Bad Service

nothappy · July 2006

After strolling up and down Oxford Street Bulimba to find a suitable cafe to eat breakfast with my wife and son we decided on the Bulimba Bean. Immediately after finding a seat and a high chair we were greeted by a waitress and placed our order, nothing too difficult either, toast, crossiant, pancakes and two coffees. Minutes past, we read the morning papers, we read some magazines, 30 minutes past and still no coffees... By the 31st min the little one got restless and needed to stretch his legs, hand in hand we circled the cafe, 10 more minutes past, we returned and still no coffee? So my wife went to the counter and asked for our coffee. Coffees? What coffees? They scrambled around looking for the docket. Oh sorry your order has been misplaced?

Now how could that happen? I saw her write it down and return to the kitchen? Oh well mistakes happen.

10 minutes later we received our coffees, not the coffees we ordered either, they were delivered with a message with no charge for these, but hang on we didn't order these kinds of coffees? My wife asks, is the food coming out shortly to the waitresses reply, yes will be out soon.

So 51 minutes had past and we were drinking cappacino's we didn't order and still no food. And not to forget we arrived at the Bulimba Bean at 10:30am, it was almost lunch time and little one had been crying now for a good 10 minutes, due to the lack of morning tea.

So we asked we asked one last time where our food was, it was on its way... apparently... I looked over to the kitchen and saw the waitress and instant coffee making hippie having a discussion looking our way. Had they lost our food order too? I think so.

With that thought we packed up the toys and the pram gave the waitress an unsavoury look and a wave of *#$& YOU and left and went home for lunch and put the little one down for a nap.

Some advice Bulimba Bean, if your are going to continue to sell food and instant coffee to customers either employ compentent waitresses and baristas or purchase a magazine rack and call yourself a newsagency!

You have certainly made the top of our list of where NOT to go!

Yours sincerly.

mcbj · July 2006

You waited 51 mins..... :o Not a chance in hell of me doing that. I don't even know where this place is but won't be going there for sure. Hope the rest of your day was good.

Lovey · July 2006

G'day nothappy, I agree that you've gotten shoddy service from this cafe, but I don't think that giving the wait staff a rude gesture and leaving without letting them know whats on your mind is very productive. They'll never improve if they don't know whats gone wrong. I'm certainly not making excuses for this place, but there could have been a multitude of reasons why the f*ck ups happened, which you won't know about unless you ask them. Certainly, if you had of given them a piece of your mind at the time and they fobbed you off, give it to them in a public way. But I believe that they at least deserve a chance to explain themselves to you before they cop a public slagging, call me old fashioned ;D. A saying I once saw in a shop pretty sums this up. "If you're happy with our service, tell a friend. If you're not, tell us." All the best, and I hope you have better cafe experiences in the future.

saint · July 2006

I am disapointed that Bulimba Bean gave you this kind of service - I regularly go there and always get great service and even better coffee. It's a shame that you got bad service from there because as I said the bad service that you recieved is not the normal standard they give. Mal.

tommy · July 2006

we all have our off days, errors make us human

you could have got a free meal out of it all :P

askthecoffeeguy · July 2006

You know what, at my joint we have an SMS your coffee order service, and if your coffee aint ready by thie time you arrive, its free! Even so, I have been known to wait elsewhere for up to fourty minutes for a coffee (which is far from preferential) - but you know what, if I have the time, and the coffee is good, I still don't mind. If not, however, forgetaboutit! ACG

mattyj · July 2006

don't be afraid to speak up - I've done so a couple of times and it's only ever ended good. I was in a cafe with some friends one night (this place has been open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week since they opened a number of years ago ... not the best coffee), and I ordered an espresso. We sat at a table that was effectively above the espresso machine, (upstairs), so I got a birds-eye-view of the machine, grinder etc. I saw the guy prepare my espresso, put it next to the machine on a tray, and proceed to make a few more drinks. 15 minutes later, I looked back down, my espresso was still sitting there, while he prepared the rest of the drinks for our table. Needless to say, the espresso came up with no crema and was stone cold. I took a sip, went back downstairs and politely told the barista that my espresso was cold, could I please have another one. Sure, I got a bit of a grumpy look from him, but he made another one on the spot. Don't be afraid to speak up. The person you speak to might give you an agro look, but in the end, you're the paying customer, and they are meant to provide you a service. If that service isn't up to par, you have the right to tell them.

Cygnatius · May 2007

And here's me who was going to complain about having to wait 15 mins for my take away yesterday. The thing that annoyed me the most was the guy made 3 coffees before mine for folk who arrived and ordered after me. I didn't bother complaining as I didn't see any point to it as he knew what he'd done. I just won't bother going there again and have started to spread the word to friends and family. Even more annoying was the coffee wasn't any good. Why is that their drink in coffee is perfectly acceptable but it is watery and bland when they do it for take away?

askthecoffeeguy · May 2007

Although, I have to say, from a cafe owners perspective, you have to look after your bread and butter. At my joint, we might have 30 people cueing for coffee at any point in time, and if I see one of my regulars coming, you can be sure that they will get their coffee straight away, sometimes before they have even ordered. I guess that's the advantage of being a regular, and you have to go to a joint more than once to find that out. Pat

Cygnatius · May 2007

The thing is that I do go there regularly, usually both Saturday and Sunday and sometimes more than once and also usually go on a Monday arvo with a friend. I don't know the guys by name but well enough to say "g'day how you going". I don't go there for my weekday morning coffee partly because it isn't my fave place and partly because they aren't open at 6.30am.

askthecoffeeguy · May 2007

hmmm.... I'd be seriously rethinking my coffee destination if I was you! Also, what about installing an espresso machine in your work place, then making your own? Then you can only blame yourself if something goes wrong! Cheers, Pat

fattylateplease · May 2007

I waited 30 minutes for a coffee and there wasn't anyone else in the cafe. I guess the barista had an itchy bumb.

