Sadly, they review these places so early on that it’s hard to get a feel of what the place is really like. For me, it’s more about the entire experience than the food alone. After my recent visit to Via dei Mille, I was not only disappointed in the sites that I so often count on, but the service at the restaurant as well.

I set up a dinner for a friends birthday and because she wanted to wear the Tadashi dress that she won at the silent auction when we attended the GMHC Fashion Forward Event (I got to play spokes model for Hanne Apparel that night), I thought we should go someplace a little dressy. That’s when I consulted New York Magazine, Thrillist and Rare Daily and found Via dei Mille.

Here’s where they went wrong… and right. I don’t want to be completely unfair.

First, it seemed like they weren’t ready for us. When I gave the party’s name, they checked the name off but looked around the restaurant to see where they should place us – and that’s when they pushed 3 tables for 2 together. A bit awkward for a party of 5.

Dinner was last Saturday and if you recall, it was cold and snowy. So when they seated us near the door, we kept feeling the chill. Plus, they were in the process setting up a larger table for a party so they kept coming in and out with chairs and a large piece of plywood to make a table larger. Probably something that could have been handled earlier in the night. We ended up asking to move before the rest of our party arrived. They resisted at first, but did move us slightly further in… tightly squeezed into a 4 seater.

The waiter was very accommodating – so he got lots of points.

The restaurant also got points for their delicious food. That was one thing that everyone agreed on. Even the dessert was great (Nutella crepes are always a wonderful way to end a meal). Oh, and the timing of the food was perfect. We weren’t rushed and it was a decent amount of time after the antipasti that the entrees were brought to us. And of course, they gave us plenty of time to make room for dessert.

They lost points for the loud music. I don’t understand why an Italian Restaurant where the chef credits his Grandmother for his creations would play club music so loud that I had to yell for everyone to hear me… and I’m loud. We asked more than 4 times for them to lower the music and our poor waiter finally just went behind the bar and lowered the volume himself. Bravo! I understand that the owners are from the nightclub scene, but this is a restaurant. No matter how loud you play your music, you are not going to steal customers from Cipriani.

Then the smoke started. They don’t allow smoking in the restaurant, but the guests (instead of going outside) smoked in the temporary entranceway that they put up for the winter, which let all the smoke in. Not so great when you’re trying to enjoy your meal.

The final straw was when we asked for our coats. They took our tickets and brought up every coat but mine. Which was fine if you overlooked it, but they looked at me as if I must be lying. “Yes, I MUST have left the house without a coat since it’s so balmy out!” I described the coat to the hostess and when she came back she stated without apology that it wasn’t there. I knew no one took it because I was one of the only people that didn’t show up in a full length fur, so I know my cute Miss Sixty Coat was not on the list of “must haves”. They did find it after the manager checked but still no apology. However, he made a point of telling me that I must have lost my ticket. Grrrr.

Will I go back? Do you need to even ask. They clearly don’t care about the service they provide. We were never rude or pushy or obnoxious – even though after a while, we could have been. I understand that every place has their ‘off’ nights, but when you take it out on me, I have issue.

Let’s see what my newsletters bring me next. I haven’t given up on them yet. After all, this is the first ‘not so great’ experience I’ve had by taking their advice.

Today upon picking up the film I got the same clerk. When I handed her my ticket she said in a snotty tone, “Oh man, I don’t want to have to get all this.”

To which i replied, “I’m sorry”.

She thought I was asking her to repeat what she had just said, and said the same thing over again. Again I repeated, “I’m sorry”. I was sorry that she felt that doing the simple tasks of her job were too much for her to handle. I was sorry she felt the need to complain out loud to the customer, no less.

I am not naming the establishment because besides this one experience I have had nothing but excellent service and I will continue to use them for a long time. It just goes to show you that you just can’t find good help these days.

