Saw this in my inbox the other day and read about it on Barbados Underground:
Yes, I know it’s long and yes, you’ve probably read it already. But the message I received in my inbox differs slightly from the one that BU posted. Have I stopped eating at Chefette? No, I have not and will not either. Why? Because as much as it does disgust and upset me, we seldom catch a glimpse of what really happens behind the closed doors of a fast food joint, or any other food joint for that matter.
The moment you let someone else take responsibility for the preparation of your food, you take a huge leap of faith. What happened at Chefette (if it did indeed happen) has happened elsewhere and will continue to happen. Something will always slip through, sooner or later. Tough luck for you if it’s in your meal. If you don’t like it, suck salt. Next time, don’t eat out and learn how to prepare all of your meals by yourself.
Mind you, these food establishments should do all that they can to ensure that nothing like this happens in the first place. Proper checks and balances should be implemented, even if it means an increase in the cost of the meal. Pass the cost on to the customer (businesses do this all the time). I for one would much rather Chefette, or any other food joint, charge me more for my meal, so long as I know that they have a serious quality control team in place that is keeping an eye on things, or an eye open for ‘things.’
Now let’s say that things went down they way went as per the e-mail below. Management of Chefette could’ve handled things differently. At the end of the day, whoever has read this e-mail may or may not think twice about eating at Chefette in the future. Even if they dismiss the incident below as pure rubbish, I for one will remember it for quite some time. Doesn’t matter where you eat, always keep your eyes open.
Finally folks, try to refrain from sending out these e-mails from your company e-mail account. Get a personal e-mail account for that sort of stuff. The forward below (and the comments before the Dear Reader bit) appear to have originated from a large business based in Warrens.
Here’s the forward that I receieved:
P.S.: Mr. Haloute, if you or anyone else at Chefette is reading this, I really like your Wing Dings. Also, I wish you’d bring back the BBQ Ribs that you used to do years ago!
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>Subject: FW: Chefette Warrens Branch Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee Readdddddddddddddddd ,
>Dear all,I had heard about this incident before receiving the email – and it only happed yesterday!
>This was poorly handled and I am sure this is not the last we will hear of it.
>A lesson for all in the food business and in the absolutely crucial realm of customer service.
>Do have a read when you get a chance.RegardsSubject: Fwd: FW: Chefette Warrens Branch Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee
>Readdddddddddddddddd ,>Hi Everyone,
>Just wanted to let you know that the contents of the
>below email are true. I actually work with the young
>lady that this happened too. I should also let you
>know that Mr Haloute was directly notified of the
>incident and needless to say his response was less
>than satisfactory. Please pass this on to all of the
>people you know that have come to rely on Chefette for
>many of their meals. Lord only knows how many near
>misses they may have had with a half bitten bug in
>their food. I recently learned of a woman who found a
>millipede in her roti. Their idea of compensation was
>another roti! That ended in a rather hushed law suit.
>We should no longer sit back and accept substandard
>food, service or treatment. We work too hard for our
>money and deserve better when we decide to spend it in
>various food establishments.
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>
> Dear Reader,
>
> I would like to inform you of an incident that
> occurred Monday, July 16,
>
> 2007 at the Chefette Warrens branch. One of my
> colleagues at work (who
> is
> by the way pregnant) had just purchased one order of
> macaroni pie, a
> macaroni salad and a small mauby and subsequently
> brought it back to her
>
> workstation to eat. However, on opening the
> container with the macaroni
> pie
> and taking her fork and rummaging through it, as is
> her custom with
> anything she eats (Thank God!), she was horrified to
> find a worm in her
> food and had to stifle the urge to vomit.
>
> Now you can imagine how upset she was and we too
> were very concerned, as
> a
> group of us had also just purchased lunch from the
> same branch. One
> other
> colleague was so traumatized that she immediately
> threw her pie into the
>
> garbage, not even wanting to risk opening the
> container.
>
> In support of our pregnant colleague, three of us
> accompanied her back
> to
> Chefette to return the food as she was also feeling
> a bit queasy/weak
> and
> is also by nature a very soft spoken and shy
> individual but we told her
> that it was unacceptable to do nothing regarding the
> food, as who knew
> how
> many persons had ordered food which contained these
> worms or even worse,
>
> particularly those ordering from the same batch of
> pie.
>
> On arriving at the branch we immediately went up to
> the Barbeque Barn
> section and asked to speak with the Manager on duty,
> a Mr. Orlando
> Harris.
> When he came to us we told him about the worm and
> then showed him and
> expressed how shocked we were and to his credit, he
> at least apologized.
>
> However, the problem came when we asked Mr. Harris
> how our colleague was
> to
> be reimbursed. Mr. Harris proceeded to tell us that
> he was willing to
> replace the pie with an item of the same value (i.e.
