Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

The Sweet Service Award goes to Bellavista Country House and Panorama restaurant, located between Stanford and Gansbaai, and neighbouring Grootbos, a surprise oasis of 5-star accommodation luxury and excellent cuisine, owned by Swiss national Georg Schwegler, for inviting WhaleTales to experience the property.   Set high up against the Waterkop mountain, the property has a lovely view onto Walker Bay, and the fynbos of the farm below.   The popular Panorama restaurant, visited by guests from Hermanus and Gansbaai, has a fine-dining menu which is reasonably priced and the food was excellent.   The restaurant is run by two chefs who previously worked at Allee Bleue in Franschhoek, and the service was professional and reactive, if a little withdrawn, whilst the wine list is extensive, with two wine list choices - top-end wines and more affordable wines. 

The Sour Service Award goes to the Cape Whale Coast Destination Marketing Organisation, for reacting to its Sour Award of 28 December by sending a lawyer’s letter stating that “not only is the content of your publication concerning our client plainly untrue, but also slanderous.   You published these statements with the obvious and clear intentions to defame our client, and bring our client’s work, standing, good name and reputation into disrepute”.  The letter demanded “an unequivocal apology in respect of all untrue and defamatory matter concerning our client.  In such written apology, you are to acknowledge the untruthfulness of your earlier statements, withdraw all imputations made, and express your regret that they were ever made”.  The writer gave 7 days for this demand to be implemented (but sent the letter to the wrong address, so it was only received 10 days later), failing which the DMO threatened to issue a summons for damages and apply for an interdict!   Nowhere in the lawyer’s letter did it state which parts of the long article it deemed to be “untrue” or “defamatory”.  WhaleTales has been around the block long enough, and has written for the media, and knows what can/may be said.  Information sources were the Hermanus Tourism Bureau, an e-mail sent to all members of the Hermanus Tourism Bureau, the DMO constitution, and the DMO website itself.   The blog post that the DMO is contesting can be read here.   The DMO seems to be short of funds, yet seems to deem it important to waste its money on a threatened court case with no foundation, and does not appear to value the country’s Constitutional freedom of speech!

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.

The Sweet Service Award goes to the Manager of The Big Easy restaurant in Stellenbosch, for making space for a table of two on Valentine’s Day, when the hostess had declined the request initially, even though only half the tables were occupied at the time.   The service and meal were excellent.   It transpired during the evening that a party of 22 had booked, and that the hostess did not want to burden the kitchen, or the new chef Simone’ Rossouw.  Shockingly, the large party did not honour their booking!

The Sour Service Award goes to the Darling Music Experience, for the organisation of an event at the Groote Post wine estate outside Darling.   After a long journey from Cape Town, driving on a poor quality gravel road to get to the farm, the attendees of the lunch session had to listen to a talk by German pianist Andreas Kern about music, concerts, etc, and only got to hear one short piece played by him!   All the attendees at the lunch table complained about their expectation of a concert, as it was that that had attracted them to attend.  Lunch was then served at Hilda’s Kitchen restaurant, and was most disappointing:  a salmon salad with potatoes as a starter, a slice of mixed vegetable quiche for the main!!!, and a lovely pavlova.   If it had not been for the long journey lying ahead to travel back, and the lovely persons at the table, one would have chosen to return immediately.  The cost of R 250 per head felt like a rip-off, and was used as a sales opportunity for the Pentz family for their wines rather than as a musical experience for the attendees.   Feedback received from the Darling tourism bureau was dismissive and unsatisfactory, although they did offer an invitation to attend a concert two days later.

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.

The Sweet Service Award goes to Ian Halfon and his team at Balducci restaurant in the V&A Waterfront for so generously hosting the members of the Camps Bay Accommodation Association to a dinner on 14 December.   Not only did they pull out all the stops to introduce the guest house owners to a wide variety of dishes on the extensive Balducci Italian-style menu, but they also presented each guest house with a most beautiful gift box, consisting of a bottle of the Balducci house wine, a packet of biscotti, and a menu for the guest house.

The Sour Service Award goes to Telkom, for not arriving for an appointment, made two months ago, to install a telephone line in an apartment in Stellenbosch on Monday a week ago, as the technician had gone to the wrong block of flats.  Even though he had the contact details of the estate agent waiting to open for him, he did not bother to call when he arrived at the incorrect address.  It has taken another 10 days for him to come to the correct address, and he has now discovered a broken cable between the block and the distribution board, which has to be repaired before the line installation can be completed.

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.

The Sweet Service Award goes to the contractors and staff responsible for the magnificent Cape Town Stadium, which was completed on schedule. It has become a modern landmark for the Mother City, and will give soccer fans a view onto Table Mountain or on to the Atlantic Ocean.   It is proudly supported by Capetonians, many of whom were resistant to it initially.   The area around the stadium is almost complete and the 9-hole Metropolitan Golf Club is likely to have a better course and clubhouse than ever before.  The road system near the Stadium is outstanding, and it is quick and easy to connect to the V&A Waterfront from Sea Point, Green Point and Fresnaye.  Some of the many contractors include consulting engineers Arcus GIBB, Henry Fagan & Partners GOBA, BKS, ILISO Consulting, Martin & East; quantity surveyors MLC, HP and Abakali;Architects gmp Architects, Munnik Visser, jakupa, Paragon Architects, Louis Karol; OvP Landscape Architects; and many more.  Mr Bev Mitchell was the Chairman of the management committee and Andre Lambrechts the chief project manager.  None of this would have been possible without monies from the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape government, and the national treasury.

