The Sweet Service Award goes to Mercedes Benz Financial Services, for extending their Easter promotion, entailing one month free repayment if one called a number on receiving an SMS, into May.  The customer did not know that MBFS stood for Mercedes Benz Financial Services, and that the SMS was not spam, and was to be taken seriously.  They agreed that customers may have missed out on the promotion by not understanding the origin of the SMS, and therefore granted the extension of the promotion, a welcome saving of a month’s repayment!

The Sour Service Award goes to Seeff Properties, for creating high expectations amongst private property owners in Host Cities around the country, and in Cape Town in particular, using soccer hero Gary Bailey as their spokesperson.   The owner of an apartment in Green Point, Jenny Stephens, listed her property with Seeff on Regent Road in Sea Point last year, and was prescribed as to the additional facilities that would need to be provided to make the apartment marketable for a World Cup rental.   She did not hear from the rental agent again for four months, until she wrote last month to say that whilst the demand for such accommodation is high in Johannesburg, “Less visitors will base themselves in Cape Town.  In fact, the demand at this stage is for shorter periods, on average five to seven days”.  The agent also blamed the cancellation of MATCH room nights, as well as the high costs of match and airline tickets for the lower demand for accommodation, and wrote that the rates they had previously promised were no longer achievable.  The agency therefore recommended a rental rate decrease to Mrs Stephens.   Seeff is said to be taking 25 % commission on the rental bookings, sounding almost as greedy as MATCH!  As Mrs Stephens could no longer wait for Seeff to rent out her property, she extended the lease with existing tenants.

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.