Tag Archives: Sweet & Sour Service Award

One&Only Cape Town Sweet and Vodacom Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award goes to Stephen Towler, Group Sommelier of One&Only Cape Town.   Towler is knowledgeable, offers excellent service and he has presence without being obtrusive about it.   He was spot on with a suitable choice of shiraz, showed customers to maze his 5 000-bottle  Wine Loft, and sent complimentary glasses of a dessert wine to the table.  At no stage did one feel that he was trying to recommend the more expensive wines on the 35-page winelist.   He took interest in the service deficiencies of maze, and helped to address them quietly and efficiently, even though the food side is not his responsibility.   For a detailed review of maze at the One&Only Cape Town, read the WhaleTales blog post of 9 April below. 

The Sour Service Award goes to Vodacom, for the appalling poor service customers have to endure when the cellphone company cuts off its customer’s line, even though payment was made by Easypay two days prior.   No sms to warn one of the line cut was received.    One has to call the Vodacom accounts department, and the call centre (which can vie for the unenviable award of the worst Call Centre in the country, shared with the Sunday Times) is completely customer unfriendly.    There is no apology expressed or understanding what inconvenience such a line cut can mean to one’s business, that is totally dependent on sending sms-messages and making calls when one is out of the office.   Instead one is treated as a criminal, with “verification” questions asked about oneself – ID number, postal address, type of Vodacom package one subscribes to (be warned to not get this vital piece of information wrong, as one then is hugely suspect), name of bank one banks with, and type of account one has with the bank.  The significance of the questions, other than the ID number, was questioned by the customer.   One then has to fax the proof of payment, and is told that it will take an hour for the reconnection to take place.    The customer however had to call three times, and go through the verification process each time, because she expressed her frustration to each of the call center representatives, who then “punished” her by not reconnecting the line.   The customer was cut off for 6 hours due to the unacceptable behaviour of the Vodacom call centre staff.    No apology was received for the inconvenience caused!

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.

Allee Bleue Sweet and V&A Waterfront Sour Service Award

The Sweet Service Award goes to Desmond Spangenberg at Allee Bleue, a wine estate outside Franschhoek.   The estate has undergone a transformation in keeping its boom open and being welcoming to visitors, after years of keeping it closed and questioning visitors as to what they want!    The restaurant on the estate serves lunches and breakfasts at the most reasonable prices, and the menu contains out of the ordinary dishes.   The latest and most welcome addition to the service range is a free wireless ADSL service, which unfortunately is not made known to the patrons of the restaurant. 

   

 

 

 

 

 

The Sour Service Award goes to the V & A Waterfront for their parking machines being out of order in the basement section underneath the Nu Metro cinema.  A first machine did not accept any notes, and the next one accepted a note, but then jammed and would not release the ticket after payment.   It took 10 minutes of ringing the service bell for someone to respond – he sits next to the parking machines, but is not immediately visible to customers.  Once the problem was explained to him, he said the customer should drive out, and press the button at the boom – it took 20 minutes for him to respond and open the boom! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
 
 
 

 

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.

 

 

Westpac Bank Sweet and Core Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award goes to Westpac Bank in Australia.    A customer received a letter stating that the bank would close the account due to inactivity on the account.  A deadline of 31 December was specified.   Due to the time difference between Cape Town and Sydney, it was hard to speak to someone in the bank.  However, a gentleman in the bank was working late, and offered to help with the closing of the account and transfer of the funds to South Africa.    Despite a posted letter being required for this request, the bank accepted a faxed letter.   The funds were transferred from the Australian bank account into the South African bank account within 24 hours!

 

The Sour Service Award goes to Core Catering Supplies.    Chairs were ordered.   An arrangement was made to hand over a cheque for the chairs, as well as for some trays bought previously, to the lady delivering the chairs.  A time was agreed for the delivery, to ensure the cheques could be handed over.  The Core employee did not arrive at the agreed time, and no call was received to communicate this.     The customer called Core, and told them that she was leaving the property.    The Core employee arrived while the customer was out, and left the chairs in the care of some handymen working at the property.     The customer subsequently posted the cheques.  She was shouted at by Gregor, the sales person at Core, and a rude e-mail was written about the payment not having been received COD.   The customer referred Core to the employee who was late, and caused the problem with the cheque collection.    The Core shop in Woodstock has poor service in general, and therefore delivery of goods is preferable to experiencing the slowness and disinterest of the Core staff in the shop. However, the delivery service is almost equally bad to that of the shop.

 

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.

W Food Bar Sweet and Sunday Times Sour Service Award

Lester, the Store Manager of Woolworths in Willowbridge, receives the Sweet Service Award for coming to the rescue of a client on New Year’s Day, who wished to order breakfast at the in-house restaurant of this store.   The customer sat on a ledge, waiting for a table to come available at 11h45, and ordered a glass of water and a cappucino, and asked for the menu.  A lunch menu of sandwiches and salads only was presented.   It was visible to the customer that other patrons were having breakfast, and the waiter was asked for the breakfast menu.    Terence the waiter said it was not possible to order from the breakfast menu anymore, as breakfast closes at 12h00, even though it was 11h55 at that time. A new Manager Heinrich, who only started his first working day on that day, went inside to the food preparation section, and did not bother to communicate to the customer that he could not organise the required omelette.   A supervisor called Steven came from the preparation section, and said that breakfast had closed at 11h30, and that there was no flexibility on this, even on New Year’s Day.  Two staff members were asked to call the store manager, but it took 15 minutes for him to come to the table.   

 

Lester was most open to listening to the customer complaint and request, especially given that the Breakfast menu does not specify a closing time for serving breakfast.  Lester explained that the store had not received most of its breads on New Year’s Day, and that this affected the serving of the breakfasts.  However, a number of items on the lunch menu are sandwiches, and the waiters did not communicate problems serving any of these due to the bread shortage.

  

Lester was able to persuade Alex, the chef on duty, that the requested omelette could be prepared, even though a considerable waiting time could be anticipated, he warned, as the stoves had to be switched on again!   Twenty-five minutes later the requested omelette was served, with two slices of toasted rye bread.  Heinrich refused to divulge his name to the customer or to his colleagues, probably being worried about getting into trouble for his poor service on his first day of employment!

 

The Sour Service Award goes to the Sunday Times, which must have the most inefficient call centre in the country.  Repeated calls to the call centre, to renew existing subscriptions, as well as to start a new subscription, in the past three months have not led to one succesful renewal or new subscription.  The standard line is that one must pay first to receive delivery.  To pay, one must receive an invoice.  Each operator is provided with the postal address details, and confirmation is supplied that the invoice was typed while the call was being made. However, no invoice ever arrives.  The company is also not able to undertand that the invoice address is a postal address, which is different to the delivery addresses!    The subscription problems must cost the company thousands of Rands of lost income as a result of its subscription inefficiency. 

  

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.