poor customer relations from cork restaurant

gracem

food poisoning!!!
went to a high profile cork restaurant on 29th a dec and ate a pretty ordinary meal. up until today i have been in a terrible state from what i can only assume is food poisoning. docs visit helped clear it. i went back to the restaurant to inform them and was told:
(1)food poisoning couldnt hit that fast and that
(2)not from their kitchen
(3)are used to getting criticism as they have a high profile owner-
WHAT HAS THAT TO DO WITH ANYTHING!!!!! but i was told they would look into it and call me back asap........ im still awaiting that phone call!!!am i missing something but where are good customer relations gone!!!!!!!!!

Hogzy

what would you like/expect them to do?

gracem

be a little nicer to a customer maybe. not expecting them to bow down and appologise but plesantness isnt alot to ask

Hogzy

Well i suppose if they said they would ring you then they should have but i dont see how they can look into it! What kind of food did you have?chicken/fish?

themadchef

Had a similar situation once while i worked in a very large company (thousands of staff) about forty people became ill. In that instance, we had an impecibale chain of production. All products were food sampled, and frozen before service so in the event of a claim of food poisoning we had uncomtaminated samples for testing. I was actually on holiday when i got the call the following day that samples were being removed for testing. Long story short it turned out that the people had contracted a gastric bug, nothing to do with the food.

My point being, if you have been to a doctor and food poisoning of any sort was suspected they usually send off a stool sample to verify what form of food poisoning you have contracted.

Food poisoning has a specific time frame in which to hit, thats probably why they said it couldint act that fast. How long after eating did you get sick? Did anyone else in the party get sick?

The comment about them being high profile etc was out of line but you have to see it from thier side. This is a very very serious allegation.

If you have verification from your doctor that you got a specific type of food poisoning it may be difficult to prove where exactly you got it unless you were in a group of other similarly infected people.

I'm not here to cast doubt on your claim as i have no idea what restaurant you are talking about. What i'm saying is it's a huge leap that could potentially destroy a business if you have no proof. If you do have proof it is the health board, and not the restaurant you should be talking to.

My 2 cents.

gracem

samples have been taken and sent away. it was only my partner and i that got sick. i wasnt telling them for a free meal- i dont want to eat there again.
can it be traced back to the kitchen after a few days though??? i can get over the sickness because accudebts happen its their reaction i dont like.

gracem

i had barbeque ribs and steak.

themadchef

Were there more than you and your partner in your dining party that night?
Did you both/anyone else, eat the same thing? Get sick around the same time?
Roughly how long did it take you after the meal, to get sick.
Did the doctor say he suspected food poisoning?
Did you consider the fact that it could be a gastric bug? lots and lots of them around this time of year.

Did you for one minute consider the reputation of the business.... before you actually have confirmation that it is indeed food poisoning and it definitely came from them.

All restaurants have very very strict HACCP procedures in place to ensure records of delivery temps, storage temps, cooking temps, hot holding temps it's such a huge pain for anyone in this business but we all do it because it's the law. I can pretty much guarantee that business would not be open if it did not abide by the same rules as the rest of us.

I'm not saying it's impossible, i'm saying with the health regulations it's unlikely.

BUT whatever the case, you need proof. If it were me, i wouldint say a word until i had absolute proof.... why? Business is business, if youre going around Cork saying I got food poisoning from X business ... you better have proof if that business comes looking for their pint of blood.

What did you expect the restaurant to say to you? Seriously, as someone who runs a successful business i dont know how i'd handle a phone call or visit like that.

sickpuppy32

very hard to get food poisioning off beef i believe, it takes about a day and half for it to hit, ring the local health inspector and tell him your story anyway

parsi

as I said on another thread - ring Neil Prendeville on 96fm and complain about the dodgy restaurant. Remember that Neil is the Joe Duffy of Cork so he'll be on your side even if it's the Boardwalk...

jdivision

Given you said the owner is high profile, I think it might be a certain restaurant that was closed previously for health violations??

11811

Well to be honest if there is no evidence that you got sick from this particular restaurant at this stage, it would be foolish of them to admit any sort of liability.. if it is definitely the case you did contract food poisoning from this restaurant and then they do nothing, well then thats well out of order.

