Popular restaurant chain Nando's is in the spotlight after local
celebrity Joanne Peh stormed out of its Tanglin Mall outlet on
Monday evening, complaining of bad service.
What made the incident worse was that after she left the
restaurant with her boyfriend, Nando's staff started clapping, she
claimed.
The 28-year-old actress, incensed by the fact she had been asked
to pay S$3.90 for a cup of warm water, vented her frustrations on
Twitter later that night.
"Somebody please save this restaurant. They have no idea what
service and initiative means," she tweeted via @JoannePeh,
triggering a flurry of comments from her 20,000 followers, many of
whom supported her.
In an interview with Yahoo! Singapore three days after
the incident, Peh reiterated that the underlying issue is not
whether the restaurant plans to charge customers for tap water or
not.
"I don't want to come off like I'm very petty... but the
clapping was what I felt was most uncalled for in the whole string
of events," she said.
"A lot of people have asked me, 'why did they do that?' I don't
know, I'm just as bewildered. Their behaviour is so bizarre, even
Nando's can't explain it either. I also want to know why."
"Different establishments have different rules and policies, and
I respect that," she added. "But every customer has the right to
walk away."
The incident took place when Peh and her actor-deejay boyfriend
Bobby Tonelli, 36, went for dinner at the restaurant, which is
famed for its grilled chicken. It has three outlets here.
After placing their orders, Peh asked for hot water but was told
by the waiter that this was not possible. She then asked to speak
to the manager, who said the same.
"The manager actually told us he once got into trouble for
serving hot water, which I have never heard of before," she said,
reported The Straits Times.
The couple was eventually told that hot water would cost S$3.90,
which is the menu price for a cup of tea. However, Tonelli went on
to point out that a bottle of water on the same menu only cost
S$1.80, to which the manager agreed to charge them that and heat up
the bottled water instead.
However, the message was apparently not conveyed to other staff,
who were "dumbfounded" when the couple had to request for hot
water again.
Finally, when neither their food nor drinks had arrived 30
minutes after being seated, an exasperated Peh and Tonelli decided
to leave the outlet.
It was then that Peh said she heard the restaurant's service
staff clap and cheer.
"In all honesty we'd have dropped it as another unfortunate
experience if not for the fact that they applauded on our way out,"
said Peh on Twitter.
"The worst thing is the manager clapped too," Peh added.
It was the first time Peh had walked out of a restaurant
fuming.
"We are not asking to be treated in any special manner just
because we are celebrities. It's just hot water, how hard can that
be to serve?" Peh told The New Paper.
Tonelli also said that he and Peh have always tried to be "very
low key" in public. This incident, he said, was "certainly not
about diva behaviour."
Peh later told Yahoo! Singapore that the online furor
seemed to be "opening up a whole can of worms", with regards to
other negative reviews of the restaurant that have since surfaced.
She suggested that the problem could be "all internal".
"There is a lack of a proper charging system in place, and a
lack of proper training," she said. "Service staff needs to know
how to handle requests."
Ironically, the last time the couple dined at the restaurant,
they received such good service that Tonelli, a Class 95FM deejay,
raved about it on air.
Nando's have since called the actress to apologise. It also
tweeted an apology the following day and said, "We saw ur tweets
abt ur experience and would like to sincerely apologise for this
incident."
"We do appreciate and value all our guests' feedback. Your
tweets highlighted some issues which we are currently looking
into."
Nando's regional marketing manager Fanny Chai has also come
forth to explain that it is a "corporate decision not to
serve water on the house as beverage sales is a key source of
business revenue".
She said that staff members usually offer bottled water or a hot
beverage such as tea as an alternative, when customers request hot
water.
This was not clearly explained to Peh at the time, resulting in
a "misunderstanding", continued Chai.
She also said the restaurant was still assessing the water
policy at this point, adding that "it is not true" that a staff
member would be fired for serving water to a customer.
As for the clapping incident, Chai declined to confirm details
as "internal investigations of the incident are currently underway
to understand and verify the situation and chain of events."
-- Yahoo!
