Bad birthday experience - thank you M&B

On Wednesday, 25 July, I had the unfortunate experience of celebrating my birthday at M&B Whale Coast Mall.

As with all other users of the M&B rewards app, I got a notification stating that I had a birthday offer - a free slice of cake. So my best friend and I decided to give M&B another try after two previous not so satisfying visits to the same store - after all, how bad could they mess up with a slice of cake and a drink?

While the cake and the service from our waitress (I would love to have told you what her name was, but M&B could not be bothered to give me my till slip nor let me scan the QR code to receive the beans for my R170 purchase) was satisfactory, the whole experience was turned sour when we had to pay. I handed my phone with the notification on the app to our waitress - who had no idea what to do with it. She proceeded to call the manager - Ms October, if memory serves correctly - to ask for assistance, who also did not have a clue. Not about the offer, nor about basic customer service - you work in hospitality, you do not raise your voice at a customer and you keep your attitude in check when you are posed with a simple statement from a customer that they are dissatisfied with the fact that the staff are not informed by head office about promotions run by the company. It is a comment about the company, not a personal attack on you. Upon showing the manager the offer in the app, she asked me what app I am using as she is sure that is not the M&B app as there is no QR code. I proceeded to close the app, re-open it and show her that it was an offer in the M&B app. She then had the audacity to ask me - the customer - how it works. Ms October allegedly tried to contact someone from Famous Brands - I would not know if it was done or not, as this was done in the back office - by the name of Mr Lazarus but could not resolve the issue. This was around 16:15. She proceeded to act as if she was far superior to me, the client, and was doing me a massive favour by doing her job.

I am sorry, but to me this entire experience was unacceptable - having a bad attitude towards your client (my best friend was actually quite upset by Ms October's behavior), acting as if you are doing your client a favour by doing your job - not that she seemed interested in doing it at all. It is the responsibility of the company to ensure that ALL their staff is properly trained and informed about things such as offers on the app and the functionality of applying said offers - it's not like any instructions are provided on the offer, nor was there a list available of selected stores where the offer can be redeemed.

If M&B wishes to be successful on their second attempt at operating a store in Herm****, I suggest they take a long, hard look at their staff's attitudes and training - or it will go the route of the first shop in the CBD.

Oh, and thank you M&B for ruining my birthday!