Night out at Movida Club in Central London

Hi everyone! Hope you're all good. Did anyone celebrate 4th July on Wednesday? I went partying with my boyfriend, we planned to go to an event that one of my acquaintances organised at the club Movida in central London (See the ad below). The event was a fashion show by a young Chinese designer, Pan tong, and then an after party. I was really looking forward to the fashion show but the night didn't happen for us. Why? Keep reading to find out...

Promotion Ad of the event 

At the front of the house there were; a few security guards and 2 clipboard girls- a blonde (Girl A) and a brunette (Girl B). It were these 2 girls that ruined our night. Anyways, doors opened at 10pm and the fashion show was to start at 10:30pm. In order to attend the event, you had to be on the guestlist. Normally, if you're on the guestlist you would have the priority to just walk through. We arrived about 10:15pm and surprisingly there was a long queue. I told one of the staffs that I'm on Vanessa's guestlist for the fashion show. They just pointed to the queue and told to us to wait like everyone else- those people were also on Vanessa's guestlist. I didn't understand why there was a long queue, the show was going to start in 15 minutes. Below are a few rude and pretentious incidents. 

1. We waited in the queue for about 10mins and it hasn't even moved. I thought there were some delays with the show- my boyfriend works part-time in a club and he explained that they are just taking their time to let people in because it makes the club look busy. 

My boyfriend went to the front to speak to one of the security guards to find out if they were admitting people. The security guard seemed frustrated and told my boyfriend to ask Girl A. 

She walks over and looked at my boyfriend up and down and asked in a very rude tone. 

'What's the problem and who are you?' 

 'I'm a customer asking a question.'

Then she walked off. - My boyfriend wasn't even being rude or causing trouble in the first place so this girl had no reason to be rude. Is that how you treat your customers. What customer service do you call that?

While we were in the queue, I've been watching the 2 clipboard girls. They seemed like they had a bad day, fed up and wasn't enjoying the job- they probably wasn't. Their attitude to everyone was appalling, no smile and no politeness. When they asked 'Who's next?', they sounded so frustrated and impatient. 

2. After about 30 minutes of waiting (It was coming to 10:45pm, my boyfriend wasn't happy and I was thinking about the fashion show.) we were almost at the front. In front us, there were 3 Chinese girls. One of the girls showed her ID, next thing I heard was Girl B telling the her to step out of the queue. The girl was confused and asked what the problem was. They ignored her and just told her to step out. The girl got angry and refused to step out.  

Girl A says, 'You are refusing to step out of the queue when we are telling you to step out.'

'I showed her my ID and she just told me to step out. What is the problem?' 

'I do not want to dispute about this with you, you have to step out of the queue.'

Girl B then says, 'Can you step out because you are holding up the queue.'

Eventually she and her friends step out.- The next night, the organiser of the event told us that half of the people on the guestlist were turned away because they didn't have 'the look'. The Look? What look? I didn't see anyone dressed inappropriate, the girls in front were dressed lovely. How pretentious. 

3. After the girls, were us next. Again none of the clipboard girls had a smile on their face, both looked miserable. Anyway, I said to Girl B,

 'We are on Vanessa's guestlist'. 

'How many of you are there?'

 '2.' 

'Only you can go in because there are too many guys inside.' 

'So are you telling me to go inside by myself and my boyfriend will wait outside for me?'

 'That's your choice. I don't want to dispute with you, can you step out because you're holding up the queue.'

We step out and Girl A had a smirk on her face and whispered something into Girl B's ear. It was definitely deliberate, because Girl B looked at us when Girl A whispered to her. Probably also due to earlier incident between her and my boyfriend, Girl A decides not to let us in. O.k., lets say I'm wrong about that but telling us there are too many guys inside, that is a lie. The queue was full of girls. IF there were REALLY too many guys inside, you could at least tell us in more well mannered way. 

4. My boyfriend pulls Girl A to one side to speak to her, he explains that he asked them nicely if they were letting people in because if they weren't, we wasn't going to wait. I don't really remember the whole conversation. But I remember hearing my boyfriend calling her pretentious and then she goes 'most of the times I'm very good at judging people...you're not coming in.' 

Then she goes and gets a security guard to intimidate us him. The security guard didn't intimidate us him, he was nice and polite. The funny thing was when my boyfriend explained that she was being rude, etc, he was making a joke out of her, 'she's a girl, just let her off. You know maybe it's her time of the month.' - Just because she's a girl or it's 'time-of-the-month' it doesn't mean she can be rude to customers for no reason. 

Below is a picture of Girl A that my boyfriend took. LOL! He posted it on his Facebook and Twitter account complaining to Movida. When she realised he took a picture, she shouted, 'If you want a picture, you can just ask!'

 A positive message for this girl- although you didn't let us in but my boyfriend and I felt that you did us a favour because we had a great night at Penthouse. I told some of my friends about what happened and a lot of them said that Movida is a snobbish club, the music isn't very good and the place isn't very nice either. Judging from those comments, don't think we would have enjoyed ourselves even if we got in. Thank you missy! 