Unknown · May 2007

In reply to ACG I personally feel that serving regulars before customers already waiting patiently and having queued up with everyone else is bad form and quite unprofessional. It also leaves you open to a lot of aggro and p*ssed off customers. Do you also rate your regulars as to how far up the line you try to slot them in (ie) guy who buys two coffees a day gets his before girl who comes in every morning who gets hers before student who buys three coffees a week. I would imagine that everyone's time be they a professor, student, blue or white collar is equally as important. If I was customer no. 30 (who has a 15 minute wait ahead of them anyway) and you then served three regulars who just breezed in, therefore adding another 5 minutes to my time, you would certainly get a serve from me and believe me it wouldn't be pretty. What would happen if you were waiting at the checkout at Coles or Woolies and the person at the register served the person third down the queue just because they were a mate...you'd have a bloody riot on your hands. This scenario is up there with customer being ignored as person behind counter carries on conversation with good friend/mate/boyfriend whatever. It's just not on!!! I love it when customers breeze into the Cafe, obviously running late, and despite what is already a long queue ahead of them feel they need to announce "and by the way, I'm in a bit of a hurry". My thoughts on this..."Boo hoo cry me a river...your inability to co-ordinate yourself in the morning does not constitute an emergency on my part". ::) ::) ::)

askthecoffeeguy · May 2007

Fair call... In response to your question, I also prioritise 'dine in' coffees, in preference to take-away ones. Why?

sketchy · May 2007

I serve each customer in order, where possible. if a regular comes in i take the time to talk to them while making the previous orders. this helps make them feel welcome and keeps everyone happy. LE

fattylateplease · May 2007

In reply to ACG I personally feel that serving regulars before customers already waiting patiently and having queued up with everyone else is bad form and quite unprofessional.

Unknown · May 2007

Good on you LE, I believe you are doing the right thing!

Question for ACG... What about the potential regular customers - if I come to the cafe for the first time and few customers get coffee before me, I don't care about who is a regular customer, but I am telling you that I won't be one of them in the future. >:( Isn't it important for you to leave the best first impression possible to grow your business? ::) Cheers, OW

Cygnatius · May 2007

hmmm.... I'd be seriously rethinking my coffee destination if I was you! Also, what about installing an espresso machine in your work place, then making your own? Then you can only blame yourself if something goes wrong! Cheers, Pat

On reponse to the 1st point I am rethinking the destination, the joint does good sit in coffees but the take aways are average and they do tend to be cliquey. It is a family run business and they have a very large family and being of a certain ethnic origin have lots of support from their family and friends (not trying to be racist). They do have a tendency to serve their mates/family prior to regular customers. With regard to installing a machine in my workplace I doubt it can be done as I spend most of the day in the car. I am thinking of getting one for home and then I can do a mean espresso before I set foot out of the door and face the rest of the world.

Unknown · May 2007

Cygnatius One possible reason why the coffee tastes different (watery/bland) when you order a takeaway is that the sit -in cup (particularly if it is a tulip shaped "duraceram" cup is generally only 180ml, whereas a takeaway small (8 oz cup) holds a standard 225ml.. This extra 45mls of milk makes quite a lot of difference to the taste. If this is the case, you can get around this by asking for a 3/4 length cap/flat white/whatever so that you can get the full taste from a single shot, or if you don't mind paying extra, have a double ristretto as the base for your takeaway coffee with the full amount of milk on top. Rgds L2L

askthecoffeeguy · May 2007

actually today I tried 'jumping the cue' with a few customers and had a couple of folks crack the s***s so I may have to revise my policy! P

markk · May 2007

I used to go to Cafe 253 in Cheltenham all the time. Then they changed hands and the name changed as well. One public holiday I went there with a friend and we ordered coffee and 30 minutes later we were still waiting for it. We reminded the staff there but it didn't come out for another 20 minutes - and then it was lukewarm! I didn't bother asking for another one as I didn't want to spend 40 minutes waiting for it. We never returned.

coffeedrinker · June 2007

Just an idea but should one actually name a business on an internet forum only as we really dont know who the poster exactly is. Wouldnt it be better to say a cafe in Bulimba. Just my point of view.

donnas650 · June 2007

And here's me who was going to complain about having to wait 15 mins for my take away yesterday.

I complained to my little bro when I had to wait about 10 mins for a takeaway. It really depends on the situation, but if you are the only person waiting for a coffee, it shouldn't take that long. I once went into Cibo on Rundle St and had to wait about 20 mins(was almost late for work), however, they were packed(probably about 11 orders before mine).

The thing that annoyed me the most was the guy made 3 coffees before mine for folk who arrived and ordered after me.

Maybe they used the same SMS service as Pat's and the barista didnt' want to give out anymore free coffee for the day.

I went to get a coffee this morning from a certain place I have been digging lately, more for the coffee than the service. I walk in and the guy sees me and sort of makes a gesture, but is talking to someone else. I sit down and about 3.5 mins later my doubel shot takeaway flat white is ready. I hand him the cash, my change is placed on a silver platter and then I say goodbye. Seriously, I said two words(didn't even place my order) and he said no more than that. I have only been going over the last few weeks. That is service I can live with. Haha.

askthecoffeeguy · June 2007

I went to new organic roastry / bakery cafe on the weekend and stood at the counter for 5 mins without being acknowledged once. Even though there weren't many customers at the counter at the time, there were 3 or 4 service staff behind the counter arguing loudly about which tables had been served. So despite my better judgement I approached the counter anyway - waited there for about a minute - still no service, so I left in disgust and went next door where we had two courses, plus coffee and cakes!

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