Nacho's Mexican Cantina/Mexicali Rose

We had dinner last Saturday night at Nacho's Mexican Cantina or Mexicali Rose in Lower Plenty. We think that it's in the process of changing names and/or management, cause the signage outside said one thing, but the menus said something completely different.

That of course was no excuse:

To whom it may concern,

Do you know how there are times when you drive past a restaurant all the time and you say to your driving companion, "We really should try that restaurant out"?

That's how we were with your Lower Plenty restaurant.

So finally, last Saturday night, we thought we'd give your establishment a go with a few friends.

Melbourne is, of course, the eating out capital of Australia. However, Mexican food is one area that Melbourne's restaurants can clean up their act.

But based on our experience on Saturday night, it's not going to be your Lower Plenty restaurant that does it.

We arrived at the restaurant at 7pm. It was busy, I'll give it that. We ordered drinks.

They took a little while to arrive. And in the meantime, we ordered food.

Our entree was dips for the whole table - two serves. It took 45 minutes for these to arrive, and when they did, only one was forthcoming.

We asked the waitress where the other one was, only to be greeted by, "They've run out of the dips."

Fortunately, another one was able to be scraped together with a cheese dip and something else, arriving at our table no less than ten minutes later.

So we sat and chatted while we waited for our mains to arrive. At about the hour and a half mark from when we placed our order, we started getting antsy, as you do. We looked around but there was no waiting staff in sight. And when they did appear, it was to serve people who appeared well after us.

We took turns to go up to the front counter to ask where our mains were, but to be honest, your waiting staff should have come and informed us that there was a delay, and the reasons for the delay.

Slowly, our table got more and more frustrated with the lack of service.

Seriously, this is the one time when I wish that there were mice in the kitchen, because you needed Speedy Gonzalez to shake things up. I had to be physically restrained from running into the kitchen and yelling, "¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!"

By this time, we were going up at ten minute intervals. One of our party was greeted with, "Yes we already have your complaint. Could you please wait."

Talk about pouring tequila onto a burning fire. How would you feel if someone said this to you?

Finally, when our mains came out, some of us were in danger of falling asleep. This was now 9pm and there was barely anyone left in the restaurant.

TWO HOURS, PEOPLE!

I didn't hear a complaint about the food, except that my Chili Colorado was as tough as leather.

Our whole evening was a disgraceful exhibition of shameful amateurism. It will be a long time before we return, if we ever do. You need to wake up to yourselves.

Yours sincerely,

Dikkii.

And that was very satisfying.

Qantas? JetStar? Who the f@$%... Part 2

This is Part 2.

Part 1 is here.

Took them a while, but Qantas eventually replied to my complaint:

Dear Dikkii


Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your first hand experience of our codeshare flights to Bangkok and back to Melbourne, operated by Jetstar.

Qantas is committed to acting on what our customers tell us and although I can't answer you in detail, I can assure you that I have logged your feedback in our database. We run a continuous improvement program, which uses this feedback to help resolve problems and improve our product and service. Your feedback will be an invaluable input to that improvement process.

Although I can not respond to you with any further information, please be assured that I have provided your feedback to the management of the area responsible, so that they too can learn from your experience.

We value your support as a Frequent Flyer member and I hope you will give us the opportunity to show you Qantas at its best by flying with us again soon.


Yours sincerely


Brigitte Anttilla
Customer Care Executive
Qantas Airways Ltd

Fairly standard stuff - I wouldn't be surprised if Brigitte just cut and pasted from a form letter. I'm not really interested in pursuing this unless I hear from a lot of people who've had the same thing happen to them

In which case it could be a job for the trashy current affairs shows. I've always wanted to meet Anna Coren.

But I will go on record to say that I have no confidence in Qantas' code-sharing arrangements. Nor anyone else's for that matter, especially where a budget airline is used in place of a full-service one.

Disclosure: This blogger owns shares in Qantas.

Qantas? JetStar? Who the f@$% am I flying with?

Just a short missive to Qantas about a flight experience I had with them recently. I must admit, I wasn't exactly "on" when I wrote this, and anger tends to dissipate over time.

