safre (safre) wrote in bad_service,
safre
safre
bad_service

Harry Ramsden's suck

A few months ago my family came to visit me at uni. Mum, Dad, and brother come from home, and Gran and Aunt come from their home, and we all meet up at my place. The six of us went off for a nice Sunday meal out at Harry Ramsden's. The HR we went to is basically a fish and chip restaurant (as opposed to a nice takeaway place, which in other locations it is).

A note: my gran is in a wheelchair, and although she can walk a few paces, it tires her out. She also needs someone to push her around.

So we get there and we're seated in a... dip? It was a group of tables slightly lower than the rest of the floor. I'm not sure what to call it. Anyway, they did get a ramp out so my gran could get down, but I'm not sure why they just didn't seat us at ground level. I saw tables with seating for 6, but maybe they were in an area not being served. *shrug* Also, the bloke that brought the ramp over rolled his eyes when Gran said it looked a bit steep. She got down it ok, but was gripping the chair rest hard.

Once we were seated we got to meet our server. She was terrible. She was hardly ever around for us to order drinks, or dessert, or to ask for the bill. She completely forgot Dad's mineral water, on two separate occasions. She gave me the wrong cutlery. She wasn't rude, but she was generally apathetic.

After the main meal my mum wheeled my gran to the disabled toilet, which was a mess. There was water all over the floor (dangerous for someone getting into and out of a wheelchair, and who can only take a few steps), and there was no toilet paper. Mum found someone to come clean it up, but they were very unconcerned with everything. Additionally, the door opened inwards to the toilet, which meant my gran couldn't have her chair in there with her and be able to close to door. I realise the people serving us couldn't change this part, and it's not bad service exactly, but it seems wrong to have a facility for disabled people that they can't use properly. Overall, it was an embarrassing and unpleasant experience for my gran.

While this was happening everyone else was waiting for desserts to arrive. And waiting. And waiting. It took 35 minutes for our server to bring out: 2 lemon meringue pies, and 1 apple pie. Turns out the lemon meringue pie was still frozen in the middle. Ugh.

My aunt went up to the station to pay, but didn't complain (even though I suggested she should). She didn't want to make a fuss. :/ However, I am never going there again; it was not a good time.

I think what bugs me the most was how they treated my gran. Going out to lunch with her I've become more aware of how although restaurants may say they have disabled seating/facilities, it doesn't make them disabled friendly :(

This is my first post here, so I'm not sure how coherent it was. Just let me know if it needs clarification.
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