CJ H.
Yelp
On October 14, 2022, at your Thompson Lane location, your hostess was rude, argumentative, disrespectful, and unprofessional. When she arrived at the hostess section, she barely acknowledged us. After requesting a booth, she walked off while mumbling something about wanting to go home as she threw her hands in the air with frustration.
When she decided to come back to seat us, she grabbed two menus, waved to the crowd of people in the hostess area, and began walking toward a table. The three parties were confused because we didn't know which party she was trying to seat. After agreeing that it was our turn to be seated, we quickly tried to catch up to her. She had already placed our menus on the table and was on her way back to the hostess station when she intentionally and aggressively shoved/ bumped past me. When I brought it to her attention, she yelled, "it was a mistake," but never apologized.
After being seated, the same hostess walked past our table and said, "I don't give a shit about this job." Without hesitation, I said, " you should care about your job." She aggressively approached the table, pulled down her mask, and yelled about how she didn't give a "shit" about this job. After explaining how problematic and unprofessional her behavior was toward other customers and us, she became more irate. Realizing that I was not dealing with a rational person, I just told her to go away, knowing that a manager would show up eventually. She continued to yell things as she stomped off.
When the manager finally arrived (10 minutes later), he never introduced himself, and the first words out of his mouth were," Do we have a problem"? I was surprised at his initial approach because this is not how you de-escalate a situation. I said yes, your hostess is unprofessional and disrespectful, and her behavior needed to be corrected. He began to tell me to calm down and lower my voice. I told him that I was calm and I was not yelling. I explained to him what happened, and at first, he was not listening and continued questioning me as if I were the problem. After people around me explained how rude she was and that I never cussed her, he decided to believe me. He explained how this was his first week at this location and that her behavior aligned with other customer complaints, but he never apologized.
Management, if you know her work behavior is problematic, and she has done this before, why haven't you done anything about it? Leaving her in the position to do this to other customers makes you liable. Just because she is a person with a disability does not give her the right to treat a customer this way. Your employee lied, verbally disrespected me, and intentionally shoved me, which is a simple assault. Then you allowed her to work the rest of her shift with this same attitude. I know someone at this company will see how problematic this is and resolve it. If not, you will not be in business long because people will not accept this treatment when patronizing your establishment. Do better, Applebee's, do better!
