Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Friendly's does a disservice...

Most recently, in an effort to review websites, I have been combing the websites of chain restaurants to search out all info available to the allergic consumer. I was appalled to learn that Friendly's, a nationwide ice-cream/restaurant chain, and a staple in most childhoods, had NO ALLERGEN INFO available.
Figuring that perhaps it was on its way, I emailed Friendly's asking if they'd be kind enough to share the ingredients in a few of their salad dressings (a simple request) so that someone with allergy problems would know what is "allergy-proof" on their menu, beyond the general description. That was over a month ago. Have you heard from them, dear readers? I certainly haven't! As is such, your allergic diner will not set foot in a Friendly's until they decide to be "friendly" to the allergic customer. Has anyone had a good experience with their customer service/customer relations? A bad one? I invite you to share your thoughts. My one-man (or in this case, one allergic-woman) boycott will not make a lick of difference to the company, but it will certainly make me feel better.
Friendly's, wake up!
TAD

1 comment:

Robin from Massachusetts said...

My daughter has a severe egg allergy. I recently went to the park with a friend and our 4 children. The day was very warm. My friend who has children free of allergies asked all the children if they wanted to walk down to Friendly's and get ice cream. I could feel the panic ... after calling my husband at work to have him check the website for allergy info I decided to call the restaurant. The website was less than helpful but the response I received from the Webster, MA Friendly's manager was frightening. I indicated that my child had a severe egg allergy and asked if their soft serve vanilla ice cream contained egg, the response, "well it has dairy so I am assuming it has egg". What?? Are you kidding?? They did not even have a customer service # they could provide to obtain this information. I will NEVER go to Friendly's again. They do not care about the well being of their customers, if they are not willing to educate their managers in the areas of food allergens and cross contamination, I fear they will soon be a restaurant of the past. As a child friendly restaurant they need to provide as much information to a parent as possible. This was a very frightening experience!!

On a positive note Papa Gino's had a fantastic manager and website, and they received our business and my little girl enjoyed her hoodsie cup free of egg products!!