Buffalo Wild Wings — Restaurant in Eau Claire

My small group attended Buffalo Wild Wings in Eau Claire, WI to watch UFC event on 09/26/2020. We were having a great evening, quietly talking, enjoying ourselves, and watching the PPV event, when staff randomly provided us our bill with no explanation why, and did not come back to our area, and in fact avoided us like the plague for the remainder of the evening. Come to find out (after over an hour of waiting to talk to a manager - and actually while waiting for the manager one of the neighboring groups had mentioned to me that their group had the same thing happen) they had made a decision that we "had too much to drink" and had cut us off. When the manager finally decided he had time to come and talk to us, we asked why they had made that decision (as we were all quietly enjoying ourselves, not causing any issues, nor had we actually had "too much to drink"), and he would not provide an answer. I prompted for some type of policy so I could reference, to which the manager stated "he would go look for". Never saw him again until the end of the night after the PPV event was over and we were on our way out of the store. At that time, he was very short, brash, and claimed he had no physical policy and it was all "video based" so he could not provide me anything.

Overall, very low quality and unprofessional experience. Had I known this kind of thing was going to happen, we would have gone elsewhere for the PPV event that evening - somewhere where they treat their customers with respect and dignity they deserve and are willing to talk to them. I could completely understand if we had been drunk and belligerent, or causing issues for other people in the bar, but we definitely weren't, in fact, we may have very well been the quietest group in the bar that evening. They simply decided that our group was "cut off" without even talking to us, and then couldn't/wouldn't tell us why.

I was a life-long buffalo wild wings lover prior to this, but I'm now questioning my future patronage due to the managers unprofessionalism and the deceiving nature by which they provided us our bill without telling us why and then just disappeared (we had no choice but to assume the server wanted her generous tip, and they felt we may not tip had they given us the explanation up-front). Hopefully buffalo wild wings can do better and earn back my business.

Update 9/28/2020 (1 hour after initial review): Was contacted via review by owner, owner suggested I fill out customer comment section on BWW website. I had previously done that (about an hour prior to submitting the original google review). Waiting to hear more....

Update 10/06/2020 (1 week after initial review): No further word from local business owner or company. Seems they do not take their complaint/review process seriously.

Update 10/22/2020 (3+ weeks after initial review): If you read through the reviews, seems the owner likes to copy/paste the same response to all negative reviews. Doesn't look like anything is ever done about them. Still no further word from local business owner or company. Have to believe that they do not take their complaint/review process seriously. At this point, I feel it is my duty to discontinue my patronage to this...

Okay, so I hate to write negative reviews but both times I went here went so horribly that I felt obligated. The most recent time I went the waitress spilled drinks on my friends and I. While this was unpleasant I wasn't too upset because it was an accident and these things happen. After moving us to a different both our waitress took our orders and the waiting began. We got to the restaurant at about 8:30, this is important because one of my friends had to be home by 10. This was a Monday night and there was no big game on. When we arrived there were 3 other groups sitting on our side of the barrier and two of the groups already had food. After our food was ordered it took 40 minutes, 40 minutes itself isn't that bad but combined with how little people there were and the fact that a table that got their way after us ordered, ate, and got boxes before we got our food: it was unbelievable. And the only reason we got her food when we did was because one of my friends went up and talked to a different waitress about how long it was taking, because our waitress hadn't come back over to our table in about 30 minutes. Our waitress, after hearing this immediately ran back and got our food. The manager had been over at our table and apologized for the wait and promised to figure out why it took so long. The waitress use the excuse of us being a large group, which is kind of a bad excuse considering there were five of us and this is Buffalo wild wings wear a large group was way bigger than 5 people. She then proceeded to tell us careful it's hot when in fact it was not. It was warm at best. Considering how late it was and that we had discussed it before our waitress got there we asked for to-go boxes because we couldn't wait there any longer when our friend had something she had to go to at 10. The waitress then proceeded to ask if we had talked in the manager and when we told her we did she ask what he said and that she would let him come back with the bill so that he could mark what he wanted to mark. Unable to wait much longer three of my friends left due to prior engagements. Well me and my other friend sat there and waited to the manager. While sitting we could see the manager walk around and even seat other people well he was supposedly seeing what took so long. My other friend and I waited over 10 minutes for the manager to come back and talk to us about our bill. When he finally made time for us, he marked 25% off and apologized. Know the discount had nothing to do with how upset I am. What upsets me is the lack of sincerity the manager had. the only thing he apologized for was the wait and when my friend mentioned how some of the chicken was cold in the most polite way possible he just stared at her and apologize again for the wait. The spilled drinks were not mentioned at all and my friend and I just left because we both dislike confrontation. It was very clear that both the manager and the waitress thought we were overreacting when in fact we were just trying to be polite about a bad situation. All in all this was one of the worst restaurant experiences I've had in my entire life. I'm very frustrated with how it was handled. And the funny thing is he never did tell us how...

Addition: Stopped in today at 12:00 (expected it to be busy), and no other customers were waiting at the hostess stand. We were told that it would be a few minutes until a table was ready, as they were cleaning some off. A few minutes later, one of the hostesses gave us a pager without any explanation and took down our name. A minute later, she asked for the pager number from us. In the meantime, the hostess stand area was getting very backed up by new customers coming in. From our past experiences (see original post), we were sceptical that we would get good service during this visit, so we gave back the pager and said we were leaving. The hostess didn't seem to care. Here's my problem with this location of BWWs: They have a problem with seating and communication. Seriously, who are they hiring to be hosts and hostesses at this restaurant? Customer service seems to be on a "we don't really know how to do customer service" basis, and they continue to make me wish I hadn't gone there whenever I do. I have witnessed on many occasions, either not having a server know we were there or have seen it happen at tables close to us. Hosts/hostesses have a pretty simple job from what I can tell: Figure out what tables are open, and seat people at those tables. Can it be challenging when the place is busy? Of course, and I'm sure some customers can be rude and unpleasant, but I have never been that. This is either a lack of proper training for that position, bad management, or both. I have never been contacted by a manager for my earlier post, nor has anyone ever acknowledged my concerns about the service while I've been at the restaurant. This may have been the final straw when it comes to me eating (or trying to eat, in this case) at BWWs in Eau Claire. Original Post: Food is usually pretty good, but service is spotty. We come here quite a bit, and sometimes we get served right away, and other times (about 1/3 of the time) it takes 5-15 minutes to even be acknowledged by a server. Seems like a lot of miscommunication between the hostess desk and the wait staff. Staff is usually friendly enough, it just takes them a while to get to you, and then make excuses if the food is slow...