Thread by @patio11

Love this interaction with a restaurant, which I will not name to avoid bringing them to disrepute for being really good at handling this case:

I ordered a thing that I have ordered from 40 times. It contains an ingredient. This time, that ingredient was hard as a rock.

So I gave them a call, with the goal of politely apprising them that they had a bad batch.

They took my feedback, apologized, issued a refund, and then the clerk said “Wait, you’ve ordered this 30+ times. Would you characterize this as ‘not what I enjoy’ or… something else?”

“Would you permit me to perhaps say something in a fashion which might come across as brusque?”
“Please do.”
“I do not believe this batch is edible.”
“Sir please hold while I shut down the line.”

There is both the conversation happening here and a subrosa conversation, where the last sentence is both parties simultaneously realizing that they have worked adjacent to Japanese manufacturing.

*have both worked

(If I had known that at the outset and they had known that I know what an andon cord is the conversation would have been much blunter and shorter. “Heads up: order XYZ, $ITEM, production quality issue impacting safety.” “… Confirming order number…” “Yes.”)

A huge part of the magic in all ecosystems is having a shared language, mental model for counterparties that you have ever met before, and trust in good faith and competence.

“Can they trace the $ITEM given an order number?”

So in a restaurant my bet is factually no, they’re all likely mixed in one or several bins and they don’t know which bin that order number came out of, but that isn’t the point of starting with the order number.

It’s a) a shibboleth that you’re not a civilian and b) unspoken “I know you will later need to know some information here for your incident review process and without taking time away from resolution here’s the one key you need to avoid awkward questions right now.”

But for corona I’d predict better than even odds that I get a call asking for when I’d be able to receive the store manager and head of food prep (plus food safety officer if not one of those two) for an in-person apology, which is less manufacturing and more CS culture.

“That’s really a thing?”

Oh yeah; I was over at @harisenbon79’s house one day when he got the apology visit (a staple had worked its way into a restaurant dinner and, as hall staff did not handle the matter appropriately, he later called to apprise management of this).