JEW Make the Call: Whole Foods Thanksgiving Edition

[BCR]

No they didn’t plan it or schedule it well. But that does nothing for me when I’m not dealing with the district manager in front of me and it’s my fault I’m late.



I am never leaving without that dinner. I have a handful of low wage employees who have to open some shit. If I can’t make it rain for them and have them throwing in some extra shit, then I have learned nothing in this life. Like if my alternative is trying to have to find carry out thanksgiving dinner for a dozen people on Thanksgiving afternoon I’m going to get those people to give me that shit even if I have to pay a huge idiot tax for being late.

I mean I am just starting with I’m an asshole. I’m late. My fault. What is it going to take for me to get that food? Little Johnny wants you home, but he wants you home 15 minutes later with a new Xbox. I am getting that shit every fucking time

[simpdog]

IMO they should have been there before 1

That being said at 12:45 the store should have been calling him to remind the store closes at 1 and his order was ready.

Definitely think the employees took the meal. Jackpot for likely 2 of them that split it.

[Daly]

1:03 is not late for a $500 order that was pre paid and you know the guys going to be there. Picking up at 1 with a hard close time of 1 is idiotic.

You're fucking with someone's family here.

I would be heated

[Daly]

Guy deserves $500 back, fuck any gift cards.

Should of never been an option to pick up at 1 with a hard closing time Of 1. Good for the manager for trying to get her employees out of there on a Holliday but this is on the company.

Saw he got refunded the $$. Whatever they want to do to make it up to him. If its 0.0 I would expect hard feelings and a lost customer.

Also - i would have never of left on thanksgiving. Call the cops lady - you stealing from me. I paid for the food sort of thing. Id make the cop try and tell me to leave and eventually its going to be easier for her to just bring out the food

[themanwho]

Before Druff comes in with the followup, I'd like to predict that the district manager gave his buddy gift cards or something as a reward for complaining.

[BedWetterBettor]

Why is it always the STORE'S FAULT when YOU are late and arrive in a huff??? I'm with the Store once again, you left late and they were closed. You don't get special treatment!

I can give you SOOOO many stories about Casino Buses screwing me over royally and even one when I recorded them in the WRONG and they STILL wouldn't Budge!!!

It was one of those daily buses to a decent size Casino on the East Coast(not in AC).

This company was fairly new with its route to this casino and were clearly still working the bugs out(traffic, loafers, stragglers, bus bonus hack abusers, etc.)

At this point, I was a regular rider and the driver knew me. The posted departure time on the Casino's Bus Screen was 5:45 PM, this is also listed on the Bus Company's Bus Schedule Pamphlet!

I decided to use the restroom at 5:35 PM before heading to the bus area as the Bathroom on the bus is incredibly small and usually smells bad. It took me EXACTLY 3 minutes to take a piss, wash & dry my hands and walk over to where the Bus was Suppose to be waiting!

I get there and there's NO BUS, No line of people waiting and I walk over to the sign where it says 5:45 departure time and then DEPARTED next to this bus company's name!!! It is now 5:41 PM.

I go to the casino customer service and tell them what happened. They TRY to call the bus company/driver and have them come back, but tell me "Sorry, they are already on the highway and can't turn back!"

So I have to pay $90 for an Uber home and the next morning tell the "Owner" of the company what happened.

She contends the bus left at the specified departure time of 5:35 PM.

I reminded her that the posted time on both the schedule and the board at the Casino was 5:45 PM and it has ALWAYS been 5:45 PM as many times as I've taken the bus!

She retorts "Well that can change if the driver arrives early, they have the discretion to Leave early as well!"

I then said "How are we to know that if it's not Clearly Written or Stated???"

She says "You can ask the driver for the exact departure time!"

I reply "Does the driver own the Bus?"

"No"

"Ok and does the Driver own the Company???"

"No"

"Then why is the Driver making rules at their leisure that cost us Hundreds of dollars in unnecessary expenses?"

"They have the right to leave early if they tell the passengers"

I once again state "I was never told this and any time I ride THIS bus with THIS driver, they leave at 5:45 PM regardless of when they arrive as posted on both the Departure screen and Pamphlet YOUR COMPANY prints!"

She makes a half hearted attempt to apologize, then tells me "You should ALWAYS show up 15 minutes prior to departure time just in case..."

I then get a little miffed and say "In case? In case what? They decide to sneak out early and not do their job? In case they decide to screw up my whole trip so they can get home 5 minutes early? In case they want me to Lose another $100??"

**We go back and forth on this and ultimately she refuses to Refund my Bus ticket or Reimburse my Uber expense**

So I took to social media, but the company was so small at that point the only replies were from her! I also obtained recording of the Same Driver clearly stating the Bus leaves at 5:45 PM and posted it on their FB page and they went "hurr hurr it's on a different day so it doesn't apply to the day of the incident"

Anyways, who do JEW think is right and wrong in this tale of the Bus Bool Sheeit???

