Serious complaint

Subject: Serious complaint - the ****** Valley restaurant

I am writing this to warn all patrons and guests of the beautiful ****** Valley Resort in Noordhoek.

Please note that I take no pleasure in discrediting any business, however I feel I have no choice but to warn the public.

The facts are as follows : ****** Valley restaurant was hosting a live band on Sunday 30/11/22 from 4pm to 6pm. The parents of the band members made a considerable effort to market the event, the result being a whopping turnout of over 50 people. Customers who would not otherwise have spent their money at ****** Valley restaurant.

Here is what happened: We had reserved a table of 25 people, all close friends. The first concerning event was the male waiter who immediately informed us, “we do not do separate tabs.” To which my friend rep**** “that’s going to be difficult with a table of 25!” The waiter responded by stating that this was ****** Valley’s policy. This was extremely odd as many of us had no problem issuing and paying with a separate tab and it is not their policy.

After the event, approximately ten people from that close group stayed for dinner. The bill arrived and you can imagine the horror when we were informed that we were short over R900. (Despite the fact that everyone who left earlier had settled their bills.). We each recontacted each individual who had been seated in our are and confirmed that everyone had paid their personal bills.

There is no doubt in my mind that a staff member loaded the bill. For example, there were 2 of us drinking savanna. I had 2 which were ordered and paid for at the bar. One other person in our group also had 2 savannas and paid separately before leaving the venue. However there were numerous savanna’s on our final bill despite the fact that no one else in our party had been drinking them.

Copious orders of chips were supposedly ordered and not paid for - apparently. Way more than there were people eating at our table.

I am personally devastated for many reasons-

1. We were deliberately misinformed about small group tabs (what other reason than to load the bill?) 2. Between two families we managed to increase the venue’s customer numbers by over 50 people, boosting their financial intake on that day enormously and to be taken such advantage of is utterly disgraceful. 3. We are a very close knit group of friends who go out together often and we have NEVER had anything like this happen before. 4. I had to fork out R450. Considering I had only ordered, consumed & already paid for 2 Drinks. I deliberately did not eat at the venue, being on a strict budget.

To date, I have received no correspondence from the ****** Valley management, except for the events manager who has nothing to do with the restaurant. She was quite rightly appalled and forwarded my email to the manager/owner’s daughter Tracy Sole. Again I have received no apology or correspondence of any kind. My husband contacted Jason Sole, another Manager/owner (son of owner Judy Sole.) Jason absolutely refused to accept that it had anything to do with his restaurant. He too, has not made contact with me.

We have been patrons of the resort for over 29 years and even had our son’s wedding at the resort.

I am appalled at the owners and managers total disinterest and lack of basic good business etiquette.