With all the awesome deals available online, a bad apple will once in a while surface.
I recently bought 3 vouchers from Metrodeal. It’s an Eat-All-You-Can promo at Apricot Diner in Caloocan. This is my second time to buy from Metrodeal, I was happy with my first purchase.
There were a lot of confusion regarding the validity of the buffet. In Metrodeal’s website, it was stated that voucher validity starts on August 1. Voucher is valid on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Apricot Diner’s response to inquiries on their facebook page
No buffet on Sundays, Apricot was very firm about that.
“The validity starts on 1st August, but the buffet will start on 19th August.” What? At the expense of people who already bought and only have the week before the 19th to use their vouchers?
What request from your customers? Have you not read the “fine print” that you yourself made?
This is a question for Metrodeal. Is Apricot Diner, and all your other clients, allowed to omit or change whatever is included in a “deal” right after the deal goes live online? If yes, then it’s very unfair for us -the buyers.
Making a table reservation, that’s supposed to take less than 10 minutes, took 3 days of email and FB exchanges. They do have one landline phone but not a single one of my calls were answered. I was able to secure a table for an August 6 buffet lunch via email.
With my unwilling lunch companions, understandable since Caloocan is very far from Mandaluyong, we braved the heavy Saturday traffic yesterday after my son’s soccer practice. I called the restaurant first, someone answered this time, to ask for directions and to confirm that we were on our way.
The place. I’m not a frequent visitor of that side of Manila so I was shocked that a restaurant offering "International" buffet, which supposedly has a regular price of Php600, just a few pesos shy of Saisaki, can only accommodate a car, and maybe half of another car, parked on the sidewalk parallel to the street. There was already a car parked in front of the restaurant, maybe the owner’s car?, so we had to park our car on the next street. Metrodeal should have included this important information on the restaurant’s deal page.
The service. I approached a waiter and told him that I have a table reservation for 3. I gave him the vouchers, he checked the list and then he went inside the kitchen without guiding me to our table. I had to call his attention again and he said, "Maki-share na lang po kayo sa kanila" (Please just share with them), pointing to a table for four with three vacant seats. I made a reservation, they confirmed that we’ll have a table, so I was expecting that we have our own table. "Late na po kasi kayong dumating" (You were late in coming in.) Was I at fault to expect that they’ll hold a table for us until we arrive? I did call and confirm that we’re on our way. I also gave them my mobile number when I made the reservation.
Buffet Menu List posted on their facebook page. Manloloko much?
The food. Cold pasta, cold ribs, everything on the buffet table were already cold. Yes, everything including the soup. I still had to point it out to the waiter. The waited had to reheat everything in the kitchen because the food warmers were apparently broken at that time. Yes, all the food warmers.
My son already got some pasta, kids at 10 can eat pasta even if it’s straight from the ref, while I was talking to the waiter. I told him to stop eating first and just wait for the reheated food.
I went back to the buffet table when I saw that everything were already reheated. But there were no plates so I had to ask the waitress for a plate. Look what she gave me, a dusty plate.
At this point I was beyond pis–err–angry. I usually lose my patience when I’m sleepy and/or hungry. To say that I was already VERY hungry at that time, at 130PM?, was an understatement. I just want to get out of the place so I asked for a refund. I wasn’t expecting to get a full refund since my son ate some pasta and drank some of the iced tea.
I was pleased that the Chef/Owner gave a full refund. But I wasn’t that thankful anymore when I saw his tweets. I searched for Apricot Diner’s twitter page and there were two results that came out, the twitter page of Apricot Diner and that of Mr. Chris Go. He was the person who confirmed my email reservation.
"Think before you click" is GMA News’ campaign for the responsible use of social media. Most probably he wasn’t thinking when he tweeted those things. I guess for him I look like a person who doesn’t know how to tweet, or Google, so he feels safe to tweet that there were demanding customers that day.
