The Sweet Service Award goes to the City of Cape Town, and UCT’s Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment for addressing the unfinished freeway on the Foreshore, in trying to find a creative solution for it.  The Engineering and Built environment students will present proposals for the Future Foreshore Freeway Precinct project, based on existing plans, the requirements of residents of Cape Town, and study benchmarks in other countries, taking the future development of the Cape Metropole into consideration.  The City’s Brett Herron, Councillor for Transport, Roads, and Stormwater, described the Foreshore as the most important precinct of Cape Town.

The Sour Service Award goes to the Theatre on the Bay, and its bar and restaurant supplier Dish Food & Social, for charging a 10% surcharge if one pays per credit card. This goes against the rules of the credit card companies, and is a rip-off, as the maximum fee that the merchant pays is 5% for American Express.  Most clients use a Mastercard or VISA, with a 2,5 – 3% commission rate at most!

POSTSCRIPT 26/4: We have received the following reply from Andrea Foulkes, the owner of Dish Food & Social, and are delighted that they have removed the sign: ‘Thank you for stimulating a second look at this issue.   The first time I saw the sign, I – too – did a double-take. I have to admit that the wording isn’t clear (I didn’t understand it first time around myself). Our manager explained to me that this is not a charge for the use of the credit card. As you rightly point out, this is against the rules (which doesn’t stop many establishments from doing it).   The ‘service’ charge is, in fact, gratuity. What was happening, is that patrons were paying for drinks on credit card, but forgetting to add a gratuity. So, this was implemented as a means of protecting the bar staff. We don’t do it upstairs in the restaurant, because diners are accustomed to adding a gratuity.  We used to have the old-fashioned tip jar on the counter, but on several occasions we caught patrons attempting to steal the money inside it – unbelievable though it may seem!  I wasn’t entirely happy with it right from the beginning, and I should have gone with my gut feeling. Until we can find a better way of communicating this we’ll be removing the sign.  Thank you for raising the issue.  Kind regards  Andrea Foulkes’.

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.