my P6 Pancake House experience

April 24, 2007

Martin Lorenzo
CEO
Pancake House

Dear Mr. Lorenzo,

Last April 21, 2007 my dad and I were on our way home to Ilocos from Manila and decided to pay a little premium for breakfast instead of the usual fast food. Hands down, our choice was to eat at your reputable branch in Luisita, Tarlac.

Overall, it was a delightful breakfast experience except for the part where we had to pay the bill. I gave P400 for our P393.60 meal and was supposed to have a measly P6.40 change. Normally, I would've replaced it with a higher amount to leave a good tip. The client next to our table got his bill a few minutes after ours and got his change back right away. I was still waiting for ours. A good 10-15 minutes later, when the change didn't come, I had to ask for it. That's when I saw one of your staff open the tip box to recover my change and official receipt.

As a client, several things come to mind:

Is it ethical for Pancake House staff to do that? Is that how you usually conduct your business? Maybe it's time that you review your policies because it definitely shouts "unethical" to me. Or maybe I wasn't dressed as smartly as your staff expects me to be. Maybe they think I wouldn't care and I wouldn't notice and I wouldn't take the extra mile to report this incident to the "big boss".

All I am saying is, I am an entrepreneur myself, and if you (higher management) don't hear about the little business practices your people is doing, you'll slowly be going down the drain.

I never bothered getting the names of your staff, but if you have to sanction them, just check who were on shift from 7.30-9am last April 20, 2007 (Friday).

You may choose to act on this incident or totally ignore it. As far as I’m concerned, Pancake House would always be flashing “rip-off” and “unethical” on my mind.

A delighted-turned-sour customer