Undisclosed information
Due to logistic issue, I suggested to my parents come over to KL to have an early lunch celebration of my dad's birthday. After going through a few options, we settled on Fish & Co. The last time they dined at an outlet was decades ago in Singapore with one of my close friends (the first friend I made there :) ). In any case, my parents had long forgotten the food there and in fact, my dad couldn't even recall dining there at all hehehe.
So we met Ban (I drove my parents) at the restaurant's outlet at Paradigm Mall. I guessed, and turned out to be correct, that my dad would enjoy sharing with me a seafood platter because of its variety of food. My mum chose creamy mushroom and chicken pasta (she's allergic to seafood...currently) while Ban had grilled fish with coriander. We shared a garden salad. The order consisted of 2 lunch sets and 2 ala carte food. Bear in mind that the cost of the ala carte food was about twice of that of the lunch sets. This is quite relevant later.
As Ban and I dined there before, before entering the restaurant, I checked and confirmed that the CIMB credit card promotion was still on i.e. 10% on ala carte food. It is quite common for promotion to exclude lunch sets or any other food that's already subjected to other ongoing promotion.
The food was delicious and more importantly my dad enjoyed it very much.
However, when we were presented with the bill and we wanted to use a CIMB credit card for the discount, we were told that it was not possible because all items were in one bill. So I requested 2 separate bills i.e. ala carte food that qualified for the discount and the lunch sets. Astoundingly, the waiter said it wasn't possible to void the current bill. I stood my ground.
While the waiter went off to check with (presumably) his senior colleague, I checked the board advertising the promotion. There was no such requirement as "applies to bill with only ala carte food" or anything similiar to that.
The senior staff approached and basically repeated the same message the waiter said. I pointed that there was no such requirement in the advertisement board and asked, "Is it our fault that you didn't put it in?" I didn't allow him to say anything else until he answered my question, which was "No, of course it isn't your fault." No worries, no voices were raised :)
Upon my insistence, he went back to the cashier to "fix it". Boy, it took him, and one other staff quite a long time to go about it. Ban and I were surprised that they couldn't void the current bill and issue new ones. Surely such action is needed to, say, correct mistakes (e.g. wrong order was keyed in) or to compensate irate customers by not charging them for certain food that they ordered?
In the end, they did this: they charged the card the original bill; then reversed it; and then charged the 2 new bills (one for ala carte food, one for the lunch sets). Weird, isn't it?
I told the senior staff that I liked the food and service at that outlet and I wanted them to succeed. Hence they needed to do something about this as I was sure I wouldn't be the last customer to complain about this. Either they insert another criterion on the board or have their waiters informing customers upon seating. He thanked me and explained that they were short of staff and things were hectic. In my mind, I was thinking, "Yes, that's bad but it's no excuse for this." but I merely acknowledged his predicament and advised them to fix this soon. I wished them good luck before we left.
So we met Ban (I drove my parents) at the restaurant's outlet at Paradigm Mall. I guessed, and turned out to be correct, that my dad would enjoy sharing with me a seafood platter because of its variety of food. My mum chose creamy mushroom and chicken pasta (she's allergic to seafood...currently) while Ban had grilled fish with coriander. We shared a garden salad. The order consisted of 2 lunch sets and 2 ala carte food. Bear in mind that the cost of the ala carte food was about twice of that of the lunch sets. This is quite relevant later.
As Ban and I dined there before, before entering the restaurant, I checked and confirmed that the CIMB credit card promotion was still on i.e. 10% on ala carte food. It is quite common for promotion to exclude lunch sets or any other food that's already subjected to other ongoing promotion.
The food was delicious and more importantly my dad enjoyed it very much.
However, when we were presented with the bill and we wanted to use a CIMB credit card for the discount, we were told that it was not possible because all items were in one bill. So I requested 2 separate bills i.e. ala carte food that qualified for the discount and the lunch sets. Astoundingly, the waiter said it wasn't possible to void the current bill. I stood my ground.
While the waiter went off to check with (presumably) his senior colleague, I checked the board advertising the promotion. There was no such requirement as "applies to bill with only ala carte food" or anything similiar to that.
The senior staff approached and basically repeated the same message the waiter said. I pointed that there was no such requirement in the advertisement board and asked, "Is it our fault that you didn't put it in?" I didn't allow him to say anything else until he answered my question, which was "No, of course it isn't your fault." No worries, no voices were raised :)
Upon my insistence, he went back to the cashier to "fix it". Boy, it took him, and one other staff quite a long time to go about it. Ban and I were surprised that they couldn't void the current bill and issue new ones. Surely such action is needed to, say, correct mistakes (e.g. wrong order was keyed in) or to compensate irate customers by not charging them for certain food that they ordered?
In the end, they did this: they charged the card the original bill; then reversed it; and then charged the 2 new bills (one for ala carte food, one for the lunch sets). Weird, isn't it?
I told the senior staff that I liked the food and service at that outlet and I wanted them to succeed. Hence they needed to do something about this as I was sure I wouldn't be the last customer to complain about this. Either they insert another criterion on the board or have their waiters informing customers upon seating. He thanked me and explained that they were short of staff and things were hectic. In my mind, I was thinking, "Yes, that's bad but it's no excuse for this." but I merely acknowledged his predicament and advised them to fix this soon. I wished them good luck before we left.
Comments
Not always for me though :)
William,
Super lousy lol.