Rule number 1 when writing a good complaint: Write it as soon as you possibly can. Anger is a creative force.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wanted to bring to your attention a mild dissatisfaction that I had recently with flights bearing your flight numbers.

Recently, my wife and I flew from Tullamarine to Bangkok. We were advised when we booked the flights that these would be on JetStar, and this is perfectly understandable, given that it makes perfect business sense to operate code-sharing arrangements.

Our problems, however, started there.

Whilst our flights were on JetStar planes, the flight numbers we were given started with QF, meaning that for all intents and purposes, they were Qantas flights.

So you can imagine our surprise when we took our seats to find that all the normal things that we would expect on a Qantas flight were not there. On Qantas flights, we expect to find meal services, drinks as well as a blanket and pillow.

It, therefore, came as a bit of a rude shock to us to find that we had to pay extra for these on the flight. This is not what one expects when flying what is expected to be a Qantas flight.

While I am doing my best in this not to harp on about what is expected when operating a code-sharing agreement, the following should be noted: It is the duty of Qantas to ensure that where a code-sharing arrangement exists, an equivalent level of service is received by the paying passengers. The fact that JetStar was operating the service should in no way be any different than if the flight was operated by British Airways, Aer Lingus or Burkina Faso Air.

On top of this, at the end of the flight when we went to try to get food, we were told that this was for passengers who had ordered this in advance and that there was nothing for any other passengers, even if they were prepared to pay.

Given all this, we decided to pre-order for our return flight, and were pleased with the results, however as we were, as has been mentioned before, flying what was in effect a Qantas flight, this should not have been necessary.

JetStar operates clean, new planes with what is probably the most attractive cabin staff I’ve ever seen. This says more about JetStar’s recruitment policies than it does about me, but they were competent and did their jobs with a smile. It is a shame, then, that Qantas doesn’t ensure that JetStar provides the rest of the package.

Given that Qantas owns JetStar, one would think that you are in a box seat to ensure that Qantas passengers on JetStar flights are treated with an equivalent level of service to what they would be if they were on a Qantas flight. This would be a no-brainer with any other company where this sort of thing exists.

I hope that this email has been of some assistance. Please feel free to contact me if you require further information.

Yours sincerely, Dikkii.

Oh well, I'll see what I get back.

Disclosure: This blogger owns shares in Qantas.

The Age response

I hope I also get a response from Catherine - If she's got the guts!

Dear Cameron

Thank you for taking the time to contact The Age. I have recorded it in Reader Feedback.

I have also forwarded it to Catherine Deveny.

Kind regards

Helen Barnett
Reader Services
THE AGE

The Age Online 5 Sept - Annoying sarcastic writer!

Dear all,

It would be nice if there was the capability to leave comments on particular articles that aren’t a part of the ‘Blog’ section.

Today I read an article by Catherine Devery titled “Why do some wives still change their names?”. After reading the article I felt like giving Catherine a few pointers as to ‘why’, but found myself lost for a place to post these pointers.

So here goes….

Dear Catherine,

Thank you firstly for pushing your ideals and beliefs on everyone else through your commentaries like some unwanted religion. Although I don’t believe that wive ‘must’ change there names I think that it does make things a little easier in the future. Let me give you an example as I’m sure you are currently about to delete this email as I’m not sure you take advise well.

The logical reason why it is still within the realms of sanity to change names at marriage is for the children that usually follow in the future. Firstly the issue of what last name to give your children is the first hurdle. Under the regular system that 90% of the public use, the child/children are named after their father. Simple. Under your devised system, firstly there would be bickering as to the last name of the 1st child followed by further bickering as more children are born. Your solution I would assume would be to take on both parent’s last names in a hyphenated way. Like Micheal Devery-Davidson for example if we were to have children together (trust me this is a hypothetical as you’re not my type, and visa versa).

Although Michael Devery-Davidson is a great name (maybe a little long if a middle name were added, but non the less). Of course there would be more bickering as to whose last name is first and whose was second. Now this form of name naming is fine for first generation kids, but it becomes a concern down the track (as I’m sure as a mother you would also push your narrow beliefs on your children as well).

