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Why customers lash out over book releases and dinner reservations
Money won’t conjure up a handbag that’s out of stock. Angry calls will not get you off a waitlist. Don’t be an entitled customer
It’s ridiculous what people will do when they don’t get their way. In March, two Americans filed a lawsuit against Hermès, because they were unable to buy the luxury brand’s iconic Birkin bags. The satchels retail for about $12,000 (or ₹10 lakh) on the shelf. Their problem: The bags never go on the shelf – they’re always sold out, and the waitlist is only getting longer. The Americans have alleged that in order to move up the waitlist, they were expected to purchase other Hermès items and accessories – an unfair business practice.
A first-world problem, surely. But disgruntled customers the world over tend to believe that they’re owed much more than brands and even artists are willing to give.
In Mumbai, when Papa’s Bombay, a 12-seater restaurant, opened for reservations in May, they got 2,800 calls in the first 30 minutes. For June seatings, a month’s worth of reservations were booked up in 20 minutes of the announcements made on the website and Instagram. Those who couldn’t secure a seat ended up abusing restaurant staff and leaving angry comments on social media.
Yash Bhanage, founder and COO of Hunger Inc Hospitality, which runs the restaurant, had to issue a public admonishment of the rage. “Yelling at us won’t make a guest disappear off a seat,” he says. “It’s like booking a flight. If you don’t get a seat on a flight, you don’t call up the CEO and yell. You book the next available flight. Why should restaurants be different?”
It’s almost like customers assume that so long as they can pay for a product or experience (with money, with fandom, with wait times) they should be guaranteed the reward. Consider poor Gareth. We do not know his last name. He’s merely someone who wrote to author Neil Gaiman in 2009, griping that another author, George R.R. Martin, hadn’t released the next book in his A Song Of Ice And Fire series, in four years. Gaiman, in an essay on his blog, wrote a line that’s since become a slogan for beleaguered artists everywhere: George R.R. Martin is not your b**ch. He explained that readers are not entitled to any work at any time other than which the creator is ready to produce it.
It’s the same with handbags (however rare), seats in restaurants (however small) and any goods and services. Bhanage says that well-heeled customers are not above a little arm-twisting. They claim that they work in a reputed organisation and will direct business to Hunger Inc’s other establishments to sweeten their chances at a Papa’s seat. Other’s brag about their proximity to power. “In our country, people feel they can stand out in a crowd by yelling,” he says. “You can justify getting angry and feeling frustrated. But there’s a way of offering feedback that can help both the restaurant and themselves.”
Besides, access is no measure of quality. Bhanage recalls that one guest stormed out of his other Mumbai restaurant, The Bombay Canteen, because his friend was denied preferential treatment. The man yelled: “I can give it to you in writing that your restaurant will shut in six months”. That was over nine years ago. “I’d like to meet that guy now,” Bhanage says.
