and lose ourselves in the magic that D&B has to offer. About an hour into our fun the server from the bar, who we had started a tab with, began to basically stalk us around the game room. She eventually just came up and asked if we could pay for our drinks from earlier. I am sorry, but if you are trying to leave, transfer your tab to the closing server. Do not, I repeat do not, follow me around and track me down to pay a tab for two damn drinks. That is one of the rudest things that someone can do. I was fuming at this point and just ready to leave.
I paid the tab, collected our tickets, and we left. It was early, but I had put up with enough garbage for one evening that I just wanted out of that building. When walking out one of the ten managers that was there that night held the door open for us, but did not say goodbye. Again, if you are going to waste company dollars and stand there with the door open for your guests at least speak to me when I leave. Speaking of managers, not a single one of these mangers came up to me during the evening to ask if we were having a good time. I guess had we booked with the event planning committee they would have cared a little more.
The thing that makes me mad, and that I demand some sort of reaction from the Dave & Buster’s corporate office, is that there was absolutely no consistency in the communication that we had over the months leading to this event. I understand that it is a Saturday night. I understand that they are busy. I even understand that seating twenty people on any given night is a chore in itself. But that is absolutely no excuse whatsoever to treat your guests like that. I hope that in this you see more than what is on the surface. I want you to see how every little thing added up to me writing this blog post. I have since emailed Dave & Buster’s corporate on Facebook, heard back, and have had two representatives contact me to fix my issue, both asking for my phone number. I have given it to both reps and expect a phone call in the next forty-eight hours.
I am not upset over the quality of food as it was great. I am not upset over the prices, as they are extremely reasonable. I am not even upset over the service for the most part. I am upset that from the minute we began planning our event we were treated as if we were worthless, as if we had no priority over the next guy in line, and as if we meant nothing to the company or the name Dave & Buster’s.
There is a line that you must draw when it comes to how you treat an employee. You have seen how Fox & Hound took an issue and corrected it. I will now leave it to Dave & Buster’s to use their creativity and their managerial skills to take care of this issue. Did it ruin Sheryl’s birthday? Absolutely not. But did it put a sour taste in my mouth and potentially lose twenty Dave & Buster’s customers? Of course it did. Until you see the follow up to this issue, whether it is positive or negative, I would suggest you do not attend an event at Dave & Buster’s. I might only be one voice but with the power of social media I can reach millions. So, Dave & Buster’s, the ball is now in your court and I will leave it up to you to make the next move.
i like how you handled this…good luck…new design looks awesome!
-kase
Based on that, I’ll never be back there again. It was ridiculous how they run that place. They had one waitress at the bar tables in charge of ~50 people at any given time. There is absolutely no way they can even come close to properly taking care of their guests!
D&B is a huge cluster when it comes large groups. Usually it’s no fun with going with 20 or 40 friends.
Sounds extremely frustrating.
You are a huge ***** bag. If you would have just booked your party and not been so cheap about a deposit, you would have been fine.
*I would like to note that this comment came from a Dave and Buster’s employee. (According to D&B he is a former employee.) Apparently this is how D&B trains their employees to handle negative comments about their store. I have since been in contact with corporate and they will be taking care of this how they see fit. We shall again see what they do to make this situation right.
*This was a comment left by a reader who obviously does not agree with how I responded to this issue. Your comments are appreciated and I thank you for reading my work. I have left my own comments in response under each number in italics.
1. You are a terrible, terrible writer.
*Actually, I do not believe that I am a terrible writer. I have had many pieces of my work published in various newspapers and magazines over the past few years. I actually think my writing gets better with every post.
2. As the age old saying goes, you only turn thirty once? This is an age old saying? As opposed to the 7 times you might turn 46? Boy, if only I had known that a random fact could suddenly turn into an “age old saying”. This just in! As the age old saying goes, “Cheerios are delicious!”
*Yes, Cheerios are delicious. Have you had the ones flavored like bananas?
3. So you’re too cheap to pay a deposit for the party room and their buffet? Do you really think that a restaurant would set up a buffet and room for 20 people without a deposit? I suppose you really don’t understand the fact that if no one shows up, they. lose. money. Do you get it now?
*I understand that they need to charge a deposit to be able to put together a buffet for that many people. I do understand that if no one shows up they lose money. But we did not want a buffet, we wanted to order off of the menu.
4. You buy something, you pay for it. You buy drinks from a bartender/server, you pay for it. Oh I’m sorry, is this another age old saying? “If it’s just two drinks, I don’t have to pay the person who acquired these drinks for me!” I suppose if you waltz out of the grocery store without paying for your Doritos, you will be “fuming” when they accuse you of stealing?
*I am not upset that I had to pay for the drinks. That was never an issue at all. The issue is that she came looking for us while we were playing games and trying to enjoy our time in the restaurant. I was going to pay for the drinks, I did not need to be tracked down to do so.
5. If you don’t like their one check policy, don’t go there. If you don’t like they way they handled your many phone calls before you arrived, don’t go there. If you’ve been waiting an hour and a half and you don’t like this, leave. Is that concept so difficult?
*Their one check policy is outrageous. I have never been to a restaurant that did that. The phone calls were an after thought as the twenty people on the guest list already had plans to go to D&B. We would have had to have made many more phone calls to change the plans only a few hours before the event. And we waited because we were hungry and again, there were already twenty people there ready to have a good time on the many games that D&B offers.
6. There’s a person named Sheryl?
*What does Sheryl have anything to do with this?
Personally I think the whole ordeal was handled wrong on both your part and Dave and Buster’s part. First or all, it’s just proper courtesy to pay for drinks that you get from the bar before you go sit at your table. The bartender makes minimum wage and relies on tips. for you to want the bartender to transfer the check to another server after he or she spent the time making the drinks or to wait for y’all to leave is completely rude in and of itself. Like I said its just proper etequitte. Second if all, accommodating 20 people can be very difficult for many restaurants. If you wanted a better party experience you should have rented the party rooms that they offer. I understand y’all wanted to order off the regular menu but if all the people you brought wanted to spend time together a limited menu should have been fine. I’m sure everyone would still have shown up and had an even better time. You also say the attitudes from the hostesses were extremely poor. I’m sure you had an extremely poor attitude also. From the way you were writing you sounded entitled. Just completely rude. You also didn’t like one of the comments a supposed Dave and Buster’s employee left so you called corporate and tried to get them in trouble. We’re they terminated? That is just down right low. Take criticism and just roll with it. If that person was fired you could have been the reason they couldn’t get their family or lost their house. You sound like a “the customer” who always calls corporate to complain when things don’t go your way. Remember not all wait times is restaurants can be even close to accurate. They can’t make people get up and leave so others can be seated.
I’m not saying at all the restaurant was not at fault but I’m sure you and your party played a part in it also!