Bingley Tours | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

The Sweet Service Award goes to Bingley Tours, for rushing to Cape Town International airport at 15 minutes notice last week, to deliver a cellphone that a Whale Cottage Camps Bay guest had left behind. This is the second Sweet Service Award for the company.

The Sour Service Award goes to Ons Huisie in Blouberg, and is nominated by Cynthia Querido: “I’d like to nominate Ons Huisie for a sour service award for charging the astronomical sum of R28,00 for one small bran muffin. Admittedly, the muffin included about 5 pats of butter which were totally unnecessary for a small muffin, as well as about 8 small sealed jam portions. Rather ridiculous: I mean where were you supposed to put all those condiments? – certainly not on the muffin. I complained to the manager, asking how they could justify such a price. He couldn’t help; he only worked there! I left my email address & was assured I’d be contacted by the owner. That was several days ago. This is daylight robbery. They obviously feel they can charge these outrageous prices because of the God-given scenery – but there are innumerable restaurants with equally stunning outlooks who don’t insist on taking customers for a ride. I’m interested to know how they arrived at such a price for a product which must’ve cost under R1. That little ‘repast’ certainly left a sour taste in my mouth”.

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog. Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

The Sweet Service Award goes to Terry Bingley of Bingley Tours for speedily transporting guests from Cape Town airport to Hermanus when the contracted company did not arrive to collect the guests, and for accepting payment at the (lower) rate quoted by the other company.

The Sour Service Award goes to Caltex garage at UMS Sales in De Waterkant for the poor and slow service from the attendant, who had to count the day’s takings first before he could fill the car with petrol. When the customer complained, the attendant became abusive, and the customer had to lock the car windows, out of fear. No offer of cleaning the windscreen, checking the tyres etc is ever made. The son of the owner expressed surprise and even irritation when this feedback was presented to him the following day, as he and his father are never visible at the forecourt of the garage, and yet he wanted to dispute the feedback. The customer has decided to never use this petrol station again, despite its convenient location.