Wilkes McDermid | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

The Sweet Service Award goes to Chrisna Kok of BURO in the V&A Waterfront, upstairs next door to Woolworths, a shop selling Apple-complementary products such as phone covers, and stylish laptop carry cases. Chrisna assisted in changing an iTunes account on an Apple iPhone, and setting up the apps again, and offered practical and understandable technical advice without charge, an exceptional service compared to the Apple store in the Waterfront, which forces one to make an appointment for technical assistance. She has offered additional help, with an open door for questions relating to any Apple products.

The Sour Service Award goes to the V&A Waterfront for its poor handling and lack of co-operation in the search of Wilkes McDermid, who ‘disappeared’ in or around the V&A Waterfront, having last been seen leaving the Cape Grace hotel on 26 December. McDermid is a food and beverage blogger in the UK and is very active on Social Media, and it was his lack of Facebooking and Tweeting that raised the alarm. He had been at Orphanage the night before and had Tweeted about his experience there. McDermid is a good friend of whisky aficionado Bernard Gutman of Cape Town, and he raised the alarm about his friend’s disappearance. As we found too, the whole management of the Waterfront was on holiday from about 18 December until the beginning of this week, and therefore Gutman could not obtain permission to view the Waterfront’s security camera footage, and it was not made available to the police. ‘In simple terms there was nobody on-site who appeared to have any proper authority’, wrote Gutman. An acting manager could not contact any of the V&A management, saying that she would be fired if she were to contact any of them while they were on holiday! For days the Waterfront’s PR Manager Carla White interacted with Gutman, stalling, and stating that the matter was ‘subjudice’ and therefore Gutman was not allowed to see the footage from the claimed 1000 security cameras in the Waterfront. Gutman expressed his concern to the V&A about the UK media interest in the story, but this did not appear to be of concern to Ms White. Gutman believes after this experience that the Waterfront overclaims the extent of its security and protection of its property, and that there are ‘blind spots‘ in the security camera coverage, which would make it dangerous for parents to leave their children at the Waterfront. He believes that the V&A did not want to hand over the footage to prevent the security breaches from being exposed. The V&A Waterfront’s Tweeter Emma Jackson unsympathetically Tweeted that they could not help Gutman as she worked for the Marketing department, which does not deal with missing persons! She was out of her depth in managing a crisis in the V&A. Gutman is relieved that McDermid was traced via his cash withdrawals and credit card payments, and appears to have been in the V&A every day since he ‘disappeared’, but this was not picked up by the Waterfront’s security cameras at all!

POSTCRIPT 12/11 The V&A Waterfront has retaliated to this blogpost and the Sour Service Award, by blocking us on Twitter! We are regular shoppers at the V&A, so this is poor service indeed. Surprisingly, they did not protest their tenant BURO winning the Sweet Service Award.

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.

On Monday evening an über gale force South Easter affected the New Year’s Eve celebrations of a large sector of the Cape Town population, as well as of tourists. The wind was said to be gusting at over 100 km/hour, and created havoc at the V&A Waterfront, and in the city centre it led to the cancellation of the traditional late evening Cape Minstrel procession!

The annual New Year’s Eve 5FM party was cancelled at 22h20 on Monday night, after the City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management declared the risk too great to host the function in a marquee, of which a section had already collapsed. Ticket holders appreciated the concern for safety, but were furious that they had to queue for two hours in the V&A Waterfront so late at night, to hear from the company about whether the event would be hosted or not. The company’s Tweeter appeared to tread water, and was very quick to absolve the Waterfront from any responsibility about the cancellation of the event, her inane Tweets wishing for a reduction in the windspeed! Any Capetonian would know that the South Easter blows at its peak late at night, and might only ease off at midnight, which was not the case on Monday evening. Any event organiser planning an outside event will know that the wind is a factor to be contended with in Cape Town, and that a Plan B alternative should be organised as a back-up. The weather forecast would also have provided an estimate of the windspeed for the evening. The absence of the entire top management of the V&A Waterfront from their company, all being on holiday since before Christmas, worsened the disaster, lacking management direction. All of yesterday the V&A Waterfront was asked via Twitter and Facebook about the refunds for the 5FM party, which was organised to be staged in tandem with a party in Ballito, with Pete Tong (described as an ‘icon in the dance world’) flying from Ballito to Cape Town. The Waterfront Tweeter kept passing the buck, and referred ticket holders to the event organiser G&G Productions and RK Events, which posted this message on their website, with an update only expected today:

“It is with great regret that the NYE Live City Linkup at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town has been cancelled. Unfortunately due to extreme weather conditions it is not possible for the event to take place. G&G prioritizes the safety and well-being of the public and made this decision on the advice of The City of Cape Town Disaster Risk Management. We appreciate your understanding. Please check back here on the 2nd of January, for more information”.

It was clear that the V&A Waterfront’s Tweeter Emma Jackson was out of her depth with a disaster such as the 5FM New Year’s Eve party cancellation, not being good generally with critical Tweets aimed at the Waterfront. She usually skips those, and only responds to praise and only ReTweets positive Tweets. It was the V&A Waterfront’s image that has suffered as a result of the cancellation, and not the unknown event organisation company. Yesterday she had to deal with a tourist (Wilkes McDermid) allegedly having gone missing in the V&A Waterfront, and quoted ‘protocol’ , and Tweeted that her Marketing department is not able to deal with the missing person: ” @bernardgwhisky: Bernard, we are sorry for your frustration but this is not something that we here in Marketing can help you with”, she Tweeted. Interesting is Ms Jackson’s Tweet on her personal account after this interaction: “I may have to give up working in social media one of these days. Listening to people complain all day is going to cost me in therapy bills”! Cape Town Tourism, ‘official supporter’ of the event, stayed silent on Twitter about the cancellation of the 5FM New Year’s Eve party.

The wind also led to the cancellation of the traditional Cape Minstrel Carnival parade, which usually commences at 22h00 on New Year’s Eve. The wind was so strong that the parade was cancelled, something that has rarely happened in the history of the Minstrel Carnival. Cape Town Tourism also did not Tweet the cancellation, nor post the information on its website! Today the parade will be held on Tweede Nuwe Jaar, a tradition that commenced in the 19th century. The parade will commence in the Keizergracht in District Six, and then proceeds into Darling Street, Adderley Street, Wale Street, Rose Street in Bo-Kaap, and then ends in Strand Street.

While many saw the strong South Easter as nature’s way of blowing a tough 2012 away, it is a reminder that the strong summer wind is an integral part of Cape Town. Any event organised outdoors in summer should have a Plan B – the New Year’s Eve party was badly organised, and its communication to ticketholders was unprofessional, reflecting negatively on Cape Town as a Festive Season Festival city!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage