IHOP — Restaurant in Virginia

Approx Wednesday November 30, 2023 at 1030am, me and my friend was seated. He requested lemon and water with the waiter, the young lady returned to our table and stated ( we have to pay 1.39 cents for lemon, i asked her why? she stated to us, it wasnt her, it was her manager. I requested to speak with him reguarding this manner: He explained to us, no outside drinks allowed, my friend had a tea bag, we pleaded with the manager, can we take the tea bad out, he stated no, we still have to pay reguardless, 4 lemons cost 1.39 cents, and this was something new. After that incident, we had to wait almost 30 minutes to order, the young was doing everything else, but take our order, how rude of this business. Me and my friend got up from the table and left, no need to argue with rude folks. I contacted the I hop headquarters reguarding this matter, and yet she could not tell me why, we had to pay for lemon. I felt discriminated against, we are african american people, with professional jobs, just got off the night shift, hit the gym, and was very hungry after a nice workout, this business fell to provide basic customer service. Places need to incorporate a strict diversity setting, this was not excepted nor ok. The head manager of the shop name Cecelia gave me a lame excuse about staff giving out free drinks, lemon and water is free, and if staff are giving out those free drinks, dicipline...

I've ordered from this location 4 times and I've never had to call in to pick up a curbside order. (ORDER PAID IN ADVANCE)

Again, let me state AGAIN, i always set my order for a specific time and never had to call in for a curbside order set to be picked up at a specific time.

I arrived at 4:20pm, and at 4:43pm, I decided to call in when it was 13 minutes past the scheduled pick up time of 4:30pm.

The manager got smart on the phone, she stated, "YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED IM THE ONLY ONE HERE, WAY IN THE BACK OF THE STORE".

My response was, I never had to call in to pick up a curbside order, what's the point of curbside designated spacing directly in front of the restaurant and the option to select a specific time to pick up a CURBSIDE order if you have to CALL IN as if none of those options are there to serve the customer and the restaurant during Covid-19.

She had the nerve to act like she couldn't hear me, meaning she kept saying OH WELL, I WAS IN THE BACK OF THE STORE.

She appeared to be a manger, NO CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS, VERY RUDE AND OBLIVIOUS TO the fact that continued customers keep the restaurant open for business as well as it keeps her with a JOB.

I will never order from here again, DUE TO THE SERVICE I RECEIVED FROM HER TODAY.

MA'AM, Limited staffing is not my problem. Had you responded to this situation with professionalism, this review would have...

This has got to be the worst IHOP in existence. I was by myself and seated before other people; however, I was the last to see a server. My server was friendly, but he was extremely clueless. I finally placed my order, including coffee. The server presented me with a cup of coffee already in the mug, which was dirty, and he didn't provide a carafe. IHOP servers are supposed to present you with a clean mug and pour your first cup at the table. I'm pretty sure the server attempted to give me coffee from a table of customers who had left. I politely pointed out to the server that the cup was dirty, and I told him that I wanted a clean cup with a carafe. The server ignored me after that. I spent a total of 30 minutes at that IHOP, during which time I never received a clean cup and a carafe of coffee. I decided to leave, and it wasn't worth saying anything to the inept manager who allowed all of this to happen.

BTW: I used to bus and wait tables in my teens and early 20s, so I'm very sympathetic to servers. This server had very poor training, and this IHOP location had...