The Sweet Service Award goes to Roy Davies, GM of the Vineyard Hotel, for the invitation to experience the newly introduced Vineyard Garden Walks at the hotel.  Horticulturist and environmentalist Chris van Zyl is scheduled to do one tour per month, but the tours are sold out already, and more will be added.  One can see the vast grounds of the hotel, largely with indigenous plants and trees, which were landscaped by Ann Sutton from Franschhoek, but also the famous Vineyard tortoises, some as old as 20 years.  The Vineyard has also reintroduced a vineyard along the Liesbeeck River, with the help of Mike Ratcliffe of Warwick, and the first grapes will be harvested next year.   The Vineyard Tour costs R40 and includes tea/coffee and some treats.

The Sour Service Award goes to Clicks in the V&A Waterfront. A customer had to pay R 10 for a Lindt chocolate lying on a shelf that said it costs R 8. The more expensive price was charged. When this was queried, the person behind the till went to the Lindt shelf with the chocolate (not where the customer had found the chocolate) and refused to offer the marked price on the shelf. The chocolate was not returned to the customer, even though it had been paid for.  The branch was called. The acting Manager Faeez promised to call within 5 minutes, to confirm if the staff member still had the chocolate. The customer called again when he had not called back after 15 minutes, just a minute before the 22h00 closing time. The acting manager was so full of himself that he told the customer that he would give an answer the following day, and displayed exceptionally rude behaviour to a Click’s customer of many years standing.   The customer called the store manager Barbara the following day, and she agreed to deliver the chocolate to the customer’s home, but after a week this had not happened.  The customer had to collect the chocolate from the store on the next visit to the V&A Waterfront.  No apology has been received from the Click’s management.

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.