Eggsmart: Not a Place for Grace

This story is a classic example of customer satisfaction gone awry.

We decided to take my mother out to East Side Mario’s in Scarborough (a Toronto suburb) for lunch, but unfortunately the kitchen was under renovations, and the restaurant next door had gone bankrupt.   So we decided to take her to Eggsmart, a restaurant we had tried a few months earlier in a location just a few blocks north.  But apparently not all locations of this chain are operated identically.

The parking lot was almost empty — a bit strange for 12:30 PM — but an electric “open” sign compelled me to pull in. My mom is bothered by glare, so we asked for a seat just to the left of the main doors, but were told we couldn’t sit there.  So I spotted an area in the back which was also windowless, but were told they weren’t using that section, either.  So much for “power of arrangement.”   I noted to the guy seating us, “This isn’t getting off to a good start, is it?”

However, I was optimistic.  We found something for my mom, my wife ordered and I pointed to a western sandwich on the menu and told the waitress I would have that, taking the side salad option instead of the fries.  This option was clearly printed on the top of page four of the menu, but she would later deny that I ordered the sandwich or pointed to the menu item.

It seems that Eggsmart has two almost identical items on their menu, a Western sandwich and a Western omelette, and they’ve never trained their staff to ask customers to clearly distinguish between them, something I didn’t need to do anyway, since I was pointing right at the menu as I ordered. I suspect the “switch” with this item happens often at this location.

I then left to go outside and take an emergency cell phone call, which resulted in four other quick calls.  In the meantime, the waitress came by and asked my wife if I realized there would be a substitution charge for the salad.  She knew I wanted the salad, and didn’t consider the implications.

When the meal arrived, what I considered the “innards” of my sandwich were served separately, but there were four half pieces of toast and the salad dressing was on the side, so I figured, “When in Rome…” and rather than try to insert the western sandwich pieces in the bread, decided to eat the two separately.  But I did comment to the waitress that, “This is a different way to serve a sandwich;” but she chose not to hear that, I guess.

The food, our time together and everything else at that point was delightful. 

And then the bill came.  The sandwich is $5.99 including salad.  The omelette is $8.99 plus $1.99 for the salad.  That’s $5.99 versus $10.98, almost double.  At first I noted the $1.99 charge, and then I noticed the $8.99.  I made it very clear that I had both ordered a sandwich, pointed at a sandwich on the menu, and commented when the sandwich arrived in two parts.

Too bad.  They said, “You were upset from the minute you arrived here and were determined not to enjoy your meal.”  Yeah, they really said that. Apparently instead of looking for a good lunch, my sole purpose on gracing their establishment was that I was looking for trouble.

The waitress did remove the $1.99 charge, but that was as far as they were willing to go.  She insisted that I had never said “sandwich’ nor pointed to the item on the menu, both of which statements are untrue.  Customer always right?  Not at Eggsmart.

I told her upon leaving that, “You have to admire how you’re able to spin this whole thing to make it all appear to be my fault.”

Never again.

Not in a million years.

Eggsmart:  You’re not so smart after all.  There’s a concept called “grace” that has all but disappeared in our society, but when you uncover it, you won’t have a restaurant where half the seating section is closed in the middle of the lunch hour and all the parking spaces in front of the restaurant are vacant.

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