Was I demanding? Maybe he likes cold-as-ice soup, pasta and ribs. But most people don’t, so I don’t think I’m a demanding customer.
Put rat poison on the food?! Que Horror, I will never step on Apricot Diner again!
This is the worst restaurant that I ever heard. Worst kasi disappointing na nga ang food, disappointing pa ang service pati ang may-ari! Grrrr! Like I said in Filipina Bloggers United, pwede pang maulit ang pangyayari so I am glad you posted a review to help other possible customers out there.
Dapat kasama sa post mo ‘to sis.. “WARNING: It is not safe to eat at Apricot Diner. Owner said, he would put a rat killer on food if he only he could”.
Anyway, this post is going to be viral soon! Boo Apricot Diner!!
Yuck dusty plates.. isn’t it DORA a rat poison brand? Yes, I agree to THINK first before Clicking, in this world of technology even grandmothers/fathers knew how to use the internet and anything that you post/tweet will have an effect to your personality and in this case to a business, a FOOD business.
Shame on that friend and Mr. Go. Even if he’s annoyed of “demanding” customers, there is still no valid excuse to poison their customers, even if he didn’t say it, his reply made it sound that the idea crossed his mind. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Wow ganyan po ang na-experience ninyo? In fairness naman po, nung kami yung kumain, nasarapan naman po kami ng husband ko tsaka yung baby ko. I don’t know, i’ve recommended them to my friends. I like them a lot. Mababit naman yung staff and the food was superb.
When it comes to dining out, I am the most polite, most patient customer anyone can ever have, but OMG, I think I would have thrown a fit in that awful resto! I feel so bad that you had to go through such a horrible experience…
Shame on the owner for tweeting that about the rat poison! I hope his resto closes and his career finished! He should have apologized for his resto’s poor service and yet sya pa nagmalaki, what an asshole!
whoa! this is a totally bad experience from start to finish. sharing this post
Oh my gosh… what kind of a business owner is that? Way too bad.
i was outraged from the moment you shared the story with us. i might not be commenting in the FB thread but I was following how all of this unfolds. let’s see how the owner reacts. with another nasty tweet i guess? LOL. i am definitely sharing this on my FB wall to help spread the word
Thanks for the heads up sis, I am from Caloocan sis and too glad that I was not able to avail the voucher since I was thinking of it then….
I feel sorry for you and your family for all the hustle…
BOOOOOO! if ako andyan din sa Manila, or somewhere in Luzon, I will not eat or dine sa Apricot Diner!!! EWWWWW di sya bagay mg BUSINESS!!!
Its a pity! They are ruining basically the reputation of Metrodeal.. does that mean na its not nice to buy at these group buying sites?
Oh my gas!! Sayang ang gas papunta doon! Boycott na yang Apricot Diner!
Good thing I did not avail of the voucher. The owner is so rude (shame on you Mr). Di marunong mag sorry ng taos sa loob….. hayz
If Mr. Go cares about his customers, he should apologize about the food and the way you were treated. Hindi yung refund agad, he should know how to keep his customers.
Taga-Caloocan ako, nakikita ko to palagi tapos nagulat ako may Metrodeal voucher na worth 600 pesos pala yung buffet nila. Judging from the outside, medyo wary na ako since new resto pa lang. Good thing I didn’t buy din.
sorry to hear about that. in fairness to them, maayos naman yun naging experience ko sa pagkain ko sa resto nila (pero hindi part ng metrodeal yun) if i remember it correctly, i ate there around first week ng june when i met with my biz supplier. masarap naman yun food at malinis din yun nagamit kong utensils. di ko lang maalala yun name nun food na inorder ko pero nagustuhan ko talaga kase bukod sa pasok sa panlasa ko yun pagkakaluto ng food e hindi pa ko nahirapan nguyain yun pork (i wear braces) dahil malambot yun pagkakaluto. anyway, regarding dun sa validity ng buffet, siguro (lang) hindi naging maayos yun usapan ng apricot at metrodeal. kase meron din ako naexperience na ganyan (pero sa ibang website not related with apricot or metrodeal) na iba yun nakalagay sa deal tapos nun tinawagan ko yun mismong biz establishment, iba ren yun sinasabi nila pero ayun, naayos din naman in the end.
