They are STILL at it? Get a life! Become normal FReepers like us!!
Posted on 08/10/2013 2:35:35 PM PDT by amybouzaglo
Apparently, they are inflicting such horrors on humanity.
They are STILL at it? Get a life! Become normal FReepers like us!!
I know, my taste in humor sucks.
Please accept my apologies.
5.56mm
same here...monty python and ernie kovac morbid humor.
It sure would be easy to do that. People, being what they are lately, might pretend to be them, for a kick.
True that, but did you see the show that had them on it?
I could believe it is them.
But there also could be reasonable doubt.
Nevertheless, from what I saw on the show, I would NEVER patronize their restaurant.
I could believe it is them. But there also could be reasonable doubt.
True. But then it’s so hard to tell. Parodies and these types of pranks only work if there is some kernel of truth behind them.
As best I can discern the whole thing started when a bad review of their restaurant was posted on Yelp. Yelp for anyone who doesn’t know, along with other similar “customer review” sites have to be taken with a big grain of salt. They are basically unmonitored and anyone can post just about anything and do so anonymously. You will find not only bad reviews but ridiculously bad and nasty reviews and you will also find multiple reviews so glowingly positive and so nearly identical in wording that you can figure it was posted by the business owner or someone they paid to post it. The truth probably lies somewhere in between.
For instance when I was looking for an apartment I went to a few apartment review sites and it was worthless. One review would say that “the whole building reeked of garbage, a roach infested nightmare, the maintenance was non-existent, everything broke down just about every day, the people in the rental office were extremely rude and nasty and all their neighbors were running meth labs and fighting pit bulls in the parking lot and playing loud music at all hours of the night, and THEY DIDN’T GIVE ME MY SECURITY DEPOSIT BACK – NEVER RENT AN APARTMENT IN THIS COMPLEX!!!. ” (do you think a post like this might be more revenge more than an honest review?) Then the very next review would say how wonderful the place was, it was like Heaven on Earth, the apartments were great, very modern and well kept, great neighbors, friendly staff, never a single problem, would recommend to everyone”, and the next positive review was almost identical but with the wording switched around just a bit. Somewhere in between the CAP LOCKS rants describing the place as the literal Pit of Hell and the glowing reviews, those reviews that were obviously cut and pasted from the leasing company’s brochure, you might find a few honest reviews but who has time to wade through all the garbage. I would not avoid a restaurant based solely on reviews on Yelp. Reviews on Amazon and other similar sites and on-line retailers are the same; you have to take a lot of the really, really bad and the really, really glowing with a big grain of salt.
The problem was that Amy (the very real Amy) took great offence to a bad Yelp review by posting in response:
“As for you having the Patio all to yourself unless you have been living on another PLANET it is summertime in ARIZONA MORON!!! Only TRAMPS and LOSERS want to sit outside in 110 temperatures!!!... Do US a favor and keep your ugly face and you ugly opinions to yourself and go back to the restaurant that you really work at!!”
She also attacked other “Yelpers” in a similar manner. She decided to wage a holy war, a “Jihad” if you will on the World Wide Interwebs and lost. (Hint – the way to negate negative reviews is not by verbally attacking the negative reviewer, calling him/her names and furthermore threatening lawsuits against anyone who wasn’t happy with their pizza or thought the service was too slow).
This attitude BTW was born out by her and her husband’s actual words and reactions toward anyone who wasn’t completely enthralled by their dining experience as filmed by Kitchen Nightmares. While I’m sure the show is heavily edited to paint the place in the worst possible light (otherwise why would Gordon Ramsey need to come in to save the day?) unless Amy and Samy want to admit that they were only acting as they did and saying what they did because it was scripted that way, then either they are liars or the level of craziness and deep denial on their part was only just scratching the surface.
In fact the episode opened up with Ramsey being very pleased with the decor, the cleanliness and organization of the kitchen, the positive things he had to say about the desserts, almost seeming to wonder what the problem was and why he was there, but then with Amy saying that she was “fighting back” against the bad reviews, the HATERS, THE BLOGGERS, saying that anyone who didn’t like her cooking didn’t know anything about good food, “the customer isn’t always right”, that she, as someone with no professional culinary training or prior experience running a restaurant, that she has a “God Given Gift”, then goes on to berate the staff, the customers, talked about the high turnover (it was because all the workers were terrible people), pocketing the servers tips (which is illegal *), etc., it was soon apparent why the place was in trouble. She evidently thought that Ramsey would find the place so wonderful and her cooking so perfect that this would put an end to all the negative reviews. She evidently never watched the show. It’s called “Kitchen Nightmares” for a reason and not “Some Kitchens Are Nightmares But Then Some Are Perfect, Except For Those HATERS On Yelp” LOL!
