No, you can't use our phone

[42_42_42]

My sister is 7 months, nearly 8 months pregnant with her 5th child. She is very visibly pregnant at this point.

She decided to take her two younger children, ages 5 and 3 to a certain fast food place whose kid's meal is supposed to make you happy for dinner Sunday evening as a treat.

When they were done eating & playing on the indoor playground it was dark and had cooled off a lot (low 40s F). They got into her minivan and it wouldn't start. That's when my sister realized her cell phone was also dead. So she gets the kids out of the car and goes back inside the restaurant and asks to use their phone to call for help.

I don't know if she spoke with a manager or just a regular employee, but whomever it was said it wasn't a life and death emergency so no, she couldn't use the phone.

Where this is located there are no pay phones and the restaurant is in a parking lot of a retail store that was closed for the night, so the parking lot is empty and dark except for just around the restaurant. Still, when restaurant closed a bit later, they made my sister and the children leave. She had no choice but to huddle with them in the car, trying to keep them warm.

When it had gotten late and she hadn't come home, her boyfriend called my parents in case she was at their house for some reason and then he and my dad each got in their cars and started checking all of the locations of this chain that she would have been likely to go to (there are 4). Fortunately, her boyfriend found them, but still at that point they'd been huddled in the car for over an hour and the temp had dropped below freezing by then.

I don't know if there were any other customers when she tried to use the phone, but I've told her if that ever happens to her again to start asking all the other people to borrow their phone. Someone will let her.

My parents plan on writing very strongly worded letters to the store and district managers and needless to say, no one in the family will be eating at that particular place again.

Who the hell leaves a heavily pregnant woman and two small children in that situation?

[notlovinit]

What the hell? I could see not letting them use the store's phone (ours is in the back on a cord, so obv. no customers can go back there), but what about a personal cell phone or something? Esp. when you are closing and you see this family still huddled in their car freezing. I would think that common sense would kick in and it would be obv. that they need help. Or even call someone for the lady in distress. Hell, I've even made a phone call for a customer whose van broke down outside our store and I HATED that customer, she was a pain in the ass.

[Ironclad Alibi]

She should have refused to leave the heated store and made them call the police. It might not have been life and death (yet) but it was still an emergency.

[wagegoth]

A dead car and dead phone, small children, a very pregnant woman and freezing temperatures does equal life and death.

Please let us know what kind of response they get from the complaint.

[Golden Phoenix]

Having been on the recieving end of "We'll never come here again" so many times I now tune it out, may I suggest enclosing a pre-written copy of a letter to [local media outlets] instead.

No one really seems to notice the "never coming back" line because we've all heard it so many times from people who are just being SC's, threatening to make this incident very public and showing you're more than happy to go through with the threat might garner a better/faster response.

Also: Wtf were they thinking?! I dread to think what could have happened. Thank goodness she was found in time.

[LillFilly]

That is HORRIBLE! the Employee, whoever they were, should have used common sense. I'm glad your sister is all right, and certainly, write a letter to the restaurant and maybe even the local paper.

[Sparky]

My guess? Manager not on duty; only young inexperienced staff. Manager has told staff not to let anyone use the phone "unless it's a life or death emergency."

Does this excuse what happened? HELL TO THE NO! If they're guilty of nothing else, they restaurant chain is liable for leaving the place in the hands of idiots with no common sense.

I say find out the highest person possible, CEO, owner, whatever, and send him/her a letter by registered mail. If you don't get an answer with profuse apologies, in, say a week, send a copy to the paper, post on a blog, whatever you can.

[Bright_Star]

What they did was cold & heartless. Not only does she need to write a complaint BUT she needs to talk to the highest person up in the chain of command of that stupid place & be given some sort of apology AND be compensated for her misery. What if something terrible had happened to them while waiting in their car? Then that place would be liable for their inaction. BIG TIME!!

[Food Lady]

Of COURSE we would've let her use the phone. It's cordless, but if it weren't, the manager would make a call for her. But then, our managers aren't heartless.

[mikoyan29]

That's how lawsuits happen,.