El Mejicano Restaurant & Cantina in Wichita Falls has assholes for managers

I am posting this to show the ridiculous way I was treated by El Mejicano Restaurant & Cantina in Wichita Falls at 5401 Central Fwy:

On April 1^st, 2015, a friend and I stopped by the restaurant and had a couple of Margaritas. We were told by the waiter that the chips and salsa were free as long as were drinking or eating. He even brought more later without us even requesting them.

On April 2^nd, 2015, I returned alone, telling a different waiter that I wouldn’t need to see the menu, and that I would  just be having a margarita with the chips and salsa.

After finishing, I noted a charge on the check for about $5.00, designated by only a number. When I asked the cashier about it, I was told it was for the chips and salsa.

I requested to see the manger. I explained “I thought the salsa and chips were free.” He quickly took the charge off my bill, but rudely saying “I’ll take it off this time,” seeming to imply that I might try to get free chips and salsa again. He then very rudely got the menu and shoved it under my face saying, “It’s right on the menu.” 

In defense, I explained “Yesterday, the waiter told me they were free.”

The manager then rudely responded, “No, that’s not our policy.”

I responded, “I’m just telling you, that’s what the waiter told me.”

Then the manager responded, “We don’t get them for free, so we can’t give them away for free.”

The manager’s answers were just ridiculous. His responses to me could only have met that either he thought I was lying or that I was arguing that both he and the menu were be wrong and the waiter was right. This, of course, is just ridiculous; nobody would think both the menu and the manager would be wrong about the price of something, while the waiter for some unknown reason must be correct.

I then just left, but on the following day while dining at On The Boarder Mexican Restaurant (a much better restaurant), I told the waitress there what had happened at El Mejicano Restaurant & Cantina. She said I should complain to corporate headquarters. That evening I wrote a letter and sent it to the corporate office of El Mejicano Restaurant & Cantina to Ricardo Cantu. He never answered, however; Instead I received an email response from the vice president, Vanessa Liston.

After apologizing for taking a long time to answer, Ms. Liston unbelievably began to defend the manager by saying, “The manager told you right, there is charge for the chips and salsa, but unfortunately the waiter was new and gave you wrong information.”

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. She was doing the same thing to me that the manager had done. She was acting as if I was claiming the waiter was correct and the manager was wrong. This is just crazy. Right in my letter of complaint, I clearly stated, “I neither claimed it was the restaurant’s policy to provide chips and salsa for free, nor did I suggest that they got them for free.”  Apparently Liston cannot read English.

Nobody would think both the menu and the manager were wrong about the price of something. I, obviously, was just telling the manager why I thought the chips and salsa were free and thus why I hadn’t read the menu, after he had rudely shoved it at me telling me the price is right on it.

All the manager ever had to do was just tell me he was sorry that the waiter misinformed me, then the matter would’ve been settled in seconds right there at the restaurant. But no, he acted as if I was either lying or telling him I thought the waiter was correct and he was wrong. Also, all the vice president had to do was to just apologize for the manager’s ridiculous behavior and assure me that nothing like that would ever happened again. But no, she behaved in the same ridiculous way, acting as if I was arguing that the manager was wrong and the waiter was right. Also, as is customary in such situations, she might’ve even offered me a coupon to have a free meal. But, that was not done either. In her letter to me she never even offered me an apology for the conduct of the manger.

The vice president did go on to say that they had retrained the entire staff in how to deal with "customers who are unhappy or have an issue." But, if she didn’t even understand the issue, how could she have retrained the staff to deal with somebody who had a complaint like mine? I was complaining about the manager’s inexplicable responses, and then she just did likewise, though not in a rude fashion. I was not complaining about being charged for the chips and salsa. So I don’t know what the rest of the staff was supposed to have had to do with this, nor was I ever told how they were trained.

Anyway, my friend and I went back to the restaurant after receiving the vice-president’s pointless response. We were told this time that we could have the chips and salsa for free the first time, but if we wanted any additional, we would have to pay the charge. While this was nice, it made it seem as though they thought I had complained previously about being charged for the chips and the salsa. I didn’t care at all if they charged for the chips and salsa, that was not the point of my complaint. I was only complaining about how the manager treated me after I complained about being charged for the chips and the salsa after being told they were free on the previous day. All was fine though, and I was willing to just let things be forgotten.

My friend told the waitress he would like to have a pitcher of room temperature water with no ice. We also ordered our food. About a minute later, the manager, rather than the waitress, returned with a pitcher of ice water and plopped it down on the table and then quickly left. A little later I informed the manager that we had ordered room temperature water. He was polite and quickly replaced the water and the rest of the meal went on without incident.

I hadn't yet responded to the vice president’s email message to me yet, so I wanted her to know that in my original complaint I was not telling the manager I thought the waiter was correct and he (the manager) was not, as it appeared she thought in her answer to me. While explaining I felt she apparently misunderstood my complaint, I also mentioned that the manager seemed to have “butted in” while we were ordering during this second occasion, taking over the waitress’s job and then brought the wrong order, bringing ice water rather than the room temperature water ordered. Due to his taking over the order and getting it wrong, along with his previous rudeness to me, I complain that I did not think the manager had proper managerial skills. I in no way suggested that he be fired or demoted, however.

In the vice president’s reply to me, she became incensed at my suggesting that the manager did not have proper managerial skills, and it sounded as if I would only be happy if he was fired. She claimed that the manager had taken over the order because the waitress had been called to the telephone. She then told me that she thought that I “had it in” for the manager, and I might cause an altercation causing either he or the patrons to be injured. This is absolutely beyond craziness, as I was always extremely polite to the manager, and it was only he who had been impolite to me, the vice president had the audacity to tell me to take my business elsewhere.

Yes, all I did was complain about a situation in which the manager was very rude to me and another situation where the manager took over the waitress's duties, bringing the wrong order. I complained only about things that any normal human being on earth would complain about. Yet for just acting in a normal manner and standing up for myself, I was excluded from ever going to the restaurant again.

It is obvious that the management personnel as this restaurant do not know how to conduct themselves and do not know how to properly address the general public’s complaints. Everyone makes mistakes, but when complaints are made about those mistakes, the complaint is supposed to be properly understood, and the situation is supposed to be corrected and not made worse.

I highly recommend that you do not patronize this restaurant since it is quite obvious that both the manager and the vice president “have issues” and do not have the proper qualifications for dealing with the general public.