The Sour Service Award goes to Vodacom once again, for receiving payment for the cellphone subscription via Pick ‘n Pay’s EasyPay.  Such payment is meant to register on the system the following day, but does not appear to, as the customer was once again cut-off, without warning, despite payment having been made on due date.  It appeared that Vodacom was cash-flow short, as it sent an SMS on 1 December to chase payment, when it usually did so around the 4th or 5th of the month!  The customer was cut off on 3 December.  Once one registers the cut-off at Vodacom, one is promised a one-hour reconnection time, but this is never accurate, the reconnection taking 6 hours, even though proof of payment was sent to Vodacom’s Johannesburg offices, and all ID and address verification procedures had been followed and checked.

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.

The Sweet Service Award goes to Southern Right Charters in Hermanus, who spontaneously gave Whale Cottage Hermanus guests a 50 % refund on the whale watching trip fee, as they had only seen 3 whales in the 2,5 hour cruise in December. 

The Sour Service Award goes to Newport Deli in Mouille Point, whose kitchen staff take the previous day’s leftover sandwiches, wipe the mayonnaise off the chicken or tuna filling, add new mayonnaise and place this back on a fresh slice of bread, calling their sandwiches “fresh” on their menu!

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.

In the spirit of Christmas, we will only award a Sweet Service Award this week.  The winner is the SA Reserve Bank, which decreased interest rates by 5 percentage points in the last twelve months.  Without this decrease, most business and property owners would not have survived the rough past year.   While the interest rates are still very high relative to other countries, and the interest rate decreases may not have been a boost to the economy as such, they certainly prevented a collapse of the economy.

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.

The Sweet Service Award  goes to 221 Waterfront restaurant, in the Victoria Wharf in the V&A, and its Public Relations consultant Annette Ashley, for a wonderful dinner of a prawn and avocado handroll, a main course of duck, and a lovely bottle of Hartenberg 2005 Shiraz, with efficient service, and an evening of chatting.   Ms Ashley’s hard work has put the restaurant on the map, with an Australian soccer group signing up the restaurant for 3 weeks for its catering and meeting needs during the 2010 World Cup.  

The Sour Service Award  goes to Cape Town Tourism and MediaNova, the publishing company, which was appointed by Cape Town Tourism to produce its Visitors’ Guide for 2010.   Cape Town Tourism regularly changes its Visitors’ Guide publisher, and this means a new learning curve for each publisher, and an irritation for the members of Cape Town Tourism who advertise in the Guide.  The current issue’s accommodation ad design is completely ineffectual, in that the tiny type size of the copy in the 1/16th ads is barely legible, especially the name of each establishment.   The company also forgot to allow a line for the street address in the contact details!  The Guide still has not been published, being more than a month behind schedule.   The lack of management by Cape Town Tourism over the production of this Guide is most irresponsible!

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.

The Sweet Service Award goes to Roshan Sewmangal at Nedbank’s Head Office in Johannesburg, who has been incredibly efficient in addressing a customer’s needs that were not being met at business branch level.   Roshan has an amazing ability to listen, to keep the customer informed about the progress of the query, and has been most efficient in quickly addressing the client’s requests.

The Sour Service Award goes to the City of Cape Town, which charges for payments over R 4 000, when made by credit card, to the customer’s next account.  Many residents living on the Atlantic seaboard have a rates bill in excess of that amount every month, and would have to pay this particular account by cheque if they wish to avoid the hefty credit card commission charge by the City. Mastercard and VISA do not allow merchants to charge a commission charge on top of the purchase price.  Interestingly, the City of Cape Town is not the merchant - Pick ‘n Pay’s EasyPay system is.  

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.

The Sweet Service Award goes to Michelle Ladewig, from Leechie Marketing, the Whale Cottage designer.   Michelle was asked if she could finalise the WhaleTales newsletter on Sunday evening, for it to go out early on Monday, but to incorporate the winners of the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards, which were only announced at about 22h00 that evening.   The Top 10 list was sent to Michelle by sms from the function, while the paragraphs summarising the evening were e-mailed after the event.  By midnight the newsletter was completed and proofread, ready to be sent out the next morning!

