6/9/11 To Whom This May Concern:
I am an employee of the surrounding area and have been a customer of your Robeks #6 in El Segundo for 7 years, so far the services have been impeccable, but today I encountered some really poor customer service.
I take a walk everyday during lunch as I did this afternoon. I stoped by your store and wanted to give the Green Tea Sensation a try. I was curious to see how my drink was prepared and the employee by the name of Ken was pouring the ingredients into the container I noticed that he stood in a weird way as if he was trying to hide or cover what he was pouring into the container, as he then returned the gallon to the fridge I noticed that the gallon looked more like non-fat milk rather than soy. I was curious to know and wanted to confirm what he had poured in the container so I approached a different employee by the name of Anthony, I asked if he could show me the gallon Ken had just used and sure enough it was non-fat milk. I didn’t understand why he would use non-fat milk over soy if the ingredients didn’t call for non-fat milk. I asked for an explanation and their response was that they ran out of soy. I strongly believe that I should’ve been asked if using non-fat milk was ok rather than him trying to hide the fact that he was pouring the non-fat milk. I am lactose intolerant and can only take so much dairy so the fact that he was adding even more dairy than necessary was a very careless move! I was outraged over the attitude and poor customer service I was given by Ken when I confronted him, Ken did not want to apologize and/or admit he was wrong by what he did and made it a point to tell me that he did not owe me an apology and that I shouldn’t had ordered any drink with dairy if I had any problems with dairy. This incident has really left a bad impression on me. I hope that you look into the matter immediately.

Thank you for your co-operation, and I hope such incidents will not be repeated.

Its day 1 and havent heard back from Robeks… my question… do they leave it up to each employees discretion as to which ingredients they should substitute rather than asking the customer?!?!?!?

Make sure you go back and read Part 1! (and then let’s continue the discussion on the comments section for that post)

Also, it’ll still be the same kind of sugar whether or not it’s organic. “Organic” has a so-called “health halo,” and people may even unwittingly think organic junk food is healthier than regular junk food. (junk food is junk food…no getting around it!).

(I don’t mean to “diss” organic foods — I’m certainly a fan. I just wanted to be sure there’s no misconception here…)

Thanks!

I do my best to stick to the rules, keeping them as “absolutes,” and then make the most of my cheat meals and enjoy it to the fullest.

Most of the time, that works great. Other times, though, life gets in the way. If I’m somewhere that doesn’t have any options that follow the rules (usually that’s the whole grain rule – the other two are generally easier to work around), for example, and I’m really hungry, I may have an unplanned cheat. If I have to choose between not eating and breaking the rules, I’ll choose the healthiest option, whatever that may be. I won’t beat myself up about it, though, and try to plan better next time.

I have been poking around your site since yesterday and like what I see, especially since you don’t wander off into food conspiracy theories that I feel damage that cause as much as their creators feel like they are helping. However, my question is: do you set up your eating rules in such a stringent manner so that when you get to these cheats you understand what they are and can treat them as “treat” that you don’t indulge in very often?

It’s what I call the “cheat meal” — which is an important point in all of this. Cheat meals add variety, interest, and flexibility to your life. That’s the real meaning of “everything moderation,” and it sounds like you’re doing that quite well.

The reason it’s one of my rules is that most people eat fried food — and in particular, fried food made by restaurants/corporations — with far too much frequency. There’s also a fundamental flaw in our memories, so that when most people think they eat fries, for example, twice a week, they’re more likely actually eating them four or five times a week. (Entire psychological textbooks can be written in this subject…).

I applaud you for cooking at home. The more I research and explore this topic, the more I’m coming to the conclusion that cooking your own food may be the single most important thing you can do for your health. (Even if it’s fried catfish.)

Does that answer your question?