Faith

Food poisoning has an incubation period of 24 - 48 hours generally. Like another poster said, it's very difficult to get food poisoning from beef, unless it's undercooked mince. Steak is regularly served rare without any problems.

What time and day did you eat at the restaurant, and what time of what day did you first start getting ill? Did you eat anything else that could have caused it? Honestly, people are very quick to jump to conclusions and blame restaurants for food poisoning, but it's very rarely the case. Chefs are professional cooks, and restaurants are very strict about food preparation and storage. Much more likely you got it from your own or a friends cooking in most cases.

tommmy1979

themadchef wrote: »

All restaurants have very very strict HACCP procedures in place to ensure records of delivery temps, storage temps, cooking temps, hot holding temps it's such a huge pain for anyone in this business but we all do it because it's the law. I can pretty much guarantee that business would not be open if it did not abide by the same rules as the rest of us.

This makes me laugh... dude, rules get broken... it's so much easier to tick a box than it is to actually go and stick a temp probe in a piece of chicken..

Chefs are professional cooks, and restaurants are very strict about food preparation and storage. Much more likely you got it from your own or a friends cooking in most cases.

Not all chefs are proffesionals... And i've been poisoned from resteraunts and deli counters way more than from food i've preped at home.

These are the typical responses that you get which are pissing off the OP.. YOU ARE WRONG AND WE ARE RIGHT. I recently cut into a leg of chicken in a cork resteraunt and blood ran out of it!! HACCP my bloody arse.. these things happen. On this occasion i showed the chicken to the manager..On this occasion there was no argument with the evidence in front of her she went white and needed to steady herself against the counter.. all chicken was immediately removed from the menu.

miss_shadow

It's not really fair to accuse the restaurant before actually getting full proof that the restaurant in question gave you food poisoning. that said, when dealing with such a serious allegation, a professional approach is a must and I know you must have been irate but it would not have helped.

Did you have dessert? like anything with ice-cream?

saying they will ring you is a sure sign of them saying they will not even look into it.

I've worked as a chef and if you think the food you are getting is treated like you would with your own food then think again!!!

themadchef

tommmy1979 wrote: »

This makes me laugh... dude, rules get broken... it's so much easier to tick a box than it is to actually go and stick a temp probe in a piece of chicken..



Not all chefs are proffesionals... And i've been poisoned from resteraunts and deli counters way more than from food i've preped at home.

These are the typical responses that you get which are pissing off the OP.. YOU ARE WRONG AND WE ARE RIGHT. I recently cut into a leg of chicken in a cork resteraunt and blood ran out of it!! HACCP my bloody arse.. these things happen. On this occasion i showed the chicken to the manager..On this occasion there was no argument with the evidence in front of her she went white and needed to steady herself against the counter.. all chicken was immediately removed from the menu.

AT no point have i said that the OP is wrong ... or right. My point is that before accusations get fired around they should be equipped with all the facts. In this thread she said only herself and her partner got sick, in the thread she posted in consumer issues she said her friend also got sick?

Do you think it is fair to accuse a business of poisoning someone without evidence? If this was your business, would you not expect a certain level of evidence?

Yes, mistakes are made everywhere, from raw chicken to complete poor hygiene practice in the kitchen and poor hygiene of staff. That's not the point. The point is, wildly throwing "this place of business made me ill" can have a detrimental effect on any business...and you don't know if you were poisoned yet or not, what the source of food was.... or if it came from that restaurant.

No one's doubting that the OP truly believes she got food poisoning from that establishment, but it could well be a gastric bug of some sort. Thet too are very contageous.

tommmy1979

@ Madchef.. fair enough, you need evidence. It's tough to get in this situation though. Would it have been different if the OP returned to the resteraunt and said " i think i may have suffered some food poisoning after eating here" I'm pretty damn sure you'd get the same response.. denial. You mentioned yourself that you wouldn't know what to do if you were the proprieter of the resteraunt and soemone came to you with such an accusation. There should be a standard procedure for this with the aim being customer sattisfaction