Life is too short to harbor anger against a chain restaurant, right?

Dear El Pollo Loco,

I am writing this email in an attempt to purge my conscience of the severe hostility I harbor for your corporation, your food and your employees. I have held this severe discontent since 2004. During the past 5 years I have boycotted all El Pollo Locos. Not only have I refused to patronize your business myself, but I have encouraged my friends, family and co workers to do the same. If I was in the company of someone who chose to order food from your establishment, I would wait outside. I try to avoid passing El Pollo Locos in my daily commute. If I do pass one, I immediately get very angry.

Why do I have such an animosity for El Pollo Locos? There was a time when I would occasionally go to one nearby my school. This was the Van Nuys Blvd, Van Nuys location. Every time I went in there, I would order something small off of the menu, yet big families who were in line after me and ordering tons of food would receive their orders before me. It would get me very upset but if I inquired as to the status of my order, someone would always respond rudely to me. I didn't mind enough to start boycotting El Pollo Locos until I went to the Burbank location. I asked for an order of mashed potatoes with no gravy to go. I got my order, got in the car and checked it and realized there was gravy on it. I explicitly remember being very polite when I went inside to ask for an order correction.

The guy at the counter gave me SUCH ATTITUDE and acted like he was doing me a massive favor to change it. Then when he gave it to me, I asked him for a spoon to eat it with. He rolled his eyes at me, sighed a heavy obnoxious sigh, and slammed it on the counter and said, "There's a fucking spoon." I could not believe he would speak to me that way. It was like all El Pollo Loco employees are miserable and hate their lives and want to take it out on customers. You might think I am one of those delusional and horribly impossible customers who feel like service should be impeccable but that is not the case. I assure you I was very polite every time I went in there, and after being treated like dirt and sworn at for no good reason at all I swore to never set foot in an El Pollo Loco again. I don't forget things like this.

But basically now, 5 years later, I'm over it. Almost. I still don't plan on ever patronizing an El Pollo Loco as long as I live so please know that my intention is not to try and get any coupons or free food. I just thought it would make me feel better to tell you how angry I still am about being mistreated at your restaurant.

Sincerely,
Kimberly Perplies

Response:

I'll have you all know that that the SoCal regional manager of El Pollo Loco called me. He asked me if I still had my receipt from the incident. I told him that it was 5 years ago and if he had actually read my email the whole way through he would have known that and no I do not still have my receipt. He asked me what the name of the employee was who mistreated me. I told him I didn't know but that if I did I would have put it in the email.

He asked me, "What can we do to earn your business back?" and I said, "You can't, I'm never going back." Then asked me, "Well, is there anything we can do to get you to come back to one of our restaurants?" Ummmmmmmm, isn't that the same question? "No, sir, I'm never going back. And I don't want anything free, I just want to tell you that some of your employees suck and what they do can really affect your business."

He apologized and said he'd forward it on to the Burbank location, but overall the guy was a complete idiot. No wonder all El Pollo Loco employees are morons when the regional manager himself is dumber than a big lobotomized ape.