If the show is to be believed, Ramsey tried to help them but Amy and her husband are in such deep denial that they refused to even listen, acted plain bat guano crazy and then played the “martyr”. The show was disastrous and only added to their problems. And what did they do? They lashed out at Ramsey (in violation of the contract they signed with the show) much like they lashed out at the negative Yelp reviewers.
I think it’s natural for a business owner to be upset about negative reviews, especially if they think they are exaggerated or undeserved, but the worst possible thing to do is to angrily and defensively respond to each and every one of them and insult the reviewers. That’s what started it and after a short time, it went viral. Soon people were trolling them and Amy and Sammy kept feeding the trolls, pouring gasoline on the fire.
The next worse thing they did was go on Kitchen Nightmares thinking the show was going to portray them in a positive light (again, had they ever watched the show before agreeing to go on it or are they really that out of touch with “reality”?) Their appearance on the show brought them even more attention, but all of the wrong kind.
And yes, ever since, some people have been trolling them unmercifully, setting up fake Twitter and FB accounts pretending to be them (as might be the case here) and posting some very nasty and vile stuff to their real accounts. Lately they (the real Amy and Sammy) claim that their work emails, FB, Twitter and Yelp accounts and website all have been “hacked” and they are threatening legal action, calling the police and the FBI. But as the link to an article I posted a link to below points out, “To hack all of these sites simultaneously would be a feat that the hacker group Anonymous would be proud of. If your Facebook page has been hijacked, then the hackers will most likely have changed the password rendering it inaccessible for your use. Your Facebook business page uses the same Facebook password as your Facebook profile page.” They seem to not understand that people posting negative comments or setting up alternate fake accounts is not the same thing as being “hacked” and while some of the crazy rants are from imposters and trolls, a good number of them are not.
After the show aired and they closed the restaurant for a short time, then they reopened and hired a PR firm but the PR firm quit after only 5 days citing “differences”. One can only assume that they are people who cannot take any criticism or advice even when they are paying for it.
http://www.zdnet.com/10-social-media-lessons-from-amys-baking-company-facebook-meltdown-7000016482/
And now the real Amy and Sammy have very recently (Aug 11) posted links on their real FB account pointing to positive reviews on Yelp saying “We are humbled by these reviews, and have decided to share them before Y**P removes them for "Violating their Guidelines". The problem is that first of all many of these positive reviews are very similar in their wording and sound like they were written by the same person and a few are posted by Yelpers who give every establishment 5 stars, i.e. paid reviews. The other problem is that instead of just pointing to positive reviews, they take a swipe a Y**p by implying “they” (Yelp like everyone else) is out to get them and will remove the positive reviews for "Violating their Guidelines".
Now they are also selling tee shirts and other “classy” merchandise with their catch phrases from Kitchen Nightmares like “Here’s your pizza, go f**k yourself” and “I Speak Feline MEOW!” trying to cash in on the negative publicity but in reality only perpetuating it. They then said that 10% of the profits would go to the Prescott Firefighters Charities Family Fund (a nice gesture IMO) but when someone pointed out that 10% of the profits rather than 10% of the proceeds was a pretty paltry amount, they posted a very long rant, mostly about their tipping policy and hourly wage and how they were investigated and that there were no “violations” found then this: “We would like to “help” you all understand……I am sorry that you feel that 10% is a “paltry” amount, but would you mind sharing with us how much money you have donated to the families?
Again, it is yet another massive PR failure. It is one thing to respond to, clarify or put a positive spin on a negative comment, whether the negative comment is deserved or not, it is yet another to respond to a negative comment by going even more negative.
* As to their tipping policy and the ridiculous “contract” that they made employees sign (which they have since amended since it came to light) this is the most interesting aspect for me as a PR/HR professional and this is why I’m interested in this story and not so much about the craziness of it all and hence my lengthy post.
They say that they pay their severs wage of $8 to $10 an hour, far above the minimum wage for tipped employees in AZ of $4.80 per hour and saying that the higher wage guaranteed them a steady income during slow periods when tips might be low. But the problem is not that they didn’t allow their servers to keep their tips, the problem is that they didn’t have a strict and stated and consistently enforced no-tipping policy, so when patrons tipped their servers thinking it went to them they had no way of knowing that it actually went directly into the pockets of the owners. I’d be pretty pissed if a restaurant didn’t state and enforce a no-tipping rule, explaining that their servers were paid a higher wage in lieu of tips, allowing me to tip a good server but unknown to me, not allowing them to keep the money I voluntarily gave to directly to them for good service. They would also be subject to paying these servers overtime if they were paid a straight $8 to $12 per hour under federal and AZ OT rules.