[Sloppy Joe]

If a hard cutoff of 1 is unaccetpable to Druff (and possibly others here) how late should Whole Foods have stayed open on a holiday to accommodate the tardy bum?

Would he have felt different about 1:10? 1:15? 1:30?

Incredible how some adults walk through life with such a sense of entitlement.

[Dan Druff]

If a hard cutoff of 1 is unaccetpable to Druff (and possibly others here) how late should Whole Foods have stayed open on a holiday to accommodate the tardy bum?

Would he have felt different about 1:10? 1:15? 1:30?

Incredible how some adults walk through life with such a sense of entitlement.

Solution: Don't schedule a pickup window to end at the moment you close. If you want to close at 1, end it at 12:30. If you want to close at 1:30, end it at 1. That solves the entire problem. The guy getting there at 1:30 for his 12-1pm window has much less of a complaint than the guy getting there at 1:01.

No point to discuss 1:10 or 1:30 if the manager admitted they put everything away and locked the doors by 1pm sharp.

If you were the district manager, would you have agreed this was managed properly? Or would you have congratulated them for costing the store $1000 in sales (note that there were TWO people who came less than 10 minutes after 1pm, both with expensive orders), and for possibly losing customers for life?

Scheduling closure and locking the doors at the moment the pickup window ends for expensive prepaid orders is straight up retardia, and anyone who makes such a decision should be demoted to grabbing carts in the parking lot.

No catering operation in the world works like this, not even in Portland.

[Dan Druff]

Why is it always the STORE'S FAULT when YOU are late and arrive in a huff??? I'm with the Store once again, you left late and they were closed. You don't get special treatment!

I can give you SOOOO many stories about Casino Buses screwing me over royally and even one when I recorded them in the WRONG and they STILL wouldn't Budge!!!

It was one of those daily buses to a decent size Casino on the East Coast(not in AC).

This company was fairly new with its route to this casino and were clearly still working the bugs out(traffic, loafers, stragglers, bus bonus hack abusers, etc.)

At this point, I was a regular rider and the driver knew me. The posted departure time on the Casino's Bus Screen was 5:45 PM, this is also listed on the Bus Company's Bus Schedule Pamphlet!

I decided to use the restroom at 5:35 PM before heading to the bus area as the Bathroom on the bus is incredibly small and usually smells bad. It took me EXACTLY 3 minutes to take a piss, wash & dry my hands and walk over to where the Bus was Suppose to be waiting!

I get there and there's NO BUS, No line of people waiting and I walk over to the sign where it says 5:45 departure time and then DEPARTED next to this bus company's name!!! It is now 5:41 PM.

I go to the casino customer service and tell them what happened. They TRY to call the bus company/driver and have them come back, but tell me "Sorry, they are already on the highway and can't turn back!"

So I have to pay $90 for an Uber home and the next morning tell the "Owner" of the company what happened.

She contends the bus left at the specified departure time of 5:35 PM.

I reminded her that the posted time on both the schedule and the board at the Casino was 5:45 PM and it has ALWAYS been 5:45 PM as many times as I've taken the bus!

She retorts "Well that can change if the driver arrives early, they have the discretion to Leave early as well!"

I then said "How are we to know that if it's not Clearly Written or Stated???"

She says "You can ask the driver for the exact departure time!"

I reply "Does the driver own the Bus?"

"No"

"Ok and does the Driver own the Company???"

"No"

"Then why is the Driver making rules at their leisure that cost us Hundreds of dollars in unnecessary expenses?"

"They have the right to leave early if they tell the passengers"

I once again state "I was never told this and any time I ride THIS bus with THIS driver, they leave at 5:45 PM regardless of when they arrive as posted on both the Departure screen and Pamphlet YOUR COMPANY prints!"

She makes a half hearted attempt to apologize, then tells me "You should ALWAYS show up 15 minutes prior to departure time just in case..."

I then get a little miffed and say "In case? In case what? They decide to sneak out early and not do their job? In case they decide to screw up my whole trip so they can get home 5 minutes early? In case they want me to Lose another $100??"

**We go back and forth on this and ultimately she refuses to Refund my Bus ticket or Reimburse my Uber expense**

So I took to social media, but the company was so small at that point the only replies were from her! I also obtained recording of the Same Driver clearly stating the Bus leaves at 5:45 PM and posted it on their FB page and they went "hurr hurr it's on a different day so it doesn't apply to the day of the incident"

Anyways, who do JEW think is right and wrong in this tale of the Bus Bool Sheeit???

This is a strange post in several ways.

First off, you treated my post as if it were about me, even though I stated several times that this was a 2024 story told to me a year later, which is why I'm relaying it to PFA now.

But to answer your question of, "Why is it always the STORE'S FAULT when YOU are late and arrive in a huff??? I'm with the Store once again, you left late and they were closed. You don't get special treatment!"