Last night, we arrived from Toronto on AA flight #1084. Originally scheduled to land at 7:15, we encountered a 2-hour delay both on the ground in YYZ and in the air circling over La Guardia. We did not land until 9:11 PM and I was out of the terminal and on the phone with LimoRes at 9:18 to inform them I was ready to be picked up. This is well within the 45-minute grace period for international flights that LimoRes publishes on its website, which states that they check the time of arrival with the airline and dispatch the cars accordingly. We entered the vehicle at 9:27 PM, still well within the grace period. However, upon arrival at my apartment at 9:45, still within the grace period and only 34 minutes after we landed, the driver presented me with my bill, with a $16 charge for 16 minutes of waiting time included. The problem? LimoRes told the driver that we arrived at 8:40 PM.

I called LimoRes and they proceeded to tell me that they checked the flight time until 8:35 PM, at which time the airline had posted an 8:40 estimated landing time, so they made the decision to commit the car at that time. Their policy, he told me, was that they’d make the decision to commit the car at some point and then all subsequent time would be billed to the customer.

I call bullshit.

How is it my fault that LimoRes failed to give accurate information to their driver? When we landed, I checked aa.com on my phone and the flight status indicated we were still in the air with a projected landing time of 8:59 PM, which was much later than the time of 8:40 they had given to the driver (they later revised it to the actual landing time, 9:11 PM – see below). How am I supposed to inform them of the continued delay while I am in the air? (I ask this because the gentleman suggested that they have no other information to go on, and I could have provided it to them.) I might even be willing to accept their argument if we had asked to be picked up inside by a waiting driver with a sign, but we were being picked up outside by one of their fleet. I even had a voicemail when we landed with a different car number than the one we ended up in, so they had obviously been checking the flight for delays and changing cars at some point. Why couldn’t they have continued to do that after 8:35 PM when almost every flight into and out of La Guardia last night was delayed?

He eventually waived the charge, but not after saying that he was waiving it because I “didn’t understand their policy”. No, I understand their policy, and I think it is bullshit – and I also think it doesn’t match the published policy on their website, which states:

(3) Does LimoRes provide free wait for airport pick ups?

Yes. You get 30 minutes free wait for Domestic flights and 45 minutes free wait for International flights. We check the arrival time with your airline, and change your order to reflect the new arrival time. Your free wait starts from that time.

If it takes you longer to retrieve your luggage, or if you come out later than the allotted free wait, you will be charged for waiting time.

(4) Does LimoRes check flights for arrival times?

Yes. LimoRes will verify the arrival time for your flight. As long as you remain on the same airline and flight, you do not need to contact LimoRes-we will check the flight. Only in the event that you changed airline, or flight, will you need to call LimoRes and give us the new information for your pick up.

What the gentleman on the phone told me was that their policy is actually to commit a car at an arbitrary time of their choosing and to charge all subsequent time to the customer. What if we had circled La Guardia for another hour? I’ve certainly been on flights where we have circled a New York area airport for well over an hour. In fact, when my husband and I returned from our honeymoon in Italy on a delayed flight, the driver attempted to charge us 30 minutes of waiting time, when we were in the car less than 25 minutes after deplaning (again, well under the 45-minute grace period for international flights).

The frustration of dealing with what seems like a blatant attempt to rip me off makes me want to use another car service company – or just wait in the damned taxi line.

Opinions, complaints, recommendations for another car service company? Hit me up in the comments.

I was at the Ralph Lauren store on the Upper East Side returning an item when a lady walked up to the person who was ringing up my return and interrupted, demanding to know where a certain jacket was. The clerk directed her to another room, where she, unable to find the jacket, found another salesperson. They found the jacket, the customer complaining that “they sent me to the other room first, so obviously they don’t know what the hell they’re doing”. She set her two shopping bags, purse, and raincoat down (also, raincoat? it was clear and warm out today) and tried on the jacket. She decided to take it, then turned to the salesperson and hissed, “What are you doing? Why would you just let my things lie here like this?” Apparently, she’d wanted the salesperson to pick up all of her items after she’d set them down. To her credit, the stunned saleswoman said, “I didn’t want to disturb your things, and you could’ve certainly handed them to me if you’d wanted me to hold them.” The customer decided to purchase the jacket, but had someone else ring her up, and loudly complained the whole time about how bad “that girl” was and how she “couldn’t believe” that the staff expected her to try on a jacket “over a sweater and a raincoat”. She was mostly pissed that they didn’t pick up after her when she set her crap on the floor, as if that’s a fucking part of their job.