para sa mga customers/consumers na mahilig bumili ng mga discount vouchers online (hindi lang sa metrodeal ha), it’s always advisable to contact the biz establishment para linawin yun nakalagay sa deal at tanungin nyo na rin lahat ng pwede nyo tanungin bago nyo bilhin yun vouchers. so there.
naku sis buti naman at nagawan mu na ng post eto.. gosh sometimes deals online din aren’t reliable… but then sana naging responsible din yung owner… sadly, one client out…
thanks for the visit 
buti nalang wala akong pambili nyan! bwahahahaha….
This is simply horrid and inexcusable.
Tsk, tsk, tsk what the owner did was very foul. And incidents like this is major set back for his resto.
Tama sis think before you click talaga if ayaw mo hahabulin ka ng tweets or shoutouts mo in the future.
this is one reason among any other why consumers should not get too excited with online deals, go check/ocular for the place personally. Thanks for the heads up on this shabby establishment.
by Foodamn! Philippines
http://foodamn.blogspot.com/
I saw this deal and was tempted to purchase but really made me suspicious. Looked like too good to be true, plus I never heard of their diner before. What goes around, comes around. If the owner of Apricot Diner does his business like this, it will not be too long before this all comes back to him.
Grabe naman. Buti na lang di ako mahilig bumili ng mga ganyan.
Very bad of the owner to even think and tweet about that. He has lots to fix in terms of his online PR.
On a side note, I thought at first that “dora” was just an OA way to say, “dura” or spit lol
whew! its really the service that they should fix (oh! and their ego too), after reading your post I would say that this is still a very polite review… mabait kapa nga eh..
to think that you wasted your gas, time and effort to dine there and you’ve got bad service from that resto. and even though with your horrible time there your post is still nice! If I were you I would lambast them with my post ^_^
I bought a groupon before (different establishment) and I was not happy with their service. I am very patient when dining out but the service crews really pissed me off so I complained to the manager. Upon hearing my complaint, the manager was very apologetic and asked me if I would like to have a refund. Since the food’s okay for our taste, I told the manager that a refund’s not necessary. And when we were finally headed home, the manager still gave us a full refund. That’s good service I think. And nobody tweeted pa.
That’s the reason why i don’t want to buy discounted coupon sa food kasi titipirin ka nila.
We all love buffet meals. But if the food wasn’t good + the service was bad…nakakainis talaga! The owner needs to brush up on his PR skills. We’re not just talking about money here or refund, they should be more after the quality of their food + service. Customers have to be treated with utmost respect. The nerve of that owner! I won’t be surprised if one day this food establishment comes to a closure. I could forsee it coming, you know. Thanks for sharing this horrible experience in a Caloocan food establishment.
Btw, liked your FB page already. (through Purple Plum Fairy-my other blog)
by Security Blanket
I’m also a fan of good deals and frequently visit discount websites. I always thought that as long as I strictly follow the terms and conditions, it will be okay. I was wrong. I bought the Cashcashpinoy Dusit Basix Buffet and Dusit just changed the terms of the voucher in the middle of the redemption period. Read my experience on http://chineseadobo.blogspot.com. So warning to all, email your favorite websites and ask them these questions:
1. Do you guarantee your terms and conditions?
2. How are you protecting your customers and what remedies are available to them?
At present, if you read the general terms and conditions, the websites are pushing all the liability to just the customers and merchants. They are washing their hands as they claim to be just the marketplace. So if shit happens, you are on your own. So be warned and wary.
Yay! that’s a horrible buffet experience, good thing I didn’t purchase that deal, so frustrating and irritating if ever.