This isn't just "arriving late to a store". This was a retail store (not a restaurant) selling a $500 PREPAID Thanksgiving meal, and stupidly scheduling an arbitrary closing time at the moment their last pickup window ends. The consequence here is far worse than showing up to Target at 10:01pm and not getting the tube of toothpaste you wanted to buy. Here an entire family's Thanksgiving is ruined, due to not getting their PREPAID order, despite coming 3 minutes after the pickup window! Even worse, the store refused to bring out the stuff because they had already put it away. Thanksgiving for the family ruined, and the store also lost its $500 sale after making the food, which is a dumb and stubborn managerial decision you'd typically expect from Christopher Mitchell (if he had a J-O-B!)

When you manage a large retail store dipping its toe into the catering business, you don't slam the door shut at your arbitrary closing time and say, "YOU GOT HERE AT 1:01 AND OUR CLOSING TIME IS 1:00! NO TURKEY FOR YOU!! FUCK YOUR $500 PREPAID MEAL!" You do whatever you can to fix and accommodate the situation, including attempt to contact those who seem to be no-showing for their expensive prepaid meals. You especially don't make the idiot decision to ignore the phones because you don't feel like answering them!

I'm surprised that, given your normal intelligent, detail-oriented analysis of things here, you gave such a knee-jerk "YOU'RE LATE, TOUGH LUCK" sort of response to this one.



But you know what surprises me the most? Your bus story. Not because it's a bad story. You were actually in the right, and I'd also have been pissed. I've been on many scheduled buses in my life, and they always wait until their scheduled departure time, unless they are 100% certain nobody else is coming (or unless they're full). This company just doesn't give a shit.

Once again, your story falls into the realm of "Druff's Rule of Customer Service": If your policy is nonstandard, and the average customer would not automatically know it, and you don't clearly disclose it for everyone to see, then your company is in the wrong.

In your case, you rightfully showed up at 5:41 for a 5:45 scheduled bus, and it had already left. When you complained, the manager basically told you, "Tough luck! Our driver can make whatever schedule he wants!" How were you supposed to know that?


So since I agree with your complaint, why am I surprised? Because this Whole Foods story is WORSE than what you dealt with! In your case, you lost a bus ticket, and had to pay for a $90 Uber. Shitty, but it pales in comparison to losing out on a $500 prepaid meal and having no food to serve 12 guests at your house on Thanksgiving!

Additionally, Whole Foods is a large subsidiary of an even larger company. Standards and expectations are higher than shitty little businesses like the bus company which screwed you. If my friend got fucked by "Joe's Catering Company", it would still be a bad story, but not nearly as bad as a large corporate operation doing it. Why? Because some individual business owners are incompetent and ego-driven assholes, and mismanage as a result. There is no structure to prevent this, nor is there any major brand at stake. With large corporate locations, they need to be very careful about their brand and customer satisfaction, especially in the age of viral stories.

So I don't understand... you think the bus company was behaving badly here, but Whole Foods wasn't?

[Orko]

He got a refund, that's all you can ask.

You don't like cooking Thanksgiving dinner, neither do they. Esp other people's dinner.
otoh
You know what, fuck Bezos. Accuse them of antisemitism, lawyer up and go for the big bucks.

[Dan Druff]

No they didn’t plan it or schedule it well. But that does nothing for me when I’m not dealing with the district manager in front of me and it’s my fault I’m late.



I am never leaving without that dinner. I have a handful of low wage employees who have to open some shit. If I can’t make it rain for them and have them throwing in some extra shit, then I have learned nothing in this life. Like if my alternative is trying to have to find carry out thanksgiving dinner for a dozen people on Thanksgiving afternoon I’m going to get those people to give me that shit even if I have to pay a huge idiot tax for being late.

I mean I am just starting with I’m an asshole. I’m late. My fault. What is it going to take for me to get that food? Little Johnny wants you home, but he wants you home 15 minutes later with a new Xbox. I am getting that shit every fucking time

Well we are veering off into a separate discussion here.

The question was never, "Did the customer do everything right?" I even conceded that he was about 10% at fault in the situation.

Sure, he could have whipped out a $100 bill and asked if maybe they could get this done as a policy exception. I don't know if he even carries $100 bills because he's not a gambler, and many non-gamblers don't like carrying much cash, even $100. He didn't mention thinking of trying to pay them a "tip" to do this. Maybe that was the right approach once he was in this tough position (otherwise having no Thanksgiving dinner for 12 people), but that is a whole different discussion.

I'm guessing it wouldn't have worked, as he was dealing directly with the store manager, and she could have gotten in BIG trouble for first refusing to give him the meal, and then accepting $100 to change her mind. That's a horrible look for Whole Foods if the story gets out. It's not the same as slipping a $20 at the Horseshoe front desk to get a better room assigned at checkin.


Anyway, my two questions were: Did Whole Foods have any fault here (you seem to be conceding they did), and if so, what should he have been given after-the-fact (days later, when complaining)? If you agree Whole Foods bungled this to some degree, I don't see how you vote for $0.