Stray Cat Cafe

Unprofessionalism At It's Best

On May 5, 2018, my family ate at Stray Cat in Moorefield, WV. We arrived approximately 5:30pm. We sat down, our server came, & we ordered drinks. Drinks were served and an appetizer was ordered. Three out of 4 of us knew our order. The waitress asked if we needed her to come back & we said yes to go ahead and put in the appetizer, but to hold our orders until the other person placed his order. After about 10 minutes the waitress still had not returned, so I went up to the counter & asked someone for our waitress to return so that we could place our dinner order. Our waitress never returned for an additional 10 minutes once she brought the appetizer. At this point, we placed the last meal order & assumed that all 4 orders were placed at the same time as requested earlier. An additional 10-15 minutes has passed & one meal was brought to us by another waitress. Another 5-10 minutes 2 other meals arrive (without condiments as ordered) by the same waitress who brought the 1st meal (not our waitress either time). When this waitress asked if we needed anything else, we stated we needed the condiments & the last meal. Same waitress came back & stated the last meal would be coming & that our waitress was told to bring the condiments. We waited for another 5-10 minutes. We stopped the waitress that brought the food & told her that we still were waiting on the last meal & the condiments from our waitress. We asked to see a Manager & was told Amy would be over. Many minutes later…no Manager. We got up again for the 3rd time & went to the counter to ask for our condiments & for a new server. A couple minutes later our waitress came & brought told us the condiments (not all that was requested) & told us there was no steak to fix the last meal & asked what else did we want. We said nothing! We told our waitress we’ve had to wait on condiments, our food was cold waiting for it & for the last meal for us to eat together. Also stated that it was apparent that she not only put our order in with the appetizer & forgot to come back to take the meal order for the 4th person, but that she forgot to turn the last one in once she took it & now we are just being told there is no steak to make the last order (which has not even been made yet at this point). She stated with attitude “I can’t tell you we are out of steak until the kitchen tells me”. We told her we already asked for a manager & proves the point that she forgot. At no point has she said she forgot or apologized for our wait or the mix up. She walks away & at this point we are debating whether to just leave. I stated we should wait to get it resolved. Within minutes she returns to tell us that they found steak & can now fix his food. We said no that we don’t want it & we already stated this. Repeating again that the mistake was made & we do not want to wait any longer for the food to be made. Our waitress responded “Well if you would have known what you wanted when I came the first time, this wouldn’t have happened.” This comment was rude, disrespectful, & with attitude in voice & body language, not to mention inappropriate considering her inability to serve us promptly or in a professional manner. This timeframe has taken up until now at least an hour. I immediately got up & stated to her “no you don’t” & went straight to the counter & asked for someone of authority or to get someone with authority. I was told there was no manager on duty. I stated to get someone or call someone & that we were told prior that there was a manager in named Amy. I asked for Amy “the manager”. Amy came over and states she is not a manager, but the bartender. I asked Amy for our waitress name, so that I could make a complaint against her to the manager & was told they would not be giving us her name. One of the family members left to go to the car as one was a child age 2. We did not want her in there during the discussion. We explained the events of the evening as stated above to Amy. Amy stated she was not authorized to do more than give us a gift certificate for another meal & that she would NOT be calling the manager. I told her that we did not want to return to the restaurant again after what had happened & not convenient as we did not live in the Moorefield area. She stated again that was all that she could offer us. I asked for the manager to be called again. She agreed to call. We assume that she did, but it was not done in front of us. Once again we are left waiting. She returned to repeat the same information that the gift card would be all that would be done. I asked her “why would the manager only offer something that would require us to return to the restaurant that we were very unhappy with?” She replied…”I guess to force you to come back”. I stated…”That was not very good business & we are both servers & if we ever treated anyone like this, gave service like this, we would not get to keep our jobs.” I also stated that my family owned a business & that we always ensure when mishaps happen that we do everything to correct it & how patient we had been knowing how things can be forgotten, but that the attitude & rudeness was not acceptable. She told us if we leave without paying that the tapes would be reviewed & the cops would be called. Again Amy the bartender walks away. I stated to someone when they entered the door to make sure that they didn’t get the waitress we had. We continued to stand there…waited for the bartender to return for a 3rd time and told her we would take the gift card. Our waitress came up at said “I’m sorry…have a nice day” again with attitude. I told her that her apology was not accepted because of her rudeness & attitude she gave us unnecessarily. I told the other family member that we would just give the gift card as a gift to someone. Amy, the bartender, stated that I needed to pay before she could give us the gift card. We asked if we could just use it for the meal today & was told that it couldn’t be used the same day! I paid with cash… $42 plus change. Once the money was taken, the bartender changed her attitude & told us that she is not giving us the gift card because she has done nothing but try to help us & that we were disrespectful to her & all we were worried about was getting to our bowling activity instead of waiting on the last meal. We told her we had been here over an hour already. Amy stated we could come back & pick up our food after, but are choosing not to. Amy walks away & started yelling in the bar area to get out or she was calling the cops. We told her to go ahead & we would wait. Amy picked up the phone to call…appeared to at least. She stated yelling to get out & to never come back. We stated we would wait on the cops & she told us to get out again. I said that’s fine we will wait in the parking lot. She stated to get off the property & wait across the street. We left the building, our waitress stood smiling smugly & I said to her as I was walking out that she should not be smiling. We went to wait in the parking lot for about 5 more minutes. The cops never came. The other member that was waiting outside with the 2yr old went back in after we returned to the vehicle. She asked Amy why we did not receive at least a gift card as promised. Amy stated that she was not giving it and that we could have come back to pick up meals after we finished bowling, but chose not to. Amy was told that wouldn’t work for us because it would be too late to eat. Again we were told to leave. Our entire time in Stray Cat was about 1 hr & 30 min minimum. We never received all of your food and condiments or was able to find a resolution. We believe at this point that the manager was never called, although we cannot prove this. Regardless, the gift card was given as the only option & then once we accepted this, it was refused after the bill was paid with cash in full. No receipt was given, even after it was requested. Again we believe this was the plan all along to get paid & to NOT compensate. I have never been treated so rudely, especially in a public setting by any business. By notifying the Better Business Bureau of such actions by this establishment, we hope that your agency will assist us in some type of resolution. Not only was good customer service lacking, but such unprofessionalism should not be tolerated. We used to have a Stray Cat in Romney for many years…years ago. The food and service was great, which is one of the reasons we chose Stray Cat in Moorefield. We ask for you to address this unprofessional visit by refunding our money, by posting this experience for other to review, by discussing with the business how to provide better customer service, and how customers should be compensated when the staff makes mistakes.

Read More