G.U.S. NITPICKS!! (v.1)

There is a saying that most customers, when faced with bad service, do not complain; instead, they simply take their business elsewhere. I tend to agree with this credo. I generally do not like making a fuss right on the spot; but the fun is in taking your business elsewhere AND whining about the shoddy service afterwards to your friends! :D

Here are two establishments to be avoided like the plague then:

1. Una Mas, Greenbelt 2
(events happened Jan. 2005)

Armed with a P500 GC, i invited my charming friend J. along to this classy Spanish resto at the quiet side of GB2. The interiors looked authentic enough, so with high hopes of a great meal ahead, we ordered.

The Paella Marinara had a white chunk of what suspiciously looked like chicken. Upon our query, the staff confirmed it was indeed fish. Really now, we beg to disagree. It looked, felt and tasted like chicken. Hmm, we seemed to have stumbled on a heretofore unknown fish-chicken specie (hereby dubbed as the "fishken").

The chicken dish we ordered (not having anticipated the discovery of fish-ken) was worse. It had the texture of rubber. To say it was terrible is a . . well, terrible understatement.

I thought, never mind, we didn't pay much anyway, with the GC and all. So J. and i go off to find some dessert. Unfortunately, the intrepid manager takes this opportunity to chitchat and ask us how our meal was. I made the usual polite noises about it being "fine", etc.

However, J. takes this as her cue to tell him in full detail about fish-ken and our rubbery chicken dish. Hah! Poor guy didn't know what hit him. He offered us free dessert, but hey, i think we had enough of Una Mas for one night. Afterwards, i half-congratulated and half-chided J. for her "Guinness Book of World Record-caliber" complaint, and we had a good laugh about it.

So, i guess from now on, this resto should be called "Una Mustn't" (lame lame joke). :-D


2. Crown Peak Gardens, Subic
(events happend Oct. 2003)

When our barkada was looking for a cheap place to stay in Subic, i volunteered to make the reservations here.
I had stayed here previously in the 90s and had only good memories of it.

Unfortunately, the years had not been kind to Crown Peak. Checking-in was an ordeal, since we arrived around the same time as 3 busloads of conventioneers. When we finally entered our room, it looked like it hadn't been cleaned for 2 years! There was a fine layer of dust on the bedsheets, on the floor, on the walls, everywhere!
Not to mention the rat and cockroach droppings, and the musty smell. Pooey!

Furious, we went back to reception and demanded a better room. Well, this one they gave us was marginally better. . .it looked like it hadn't been cleaned for 6 months.

Back again to reception. Finally, they gave us another room. This one looked like it hadn't been cleaned for 2 weeks, but by this time we were too resigned to complain. At least there were no visible signs of any insects or furry animals having been around recently.

The bed mattresses were lumpy though, guaranteed to give one a backache the morning after. But the real clincher is how this hotel feels and looks so creepy during evenings. The hallways are long and rather dark and you half-expect to see a white lady floating towards you anytime soon.

I was only too glad to get out of this shithole when we checked out. The only saving grace of Crown Peak is the gracious, accomodating staff, whom i kinda felt sorry for, actually. Imagine having to deal with customer complaints day in and day out, just because management sees it fit not to hire any cleaning personnel??!