Recipe Unlimited Corporation — Local services in Vaughan

A BROKEN COMPANY.

On July 12th we dined at one of the 20 restaurant brands Recipe Unlimited owns. The meal was poor (not what it was 50 years ago, or 40 years ago, or even 15 years ago). Yes we have been a customer of this brand that long. Discontent in the extreme, we submitted a pointed, balanced, fair and constructive complaint through the new system Recipe uses online.

NOTHING HAPPENED.

We enquired again via email. A customer service agent responded that it was "unacceptable" that we had not heard back and promised a response from the franchisee.

NOTHING HAPPENED.

We wrote a THIRD time.

NOTHING came came. NOTHING.

We wrote FOURTH time. Zip. Nada. Squat.

We called and spoke directly with a phone agent. Profuse apologies ensued and a commitment to raising the issue with the Service Manager (Carol) and her manager was made. I pointed out that by this time the franchisee in question was clearly 1) not interested in responding, and 2) wouldn't be anybody we could trust to address the issues. We made it clear that someone from head office should probably handle the issue.

NOTHING RESULTED. Radio silence.

If I am an investor I would be deeply concerned. If I am in a position of both financial worth and interest in acquiring a franchise of one of these 20 brands, well...., I would be deeply discouraged.

I called the head office. I attempted to connect with the CEO's Personal Assistant. In my 30 years of business in half a dozen countries, I have had a very good batting average of connecting with Personal Assistants. They are often the smartest person in the company and know every facet of the business.

My efforts with Recipe failed. The CEO's office is not an office one can contact. Frank Hennessey, the CEO, is not listed in the company's phone directory search. This is telling.

I then called back and spoke to an intelligent receptionist. He stated he would do everything in his power to elicit a response from Recipe. That was four days ago.

NOTHING whatsoever occurred.

Frank, your company is broken. If the customer cannot connect with the establishment to praise or complain, to communicate anything, then the company is clearly established to do one thing: drive revenue, and the rest be damned.

There is NO EXCUSE for disinterested franchisees, for lapses in customer service functionality. There is without a doubt no worth to the online complaint system. It is broken.

Recipe has an astonishing and impressive company structure, revenues are sky high, employees have terrific perks and some of the brands are truly iconic in Canada. One only has to mention Harvey's and Swiss Chalet to highlight success.

But they aren't what they used to be. As such, diehard diners of chains such as Swiss Chalet long for what was, and some will want, and do want, to provide input.

They cannot. Because the company is broken and NO ONE IS LISTENING. When one stops listening things fail. Friendships, marriages, business relationships...they will fail.

Because Recipe is so out of touch with common sense, basic customer service, what tastes great and what tastes like slothful cooking, Recipe will invariably lose the important customers: those that care the most. The critical customers are those that make efforts to feed back, persist with their determination to help, and remain hopeful of improvement.

Frank, your company is deaf and disconnected. You need a shake-up. Your people have let you down, and now you are here on the page because the buck stops at you. In the meantime, we and others we have spoken to, will stay far away from the 20 brands, because disappointment and frustration is not why people spend hard earned money at dining establishments.

Public reviews and online statements are in our opinion tacky and so easily posted. We eschew them generally speaking, but because Recipe is broken, and because we used to LOVE Swiss Chalet, we were left with no other choice.

ARE YOU...

I have been a customer of yours ever since I was a child going with my grandparents. But after my last experience I'm not sure I can be a customer anymore. My wife and I have tried to contact you with no luck, I only hope that this letter gets someone's attention so you can fix your system and make it up to my family.

I'm early November my wife ordered some dinner online and like we usually do I paid online. After an hour I called the store to make sure things were going ok. To my surprise, whoever answered the call was upset before I even got past telling them my order number. Then very loudly told me that they can't help, it's not their fault, and a some other things that didn't make much sense and hung up on me. I check where the store was located and it was not my usual store, the one my order was sent to and I called was 346 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON M5S.

Still wondering where our dinner was, and my nine month pregnant wife getting more upset, I called your call center number. The agent there took some time to even find my order, then kept putting me on hold. My guess is she put be on hold to create a new order and send it to a different store, because when she same back said my order was already corrected and the new store (266 Queens Quay W, Toronto, ON M5J 1B5) was on the way with it, the funny thing was I got an new email order after that call. She must have punched in the new order when I was on hold, then tried to pretend it was already ok and food would be there soon.

At this point it has been about one hour and twenty minutes. I asked your customer service rep what they could do to make up for the mistake, late order, being yelled at by the store, and all the time I spent on the phone. And she said… can't do anything. I think this is where you need to empower your employees to make a judgement call that will allow them to make a customer happy. She put me on hold again, and said she checked with her manager and could still do nothing. Her only suggestion was to call back once it had been 1.5hours (5min away) and ask for my meal to be free because that was the policy.

You still haven't delivered my food at that point and it's been almost 1hr 45min so I called again. Tried to explain to the new call center agent what had happened… a waist of another 5 min that could have been avoided with a CRM. The new rep said that the order would not be free because the the timer started from when the new order was placed, not when I placed my original order online. I'm sure you'll agree that the new order was only needed as part of a broken process on your side that shouldn't affect me. Again the rep had nothing he could do to help. He put me on hold to get his manager, someone knocked on my door so I hung up.

About 2hrs now and the delivery driver was here. Only took an online order and 30min on the phone over 3 or 4 phone calls.

The driver asked for payment, I told him that first, I paid online, and second the delivery should be free anyways. It turned into an argument, and I guess he was also in a bad mood because he called the call center and started telling them I was pushing him. He kept staying this over and over very loudly, my only guess is that it was his way of trying to make me pay for my meal. I live in a Condo and do not need a delivery driver causing a scene in my hallway when all my neighbors can hear. I told him to leave and closed the door on him.

Still had a pregnant wife at home with no dinner and over 2 hours passed.

I tried to contact you on Nov 12, and all I have received is a few emails saying someone will contact me.

Please fix your customer service issues and have both of the store I dealt with provide better customer service training to their employees, only then would I consider being a...

Worst experience ever, I had stopped ordering Swiss Chalet because of so many issues. I decided on Saturday to give it a go again.. BIG MISTAKE - placed my order at 2pm online - 3pm nothing so I checked the order status. "Order received" So I called customer service - waited for over 20 min to have someone tell me that the order never got to the store and I should go to the store and replace the order. No mention of the payment already taken from my bank. When I asked about the payment they told me to speak with the store. The store confirmed they did not get the order. Had to call back the call center.. waited another 20 minutes to speak with another agent who told me they couldn't help.. so I asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor offered to redo the order with a 15.00 credit.. what a joke. At this point we're 2 hours past my order time. I told her no, I no longer wanted to order as I cooked for my family the entire time I was on hold! So, I was told the charge would be reversed from my card. Fast forward to Tuesday.. to my surprise.. the charge is still on my card. So again, i'm on the phone with customer service getting the run around telling me that I have to deal with the store. So all i'm getting here.. is RECIPE has my $72.13.. I did not get my order or my money back. CROOKS! The story is now that it will take 3-5 business days for the reversal to go through. 3 hours of my time wasted and 72 bucks in Swiss Chalet's pocket.. I guess you can call it a donation.. seeing as they really must need the cash....