Let’s go to the next generation assuming hypothetical Michael didn’t become a life long bachelor, seeking to rid the world of capitalism and poverty. Michael weds Kate Smith with the same feelings and beliefs and they have a child Joan. Joan then would take on the name Joan Devery-Davidson-Smith, and adding a middle name would now mean that Joan would need the bank to design a wider credit card to accommodate her ridiculous surname.

Let’s now just flow forward a couple of generations, when you and I have long been divorced are pushing up daisies. We now have created relatives with names like Jeffery Devery-Davidson-Smith-Bond-Gatting-Everitt-Samuels-Jackson-Laycock….You get my drift.

So next time you think wives change there names solely because they are weak or there husbands are chauvinistic pigs, think again, look outside your tiny square that you call reality, and be at peace that it will continue for a long time.

Thanks,

Answer from Nestle!!!! More Freebies!!!!

Dear Ms Forder (Friend who I wrote this for)

We are concerned to learn of your experience with your recent purchase of one of our products, ALLENS Party Jumbo Pack 570g.

Prior to packing, the sweets are jumble sorted and generally speaking the balance of sweets is fairly even. However, it would appear that the balance of assortments in the packet which was purchased was caused by a failure in the product blending system.

We would hasten to assure you that failures of this nature are rare and are usually detected and rectified by our machine operators prior to final packing.

Thankyou for reporting this matter as it allows us to investigate and take steps to prevent such occurrences happening in the future.

Please accept a cheque as reimbursement for replacement product.

Yours Sincerely,
NESTLE AUSTRALIA LTD.

H Kennedy
FOOD ADVISER

Encl. Cheque $20.00

Nestle Complaint

I was asked to write this for a friend. Passive I know but hey, how upset can you get about this?


To whom it may concern,

For many years now I have had much personal enjoyment from many of the fine products that your company distributes. This is due to the wide variety that Nestle produces and the exceptional quality standard that you maintain. Unfortunately this has come to a grinding halt and left me somewhat disenchanted with a particular product of yours.

For several weeks now I have been purchasing the Neslte Allens 570g “Party Mix” from the Safeway store at Roxburgh Park. I have chosen to do this for one reason specifically. That reason is because I am particularly fond of the “Bananas” that you make. This would be a most auspicious situation except for one thing. There doesn’t seem to be any more than one or two “Bananas” in the entire pack. I have not purely based this on buying one or two packets of your product either. For over 4 weeks now I have purchased no less than 16 packets of your “Party Mix” and have found that the situation continues to reoccur.

The most accurate definition of “Mix” in relation to this situation in the dictionary states: “A commercially prepared mixture of dry ingredients”. Now, having done my homework, I find it hard to believe that there are on average; 12 snakes, 6 black cats, 8 jelly babies, 5 strawberry creams and 5 pink things for whom the name escapes me, in every pack. Yet, only 1 or 2 bananas ever make it! Correct me if I am wrong, but this does seem a little out of balance to say the very least. There are only three reasons I can think of that would cause this. Either 1: The “mixing” machine you use performs extremely poorly. 2: Somehow the QLD banana crisis has affected how many lolly bananas go into your packets or 3: It simply costs you more to produce these bananas and therefore you purposely restrict the amount that ends up in your packets.

Obviously in anyone’s right mind it will be the third reason which leaves me most disheartened with Nestle. As I stated earlier, up until now I have always had the reassurance when buying a Nestle product that I would be satisfied with the quality, but unfortunately here, it seems that you have dropped the ball and put yourselves in the same category as three quarters of the rest of the sub-standard products and companies in the market.

Having tried to locate an Allens packet of just bananas alone to fix this problem for myself has thus far not been fruitful (pardon the pun) and seeing your bananas are the only ones that I like, puts me in a most unfavourable position. I would ideally like to continue purchasing your products but at this stage, if this type of “skimming” or “cost cutting” continues I will be forced to select another inferior product from one of your competitors because I would rather do that than be seemingly ripped off each time. I realise that this is only a minute problem in your grand company but one that could spill over into further products in the future. This, I would be most upset to see which is why I am bringing it to your attention now.

In any event, I, as a consumer of several of your products, would love to see an improvement in this area and restore my faith in the Nestle brand which I have spent a lifetime getting to know and feel safe with.

Any action or response to this feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely