Disgusting Customer Service from "Patronella" at Nandos Benmore

Good day,

I was having a great day until I made the error of walking into Nandos Benmore this afternoon to order some food.

Placement of and payment for the order was perfectly fine.

My husband and I sat down to wait for our order number to be called - we noted that the female staff that were handling the distribution of the orders were handing the food (takeouts) to other customers on a tray.

When our order number was called we were the only ones left waiting for our orders and the ladies seemingly decided we were not worthy of the personal "tray-over" delivery of our meal.

Nonetheless, we shrugged it off and I approached the counter and said,"hello, my order number is 265."

"Patronella" then s***led at me and responded "SLIP!" (like, don't you know the protocol by now missy??!!) - no greeting, no, "may I please have your order slip?"

Confused, I asked her - "Do you mean may I please have your order slip?"

She rolled her eyes and rotated her head on her neck - then stuck her hand out as if to say, "just give me the damn order slip!"

I looked at her and I asked,, "Is this the way you treat customers?"

There were about 3 or 4 stacked trays left - she lifted the top one and banged it on the ones laying on the counter then went up to her colleague/friend - and said, "you deal with this" in isiZulu and disappeared to the back of the store.

Her friend/colleague then picked up the order and came up to the counter where I stood she did not acknowledge me at all. I then asked her, "Is this the way you guys treat customers at Nandos?" and she ignored me.

I then asked her,"Are you ignoring a customer while they are addressing you?" - she continued to ignore me and I said,"Excuse me, I am speaking to you."

She then looked up at me as if annoyed and said,"Heyi, heyi I'm not the one who was speaking to you - it's her - she's in the back now - do you want me to call her back?" With a stinky attitude from here to Timbuktu.

I then said,"No, call the manager."

"Collen" came and I explained the situation to him - he then meekly pointed at Patronella who had since sauntered back and gestured at me with his hand - I'm not sure what that means in Nandos lingo.

She then casually approached the counter with an attitude - and I asked her," Is this the way you treat customers?" - it was more eye-rolling, neck popping and I couldn't care-less from Patronella. "Collen" meekly tried to encourage some sort of meaningful response from her in the background.

I asked her,"Are you even going to apologize for the disgusting way you have treated a customer?" - additional eye-rolling while her body was mostly facing the kitchen with her side profile to me. After I kept repeatedly asking her to apologize - she sneered and said,"Ngiyaxolisa"' but more in utter disgust than remorse.

So, I said to her," Clearly, you are not sorry and I am going to take this further because you cannot treat customers in this disgusting way!"

I then followed up with a phone call to Collen - who apologized profusely for her behaviour but she and her colleague are clearly either very poorly trained or completely ignoring the training they have received. Or they lack basic humanity.

My meal was tasteless and difficult to swallow because I was treated like a ****** begging for food at Nandos Benmore, instead of with dignity as a paying hard-working customer.

I am so disappointed, disgusted and upset at the way Patronella and her colleague treated me this afternoon. Yuc****

I would love to understand why they - especially Patronella - felt entitled to treat a customer deplorably at whim - why?

If Patronella is not happy working at Nandos, there is no shortage of desperate job-seekers in South Africa.

Sincerely,

Harri Vithi

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