This visitor was not happy with Dave's Fish & Chips

by Gerry Gracey

We read the article in the Vancouver Sun lauding the "best fish & chips" from Dave's Fish & Chips restaurant. Unfortunately, myself and 6 other family members are still wondering if the best fish & chips are indeed at Dave's. For us, we are convinced that it is not a customer friendly establishment.

At 3 PM Saturday August 25, 2007, we entered the premises. My wife asked the manager if it would be possible to seat the 7 of us together.

The manager suggested we take side-by-side tables, or we can wait 10 minutes and he would put two tables together. We chose to wait for him to put two tables together.

Forty minutes (40) had elapsed; my wife enquired how much longer we needed to wait and were told "when there are tables available you will be seated." When he was questioned why 10 minutes turned into 40 minutes his tone of voice changed. He became rude and defensive and said "there's not much I can do about it."

Finding that unacceptable, my wife asked to speak to the manager and was told "I am the manager." She then asked to speak to the owner and was told "he doesn't have anything to do with the restaurant."

My wife, who has 30 years experience in the service industry and understands how the business works, stated to him that managers don't speak to their customers that way. He turned his back on my wife and began sarcastically talking about the situation to one of the servers (who also was rude). Rude, rude, rude!

So, after waiting 40 minutes, then being disrespected, we went elsewhere for our meal.

We traveled more than 60 kilometers to sample "the best fish & chips" only to be disrespected; how very disappointing for us and for the other businesses in your lovely community.

We will not recommend Dave's Fish & Chips to our friends or family. We have mixed feelings about even returning to your community.

My wife's comment to the manager is hire more staff or go to a job where customer service is not a requirement for a successful business.