My Follow up to the Epic that is SPUD

Dear Clay,

Thank you for your prompt response. I can appreciate that it is not easy to run a large organisation, and I am pleased to hear your dedication in creating a consistent brand. I am happy to accept your sign of goodwill, and continue to use Spudbar in future, but would like to know what process or action you intend put in place that will give me confidence in using the same outlet again. Though Telstra Dome is a potential resolution it unfortunately is too far for me to commute in my lunch period.

My address is:

Cameron Davidson
C/- Robert Walters
Level 29
360 Collins St
Melbourne 3000

Regards,

Cameron

Spudbar reply - Quick and now I owe you a drink!

Dear Cameron,

Thank you for taking the time to compose the email and bring to my attention the situation at our Collins Street store.

Your associate’s treatment by our staff member is inexcusable and deplorable.

I have committed the last 7 years of my life to developing the Spudbar concept and building a brand with substance, integrity and decency.

The difficulties with building a business that is reliant on its people is that from time to time an employee with no respect for the customer or his / her self slips through the cracks.

I can assure you that I will give this issue my immediate attention.

In an attempt to compensate you and your friend for the inconvenience caused I’d like to offer you 6 Free Spud vouchers. This gesture is not intended to mitigate what happened but does go towards apologising for the behaviour of our staff member.

If you could please provide your postal address I’ll arrange for the vouchers to be sent to you.

If the damage done is to great then we invite you to visit another one of our locations ( Spudbar Telstra Dome is the next closest one to you ).

I’m sorry and hope to see you and your friend at a Spudbar outlet soon.

Sincerely,

Clay Thompson
Chief Executive Officer
National Support Center
Spudbar Franchising Pty Ltd

Another anchise that has lost the plot - Spudbar

To Whom It May Concern:

Let me start by saying that I have been a customer of Spudbar for around 7+ years, first being turned on to your simple and delicious menu at your St Kilda location. This is where the reminiscing ceases.

Unfortunately as a company grows, you often lose sight and control of your core values, and as you expand your empire you bring on franchisees, and they employ staff thus diluting your control even further. This is still not a good enough excuse for what happened to my friend today.

My friend bought a spud from your Equitable Place (Collins St) location. Half way through eating her lunch she came across a hair that was about 30cms long. I’m sure I don’t need to express to you how physically sick it makes me feel when food is prepared as if we lived in a third world country with no health standards.

The issue is not so bad and can be an unfortunate mistake that can happen anywhere. What brings me to write this email (on behalf of my friend) is the treatment we were given when presenting the issue back with the Collins St outlet. A simple “sorry” and refund would have sufficed, but what we got was a cold hearted and abhorrent reminder as to why big franchises often lack any customer service when it comes to difficult situations.

The complete and utter lack of interest by the employee (who’s hair it most likely was) proves that Spudbar with all it’s “earth friendly” mumbo jumbo is merely another big corporate pulling our environmental heart strings to hand over our hard earned dollar. Simply put, stop masquerading as a business that “cares”! Reality check, you do care…..purely about money.

New slogan: Spudbar – Feeds (Head Lice) Well

Complaint about a complaint about a complaint

“Please contact the office in your state should you wish to talk to someone about your Red Rooster experience.”
To whom it may concern or whoever cares, if anybody,

I would like to begin this letter by referring to the above statement that I directly cut and pasted off your website, just in case any or all of you there have forgotten about it. It would seem to me that this is there so the general public, “YOUR CUSTOMERS”, can contact you about a positive or negative experience they had at your stores. Might I begin with saying, WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!

This is the third time I have contacted you about a particularly displeasing situation that I was subjected to and still NOTHING has been done. As I stated in my last email to you, I was pleased that I was contacted back so promptly by Ms Kim Quigley (Personal assistant to the Regional Manager & Victorian State Manager) who clearly stated that she had spoken to the area manager whose name is Simon Collard. Now, apparently, Mr Simon Collard was going to conduct an “Investigation” in the Fairfield store relating to my grievance. Ms Quigley then stated that I would be contacted by Mr Collard relating to the matter once this investigation had been completed. She then further stated that these types of complaints are taken very seriously. May I continue say, WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!

Not only has Ms Quigley fed me a load of garbage, she and Mr Collard have chosen to completely ignore me. This, on top of a most horrendous experience at your Fairfield outlet is nothing short of a slap in the face. Your total disregard for your customers is completely and utterly detestable on an epic scale and you should hang your heads in shame. I now, cannot distinguish which treatment is more upsetting. Either the initial pathetic and horrendously rude service I received or this blatant disregard from you relating to this complaint? Maybe you could help me out?....oh that’s right, nobody is listening or nobody cares, take your pick.

In conclusion, it is clear to me that this that your professionalism, customer service and respect, or lack there of, is nothing short of deplorable. It escapes me as to how your organisation survives conducting itself in this manner. However, what it does explain is the continued closure of several of your outlets. The magnitude of your total and utter incompetence is incontestably responsible for this. To quote your slogan, “Its gotta be Red”, let me give you the hot tip, NO IT DOESN”T!!!

Feel free to disregard this as well as I will be contacting the regional and Victorian state manager directly or whoever I can until someone gets their rear deservedly kicked.

