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.