Ice, Ice Baby

My restaurant is pretty strict on the temperature control of foods. All cold foods must be kept under 40 degrees, and all hot foods kept at least at 165. (that sounds really hot, but by the time you actually eat it, it's cooled off a little.) Now, when you pick up food at our store and have to drive 20 or 30 minutes home, it's going to have cooled down quite a bit. You can't really blame us for that. If you had wanted it hot, you should've eaten it in the dining room. Even if it's late night and the dining room is closed, we don't mind if you sit in our parking lot for ten or fifteen minutes to eat your food, honest!

Yesterday, a customer called me a couple minutes after we closed and told me that he had been through about 10 minutes earlier to get food. He claimed that his ride home was only 10 or 15 minutes, and that when he went to eat his food, it was ice cold. He relayed his order to me, and being as we hadn't had so many cars, I actually remembered it. He did not come through ten minutes before we closed, it was probably more like fifteen or twenty. I tried to ask him what time his receipt said (to call his bluff), but apparently he left it in the car. I then tried to explain to the man our standards for keeping our foods warm (even at night) which would make it impossible for his food to be ice cold, but he kept on insisting that it was. Possibly the most aggravating thing he said was, "I don't know how this happened." Yea, me neither... BECAUSE IT DIDN'T. He just wanted some free food. Unfortunately it worked.




After another minute or so of talking I conceded. Short of flat out calling him a liar, the only thing I could do was tell him to bring his receipt in and we would replace his order.