Dairy Godmother, Alexandria: RUDE and AWFUL

[Anonymous]

We tried TDG for the first time tonight. We recently relocated the the area from Maine two weeks ago. My husband, myself, and our three year old went in and each tried something different. We arrived at 9:30 p.m. The employees locked the door at 10 p.m. without telling the mass outside or giving any closing time warning. I understand the safety precaution and security concerns with an unlocked door at EOB so I am without issue about that. What I do feel like I should tell you is that at 10:15 our three year old asked if she could use the potty. My husband knocked on the door and asked if he could bring her in very quickly to use the bathroom. The young woman (short brown hair) said very rudely, "Um, we are closed. No, sorry," and locked the door on us and preceded to sweep up in front of my three year old that began to cry because she truly needed to go. The two other couples outside were embarassed by the employee's rude and ridiculous behavior and apologized for her and helped us find a restroom. One even looked at her at said through the glass "Seriously? She's a little girl??" This combined with the briskness we encountered from the counter staff that were borerline rude to everyone in our line and the ridiculousness that she would clean in front of us with obviously nowhere urgent to be to the point where our child could not come in for 5 minutes, we were able to determine that WE WILL NEVER return again. Liz Davis may want to consider a refresher in customer service with her staff that as a whole seemed more interested in bolting out of there (hence the awful attitudes near closing time) and being rude to customers. Take this for what you will. TDG lost very good customers in us and I overheard the other couple ourside saying that there are plenty of other places to go and who needs to give money to a place that behaves so poorly? We completely agree.

I e-mailed the owner our experience and she sent me a luke-warm reply with no apology for the employees behavior.

Do not give this woman your money. She obviously encourages this type of behavior (see previous posts re: their bad attitudes)

[Anonymous]

That's too bad. It used to be a GREAT place when it first opened. I took my DS there all the time, and they were always really nice. (We live in McLean now, too far to boether) I guess the success went to her head or something.

[Anonymous]

I have never been at an ice cream place which does announce when it is closing.

On a side note, why was your 3 year old up so late? I'm sorry but I find your post obnoxious.

[Anonymous]

Oh. PP, I so totally agree. People who parade around with toddlers at 10:15 p.m. and then expect to be accommodated because they have a small child with them are asking for trouble.

[Anonymous]

So in the 45 minutes in which you were sitting inside, you never once thought to take your daughter to the bathroom before leaving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh. PP, I so totally agree. People who parade around with toddlers at 10:15 p.m. and then expect to be accommodated because they have a small child with them are asking for trouble.

Yes, that was my first thought. Who the heck thinks a 3yr old needs ice cream at 10:15pm? The employee probably thought the same and was thinking you were an idiot for dragging a young, whiny child around at almost 10:30pm at night.

Sorry no sympathy here...execpt for the employee.

[Anonymous]

Why do you need a warning? Their closing hours are clearly 10 pm. It's not like the (probably minimum wage) employee was closing to spite you. And somehow you expected to be let in 15 minutes later? But look on the bright side - your very entitled attitude will serve you well in DC.

[Anonymous]

I have never taken my young children out so late at night but find no fault with OP doing this - service should theoretically be satisfactory at any hour, to any customer. The servers were so tired they could not accommodate a simple request, which is unfortunate but does happen. No need to over react.

[Anonymous]

It was 15 minutes past closing time and they were already outside! If i were the business owner, I would probably have a rule in place that tells employees once people are outside after closing time, don't open the door. It's a safety/security issue. And I would make it a hard and fast rule so I wasn't depending on minimum wage teenagers to make the decision.

To call this poor service is just ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

I second this (11:48). I used to work in a bookstore on 7th Street downtown and people would bang on the door all the time after closing hours when we were cashing out registers, with hundreds of dollars on the counter. They would actually expect to be let in. One idiot banged on the doors for 10 minutes saying, "I just wanna get the new Harry Potter!" over and over. We took to turning off all the lights and cashing out, vacuuming, and straightening up IN THE DARK just to avoid this. Get a clue and get your toddler in bed before 10:15 at night. Also, I'm sure the opening/closing hours were posted on the door as ours were.

[Anonymous]

Agree with 11:48... don't know why a smiley face popped up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was 15 minutes past closing time and they were already outside! If i were the business owner, I would probably have a rule in place that tells employees once people are outside after closing time, don't open the door. It's a safety/security issue. And I would make it a hard and fast rule so I wasn't depending on minimum wage teenagers to make the decision.

To call this poor service is just ridiculous.

It could also be an insurance problem. If they let them in after hours and something happened, one of them fell or got hurt, it might be a big issue on their insurance. Not to mention most small business have to be very cognizant of their labor costs. Letting a person in delays closing and adds labor cost. Plus once you do it for one person, you have to do it for another. And where's the cutoff? Would it be 5 minutes after closing or what if this had been 45 minutes after? Would that have made it less offensive to the patrons?

[Anonymous]

OP, welcome to the arbitrary world of DC. It's not Maine, as the previous posters have pointed out by their judgmental attitudes. I am ashamed.

I guess what I wonder about is what the owner told you in her email to you. Really, if she gave a clear explanation that the employees were following rules, then I'd forgive the employees, but not necessarily the business.

What should have been done with the line outside is predicting where the end of the line would be and informing anyone after it that they won't be served, so don't bother waiting. I once saw a face painter hand a sign no the last kid's neck so no one else would get in line after.

I do regret you couldn't let your 3 yo get to a potty, but I do agree that might have been predictable and should have been taken care of before you left. As a former food service employee, if I were cashing out, I wouldn't have let you in, even if you were covered in blood. This area is just not Maine.

[Anonymous]

You're the one with a problem, OP.

[Anonymous]

I went there once recently and was struck by the rude service, as well as all the signs everywhere: "No Strollers Allowed" "No children on Counter" etc. (NOT that I would ever put my children on a counter, just for the record.) I asked my friend about it all, and she said they're always rude there but that the ice cream is good and that everyone just puts up with the rudeness.

A little boy in front of me lost the ice cream off his cone right after the employee handed it to him, and then she charged his mother for another one. Technically I'm sure she was right, but it seemed a little mean/stingy. Other ice cream shops would just hand him a little more ice cream on the same cone.

Anyway I also thought the shop was sort of dirty. I was not impressed.