The Sweet Service Award goes to Red Bull and its entertaining Flugtag it hosted in the V&A Waterfront last Sunday, the first since its last South African event ten years ago. A record count of over 200000 attendees led to traffic congestion and a shortage of parking in the V&A, which meant that visitors had to park at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. From Twitter it was evident to see that everyone had a super time, despite the traffic problems in getting there. One hopes that the City of Cape Town takes a leaf out of Red Bull’s book in how to organise a successful mega event!
The Sour Service Award goes to Tourvest-owned Seekers Travel and its Public Sector Division, in cancelling a booking for our long-standing Department of Environmental Affairs clients. We had received the booking from the friendly Nangamso Nyonkana, but a personal crisis led her to leave the office and hand over the booking to her rude colleague Nomhle Khosi. Despite having met all the onerous invoicing requirements, we were told that the travel agency only pays on the day of guest arrival, and that the payment run for the whole company only starts at 14h30, by which time the guests may have checked in already. When we asked Nomhle to help us to chase the payment in the system, she refused, and cancelled the booking instead, without explanation. The Operations Manager Shelley refused to intervene. Guest Houses are loath to deal with travel agents, and late payment is one of the major irritations, Seekers being a large company and works according to rules, despite the inconvenience to their clients and suppliers! The Department client Eugene Swart was shocked to hear about Seeker’s unprofessional conduct, and will take the matter further!
The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog. Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.
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