The Sweet Service Award goes to Olympic Locksmiths and is nominated by Butch Rice. ‘My daughter has had a Toyota Corolla for some years, and noticed that the casing of the car key was starting to disintegrate, so phoned Market Toyota on the foreshore. She was quoted an outrageous R2500 for a new key. In addition, she would have to make a service booking, and would have to bring in her id document, and car registration papers. R2500 for a key! To make it worse, they would first have to order the key, making it all sound very complicated. The key had buttons on it for remote locking and unlocking, so was obviously rather complicated in terms of technology, or so they claimed. Luckily, I thought it worth trying Olympic Locksmiths in Claremont, who have delivered outstanding service to our family over the years. When I phoned them, they said it was a very simple problem to Continue reading →
Tag Archives: Butch Rice
City of Cape Town Sweet Service and New Media Publishing Sour Service Awards!
The Sweet Service Award goes to the City of Cape Town, for listening to the outcry about the proposed ban of liquor sales on Sundays in retail outlets in Cape Town, and is considering amending the Liquor Trading Days and Hours By-law, announced just three days before it is to be implemented from Monday 1 April. The City has promised that current licence holders will be allowed to continue opening on Sundays until the Sunday retail closure rule is amended by the Council. The Council is inviting applications from retail liquor outlets in certain areas, but excluding ‘local business and residential areas‘, to trade on Sundays. Initially the City did not receive any major opposition to its proposed Sunday liquor sales ban, but more recently it noted the public outcry. It is considering the amendment as ‘the City seeks to balance the needs of all residents and take heed of their needs and concerns’.
The Sour Service Award goes to New Media Publishing, publishers of Taste magazine, and is nominated by Butch Rice: “I would like to nominate Taste magazine for a Sour Service award or whatever. Here is why. I have been an avid reader of Taste for a long time now. As an enthusiastic foodie, I have enjoyed the content of the magazine, and have used many of their recipes. Until I bought the latest edition. Oh dear, they have changed the entire look and feel of the magazine. It is now unreadable, unless you have very good eyes, and good lighting. Although the articles look very stylish, it is design gone mad. A new font is being used, which is impossible to read, especially if it is propped up in the kitchen, while following a recipe. The designers have been let off their leashes, with disastrous consequences. I wrote to the magazine, expressing my extreme disappointment at the change, and the fact that it was now unreadable. No reply to my letter. Really bad marketing and customer relationship management. Great pity. Woolworths has shot themselves in the foot with this one”.
We requested an explanation for the design change from New Media Publishing, and received this reply: ‘It is regretful that our design update has not been received well by one of our loyal readers. We obviously value each and every member of our TASTE family. The design tweaks were done to bring new life and lightness into the layouts. As per our Client’s own brand objectives, we aim to position ourselves as innovators. In this, we stay on trend with what is being done in design on the international stage. We constantly seek ways to improve and in so doing, stay fresh, modern and relevant. The response to our new look has been overwhelmingly positive – from the industry, our Client, our advertisers and most of all from our readers. Incidentally, this issue was one of the highest selling in the past year. It’s very unfortunately that we have not been able to delight 100% of our community, but assure you that we will continue to strive to do so. Regards, Sumien Brink, Editor
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.
Pick ‘n Pay Sweet and Societi Bistro/Food24 Sour Service Awards
The Sweet Service Award goes to Pick ‘n Pay, for its use of Twitter to communicate with and provide a service to its customers. While not always able to resolve issues satisfactorily, the recent withdrawal of its Greek yoghurt due its packaging not meeting the new pack labelling legislation taking longer than predicted by the stores, led to us asking via Twitter when it would be re-introduced. We were asked to e-mail the head office with the name of the closest Pick ‘n Pay branch. Two days later a manager of the Camps Bay branch called to say that the yoghurt had arrived, and that he would keep us some for collection.
The Sour Service Award goes to Societi Bistro and Food24, and was nominated by Butch Rice: “I have a very definite snarl at Food24 and Stefan Marais of Societi Bistro. I posted a negative review on Food24, got a phone call from Stefan, and had what I thought was a constructive chat. Until I saw his response on Food24 in which he lied blatantly, claiming I had expressed a preference for frozen chips, which I do not have, and which was never discussed. He also claimed his manager had approached every table during the evening to ensure people were happy. This after I told him that the major problem he had was that nobody had checked with us about what we thought of the meal or anything else. I also see that Food24 gave him a lot more space for his response than usually allowed. It does not do him or Food24 any credit. He had no need to lie, other than to make it appear that his restaurant was beyond reproach in any way. Most disappointing. A postscript to this affair. I tweeted Stefan pointing out that I had never expressed a preference for frozen chips. He replied that I had said I preferred the chips at another restaurant, and that he knew they used frozen chips, hence his conclusion. I have pointed out to him that I had only referred to the other restaurant as an example of thicker sauces, not their chips. I have also attempted to comment on the story on Food24, twice, but they have not used my reply. I wonder why?”
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