This got me thinking today as I went to a restaurant as someone wanted to try it out but it seemed like he didn’t make reservations. So even though there were a lot of empty tables we had to wait if we wanted to dine there and the waitress mentioned it would be about 20-minute wait. That’s not too bad and so the person left their number as they have system that texts people when the seat is ready. We ended up just looking at some of the local stores for a bout twenty minutes or so and then started to head back to the restaurant. To our surprise, despite there seemed to be people leaving the restaurant it still wasn’t our turn. The lady then mentioned there were four parties ahead of us. That would imply it’s about an hour wait and it was then she mentioned she had no clue when a seat will be available.
I was thinking, it probably would have been better to be honest in the first place so that we can make a decision as to how long we would be willing to wait. We ended up not dining at the restaurant due to time constraints as it could literally be over an hour until a seat became available. I can only assume the person said twenty minutes as it’s a way to keep a sale kind of like going in any other business where you see a lineup but the workers say it will e quick in which people hang around.
But misleading people I this way probably encourages people to never go back I was thinking. They probably won’t notice it at the moment since they seem busy, but little things like these can definitely add up for when you need all the customers you can get.