The BEST Customer Service. I walked past this restaurant daily for almost a year before going inside. The exterior is less than inviting, and I don’t like to take risks with my meals. I instantly fell in love! I usually order the Pad Thai, the Salad Rolls and Spring Rolls, and the Sweet and Sour Stir Fry with chicken. Since my bachelor days I have probably ordered from here 100 times. I have since moved away, and was delighted to find that they started offering delivery. For the past year we have gotten delivery once every week or two.
My family recently had the worst delivery experience of our lives. An hour after ordering the driver called and asked for directions (we are a 15 to 20 minute walk away, ~6 minute drive in traffic) but did not speak a single word of English. Shortly afterward, the restaurant called to confirm our address (the address they had was not even similar). Shortly after that the driver called again for directions. I debated just telling him to forget it, but I didn’t want to cause a fuss, and the only items we had in the fridge were for the weekend BBQ, so we needed takeout anyway.
At about an hour and twenty minutes I was about to call to tell them to forget it, when the driver pulled up. From my second story balcony I waved him into the entrance of the triplex I reside in. He just stood there, beside his car and stared at me. I walked down to the entrance and opened the door, and once again, he remained at his car and stared at me. I waved him over, and he came, handed me the bag of food. I passed him my Visa card and once again he stared blankly at me. He pulled his phone out and was fumbling through it, and I called the restaurant, “Hello, I have your delivery man here in front of me, and it is apparent that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I don’t know what to do with the Visa, he doesn’t know what to do with the Visa. It’s been well over an hour, and I’m more frustrated than hungry. It’s been too long, it’s been too difficult...” They tried to offer me a discount, I refused and handed the delivery man the phone so they could tell him I was no longer interested and he promptly left. I have never refused food at any establishment before; I have never sent anything back at a restaurant, but I was beyond unimpressed. In our discontent we hastily vowed to never order from Thai Shan Inn again. I planned for this to be the end of my long review, but what happened next was truly unexpected.
Almost an hour afterwards I received a phone call, “Hi, it’s Thai Shan Inn. We’re going to give you free food.” I replied, “I don’t want the food any longer, we found something else to eat.” The woman pleaded, “Please, I’m very upset, I don’t want to cry, please come downstairs. You can have the food later, or tomorrow, it will still be good, I promise.” My partner and I headed down the steps and opened the front door and were greeted by a little woman in a hair net, her sleeves were rolled up and it was apparent she just left the kitchen with a fresh batch of everything.
She said she was the owner and that she knew who we were, and how often we order. She apologized profusely, and we were all on the verge of tears. We had a genuine, human, heart-felt moment with the owner of Thai Shan Inn that night. I will order again without hesitation, and I hope we get the same driver. I hope they teach him what he needs to know, and if everything goes smoothly I plan to give him a fantastic tip.
I feel that they screwed up that night, but I feel that they fixed it and saved a customer. And wouldn’t you know it? The next day it was still fresh, delicious and the portions were out of this world!
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