I had a poor experience at a franchise location. I called them and asked for the name and phone number of the owner. They refused to give it to me. Said they'd be glad to take my info and pass it on, but they weren't allowed to give that information out! What a crock!
Jennifer, I'd prefer to throw bouquets rather than bricks. However, I am also a great believer that one gets what he sows. In my mind, if they have earned a compliment, they deserve it. Conversely, they should reap what they have sown. Spill the name. If it's a national franchise, I'm pretty sure that national HQ would be more than interested. H6
In my experiences the corporate office is interested about half of the time. The other half of the time they just give a canned reply and try to believe that makes it all better. When I have had something that really ticks me off I have been known to write a letter to the editor for every paper in the area. (I know hard to believe from such a quiet person ) Those letters do seem to get a response, especially if you cause a few more to reply. The same effect has been seen here on this board, for example. A couple of cases that come to mind is the way Southpoint Mall locked the mall doors at 9:00 when the Streets were open much later. That forced people to have ot walk around the outside of the mall to get to their cars if they had come through the mall. I saw a couple that was refused passage have to push a stroller around the mall and there are no sidewalks in many areas. The reply from the office management was luke warm until the letter to the editor hit the Herlad Sun and really warmed up when it hit the News and Observer. The doors now remain open to allow such passage even when the stroes inside are closed. The second case was Joe's Crab Shack where they would seat a party of 3 or 4 before a party of 2 even when the party of 2 had been there waiting longer. No reply from the local management, no reply from corporate, even after letters to the Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill papers. Within a couple of months the restaurant closed down though. A similar case occured with Rockfish Grille, but the local and corporate both replied to the first email and with detailed explanations and assurances such problems would not occur again. A free entree and a personal discussion was offered for the next visit, which went just as promised. The manager on duty even called the GM who made a special trip in to discuss the matter, which gained a lot of respect from my view.