Next, even when a tipped employee doesn’t make enough tips on a shift to come up to at least the AZ $7.80 minimum wage, the employer has to make up the difference – the “tip make up” rule that is both Federal and AZ DOL law. So while someone making $8 an hour might come out ahead assuming they don’t make anything in tips to bring them up above $7.80 and assuming their base rate is the minimum $4.80, they are still getting screwed by missing out on tips as most people tip anywhere from 10% to 20% of the bill. Good servers at high end and busy successful restaurants as Amy’s Bakery Company claims to be, can make a lot more than $12 per hour when tips are factored in, some can make $15 to $20 per hour or more. They complain about not being able to find good workers but given their policies and how they treat their workers and customers, it is little wonder why.
Next while some of the rules in Amy’s Bakery Company’s employee contract made some sense to me, the non–compete clause (not working for any competitor within a 50 mile radius of ABC within one year of termination or voluntary resignation) are just plain crazy and IMO as an HR professional, legally unenforceable. While I’ve seen non-compete employment contracts for high level professionals, executives and mostly for sales persons, I’ve never seen this for any hourly employee. But the biggest red flag was the clause that said “Any products such as food or plates that are broken or burned due to direct negligence will be taken from your pay check at ABC’s [Amy's Baking Company] cost,” and that “working holidays and weekends are required, and if an employee fails to show up on any of those days, they will be “monetarily penalized with a fee of $250.00.”
While AZ, unlike many other states, does allow an employer to deduct for Cash Shortages; Breakage, Damage, or Loss of Property; Dishonored Checks; An employer may deduct wages from an employee’s paycheck only with written consent by the employee for the following: cash shortages; breakage, damage, or loss of the employer’s property; dishonored or returned checks; In accordance with federal law, an employer may not make deductions from an employees paycheck if it would cause the employee to earn less than federal minimum wage, including deductions for uniforms, tools, or other items necessary for employment with the employer., deducing $250 for not showing up for work or not working a weekend or holiday is highly illegal in every state that I know of. Most employers in the restaurant (or retail) business do not make deductions for cash shortages or “food or plates that are broken or burned” as this is a cost of doing business and the right thing to do when an employee purposely brakes equipment due to purposeful negligence is to terminate them immediately under the rules as clearly stated in the employee handbook, paying them the wages they already earned and not making either authorized or any disputable unauthorized PR deductions as this is a quick way to get mired in all sorts of legal troubles and get a bad reputation as a business not to work for. How does one determine if a server purposely broke a plate or it was just an accident? And as far as burning food, does not Amy claim to do all the cooking?
The long and short of it is that these people have no understanding of how to run a restaurant or any business for that matter and most of all they have no idea how to deal with PR. They are a text book case of what not to do especially when it comes to “social media”
Do I think our recently Zotted poster is an imposter? Yes. Probably. It was very over the top even for the “real” Amy and Sammy but then again, I’m not so sure.
Excellent analysis.
It was worth the read.
That said, even if I lived near enough to them to patronize their business, I would not. After all, even if the TV show was highly edited, there was certainly enough there to indict them. Yelling and swearing at customers and telling them not to return? Demanding they pay for food they’d been waiting over an hour for that they never received?
Simply not acceptable.
They did that to themselves.
Thanks.
That said, even if I lived near enough to them to patronize their business, I would not. After all, even if the TV show was highly edited, there was certainly enough there to indict them. Yelling and swearing at customers and telling them not to return? Demanding they pay for food they’d been waiting over an hour for that they never received? Simply not acceptable.
In the spirit of fairness, the Bouzaglo’s claim that the diner who they cursed at and threw out even as they insisted he pay for the meal he hadn’t received after an hour + wait, was actually a “Blogger” or one of the people who posted negative reviews about them on Yelp and who had been harassing them on-line, invited by the producers and that he had started the confrontation which is not shown on the show. But then again, what did they expect? Shows like this count on controversy and craziness in order to get ratings and they; the Bouzaglo’s took the bait hook line and sinker. Even if it was a setup and they were provoked, one has to wonder if they act like that when they are being filmed, how do they act when the cameras are not around?
They did that to themselves.
