About a year ago, a Thai restaurant by the name of Buppha Thai opened up right up the street from us. My wife and I, always scouring for new restaurants, decided to give it a whirl – and we really enjoyed it. We told our friends about it, and I think some of those friends even went to it.
In April, we celebrated Schue’s (my wife’s) birthday. My brother and his wife, along with others, came up with a great idea – a “Taste of Delaware County” gift – which included gift certificates to Nora Lee’s (great Delco New Orleans style restaurant), The Frontier Saloon (hole-in-the wall, with some great beer on tap), and Buppha Thai.
A few weeks ago, my wife and I decided to order out, and we thought it would be a great time to use the Buppha Thai gift certificate. My wife called, and right before ordering, she mentioned that she had a gift certificate. The man at the restaurant tersely informed her that the restaurant is under new management, and will not honor the gift certificate.
No offense, but I think that’s bull-sh*t. I think that if you take over a restaurant, you should be also taking over and honoring any of the gift certificates that are still owed to the restaurant. First of all, it’s just good business, isn’t it? I mean, don’t you want to start off on the right foot without pissing off any existing customers? Second, something tells me there may be some legal implications to this (I think I’ll ask my brother’s wife to dig into this – she’s good with that kind of stuff).
My wife and I enjoy “mom and pop” restaurants, and will normally choose these over the chains (for many reasons). I try never to bury any of these places, but when I feel I’ve been screwed, I have no choice. I will never, ever eat there again, AND I’ll make sure that I tell everyone I know to ignore this place. The restaurant name is now called “Thai L’ Elephant, and is located on Mac Dade Boulevard in Folsom, PA. The website is: www.thailelelphant.com.
Writer’s Workshop: Passing The Baton
4 months ago
15 comments:
take them to small claims court. it should only cost you the time.
That is terribly dumb of them. They do have to honor it. The money was paid. They collected and didn't issue goods.
If I'm ever in PA, I'll make sure to drive by and flip them off. :-)
Maybe "new management" means that the old manager works the later shift, and they hired a new guy for the earlier shift.
Obligation depends upon definition of "new management."
If it's the same owner playing a shell game, then you're absolutely right. Happens often with bars losing their liquor licenses for serving teenagers.
If a franchisee, then it should honor past obligations of the regional or national brand.
But if local place with completely different owner, then they only bought the capital equipment, liquor license (if applicable), and rights to rent the building. And the legal debts (liens, etc). Sorry, you're SOL. Use it or lose it.
Another angle to consider: let's say you bought the bar at the stadium Holiday Inn. In the last week before the handoff, the old owner went to an Eagles game and gave a $20 coupon to everyone in attendance. Now you're saddled with $150,000 of immediate cash shortfall that you couldn't possibly plan for. Surely your bank would gladly let you default on 6 months of loans to catch up ...
Maybe they should honor it, but there can't be a legal obligation under the local-only true sale condition.
Now that I'm home, that sounded cold ... you'd think I were a cost analyst or something.
My inclination is to treat new customers better. Not knowing their situation, I can't honestly say what I'd do.
But they left you feeling hosed, and that's enough for me. I'm not going, either.
While it was a dumb way to lose a potential new customer, if they are in fact new owners, they are under no legal obligation to honor a gift certificate the previous owner received the cash for.
You cannot take them to small claims, however, you might be able to recover your money from the previous owners since cash was received for services never rendered. I'm guessing you have more important things to do than waste more time on that.
They chose unwisely though grasshopper because though they would have had to incur the cost of the food and labour for your meal, your value as a return customer surely would have exceeded their upfront investment.
Don't worry, I'm sure if this is standard biz practice, they'll surely be under new management again soon and you can try again.
What a bunch of tools. Even if they don't have to honor it, why wouldn't they?
And Thai L'Elephant is a stupid name. I can't even say it. Is it French? Thai? Safari?
They deserve a big Dwight Schrute SHUN! .... babspeapod
Obviously, they do not have to honor it. But, they should've offered like 20% off, or something. Now, they'll never have us as customers.
It's a thai place in Delaware County,for cryin out loud. The land of pizza, nifty fifty's, cheese steaks and isops, they should give some kind of incentive to get us in there rather than basically sayin f off.
From the PA attorney general website:
(http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/consumers.aspx?id=280)
Under Pennsylvania law, unused gift certificates are turned over to the Pennsylvania Department of the Treasury as unclaimed property. The business must turn the gift certificate over two years after expiration date. If there is no expiration date, then it must be turned over five years from the date of issuance. You may claim certificates from the Department of the Treasury by calling 1-800-222-2046. Thus far, The Pennsylvania state treasury has collected more than $2.7 million in unredeemed gift certificates and is currently seeking the rightful owners.
To file a consumer complaint, contact the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection at 1-800-441-2555.
Good for you. Feckers don't deserve your business.
I love small mom and pop type of places... this makes me want to go over there and rip their throats out!
I'm not sure if you have recourse or not. I know of at least one restaurant in PA that changed ownership and had it in the deal that they had to honor previous gift certificates for a period of one year. But that's up to the people making the deal. My guess is that it wasn't in this deal.
I do think it is bad business though. That place couldn't have too many outstanding gift certificates. They could have at least given you a discount on a meal in return for the certificate to make you want to come back. They have coupons in the local magazines for buy one get one half off. At least they could have given you something like that.
It is too bad. I ate at that place under the new ownership before I knew about your fiasco. It was very good. Probably some of the best Thai I've ever had. But now I may think twice about returning.
Heng's Thai in Springfield... try that place. And there's a new Indian/Thai fusion place next to the Regal Edgemont theater called Spice that just opened up. That's next on my list.
Minijonb - Not worth it for me.
Alaina - That's NOT the way to build up their customer base.
Dmarks - I think they actually have another Thai restaurant nearbye.
Jeff - I never said I was taking them to court - my intention was to make sure others in the area knew about what they did to me.
Formerly Fun - Thanks for the info, and thanks for stopping by!
Lisa - Dwight Schrute Shun is in full effect!
Schue - We'll just never go there ... no biggee.
Geb - I'll maybe try calling.
Steph - I know Philly is a long way from where you live, but if your'e ever in the area, PLEASE DO NOT GO TO THIS RESTAURANT!
Insane Mama - I do too. This is why this pisses me off so!
Rev - LaNa in Media is pretty good, too.
Who doesn't honor... that sounds like a Sienfeld episode that didn't happen!
You can bet we won't be going there. Actually, although gc's can't expire, if a resaurant closes or changes management, not a whole lot you can do. There was an article in the Inq about it a few months ago. Some places that knew they were closing sold GC's all the way up to the last day. Now that, is wrong.
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