Thankyou for “not” taking the time to read or “do” anything about this. I look forward to not receiving a reply.

Colonial Geared Investments - the conclusion

This is Part 4.

Part 1 is here.
Part 2 is here.
Part 3 is here.

I meant to post the follow up to this last week, but hey! I was on holidays, so there.

Anyway, I had given Colonial a week to respond to my complaint, and I hadn't received a response. During that time, St George Margin Lending wasted no time in sending me out the paperwork for me to complete and send in to them in order to get my new margin loan underway.

I felt that a week was enough, so I sent it in and was kinda shocked that 3 working days after mailing the paperwork to St George, I get a call from a rather nice lady by the name of Joan Berkery-Coleman from Colonial. Thinking that this was about my complaint, I geared up (bad pun) for the response.

She hadn't actually seen the complaint. Instead, she was ringing about the refinance paperwork that had landed on her desk. So I told her straight. They'd dropped the ball on the Platinum float, and their response to my interest rate query was unacceptable.

Joan took all of this well, and asked me to forward her a copy of my complaint, which I did. She took a deep breath and told me that they'd got a lot of new staff in their call centre and as a result, some of them are still learning the ropes.

She asked me if they could keep my business if they could match the rate that St George were offering. I said nice (it's less than Colonial's) but I would also like them to match St George's gearing ratios as well, which are also currently better than Colonial's.

She couldn't promise that.

Having already filed the paperwork with St George, I decided to proceed with the refinance, and told her. She said to me that if things go pear-shaped with my new margin lender, please get on to the phone to her directly, and she would arrange a special rate for me.

Rather nice, I thought.

Anyway, two days later, she sent me this:

Hi Dikkii,

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me on Monday. Whilst I am extremely disappointed to lose your business, I am very grateful to you for your candid feedback.

Every organisation undergoes a period of high staff turn over and unfortunately the Relationship Management Team in our Sydney office is no different. Our team will only benefit from your feedback and we have initiated additional training support for the new team members to ensure our high service standards are maintained at all times.

Please accept my apologies for the poor level of client service you have experienced.

As we discussed, at any time in the future, if you would like to renew your relationship with Colonial Geared Investment, I will be delighted to assist. In the meantime, I wish you continued success with your gearing strategy.

Yours sincerely,

Joan

Joan Berkery-Coleman
Executive Manager
Premium Business Services

I fired this back at her - she really did put in a bit of effort, I felt:

Hi Joan,

Thank you for your email. I really do think highly of the call that you made to me on Monday, which must be an unpleasant task.

The decision to re-finance is not a decision that one makes lightly, especially in light of the mountain of paperwork that accompanies it. As I said in our discussion on Monday, I have been largely happy with Colonial Geared Investments' service. It's just that I felt that the ball had been dropped a couple of times this year, and the email from your guys below (who continue to remain nameless) just really got me looking around for something different.

And if things don't work out between me and St George Margin Lending, rest assured that now I have your email address, you will be the first person I speak to about this. May I just say that as a shareholder and a former employee of the CBA, I found you to be respectful, courteous and I consider that were there more like you responding to emails, this wouldn't be such a serious issue.

I wish you all the best.

Yours sincerely, Dikkii.

I got this back, not long after:

Thank you Dikkii,

Your comments are appreciated greatly and I do look forward to speaking with you in the future.

Kind regards,

Joan

Joan Berkery-Coleman
Executive Manager
Premium Business Services

All done - but I still haven't got a response to my @#$%ing complaint.

Disclosure: This blogger owns shares in Commonwealth Bank of Australia (which owns Colonial Geared Investments) and Platinum Asset Management Limited.

Standard but necessary disclaimer: This is not advice. Only a complete idiot would think that any of this constituted advice. It's not even vaguely reasonable to consider this to be advice. If you are in any doubt as to the content of this, see a good, independent financial adviser immediately. They do exist.

Flight Centre Reply - Freebies always win me over!

Dear Cameron,

I am sorry to hear you were disappointed with the service your received for your last holiday.

I would like to offer you a $50 credit in our store for use on a future holiday. For future reference, most hotels charge for parking and we do not advise on this. You should have been advised of extra fees due on your car. I suggest that next time you let your consultant know the bedding configuration you would prefer so they can take this into account when making a booking for you.

Your credit will be valid for use until 30 June 08 at Galleria Flight Centre and can be used for domestic or international travel, flights, accommodation or insurance.

Thank you for your feedback.

Kind regards,

Michelle

Don't worry be Fatty (Not a complaint as such but I made it during a Krispy Kream session in our office)

With thick Jamaican accent.....

Here is a little song I wrote

About a Krispy Kream donut

Don't worry, be fatty.....

In every life we have some trouble

When you eat you fat will double

Don't worry, be fatty......

Ain't got no place to lay your head

Krispy Kreams equals dead

Don't worry, be fatty......

The land lord say your rent is late

Severe heart attack is fate

Don't worry, be fatty......

Look at me I am happy

Don't worry, be fatty......

Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style

No matter because I’m vile

But don't worry be fatty......

Cause when you worry

Your face will frown
Eat a Krispy Kream
And you heart will drown…in fat

So don't worry, be fatty (now).....