The Sour Service Award goes to the Westin Grand Hotel, at which the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards took place.   Problems encountered by guests paying R 650 per ticket were warm sparkling wine served on arrival, warm white wine and water served at the table, no ice buckets brought to the tables to keep the wine and water cold, staff not respecting one’s space, squashing past one, red wine requested instead of white wine did not arrive, and worst of all, the airconditioning did not work properly, making it unbearably warm in the ballroom.  As New Media Publishing was not addressing the problems, the F&B Manager was called, and the problems explained.   He made an improvement as far as wine temperature and supply of red wine was concerned, but could not fix the aircon problem.   It seemed that the staff were untrained for the event, and that there was no senior management staff on duty (it being a Sunday, a favourite day for senior hotel staff to take the day off!).   Luckily the food preparation was done by the top chefs attending the function, and their food could not be faulted at all.  Eben, the F&B Director of the hotel, called early on Monday, after reading the WhaleTales blog post about the Eat Out evening, and apologised for the problems.  He explained that it was a difficult function to service, and admitted that the airconditioning was not operating effectively, and that they could not get it fixed the previous evening.   The Westin Grand Hotel had the top chefs and food lovers from around the country attending the function, who were being lauded for their food quality and service excellence, yet they themselves could not deliver, which was a poor reflection not only on the hotel but also on New Media, Eat Out and its sponsors Prudential and Veritas wines.

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.

The Sweet Service Award goes to Debbie Hall, owner of The Hall Collection, suppliers of bespoke beds and bedding, imported from the UK.   The customer had met Mrs Hall previously at a Slow Food lunch and reconnected with her recently at the launch of Cru Cafe’.   Mrs Hall has built up a reputation for her wonderful cakes and cooking.   Having established the Hall Collection two years ago, run from a house in Tamboerskloof, she hosts a lunch for customers wishing to pop in on Wednesdays, and offers coffee and cake on weekdays.   A request to buy some chicken pieces from the lunch buffet led Mrs Hall to generously give the customer what was left over, refusing payment for it.  In addition, she added two cupcakes to the “take-home” package.   Such generosity is seldom experienced!  

The Sour Service Award goes to ID Solutions, a supplier of contract furniture for the retail, corporate, leisure and hospitality industries, “South Africa’s leading lifestyle furniture specialist”, its website says.  An advertised sale in the Cape Times attracted attention, the customer wanting a new office chair.   Armed with the ad, she arrived at Black River Park in pouring rain, drew a parking ticket, and then looked for the building, denoted as “C1″ in the ad.   Driving to the building in the complex where the company had been located previously, no such number was visible on the building.   She called the company, who explained that they were no longer in that building.   The switchboard assistant Naomi was unable to clearly direct the customer out of the Black River Park complex, did not tell her about the exit being different to the entrance, and was generally unhelpful in guiding the customer to their new location, ultimately saying that she did not need the customer to buy a chair from ID Solutions, and finally putting down the phone!   She had refused to pass the call on to one of her colleagues, for better driving guidance and directions, when requested.   On arrival at the offices, the customer was ignored.   The same staff member Naomi walked past, and did not greet or react to the customer.  The customer walked along the whole length of the shop and back, and not one person acknowledged her presence nor offered to help her.   When the customer asked for help, the receptionist Naomi said that she refused to help the customer.   On request, a sweet lady called Carmen got up to help.   The customer was told that all office chairs had been sold, even though the sale had only been advertised the day before, and there were no customers in the store.  The customer found the ideal chair standing at a computer console, and was allowed to buy the chair.   She took out her credit card, only to be told that the company does not accept credit cards!   She was offered the chair, and was asked to make an internet transfer on return to her business.   In the process of hand-writing the invoice (one wonders why the sale chairs go through a manual hand-written system, and not the company’s usual computerised invoicing system), Carmen was told that the chair could not be taken along by the customer until the payment had been done, contrary to her earlier communication.  Carmen promised delivery the following day, on receipt of the proof of payment.  A matter of concern was the price of the chair, as it did not have a price tag.   The owner of the company, Sean Weldon, was contacted once the very unhappy customer left ID Solutions, thinking that the company did not deserve her business.   She told Mr Weldon about her bad service experience at ID Solutions.  He said that he was on his way to the office, and would get back to her.  The customer called again after two hours, not having heard from Mr Weldon, and he said he was still on his way back and would contact the customer the following day.    Mr Weldon’s tone was very unfriendly and unapologetic the following day, even though the payment had been made, and he protected the rude behaviour of Naomi, his staff member of 10 years, he said   He was inflexible about the time of delivery, despite the customer’s request for it to be delivered before 11h00, as she was going out.    It became very clear that everything is done in the ID Solutions way, and that the customer is unimportant.   The customer told Mr Weldon that she would collect the chair herself.   About an hour before collection , a worker from the warehouse called, asking in broken English what the delivery address was for the chair.  He could not understand that the customer had arranged to fetch the chair.    When the customer fetched the chair, no attempt had been made to wrap it in bubble wrap or with any other protective packaging for the trip in the car.  The customer called Mr Weldon four times, to report the unwrapped chair and the warehouse call, but he did not bother to return the calls on that day, depite his cellphone message promising that he would so promptly.  The customer felt shocked that such poor service was possible, but remembered that Mr Weldon’s previous company Innovation had gone into liquidation, and perhaps poor service delivery could have been the cause of the closure of that company!   The customer will never fall for an ID Solutions sale ad ever again, or buy from the company again!

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.