Finally, the organisers explained to us that the staff at Movida decided the guestlist was at full capacity when the club was still empty and organisers weren't allowed outside to talk to their guests. The organisers complained to management team but were ignored. A message to Movida- You are apparently London's multi-award winning night club and because of this reason people are hiring your club for their events. That also means they are bringing customers or possible repeat customers and money to you. Choosing to ignore the complaint doesn't create a good image for the club. Irresponsible. Just remember you are not the only VIP club in central London. It seems like you are known to be a pretentious club in central London. 

Free cake from Patisserie Valerie- Part 2

Back in March, if you've read my blog you would have seen that I blogged about a complaint that I made to Patisserie Valerie. I tweeted my blog link to them and they read it; they tweeted back and the Brand Excellence Manager, Ms. J.D. sent me a e-mail. See below;

"Dear Ms. Li

As part of our monitoring of customer service, we regularly check internet review sites, facebook and twitter to ensure we are aware of feedback both good and bad from our customers. We have come across your blog of 19^th March regarding your cake and your unhappiness with way in which I dealt with the issue.

I am so sorry if I caused you any offence in the way I dealt with your complaint.

Re-reading the emails I sent to you I can see why you were not happy, especially as in the first email I had mistakenly typed ‘could’ instead of ‘should’ (which you will notice was written in my second). The typo completely changed the tone of that initial email and I can quite understand that you felt this was not right. Regarding my first email not containing an apology for the problem with the cake, as the Café Manager had already spoken to you and expressed her apology on behalf of the company I did not feel I needed to repeat this; I am sorry that I misjudged this.  I usually ask for a photograph of the cake in question as this can sometimes show up an issue that might explain a problem; I can see how that may not have been immediately apparent.

Other than the letter that accompanies a complimentary voucher, we always write individual replies to all customers and believe that the vast majority of customers are satisfied with the response they receive. I will of course be looking at how I can improve personally on this issue in the future.

Please once again accept my apologies. I am glad your voucher arrived safely and I do hope you enjoy your next cake.

Regards

Jane Duncan

Brand Excellence Manager

PATISSERIE HOLDINGS LTD"

I tried to do a print screen of the e-mail but was too large to fit in this blog. I thought I'll show these to you guys because I don't want to seem biased. Ms. J.D. wrote a long e-mail after reading my blog, it shows that social media these days play a big part in every business/ organisation. Anyways, I do appreciate that she wrote this e-mail.

Free cake from Patisserie Valerie

On Friday, I received a complimentary voucher for an 8" gateau at Patisserie Valerie! Are you wondering why I got a voucher for a free cake? It wasn't for a good reason, here is what happened.

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a birthday cake from Patiserie Valerie's website for my cousin's birthday- I ordered the Macedonia Cake with Dark chocolate.

Macedonia Cake with Dark chocolate

As you can see it is very mouth watering! Fruits looks fresh. Unfortunately, the pineapples on top of the cake had an unpleasant odour and had an off flavour. I however didn't take the cake back (I should of really), I just removed the pineapples and had the rest of the cake.

I called the shop where I picked it up from and spoke to the manager the following day. She was very apologetic about it and explained that they always use fresh fruits. She asked if I wanted to come to the shop and get a part refund. But then I think she realised she's not allowed to that or something so changed her mind and told me to fill in the complaint online form on their website. So I did. Guess what? I waited for a week and still didn't get any reply. So I e-mailed the head office directly and waited for another 3 days for a reply from the Brand Excellence Manager, Ms. J.D. (below is a copy of the e-mail)

Dear Ms. Li

Thank you for your email. I am sorry in the delay in replying to you.

All our cakes are freshly made with fresh ingredients. Clearly there could be no issues with off flavours.

Can you please confirm whether you have any photographs of the cake or that you returned any of the cake to the café?

Regards

1. Did you realise she has not apologised or sounded apologetic about the issue? But apologised replying late. Whenever a customer complains for whatever reason, the staff should apologise whether the customer is right or wrong.
2. I appreciate that they use fresh fruits but saying that 'clearly there could be no issues with off- flavours' is basically you're not accepting the responsibility at all. I mean did you bake the cake? I'm sure you recruit bakers. I mean accidents do happen, maybe one of your bakers left the pineapple out somewhere for a long time and forgot to put them back in fridge or something.
3. Why do you need a picture of the cake for?

I sent her the picture regardless and explained that I didn't return because we ate the whole cake as everything was fine except pinapples. Two days later she replied;

Dear Ms. Li

Thank you for the photograph.

We use fresh fruit on our cakes and of course there should be no question of any off-flavour. I can assure you your comments have been fed back to the Bakery.

In the circumstances, I will be happy to send you a complimentary voucher for another gateau, and if you can sned me your address I will forward that to you.

Regards

Still didn't get an apology but the content of this e-mail is a little better than the first though.

I replied to give my address and got the voucher within 2-3 days. The voucher was attached with a letter and at the end of the letter it said, 'Once again please accept my apologies about this....'

What apologies? I never got any apology. I assume that is just a standard complaint letter that they send out.

Anyways, at least I got some compensation in the end. The branch manager dealt with issue much better than her. At least she apologised than explained that they used fresh fruits and sounded apologetic. The bottom line is, the brand excellence manager didn't make me feel valued as a customer and it was as if she's saying I'm lying about the off flavours. You may be a very successful Patisserie and have branches all over central London and other parts of UK, but that doesn't mean customer service is not important any more within your company.