Harvey's — Restaurant in Vaughan

Harvey's 5890 McLaughlin Rd Mississauga 7:48pm April 27, 2018 After having dinner with family, I decided to get a LARGE milkshake from Harvey's for dessert for my wife & I to share on our long drive home. It wasn't until we got on the 401E that my wife noticed there were cookie crumbs in it - by taste and clearly visibly. As I have a wheat allergy, I decided just to go to another Harvey and explain the situation & exchange it rather than turn around on the highway for a $4 shake. The most convenient place for us was at the Harvey's 1000 Rowntree Dairy Rd, Woodbridge, ON.

When I pulled up to the order window I carefully explained that I ordered a large shake from ANOTHER Harvey's location that had cookie crumbs in it and was just looking for an exchange. The person at the window said she couldn't help me and so I asked for a manager. When I got to the drive-through window a young man told me it was "not his problem." That is not the words of a store manager. I said that I understood that it may be a food franchise but that it was only a $4 order, and any other franchise in Canada would honour something like that. To him it did not matter. I said are you willing to risk losing a customer for life over $0.10 COST of ice-cream. He said "It's not because of me that you may never come back!" Who says that to a customer? I said well here - take this back because I'm not going to finish it. He wouldn't take it and just continued to argue with me. Finally - it wasn't until I threatened to post my experience on social media that the girl at the drive through said - "Just give it to him". He finally took the LARGE chocolate shake from me and returned with a MEDIUM chocolate shake. I said "thank you," and he responded with the typical millennial response of "no problem!"

Clearly, if you are in customer service - especially as a manager, that is no way to speak to ANY customer. What would have been a much better response would be something like: "Oh sir, I'm so sorry that other Harvey's location made a mistake with your order, but because we are a franchise we don't actually have an obligation to the other restaurant, but I would be happy to offer you some coupons or gift certificate for your next visit," or "We're so sorry ...when a store is busy there are mistakes that do happen with orders from time to time, but because we are a franchise we don't have an obligation to other location, but we will exchange it for you just this once and ask that you follow up with the other restaurant tomorrow, and let them know of their mistake." Either one would have been a much more professional response than "That's not my problem!" How many other customers at that location have experienced that kind of treatment?

Everyone has bad days - that is inevitable - but if you are in a customer service industry, you cannot afford to have a single bad day with customers - especially over $4. When there are SO MANY other alternatives to eat at - with social media and feedback sites like Google reviews & Yelp, you just can't lose a single customer, or they will never be back and convince others to not go there either. I will never go back to the Harvey's 1000 Rowntree Dairy Rd, Woodbridge, ON, and it will be a while for the bad taste of Harvey's to...

UPDATE: After having a phone conversation with staff manager Emanuel, he decided to make it up to me regarding my previous restaurant visit to invite me back with a replacement meal and apologized for the staff interaction that I experienced. The burger was tasty, juicy and had the right amount of bacon that I would come to expect from any Harvey's visit. Thank you again, Emanuel, for renewing my faith in a great Canadian brand. GO CANADA!

ORIGINAL POST: (1 STAR ACROSS BOARD) Despite having their featured hot honey chicken sandwich, my original trip craving was to come in for a triple original bacon cheeseburger with my favourite toppings and onion rings. Upon the triple bacon cheeseburger being presented for toppings and condiments, I did not visually see any bacon. The frontline worker assured that it was between the patty and cheese. His tone gave me a reason to suspect something was up. I went back to my table once my meals were prepared and began taking apart the burger. Lo and behold, I find these "pathetic looking, guaranteed microwave-prepared, razor-thin, scraps that you'd find working at the end of a restaurant shift" bacon. I CLEARLY indicated to the staff at the beginning that I would like to order FRESHLY COOKED patties AND bacon. When I presented the burger over to the frontline staff about the portion size of bacon, I was met with a bit of resistance as I was told that upper management "tells them to provide portion sizes in this manner". I was a bit taken aback as I've gone to many Harvey's in the GTA and in Ottawa (given my pride in Canadian companies) and I've never had SO LITTLE BACON in an order of a burger that's nearly $12 in price (without tax alone). It really questioned value for the money spent since I could have eaten elsewhere for cheaper. When I pressed staff for more, I was given the same amount of "scrap" bacon. Unacceptable! As I was walking away, all I seen were the staff members huddled up unprofessionally in the front counter and heard them muttering in their own language of the interaction that took place. God knows what was said but the tone was definitely uninviting. I made it a point to finish my meal as quickly as possible and left. Working in both hospitality management and customer service collectively for nearly 30 years, this restaurant's staff are somewhat not at fault for this inconvenience. They have been instructed to provide such a meager portion by upper management, but should have provided even more bacon when requested and with no backlash. Other restaurants would have been glad to make it right without any attitude. The huddling and muttering afterwards shows a much bigger systemic problem: maybe it's not management after all; maybe it's an excuse based on the lack of customer service training for frontline staff on dealing with customer service issues using passive aggressive undertones linked to the staff that were present. Quite an unfortunate visit that needs to be addressed in a time that Canadian values matter most by using polite customer service interactions in order to generate...

Placed an online order for 3 sandwiches and nuggets at 10:30am for pick up at 11am for an order for my family because of the power outage. When I got there at 11:00am, their doors were closed and the drive thru was closed despite their ordering app and website stating they open at 10:30am. As a confused consumer, I called the store phone number, they told me my order would not be done for another 20-30 minutes because “they just opened”. As I proceeded to ask for a refund as I was on a time crunch (hence why you order ahead) the shift Manager Emmanuel stated “the store manager can only issue you a refund”. When I called in at 12 noon to get the store managers name for documentation purposes, the shift manager answered and refused to provide the store managers name off the bat and continued to state “I already told the other person, I can’t give you the refund today.” When asked why a shift manager can’t issue a refund (as they have these capabilities) he replied with “I’m just too busy right now I don’t want to rush your refund and get it wrong”. As I was asking why he told my boyfriend he “couldn’t do the refund” if he actually could but just simply did not want to. To make the situation worse, Emmanuel placed the phone down for 12 minutes with no explanation or message like “sorry I need to place you on a brief hold.” After 10 minutes, he simply continued his conversation with me— more like excuses, and had complete disregard for the situation. I find it very ridiculous that as a shift manager, you’re “unable to issue a consumer a refund” for an order they could not complete in a timely manner. News flash Emmanuel, welcome to Fast Food; a fast paced environment, an industry you decided to work for when you accepted the position as a shift manager. Maybe its time for a career change.

If I could give this place zero...