Sunday 3 June 2012

Red Alert - Chennai Vegans Beware !

Hello All,

I really hate doing this post today, this has nothing to do with makeup or nail polish and most importantly a HATE POST -  but I am furious about a well established chain of restaurants in Tamil Nadu.. It's called as Dindigul Thalapakatti whose major specialization is Biryani.

Being in night shifts most of the year and getting bored of routine office food, we tend to order food from the outside world. We usually go in for options around work place and this time a new restaurant had started. A reputed one which never disappointed us (or me specifically )

This time, it was around 10:00 PM, we had order food for close to 9 ppl for a bill value of 4750 INR.

We received the food by around 11:30 PM and found some of the orders were missing and we were billed. We called them to check on it for which the response was that the store was closed and call them the next day.

We continued to eat what we had and shared food with those whose orders were misplaced, then one of my colleagues freaked out she found Chicken bones and pieces in her Vegetable Biryaani.. Then we found that the chicken biryaani was made Veg biryaani by taking out chicken pieces and adding veggies.. I was furious because I had co-ordinated this order. No vegetarian could eat this food - It's a question of values!


Adding fuel to fire, we received "Spoilt" Paneer Tikka


I called back the next day - none answered. I finally caught hold of someone who I could hold responsible for this. General Manager - Operations,  his name was Raja. He was too polite and was apologozing and asked me to call him tomorrow so that he can check with his store. He was diligent enough to do so.

I got a call from his Manager who promised to replace the food that was spoiled/missed with Ice creams and also offered ice creams as compliments as refund was not possible because that would be detected from his salary. This was at 7:00 PM and we waited till 10:00 PM - no response. I called back to check on that. Then the whole story suddenly changed.

They denied to give what they promised. Then they said that only one of the items was not sent and they will check and call me back. Then I receive a call stating everything was sent and there are no faults from their end.. I was like, What ?*??  I couldn't accept it considering the time and effort I spent in organizing this. I called back this Raja guy - who says I'M BUSY NOW,  I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU NOW, CALL ME LATER OR COME DIRECTLY TO THE STORE ON MONDAY and he hangs up.

I had one other male who was as furious as me to call this Raja guy  and he got to abusing my colleague. Is this expected at customer service level? That too from a General Manager of a reputed chain of restaurants?

More than this treatment, what bothers me more is finding chicken pieces in Veg food.. People remain to stay vegetarians because of their values and not that they can take out the non-vegetarian part and eat the vegan food. Do you even consider this as a human act?

These are the store details:

Name of the restaurant: Dindigul Thalapakatti Restaurant
Branch: Ramapuram - Chennai (Near MIOT)
Branch Number: 8056013300
Website:  http://www.thalappakatti.com/

I have had problems only with this branch - though have received good service from other branches as well.. But, after seeing and going through this - I doubt Vegetarian food that I had there. And God knows if their 100% halal claims and what not, is true !

I am not someone who does these kind of posts, because I consider my blogging world to be fun and not a place to spread hatred.. But this "cheap act"  got onto my nerves and I don't want my blogger friends to ever go through this.

Hope I see you all in a cheerful posts soon..

Love,

Amrin

18 comments:

  1. Amrin post ur complaint in consumer forums, u will definately get response, actually its hard earned money of people it should not get wasted, 4750 is some people monthly sal, he shd be punished or u ppl shd get refuned of the amount which was spoiled..i liked this post very much may be coz i can relate to it,had a same experience.

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    1. I am gonna do that too Simran.. I cannot take his arrogance and attitude. Getting abusive is a big NO !

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  2. this happerned for me also but in dominos pizza.. i ordered for a veg pasta .. but those guys sent me a non veg pasta.. when i asked them .. the guy cooly replied that dont worry mam we will provide the pasta as a compliment in ur next order..such a non sense behaviour..

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    1. Awesome.. What do I do with the crap you sent then?? Pooja karein??

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  3. Its good Amrin that you have posted it.. I always get suprised to see this very side of some people..

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    1. I am really pissed with their service Niesha.. And why do they forget that they are in services industry.. Esp the G.M - Busy? My foot!

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  4. Oh crap oh crap that is horrible! I am a vegan myself and I know how pathetic you guys might have felt! Christ! And their behavior is so wrong! Amrin, why don't you approach media with this issue? They will be more than happy to give it some focus! Give a try, approach the popular local channels. Even if you don't get any refunds and replacements, atleast no one else will go through this shitty behavior of the chain.
    Let us know what happened!
    Love,
    Namita <3

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    1. I know namita.. This happens only on India

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  5. I've seen this behavior only in India.. people here do not care bout the vegan values and show no respect! This happened to me once in a small salad bar in US, where they mixed some egg whites in my salad by mistake and when I reported this to them, you should see how sorry they felt about it.. the manager came right to my place and felt sorry and he replaced the salad immediately and the employees made sure that I felt comfortable with my food for the rest of my stay there! but here in India, we shud either be a celebrity or a police officer to get a decent response when things go wrong!! sad but true fact :( btw nice blog u have here :)

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    1. Well said rekha. And that's because of our top notch consumer lawd

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  6. Thats horrid! I have frnds working in chennai..must warn them about this restaurant.. and u are right its not about food, its about ethics and values.. u must take it up with the consumer court, in my med college we were told a story by a sir who himself was from chennai about how a particular chain of restaurants was adding opium to their dosas so that the customers wud get addicted and keep coming..finally the owner was arrested after raids and the restaurant closed.

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    1. Huh? Those buggers will prove us wrong.. We stopped hoping!

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  7. yuck and horrible........shud be sued !

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    1. I wish Indian consumer laws were that supportive !

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  8. Sorry for the bad experience Bro. I had taken this issue to the MD. He would cal you back. We take this as a serious and valuable suggestion. HOPE to see you again in our mids. Thank you. For further query ple call on 9840091234.

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    1. Stephen, I have no hopes from your MD or CEO or whomsoever.. You guys cannot keep up your word??? We aren't concerned about the 5000 rupees bill or the complements you promised - we spend more on other things.. But how were we treated, I still cannot forget your OPS Manager calling my colleague "Yov, Phone vei" - We are not cheapsters or filthy ppl who were cribbing for money.. You stole our money actually.. But that money is very less when compared to the mental stress that we had.. I HOPE not to have such a BAD experience again which means I'll stay away from you guys and I DETEST your chain of restaurants! I hope you pass this on to your so called "M.D"

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  9. This reminded of a conversation i heard at my regular bakery...i was buying my usual bread when a couple of guys walked in to pick up their cake order. One of them started asking for a single eggless cake pastry for probably one of their friends.The other guy nonchalantly said in hindi...arey rehne de na, we'll tell all the vegetarians that this is an eggless cake[ their ordered one]

    Harmless ..because i know many vegetarians who otherwise eat eggs but the point is about trust ! and halal question is a good one. My motto is to stick with reputed huge chains and those i know run by Muslims. Otherwise i stick to vegetarian food outside the house !

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    1. We are made fools every single day.. And ppl who do this, I am sure they would be punished for their deeds!

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