04 March 2008

Sugar and Pshshshshshshshshsh!

Since the birth of the new nephew, Lizard, we've had people over several times a week.

Every few days I run out to get something to serve these people. Usually, since they don't stay very long, it's just savory pastries to serve with tea and something sweet to serve with coffee.

I usually go to Sugar and Spice, a bakery at the Shuwaikh Co-op, for the food. It's conveniently close, delicious and generally not crowded.

I never had a problem with their customer service till today.

My sister's having her friend's over today. So I drove to Sugar and Spice.

I walked into the bakery with two dishes to be filled with bite-sized dessert. Each plate would fit about 1/2 a kilo of these desserts (which are sold by weight) I look around, select two kinds, one for each platter. (The caramel brownies and the raspberry bars -- chocolate and non-chocolate as you'd typically serve.)

Both desserts are available.

But, the Filipino saleslady tells me, I can either buy a kilo of each, which is clearly waaaayyy more than a need. Or a split platter with the two kinds of dessert I chose which would total half a kilo; about half the amount I need.

"So I can only buy one kilo or a quarter kilo from each kind?"I asked.
"Yes," the saleslady said.

"Why can't you open the kilo plates, since they were going to put them in my platters anyway, put half in my platters then repackage them as half a kilo?" I wondered because I've pre-ordered before and it was done with ease.

"We can't ma'am," she said.

"Okay, then do you have another mixed platter like this one? With another 1/4 kilo each that way I can buy two?"

"No."

"Is there another kind of dessert that you do have two platters?"

"No."

"What can I do now?"

"Buy the one kilo each ma'am or buy the quarter kilo each ma'am."

"But the one kilo's too much and the quarter kilo's not enough."

"I'm sorry ma'am."

"I don't understand why you can't open the one kilo plates, since its not a food safety issue, and you're gonna open it to put it in my platter anyway?"

"We can't ma'am we have to write it down. What do I tell them when half of it is missing?"

"That you sold it to a regular customer that only wanted half?"

"No ma'am. I can't do that."

"Fine. Can I have my plates back please? Bye."

----------------------------------------------
Was I being unreasonable? Or is customer service so bad in Kuwait that I had to take what she was offering.

Anyway, I figure there's a bakery for every 1.34 person in Kuwait. I doubt I'm going back to Sugar and Spice again anytime soon.

They lost a regular customer because of...well, either a lazy saleslady who doesn't want to be inconvenienced by repackaging, or a store policy.

Either way, I think it was a reasonable request and I left quite annoyed at the inconvenience of driving somewhere else to get something that this store was carrying but refusing to sell.

-----------------------------------------------

Oh and I got the desserts and the pastries from The Danish Bakery in Yarmouk where the store clerk happily filled my small order without any problems :D


-----------------------------------------------
It's been a weird day, on my way to Yarmouk from Shuwaikh, I saw a really crazy car crash at an intersection.

And got pulled over by a cop for tinting my car windows. (I'll probably blog about that later.)

9 comments:

Rousseau said...

I got exicted about your story till you mentioned the philipino sales lady. Such a racist remark !! What do you mean by your post ? That Philipinos are lazy or stupid !! Grow up please..

You see my friend, everyone could turn around a normal story into something it is not.. obvouisly your intentions were not aimed at Philipinos, but I could simply twist your intentions around !!

No harm intended :)

Big Pearls said...

Emmm there must have been a way of doing it. She could have called her manager and asked!

G said...

rousseau: hahahahaha! Ladies and Gentlemen...we've got us a funny man!!!

1) good to know people with a sense of humor still exist in the q80 blogosphere.

2) I had the whole dialogue in a Filipino accent...(I love Filipino accents...but I felt it a bit excessive so I changed it...but now that you bring it up...I think it absolutely is interesting that I chose to describe her as Filipino (had she been British/Kuwaiti would I have mentioned it, I wonder)

3) On a more serious note, when you're a political blogger who preaches about citizens being equal and actually have a readership you're held to a higher standard (at least by me).

People..this is what I'm talking about...http://kuwaitjunior.blogspot.com/2008/02/blog-post_29.html
Big pearls: I know...it wasn't very difficult to do that's what was annoying. Oh well...their loss!

eshda3wa said...

the good thing about having so many options is u dont have to put up with crap. and it really is their loss

Rousseau said...

Thanks for the compliments :P
Ok now a serious note, no more Mr funny man..
I truely believe that Kuwaities are the most racist sexists society on earth, and yes that includes myself.. but what makes us that way is that we usually take things out of context and rebuild the "intended" message to our own likings.. yet we sometimes disguise our own message and foil it with a pinkish exterior while the message is opposite what we preach.. for instance, Alwatan newspaper talks about wataniya when truely they have a different agenda.. I honestly believe the kuwaitjunior post intended no "racist" remark, sadly many think so.. its obvious they were talking about who visited the crown prince, and the fact that there was no "i7thuri" amoung them is not the blogs fault.

Finally, the whole point of a blog is to have no standard regardless of readership level, standards are for newspapers not blogs.

And its good to know people who could actually have a cyber conversation with :)

Anonymous said...

I second eshda3wa but I am still confused :s I need a summary for this story :) sorry am I too demanding? hehe

Glitter said...

You think the FILIPINO saleslady cares that she lost a regular customer?

G said...

@Amu: basically what happened is...they had the amount I wanted but wouldn't sell it to me because it would require that she open up a ready-for-sale platter and sell part of it (which they have done before).

In a nutshell: they suck.

@glitter: maybe management should make it clear that she should..?

Anonymous said...

they suck @@