I think this one should be pretty obvious: the customer is always right. Even if the reviewer is a wackjob, you're only going to turn that person into an even bigger wackjob by calling him or her out. If someone has a complaint, you have to take it seriously. A simple "Thanks for pointing that out, we will look into it and do our best to deliver a better experience" is never the wrong response.

Its pretty obvious even to the blind that after their reply that this rudeness and flagrant abusive comments filters down from management to the junior staff. They have become in the last year or so too big for their boots and with their heads firmly placed up their own back passages. Customers should make a stand and vote with their feet before stepping into one of the stores again. My family stopped going about 6 months ago when we were very rudely spoken to by some Australian manager when we complained about our daughters patty being cold and arriving with onions when we asked not to have them and a 20 minute wait for her milkshake. Yes, customers should complain at the time and speak to a manager on duty but being spoken to like naughty school children on a forum is not the way to win a place in our hearts again. Thanks Maria Williams Ex Malone`s Customer

Mr Mack, do you take the same position you describe when someone, a single reader, levels a criticism at City Weekend or do you ignore it?

You should check out Caliburger's listing. They never planned on offering combos but after some online outrage they changed it.

Then again, they got in trouble for that too. Can't please everyone.

Geoff. Be honest though. Your not a fan of Malones anyway are you so a chance for a dig and your in there.

Nothing against Malone's, never had the problems that other people seem to have had. Really disagree with their handling of this though, never a good idea to tell off your customers.

Restaurant owners should respond *politely* at all times. Even when is obvious that Mr Coojermasterfackerwill is barking like a dog with a bone, good manners will defuse the situation considerably. And even if it doesn't, then you can stand up and say "we tried to help, but it just wasn't what he wanted." Going off on one, calling people names and generally losing your rag is only going to make you enemies.

See, what is really interesting here is that several readers including myself left comments that criticized CW for moving the original thread to this spot. Those comments have been promptly removed by the editorial staff to sanitize the commentary. That is a disservice to the readership. Mr Mack, the Senior Editor of CW Shanghai, posts a comment that "the customer is always right". I guess that is true until he levels criticism, especially at CW. Thank you, Mr. Mack, for showing some of your own values when you deleted comments immediately after you said that "If someone has a complaint, you have to take it seriously. A simple "Thanks for pointing that out, we will look into it and do our best to deliver a better experience" is never the wrong response." Who were you speaking to when you made that statement? As a CW reader, don't I have the same value to CW as any other?

@phillipvasels Comments were removed because they were getting off-topic (which goes against our comment policy)...comment sections on listings are meant to reflect customer experiences there and that's already been done fully and accurately in this case. Discussion about what Malone's did right or wrong in the aftermath is deserves a different forum.

Phil makes a good point - I think that this was a Malone's issue and they deserve to reap the rewards of their bad handling of the situation. The deleted comments were critical of Malone's and protesting it being shunted away from their entry, and I think that was a little off. Secondly, commenters who leave bad experiences paid cash money to have those bad experiences, whether management likes it or not. If management doesn't like the bad comments, they can fix the problem, not call out their clients for not enjoying the experience.

@geofferson. I think there is a distinct disconnect between what you say and what you do. Other examples would include the "Rules" you say you have for contests that you change arbitrarily whenever it suits you to do so. The only consistency the editorial staff displays is inconsistency. Your comment to me sounds a lot like the Malone's manager comment to its patrons that posted comments here. The customer service policy of CW appears to be far from the "customer is always right" sensibility as stated above by your boss, Mr Mack. You make the rules then you change them, then, you change them again. I am not alone in this opinion. I just saw that another reader left a comment that criticized Claire's action and that was promptly deleted as well. You guys are looking like book burners now.

I did delete that comment; I've also already emailed the commenter privately and explained our position on this.

@philipvassals I can assure you that we appreciate all reader feedback and do take it very seriously. It is a critical part of helping us improve. Please keep it coming!

It's funny to scroll down through the Malone's reviews and read the tempered responses posted by "malonesgroup" dating back almost 4 years. It seems like they have tried to adopt the "correct" service recovery philosophy in the past, which is that mistakes should be treated as opportunities; opportunities to better understand the customer and thereby deepen the bond with him. Now, that doesn't mean that Malones or any other restauranteur need be a b$^*h to any momo with a keyboard. Not at all. However, there are ways of keeping your face without completely antagonizing your customer base. It's dialectics. Learn something from your customers. Adjust your position. Shift your gift a little. Synthesize. This makes perfect sense, no? Well aparently one Jing An bar has gotten a bit too proud, like a rich man's spoit brat child, of the fact that it entered the market first. And despite (or is it because of) its broken attempts to successfully duplicate its concept in other parts of China, it's now standing strong (sic)in their broken place. It wont happen today or this year or in any gaugeable timeframe, but the writing is on the wall: Malones is on the downstroke. Not that I really have a hardon to bash the joint, but what "malonesgroup" said is, as narf aptly put it, "out of order', and he needs to be called out. What say you "malonesgroup"?

I do always love a CW comment war! A couple of years ago, I had a really bad service experience at Gourmet Cafe. I griped about it on this site (and had complained to the manager at the time, to no avail). The owner, Will, contacted me personally to apologize and offered me a free meal to assess whether they'd improved. (They had.) It was a really nice gesture, and I continue to appreciate their professionalism and willingness to respond constructively to criticism. And I went from bashing the place to singing its praises. Malone's invited a PR nightmare by attacking unhappy customers online. How idiotic. Yes, one should talk to a manager as well, but the Internetz provide a valuable customer tool for swapping stories and complaints. Malone's has inexplicably survived for so long that it probably will weather this indiscretion as well, but it definitely loses repute for it, and business.

Are we still hoping Malonesgroup will respond to this? It will be interesting to hear their thoughts on this whole debacle. Twice now readers have found something seriously wrong with the place and twice now it has provoked a separate debate. Is third time the charm?

They've demonstrated that they can't effect changes nor respond well to criticism. If they do weigh in it won't be in a professional manner.