The sense of entitlement wafting off her was almost palpable. I hate to see people treat salespeople that way. I credit the professionalism of the sales staff in dealing with her, because if I were one of them I’d probably have told her where she could shove her raincoat.

Have you seen customers treating salespeople poorly around the city? Tell me your tales of customers behaving badly!

To Whom It May Concern:

As you can clearly see from the text message I have forwarded below, one of your “representatives”, Seth (xxx.xxx.xxxx), has gone above and beyond his duties in representing your company.

Backstory:

My wife called Seth in regards to an ad posted on Craigslist for a 1 Bedroom Apartment for rent in Greenpoint. Upon making contact with Seth, my wife was asked the following:

“When do you need to move by?”

When my wife explained to him that we were flexible, as our current lease was month-to-month, Seth responded with the following (which is pretty similar to what he said to me in his text message):

“People like you will never rent the apartment, and if you want to see the apartment, you need to give me $1000.00.”

My wife asked if that was his broker’s fee, he said no, that the broker’s fee is one month’s rent, but the $1000.00 was to just “see the apartment”. My wife, shocked and upset, then tried to explain to him why we were moving (repeated break-ins in our building), but Seth decided he should scream at her, saying “show me the money, you fucking cunt”, and then he hung up on her.

I tried to call Seth and talk to him as soon as I got home from work, but as soon as I mentioned what my call was in regards to (him cursing out my wife and trying to extort money from her in order to see an apartment), he then hung up on me as well. Maybe five minutes later is when I received the text message below.

As a businessman myself, I find it appalling that someone who is out there in the field working for and representing your company would be given enough free reign to act so horribly and callously. I looked up the New York State Code of Professional Conduct for Real Estate Brokers (link provided below), and I am quite sure that Seth has violated quite a large portion of it. I don’t need someone who has no idea who I am, how much money I earn, how I need to “teach my wife some manners”, or what kind of renter I am speaking to my wife in this manner – and I am quite sure if you are someone who cares about the way your business is perceived, you realize what an impact dealing with someone like Seth can have – not just on an individual, but on an entire community.

I expect to be hearing from someone within your company (other than Seth) shortly.

-Sean Doyle
xxx.xxx.xxxx

http://www.dos.state.ny.us/lcns/pdfs/profcndct.pdf

—— SMS Text ——
From: +1XXXXXXXXXX
Sent: May 8, 2008 6:05 PM
Subject: Your wife greatly annoyed me,

Your wife greatly annoyed me, by insisting she was a qualified prospect, when in fact, I can tell you from statistics, most people who have flexible moving dates never rent an apatment. Therefore you are bad prospects. When I explained I was happy to show her an apartment when she showed me her money she became belligerent. I think you should show your wife some manners.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

The gentleman behind the counter at the Fedex/Kinko’s shop in Union Square was sort of helpful, in his own way. There were people faxing and copying and having trouble and he did holler answers to their questions from the comfort of his chair behind the counter. The gift I had wouldn’t fit in any of the standard Fedex boxes, so I went up to the counter and asked what I should do. “You have to buy a box,” he said. Ok, no problem. He very reluctantly got up from his chair and got me a box, and then informed me that I also “had to” buy tape to seal the box up with. Ok, also no problem, but I had to buy a whole roll of packing tape. I brought the tape over and then he shoved the box at me so I could tape it up myself. Full service! He grumpily rang me up and I was finally on my way.

Now, this isn’t the most egregious bit of customer disservice I’ve dealt with in this fair city (that one will be posted in its very own shiny entry soon), but I’ve found that there’s a great divide here – you either get fabulous, amazing service or you get some guy who can’t be bothered to even look at you when you ask him a question. Why is this? I used to work retail and it sure did suck a whole lot, but I always made every effort to be pleasant to even the most difficult customers, even the ones who tried to return a 3-seasons-old dirty sweater with no tags or receipt. I don’t buy into the “New Yorkers are rude” crap either – most people here aren’t truly rude, they are just in a hurry. So what’s the deal with customer service?