This happened after a new year dinner to usher in 2010. It must have dampen the celebratory mood of all the parties involved.
Watch the video below and make your own judgment. Bear in mind that the video was NOT recorded by a neutral party as the guy who recorded it was involved in the scuttle too.
[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/v/1vO_n76zBE0&hl=en_US&fs=1&”]
What transpired prior to the video recording cannot be based on the one-sided account left by alvin8228 (not me ah). However, for a clearer background, here is alvin8228 ‘s version of the story, unedited:
This incident happens in a Local Swimming Club at Tanjong Rhu, The in-house Chinese Restaurant at its 2nd Floor is run by this lady mananger from China. (As given by Raymond, the assistant manager, her name is Sammi and she is the manager there and fully in charged)
Their buffet dinner is priced at $28 / pax , our company booked 29 pax for our annual dinner.
First their manager (over the phone) insisted that we must order our food in the afternoon because they were “fully booked” and for not doing so, we cannot blame them if they are slow in serving or if they “run out of food”.
Obviously, my colleague who made the booking did not know what to order as majority of our colleagues were not in the office.
Reluctantly, she made some order. She was told that we must order at least 3 vegetable dish or “dont blame them if they run out of vegetable” if we do not place the order early. (I suppose vegetable dishes are cheaper in cost).
When we arrived, only 25 of us made it, we were told to pay for 29 pax since we booked for it. After some bargaining, it was settled for payment charge by head count.
We were being sqeezed into 2 tables instead of 3, she claimed that we do not have enough people to occupy 3 tables.
After some struggling as the tables were really cramp, we protested. eventually they agreed to let us have one more table after some unpleasant exchange of remarks and finger pointing (The restaurant manager did most of it and shouted at my colleagues).
I had to fill my hunger with the 3balanced dishes served when i arrived late and when we went over to the newly set up table we placed some orders but it takes long time to be served, some dishes didnt make it either out of stock or the order just vanished.
The table was empty (without food) for at least 20 minutes and i called the assistant manager to remind him of our orders, this was my first experience with buffet dinner where the table is totally empty for such a long time.
We were told that they run out of fish and two small plates of prawns which were ordered were finally served.
My first experience again, for buffet dinner which ends up feeling hungry. I had a packet of instant noodle when i reach home.
They didnt even bother to ask for last order which most if not all restaurant do.
Then came the last straw where the pushing incident which were recorded for your viewing pleasure.
Oh, the manager claimed that we wasted food , it was her excuse for causing such a ruckus.
Her claims were unfounded, how i wish there were an in- house camera that had taken all the events throughout. If the restaurant have one, i will be most happy if they can put it up here for everyone to see how they accuse us of wasting food.
One point to note is that the restaurant was about half empty at any point of time throughout our patronage, those members and guests happens to be there can verify that.
She claimed that we pointed finger at her, can see in the video clips she has been pointing her fingers whiles talking ? Can you trust her statement ?
Is this kind of service attitude we deserve ?
Can we allow this foreigner to tarnish the reputation of Singapore while we are striving for a country with excellence in the service industry. ?
I hope the owner of the restaurant make a thorough
investigation and get to the bottom of this.
Please note that all incidents listed are true to the best of my knowledge.
For those who are present, please give your account or comments in case i missed out some parts or mislead the readers.I will be glad to amend them after verification.
email to [email protected]
Regards
Alvin
It takes two hands to clap. As someone working in the service line, the restaurant manager should not have lost her cool. However, even just judging from the video, the other party were no angels either. They were a larger group and were taunting her with the video camera.
Btw, I did some cyber-sleuthing and there’s only one “local swimming club” in the Tanjong Rhu area – the Singapore Swimming Club. There is indeed, a Chinese restaurant located on the second floor. The restaurant is called Ban Heng Court. I cannot confirm this is the involved restaurant, but the details I dug out seem to point me here.
If anyone got more information about what actually happened, feel free to post a comment.
