My wife mailed me this letter. Not sure of its validity, however I gotta say that I get the feeling (for what it’s worth) that it’s legit.

OCEAN BASKET – CLEARWATER MALL – SHAME ON YOU!

On Friday night, 8 December, my son was looking forward to celebrate
his 17th birthday with a friend at Clearwater Mall. A movie and a
bite to eat sounded just great and off they went.

The mall was quite busy but they were lucky to find a table at Ocean
Basket and ordered two soft drinks and a Fisherman’s basket to share
– the total bill, about R60

Soon after the food arrived, the waiter approached them and indicated
that customers were queuing outside. My son did not quite understand
what was meant and thought the waiter was making conversation. A few
minutes later the manager arrived at their table saying: ‘Sorry guys,
I don’t want to be rude but I can’t make a living like this (pointing
at the food they ordered), I have families waiting outside’ He then
asked them to leave – only now my son understood …………that
they have not ordered enough food to warrant a bill that was big
enough to secure their seat at Ocean Basket any longer.

By now, they had consumed about half of the food and drink. My son
was very embarrassed and the manager said they didn’t have to pay the
bill. However, as they got up to leave, the waiter approached and
insisted they pay the bill, which he did, feeling too embarrassed to
make a scene.

Well, Mr Manager, it is clear that you only have a short term profit
mind set, but I can tell you, you have forever lost the business, not
only from two young teenagers (who will have families of their own
one day) but also from two sets of families, friends and colleagues
with wide influence. In addition, this letter will be read in
multiple newspaper letter columns and talked about by many consumers
and business people visiting the web site www.hellopeter.com who
still believe in the customer experience and have the common sense to
know that you hook consumers into your services and products from a
very young age.

Thank you for spoiling a young man’s birthday!

Dalene Bosman

The reason I believe it is that I got treated in a similar fashion while taking a girl out on a date to Spur when I was 16, we’d ordered full meals, but the waiter figured I was too young to tip so when I complained my steak was underdone (it really was) he told me I’d need to eat it because the griller was busy.

That was half my life ago, and I still haven’t forgotten the experience…!

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