I was at the gym during my break shift- rest between shifts- one early evening when my wife came by to hand over my cell phone, which I'd left at home. She said that there had been numerous missed calls and that she had taken one call, apparently from an irate customer. The customer had requested that I call back ASAP.
I checked the missed calls record and called back the Assistant Manager of our Oriental Restaurant. He reported that an incident had taken place during lunch wherein a piece of metal, a screw in fact, had been found in the customer's wok dish. All attempts at pacification had failed and they'd given the customer my direct number.
I immediately called back on the customer’s number and heard him out. According to him there was this ugly, disgusting, old metal screw in his food. Why then should he not report us to the municipal authorities, he fumed. I proffered my apologies and promised to call him back after investigating the incident.
I went to the Oriental place after my break. The problem, apart from the obvious facts, was that in this particular dish there was so little sauce that the chances of something not being detected before being served were remote. Also there would’ve been a metallic noise in the wok had there been a piece of metal while cooking. The pick-up boy who brought it from the kitchen and the actual server were both trustworthy.
What then was the explanation? I decided to place the facts in front of the customer just as I’d found them.
I called him up and explained. ‘We’ve checked the kitchen preparation area, all the sauces & ingredients. The only possible explanation could be that as some maintenance activity had taken place today, this might have fallen in. This is completely bizarre and we’re truly sorry this happened.’
He did not argue, accepted my apology and told me that we ought to be more careful in the future.
The Manager of the Oriental Restaurant, who was not around earlier, felt that the customer might himself have deliberately done this. While this was possible, what did he achieve? Also he’d not been as difficult as he possibly could’ve been.
What then was the answer, the true origins of the screw remain a mystery to date.
