Service Please... Service?

I've been to GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen) a few times, I've usually enjoyed it. Food that is nice for a not unreasonable price.

However last time I visited I had a number of issues with the service that spoilt the meal a bit, and made me decide to email their customer service.

That was over two weeks ago. I have yet to receive any response whatsoever from GBK. My email was polite and constructive, yet I haven't even received an auto "someone will get back to you within xxx days" message.

Is it any wonder people now use Facebook as a base for their complaints and comments if companies are this useless as responding to emails and other queries.

So as they appear to not be bothered about speaking to me, here are my issues with my last GBK meal:

• Woman seating us seemed to completely ignore my wife, not bothering to explain the menu even though it was her who hadn't been before
• The food took almost 50 minutes to arrive. I'm not impatient but other people who came in after us were being served before us
• The original server gave us the wrong table number
• When the food was brought out, the guy had to bring it over to us from a different table after realising the number was wrong, but he appeared to have no concern whatsoever for our experience. A simple 'oh sorry about that' would have been fine, but he seemed to have a bit of an attitude
• The cheese sauce we ordered was pretty much a solid lump

So we definitely won't be going to that GBK again, and with customer service like I've had so far (I.e.: None) It's likely I won't be going to any other one either.

Is this how certain agencies think staff should be treated?

I am fucking furious, and before I start let me just clarify three things:

1. This is NOT the agency I work at.

2. This is MY opinion and rage, the person in question has taken this with good grace and maturity.

3. The person/agency will remain nameless because it may be the fault of one person rather than the company as a whole. It would be unfair to label the agency as always acting in this way when I do know others whom it treats well.

A planner I know very well just got made redundant by their agency, and the manner in which they went about it is frankly disgusting, as well as a little confusing.

It appears (in nicer terms than I use) that this happened despite having a workload so big that it takes up his entire week (and more), and having just won two new accounts (one pretty big, the other bless his honesty he won't tell me because it hasn't been announced yet), both of which he worked on and one of which he was sole planner on.

So despite working at capacity for weeks on end (including a week where he worked 6 days for at least 10 hours a day; he gets called into a meeting in mid afternoon and told he is being made redundant and to leave the office. No warnings whatsoever, no time to sort things out, not even a few days to sort out his projects. Just in, gone, out.

Now I appreciate that agencies have to make people redundant when they lose accounts or their clients are spending less; but to do it in this manner is frankly disgusting. How little regard do you wish to show for your staff? How little care do you have about pissing off other members of staff?

So if you know an agency that treats their staff with respect, who need a clever person to help them win business. Please let me know, and I will pass on their details.