I had this guy complain that one of my servers had charged him for an automatic gratuity and now he was not happy. After asking a couple of questions to find out whether the gratuity was warranted or not, he told me, as I also figured out, that it had been a mistake, but rather than have the server correct the check (Which the server offered to do) the guest insisted to just leave it alone because his debit card might get charged twice once the error is corrected. This is also something I found out through the server.
This "special guest" then made it a point that he was the owner of a popular eatery in Manhattan Beach and how his Yelp or other rating was at 4.5 an that was even higher than their other popular neighbour, Disneyland. He actually handed me a business card with his name on it and his title - General Manager. I guess if its a family business, he might be the son working as the GM. Nonetheless, he made it a point to tell me that they usually have a two hour wait for their tables and they had to hire a magician to entertain those waiting outside.
Another thing - (He wasn't done) The took care of their guest so well that on the way out, they asked people if their experience had been fantastic and if they did not answer positively, they didn't make them pay.
I think he was just trying to tell me that he was not happy with his experience at one of our restaurants and hinting that I should not charge him for anything.
Here's a great piece of advise to friends and customers.
State the problem - make sure its genuine please-
Ask how you want it to be solved.
We are eager to listen to your complaint and solve it as best as we can to make you happy and keep you as a customer.
We do not need to know that you are the CEO of Bob's Sandwiches or MBA,MD,BS,UFC,CNN or other type of important person or who you may know. It only creates static while we are trying to solve your issue.
By the way, I went into our POS system and removed the automatic gratuity, sorry server - you lost out due to not paying attention-.
closed the check for the correct amount without obtaining a new authorization code and sent a copy of the final check to the guest's room along with a nice amenity basket as an apology for the "misunderstanding".
