Poor Customer Service - TIMES café

[davie]

Ya ya english teacher. Whatever.

[stacey]

After reading this article of poor customer service according to the complaint by the 25 five ladies that say to have had a bad experience with times café and their representative that sent the mail. As a Zambian citizen I think customer service and race should be defrinciated, it is not wise to critically condemn or pass ratio remarks because that is the way you perceive and interpret things in your mind. I personally agree with my fellow Zambian citizen who has just said you are trying to make a mountain out of an ant hill because your complaint whatsoever doesn’t seem to be genuine enough knowing that times café is a place most people appreciate the type of customer care they are shown by the owners and their staff.
I must say I am truly disappointed by the levels an individual claiming to be trained in customer service would display. I believe we are all indigenous Zambians despite our colours and saying something like this is my country our country and your country people from elsewhere shouldn’t shouldn’t come and look down on me. What makes you think the same owners are foreigners? How do you know maybe they are more Zambian than you claim you are despite the fact that you have different colors? The issue here shouldn’t evoke racial marks but simply your genuine opinion of your encountered experience at the same place.
I tend to wonder why most people who tend to have bad encounters with people of different skin colors want to always jump to the issue of colour and find it practically unfair because you do not have to be black to be Zambian you can be Indian, Chinese, white etc and still be Zambian. Moreover it would have been interesting to see more elaboration on this issue from the person who claims to be trained effectively by customer service, if customer service training ever requires you to condemn and constitute who is Zambian or not based on color and race.
Being a customer at times café and having experienced the way they conduct their customer relations with us clients I would say I personally do not think the owner would ever respond to a client in such a way and on the issue of Zambia music times plays lots of it and that’s what keeps us going their all the time. There is always two sides to a story and this is why it is always wise to listen to both sides of a story before you become judgmental on one.

[Ubuswilili]

Dr Kasoka or whatever

English is our second, third and even 4th language. Do not fret over it because we have s serious matter on hand and that is shabby service at Times.

By the way its not English Teacher awe... You are not an Englishman so you are a teacher of English.

Getting back to the ladies, its not a crime wanting to be pampered if you pay you expect it to show... go girls

[Prof. Kasunka]

Ubuswilili

Thank you for voicing your concerns. No my friend, I am not an englishman. Never wanted to be one, really. I hate being fat. That's the main reason I like being a Zambian, not an englishman.

I ask that you pardon me for my compulsiveness over english. It has been my career, so....

I imagine most people have a similar experience regarding their career. I imagine a doctor will have a tough time if he sees another person involved in unhealthy behavior. These things simply become part of one's "second-nature", so to speak.

Take Stacey for instance. She writes: "As a Zambian citizen I think customer service and race should be defrinciated"

Ubuswilili, do you know that I wasted two hours of my life trying to figure out what the hell Stacy is yapping about? Until I had to settle for "differentiated". Even that is just a guess. I am not a hundred percent sure that's what Stacey meant to write. You see now, my dear? When you break the english language, you cause Prof. Kasunka to waste his time trying to correct your spelling errors ;)

[Kantwa]

Professor,
It is not english, it is English.

[Prof. Kasunka]

Thanks, Kantwa.

The lower case was not an accident. It was deliberate. To belittle the queen's lingo, you see.

Stay well, my dear.

[Kantwa]

It's the Queen, not the queen.

I'm sure you get the point.

We can nitpick all day, or we can focus on the main points.

[Prof. Kasunka]

Kantwa dear one, I don't mind nitpicking, even if it lasts all day. Where am I going? I got nowhere to go. Let's go for it. Since this is your ball game, I will let you do the nitpicking, then I will respond. How's that?

[Kalulu]

Kantwa,, do you know how to use emoticons? Try them sometime. They might save you a heart attack. When someone uses one of these and it happens to be a ‘happy face’ it means he is making his remarks in jest, not seriously. Yeah, man :)

[Kantwa]

OK Kalulu, I won't take your advice as serious advice since you've used the same emoticon.

[Kalulu]

Kantwa, that's the spirit! now you're catching on, old chap :)

[Kantwa]

Kalulu, you're not very clever for a rabbit, it seems.

My response to you was meant to show you the paradox in your post: if I don't take your advice seriously, then I'll keep taking posts with emoticons seriously. Do you see the paradox now?

[Kalulu]

I saw the paradox alright, old chap. That is why I keep stomping on it so that maybe, with the help of God, and with plenty of luck, one day you may wake up and live life without moaning all the time :) :)

[Travis]

Kids, knock it off. Try to self-monitor, if your mama is too busy to keep an eye on your computer scoundrelly behaviour.

[JT]

Guys, unless 'Paradox' is a new brand of beer sold by Times Cafe, I suggest that we get back to the topic at hand!

[Disappointed]

Well,
It is quite interesting that Zambian have such an attitude.This explains why we in Zambia will never develop.Just some clarifications
1-Ony 5 ladies amongst the group were drinking
2-Even the author of the letter was very sober-on fanta.
3-Even the ladies who went to complain,took the owner on the side and complained.
4-the two tables that were next to us equally complained about this

Having clarified all this,I would like to say that everyone is intitled to their own opinion as for me and my 24 friends- I doubt you'll be seeing us at TIMES cafe anytime soon.I beleive positive criticism helps improve service. If TIMES Cafe is for boot lickers and momentery money spenders-so be it.VIVA good customer service!

[Disappointed]

With all due respect Stacey,I beg to differ.I respect your opinion but you were not there.I beleive as a consumer,I have a right to complain if I do niot get good service,after all, It's my money and I am the one spending it. as much as there are always two sides to the story,I doubt that 25 women would ALL be unhappy,incuding surrounding tables.

[Freeman]

Lady Disappointed,

I completely agree with you. This is a free country and you and your 24 friends have the right to stay away from Times Cafe if you are not happy with their service.

It's most likely that Times Cafe will thrive without your coins. There are enough people in Lusaka who are not so full of themselves and they will give Times Cafe plenty business. After you have exhausted all the Cafes and eateries in Lusaka, you can move on to Ndola, then keep on marching across the border to Congo. Bye bye.

[Skeptic]

This seems to be a complicated issue. So the ladies were not drunk. But what Disappointed hasn't clarified is whether or not some of the ladies were a bit too aggressive with the owner. I'm sure you can see why we're skeptical that a business owner would answer that rudely to such a large group of customers. It doesn't sound like the normal behaviour of someone who has been in business that long. Times would have closed down by now if their owner was that unreasonable.

[Freeman]

I am with you, Skeptic. As other people who are better educated than me have already pointed out, the tell tale sign about these ladies' arrogance was seen in the very first post of this thread when the queen lady gave the CV of herself and her friends. What does one's Résumé got to do with eating sandwiches and drinks? That is what led people like me to suspect that these ladies are just complaining because they did not get the special treatment they thought they deserved.

If they wanted that kind of special treatment, they should have coughed up a few more coins and booked the entire place to themselves for that special girl's reunion thing. Most owners will close their restaurant to the general public if you pay them enough cash for your special occasion, to make it worth their while. Otherwise, no special treatment. I think these ladies were treated like everyone else and that's what ticked them off. They had their CVs in toll and thought they should be served hand and foot.

Just look at the other trash bins of restaurants. When one person posted a complaint about those restaurants, it was echoed by numerous other people. But in this case it is only this one particular group of ladies who seem to have a problems with the Times cafe. Delusions of grandeur are stinking everywhere up in here.