> a mere $6.00) from
> the
> menu but our colleague informed him that she does
> not normally eat the
> other things. We then asked if she could not be
> given a gift certificate
> to
> which he replied that he was not authorized to give
> these out.
>
> Following this we asked him to return the pie as he
> had taken it up from
>
> the counter to look at the worm. He blatantly
> refused to do this asking
> why
> we would want it back. We told him that it was
> rightfully still our
> colleague’s pie and if she wanted she could have it
> back. He told us
> again
> that he was not returning it to us (in essence
> stealing the pie) and
> promptly gave it to one of his staff to take into
> the back as quickly as
>
> possible.
>
> He went on to tell our colleague that she could
> return to Chefette at
> her
> convenience to redeem this offer of replacing a
> $6.00 macaroni pie with
> some other $6.00 alternative, and that he or his
> staff would be willing
> to
> fulfill this order but that he could give us no
> written confirmation or
> assurance of this, even though it would supposedly
> be entered into a
> database. This seemed quite ludicrous to us as he
> had not even taken our
>
> colleague’s name and only did so at my indication
> that he had not. On
> asking for the name of his manager, he responded by
> saying that he was
> the
> manager. I asked again this time asking if he was
> the manager for the
> entire Warrens branch to which he said yes even
> though he was only the
> manager on duty. I then took his name and he
> insisted on having mine for
>
> what reason I do not know and as such did not give
> him.
>
> We also found it quite strange that he had only
> suggested this option of
>
> having a $6.00 replacement and did not even offer to
> refund our
> colleague’s
> money as she had in fact returned her order (with
> the exception of the
> drink) and not just the macaroni pie or give her the
> option of ordering
> something else on the menu, regardless of the price
> due to the nature of
>
> her complaint. This was not a matter of just saying
> that the food did
> not
> taste good or was not warm etc., there was a worm in
> her food for
> goodness
> sake!
>
> We had to tell him that the best thing would be to
> return her money, as
> there was no satisfaction to be had by a $6.00
> replacement! So at the
> end
> of it we have to say that we do not think that the
> manner in which Mr.
> Orlando Harris responded to this particular incident
> was acceptable. I
> too,
> am a Manager and there are times when managers have
> to act and make
> effective decisions based on the issue at hand. Even
> if he did not know
> how
> to handle the particular situation he should have
> made an effort to at
> least consult with the other Manager on duty (who we
> only later found
> out
> was there after calling the head office to report
> the incident) or call
> one
> of his superiors, although he would have us believe
> he had none.
>
> In a time when our country is striving towards
> service excellence and
> with
> all the NISE initiatives prevalent; this is a sad
> situation for a
> leading
> fast food restaurant to be in. Already 12 of us from
> my company have
> agreed
> not to be customers of the Warrens branch anymore
> and although one might
>
> say that this means nothing it actually does.
> Customer service is of
> prime
> importance and greater businesses have been toppled
> as a result of poor
> customer service. Moreover, a food establishment
> should also be very
> concerned about health and food safety and we do not
> believe that this
> was
> a one-off incident with regards to this branch, as
> we’ve heard other
> horrifying reports having returned to our office.
>
> To the owners of Chefette and managers all around we
> want you to
> remember
> that happy customers might tell one or two people
> about a good
> experience
> but dissatisfied customers are usually the ones to
> tell the world!
>
>
> Regards,
>
> I am truly horrified to see that this has happened
> to your work
> colleague. Since Mr. Harris was not so NISE, I am
> giving you the names
> of people in the top of Chefette. Mr. Assad Haloute,
> Mr. Pelai Haloute
> and Ryan Haloute. Assad & Pelai are owners but I am
> not sure if they are
> involved in the day to day runnings of the company.
> Ryan on the other
> hand is a director (i forget which one tho). Please
> be sure to let me
> know what the outcome is when you speak to them. i
> am just sorry you did
> not take a picture of it to send to the nation
> because i would have
> gladly taken directly to the chief editor at the
> Nation for you. I
> personally have stopped patronizing them because I
> find that the service
> down right sucks and the ladies are rude to the
> utmost.
> I went to buy a meal some time back and i watched
> them make a milkshake
> and then wipe the aggetator off with the same wetex
> they wipe the
> counters off with. I have never bought another
> milkshake again. THen a
> friend, she had one and opened the cup to share it
> between her sons and
> as she poured out came a cockroach.
> I think we should circulate your email to as many
> people as we possibly
> can and show them that we the customers can be not
> to NISE to them. Also
> this should be sent to the Ministry of Health as I
> strongly believe that
> they do not do enough inspections of restaurants in
> Barbados.
>
>
>
> —— End of Forwarded Message
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1 Comment
March 6, 2008 at 2:33 am
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