Hooters is Definitely No Hoot

I've heard of Hooters for close to 25 years. I didn't know until very recently that the establishment has existed for 40 years. 40 years! That's a long time. It's a supposedly hallowed fast food chain, known for their collection of food (usually wings), sports on TV, and of course, the lovely waitresses. I heard Hooters mentioned a lot in high school, and at that time, my curiosity was piqued. Many years have passed, and I have still never been to a Hooters restaurant.

And now, after reading about the bad business performed at a Hooters restaurant, I don't ever plan to go to one.

Now, there is a saying that goes like this: "Don't let one bad apple spoil the whole bunch." That is a saying used to prevent prejudicial conduct. However, when it comes to restaurant chains, one has to think that if one store is bad, a lot of others could operate in that same bad fashion. So where is this bad apple located? In the town of Orange Park, Florida. As I would discover, that location has received its share of bad reviews for a good while, and here's a few of them:

I've heard stories about restaurants being rundown and unkempt, but they're usually no-name places, or as the late, great Bobby "The Brain" Heenan would call them "ham and eggers." I hadn't seen such a story about a known place until I stumbled upon this review. Just look at this! Dirty conditions, too loud music, unfriendly waitress, shoddy and greasy food. Just awful, all around.

But wait, it gets crazier:

Oh brother! OK, so...wow! Let's start with that first statement. Customer ordered 15 wings, but only got 11. And get this: the chicken was raw! Raw chicken?! Oh my God! It also mentions that the bartender was basically hitting on the single male customers that were there, but never came up to the customer and her boyfriend. Yet they were the ones who got the raw chicken. Hmmm. The part of me who has seen too many Lifetime films has quite a theory here.

There is one review that just stands out too much, and it's quite a damning account of how that Hooters messed up big time.

I came across this review, written by a woman named Glen Miley Collier on September 25, 2023, and she reported another true Hooters horror story. That same restaurant did quite the shoddy job with the order, to the point where only the Daytona Wings were worth eating. In addition, Collier's call to that hooters was met with one of the employees berating her with obscenities. Just outright unbelievable. So why were the Daytona Wings the only positive? Here's why.

Collier collected photographic evidence of the horrendous way the restaurant messed up her order. The Buffalo Shrimp (top left corner) didn't come with sauce. The fish in the Fish and Chips (top right corner) was undercooked. The lower left corner shows the order list, which includes the Bleu Cheese Dressing for the Buffalo Shrimp, which Collier described as rancid and awful, and the lower right corner is the Baja Shrimp Tacos, which had burnt shrimp. It was just disastrous all around.

Six days later, Collier posted this, and there's a reason. During that time, Collier requested a refund for their bad order, but all she got was the runaround--in the form of political, scripted answers from Hooters. It was just a bunch of nonsense from them, and even worse, Hooters never refunded her for the bad food; the only refund she received was from Uber Eats for the fees. Just hideous. The whole ordeal was arduous and anger-inducing, mainly due to the conduct of one Hooters representative.

Part of the nonsense that Hooters gave Collier was this bullshit response from Grace Goddard, who works as a "Hospitality Manager" for Hooters. In her lines of drivel, Grace gives an "apology" and stated that this was the first she had heard of such a matter, and had never seen any of the past emails. In the immortal words of The Undertaker, "That's a bunch of bullshit!" How in the holy hell had she "never seen any of the past emails"?! That's impossible! Grace is a high level member of the Hooters staff, yet she's going to just flat out lie and state that she never saw the emails, even though it was clear that she did?! She's claiming that there are no other emails, yet there was one that was sent on Friday, September 29! In addition, I spoke to Collier and she told me that she sent multiple complaints to the Hooters website, and those complaints get forwarded to that restaurant's manager. That's what Grace responded to in the email she sent claiming that this was the first time she heard of this matter! Yet despite those facts, she's going to claim ignorance?! She's going to act like Sgt. Schultz from Hogan's Heroes?! "I see nothing, I hear nothing, and I know NOTHING"?! GTFOH! I'm sure even a birdbrain like Grace Goddard knows what those letters stand for.

How do I truly know about this? I've actually talked to a number of the people who have written the reviews, yet a lot of them fear some form of retaliation from Hooters. They can't be blamed. There have been negative reviews on Facebook, but lo and behold, they are suddenly nowhere to be found. How bloody convenient. I know this much: I am never eating from Hooters...ever. If one store can act like this, what's stopping a lot of others in that chain from delivering that same horrible conduct?

UPDATE

Due to a new development, I have to add this tidbit that I just found out earlier this morning. After waking up, I checked my email to contact Collier to get more info from her, and I received a screenshot of this email from Hooters' Regional Manager, Skip Pray. While the screenshot shows Skip saying that the refund has been sent and will be processed, it's that penultimate sentence that stands out. "Please discontinue emailing our restaurant"?! Victim complex much, Skip? You guys are not the victims here. Collier is. Something tells me Grace went to Skip with some sort of sob story claiming to be a "victim" of "harassment"; Lord knows what boldfaced lie she told Skip. Based on what I've seen from Grace, she definitely comes across as the type to manipulate others to get her way. Oh boy, Hooters really does suck.