The Cellar - The Service Industry in America

It was a dark and stormy night…my wife had a cold, and wanted some chicken soup--her favorite kind, from Boston Market. So, on the way home from work, I picked up a “family feast” meal with a large soup. When I got home and we sat down to eat dinner, the soup was found to be rancid. It had gone bad.

So my wife called Boston Market to let them know they were serving rancid soup; maybe they want to take that batch off and throw it out. The manager-on-duty was very apologetic and offered to replace out “family feast” meal. We didn’t ask for the whole meal to be replaced, that’s just what she offered. And that’s what she wrote in her manager’s notes--and she told my wife verbatim what she was writing down.

The next day, we figure we’re eating Boston Market again, so I went to pick up our replacement meal. There was a different manager there, and she proceeded to offer me my replacement soup.

“Ummm…what happened to the replacement meal?”
“Oh, well it was just the soup that was bad, so I’ll replace the soup.”
“Yes, but y’all told us you were replacing the meal, so…”

Well, it seems the manager my wife talked to has suddenly gone on vacation. Immediately I realize that I’m dealing in hearsay, so I go to the car to get my wife to sort this out. My wife informs the manager that indeed we were offered a replacement meal, and that this should be in the manager’s notes. The manager is sticking by her guns, offering only the soup and nothing more.

At this point I want to point out that we weren’t trying to scam them for a free meal; this wasn’t our idea to begin with. The manager we talked to had offered a replacement meal so obviously we want them to stand by their word. If you tell the customer something, that’s what you do.

The manager wanted to argue about it. My wife asked to see the manager’s notes. Sure enough, the notes indicated that they would replace the meal. The next part is a little bizarre--the manager still wanted to argue about replacing the meal. Astounding! Boston Market will offer one thing to the customer, in writing, and then turn around and flat-out refuse to follow through.

Well, there wasn’t any yelling that day. This manager saw it coming, and chose to do the right thing before it got to that point. We got our replacement meal, the one we never asked for and never expected to get in the first place. The one that they offered to us in writing and then refused to give us. The one that will be the last meal we ever eat at that Boston Market.

The manager that day tried to save $20, and ended up losing a customer for life. All because they served us rancid soup.