Agreed. For many years, right out of high school, I worked in convenience store management and later in other retail establishments (grocery stores) before moving into payroll, benefits, HR information systems and human resource management, but I learned a lot at a very young age about working with people a lot more than I would have learned in a college business course.
For one thing, in working with the public you have to develop a thick skin and know the difference between a legitimate complaint, a rather unreasonable complaint that can still be resolved and a crazy bat guano customer. You need to learn the difference between when you go the extra step to satisfy a customer even if you think their complaint is unreasonable (the customer may not always be “right” but a satisfied customer is likely to be a return customer) and when to tell a highly abusive and unreasonable customer to get out and never come back.
I will never forget the day a nicely dressed professional looking woman came into my convenience store early one morning for some coffee. She complained that the creamer was curdled and showed it to me. I apologized profusely, told her to get another cup and that I would get fresh creamer for her and that her coffee would be free. And what was her reaction? She cursed at me and then threw the hot cup of coffee at my head. Thankfully I had quick reflexes back then and while the hot coffee missed my head it landed on my legs – but it was still painful. She stormed off and drove away. And I stood there in shock thinking “What the heck did I do wrong? What could I have done differently?” That is the extreme and the exception rather than the rule, but over the years I’ve had similar experiences with the public while working in retail – some people are just plain crazy or think that just because you work in a service position, they can treat you like crap. That’s just as inexcusable IMO as a business owner abusing their employees or customers – both are examples of people behaving badly and there is no excuse for it in a civilized society.
I also learned at a very young age how to deal with and manage employees. As a manager or employer, you have to have clearly defined and consistently enforced rules but they also have to be reasonable rules and fair. And you have to understand that sometimes employees will try to buck the system or will be critical of your decisions, either rightly or wrongly. Again you have to have a thick skin and not always take it personally or react out of anger. I’ve found that by listening to your employees that sometimes you can learn a lot from them – they are not always just complaining – sometimes they have good suggestions that are worth listening to.
A few years back I was managing a department at tech company that specialized in third party on-line benefits enrollment. I had an employee in my audit department who was an excellent worker, highly productive and was a real pleasure to work with. But as was normal for this company we went through yet another internal re-org and our department was re-named and on the advice of HR, many of our job titles were also re-named. This worker’s job title was changed from something like “Benefit Enrollment Technician” to “Benefit Audit Specialist”. It was only a job title change and I even asked her for her input before making the change (she had none), but after the change was made, one night as I was working very late I got a lengthy and rather angry email from her complaining about the job title change (to her it sounded like a demotion) along with a long laundry list of other complaints. I was completely floored and my first reaction was to reply to her in an angry email telling her that if she didn’t like her job, that she should find another. Then I calmed down and decided to not reply or react, to sleep on it and re-read it in the morning with a clear head.
I did that and then I invited her to meet with me later that day. As it turned out, once she and I had calmed down, she had a legitimate concern as people in the company who had the title of “Tech” were at a higher level than people who had the job title of “Specialist”, a “Specialist” was an entry level position in our org and she had been there for over 4 years and she was concerned that her co-workers might see the job title change as a demotion and that while she did not manage anyone directly she did help train and oversee the work of other more junior techs. One of her other “complaints” was that many other people in the company at a position similar to hers, were allowed to have laptops and work from home on occasion (and much like I did). She pointed out how many hours she put in and that when she had a child care issues or couldn’t come into the office because of weather, unlike many others in similar positions, she had to take PTO rather than having the option to work from home or make up the time that same week.
I listened to her complaints and realized that she raised some very good and legitimate points. I also pointed out to her that I had an “open door” policy and that she could have come to me at any time and raised these concerns and that when I had asked her for her input about the job title change and she seemed to be fine with it. She apologized and realized she handled it poorly. We talked a great length about communications and about if she ever had a concern that she could and should talk to me about it right away rather than holding it in and harboring resentment over it. We decided on a new job title “Senior Benefit Audit Technician” and I got her the ability to work remotely when needed. We also agreed to have weekly meetings and if she took on more responsibility for overseeing the junior techs, she would get a raise and promotion which she did. I also got her approved for some company paid management courses so that she could further her career.
While I was initially angry and took her complaints rather personally, a clear and level head and some management skills let me diffuse the situation and retain a very valuable and productive employee who was able to take over my role when I left the company for another position.
In my vast experience, over 30+ years and in working in many different lines of business, if you treat your employees and customers like crap, you will get crap employees and crap customers.
Exactly.
Obviously, they saw no problem with their behavior.
I am with Gordon on this.
Crazy bookmark for later.
What was this all about?
How did I miss this 1st time around?
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