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i have read a lot of stories online regarding bad service staff from china. well, personally i have also encountered service staff from china that are nice, helpful, proud of their work, and some are so nice to the other extreme that they are creepy.
of course i have my share of bad encounters too. there is a fair amount of both types in singapore, those that are bad deserve to be criticised, but don’t forget to smile at and commend those that are nice too!
Obviously, its not entirely the waitress’s fault. She may be wrong to say that the customers wasted their food and for charging an additional for the heads who did not turn up. BUT the paying customers cornered her as a group – video-recording her (childish act by an male adult – such a roll eyes act); threatened to call the manager, threatened to call the police, threatened to HIT HER (another childish male adult) – gosh, its one freaking big group of childish adults cornering one rude waitress.
Honestly, the MEMBERS of this club are just a little too much. They made the waitress seems like an angel compared to them.
I do think that based on his words alone, it’s not easy to see who’s in the actual wrong here. Who would know if his words are the truth or false words? You would never know if he only started the recording at a certain point or whatever, since he’s the only one saying his side of the story.
With so many men taunting the girl, it’s understandable why she become so defensive.
Hmm… when things get this ugly, the initial reasons for each’s action hardly seems relevant… rather how they react… If u ask me(not that anyone’s askin), the “He/she started it” defense is a lame one… But on the other hand … Antagonizing a person into losing his/her cool just to make the initial spark seem negligible is low regarless… One a victim of her self perceived dignity…. the other spurred by distorted sense of right and rights… pride nonetheless.. but hey…we are merely humans, arent we… who can blame when we occasional fail to live up to what we can be…
Dear Dann, what you have stated that the guest have cornered her is not what I have seen. You can see, the woman in blue, the strips woman, green woman, and another elderly man, all trying to stop the Amazon from charging into the baldie man. Even the miserable Raymond, suppose to be also from the Ban Heng also has to stop her from charging.The video speaks for itself. I think her “San” is very huge ah., our “Kim San” , our late Mr Lim Kim San is gone, so wonder which “San” is she leaning to?
After watching this video, I should stay away from this restn. I have a friend who works in the service line told me, the customer is always right. As a manager, she should keep her cool. If she cannot handle the situation, she should ask another person to take charge. From the look of things, she wasn’t happy that 29 pax reduce to 25 pax. But, 25 persons is still alot. The restn wasn’t full, why she need to squeezed 25 pax to 2 tables. Maybe she is angry of the reduction?
Even her workmate, indicate they are doing a business. She should apologised and try to calm the situation. I think my reason for shying away from this restn because when I go to a restn to eat and also for the mood. Just think, If I visit this restn during chinese new year, damn bad luck.
It’s a very tricky situation. Both parties didn’t handle this to the best they could. A better way to handle it would be:
1. Since the company booked for 29 pax buffet dinner, the restaurant is right to charge them for 29 people eventhough less than 29 dined as kitchen has bought and prepared the food for 29 people. However, the restaurant charged the customer 25 pax, this can already be considered the restaurant’s good gesture.
2. It seemed there wasn’t enough food for the customers. Restaurant manager could offer them something in return, i.e. 2 bottle of wines on the house / Gift Vouchers / etc
3. A normal large round table can seat up to 10 – 12 adults. When the number is 25 pax, most restaurants would supply only 2 tables. However, if there were tables still available/unoccupied, restaurant manager can open up another smaller table to make the customers dine more comfortably.
4. For an adult to engage in physical fight, as seen in the video, a male customer was indeed trying to physically attack the restaurant manager. This is a very serious case as the restaurant manager can take this up to court, the legal way.
Firstly from what i know and seen above the service attitude from the manager was terrible wrong . If the man physical attack the manager he had no wrong doing so cause the lady was saying da wo lou is mean hit me if the man hit her he is helping the lady because the lady have given the man command to hit her if the man hit her there is nothing wrong cause the lady was tempting him to hit her if the man beat and taken to court the man may be charge of attacking the lady but no one say the man attack her so nothing happen liao lo .they should recruit better people with good attitude .