I’ve just returned from The Bravery Cafe, Singapore (located at 66 Horne Road) with a very nasty surprise.
I visited The Bravery Cafe Singapore a couple of times before as it’s located really close to my workplace.
I really liked (past tense) The Bravery Cafe because the food wasn’t too bad and honestly, most of my pictures there were very Instagram friendly. If you get what I mean 😉
Today, I had lunch at The Bravery Cafe. Food was good, the company was amazing till I got a rather nasty cut on my back thigh from the corner of the metal edge of their benches.
I wanted to inform the staff nicely about it.
Gave my feedback to a very apologetic young server chap who wanted me to show his manager, the boss of Bravery the cut. He also mentioned that he had a few customers with such feedback and wanted me to show his boss Shak the severity of the cut. Honestly, I genuinely wanted to caution them about their furniture as it’s very dangerous, especially for kids.
Unfortunately, the boss Shak waved off his staff and refused to speak to me as he was busy with a “sales talk”. Which by the way was with a dining companion of mine, Sabrina. Knowing Sabrina, i know that she wouldn’t mind if Shak had asked to excuse himself.
The server tried a couple of times to get Shak to talk to me but he ignored and waved him off. I was at the corner watching this by the way. Server gave me an apologetic look while I continued waiting there. After 5 minutes, I didn’t bother. Server did offer me a plaster but I didn’t accept it. Need to wash the wound first!
After waiting for him, I decided to go off. At this point, Sabrina saw me heading off and waved me over to introduce to Shak. I told him in a very upset tone that I had wanted to talk to him but he didn’t bother to talk to me. I even told him that I would be giving him his feedback online since he couldn’t spare the time to talk to me. At this stage, Shak didn’t even say anything. No apologetic expression whatsoever.
I was leaving the office when Sabrina came to me and I showed her the wound, in the cafe. I believe Shak would have seen this. This was at 2pm. I believe if Shak HAD wanted to talk to me, he would have stopped me in the cafe. There he was, hanging behind his counter. Doing nothing.
From genuinely wanting to just caution them about it, I am now freaking pissed over their attitude. What sort of attitude is that?!
It’s still bleeding and it stings! Don’t even know if there was rust on the metal edge -_-”
Will NEVER go back there again.
Their responses on Instagram were very bad.
At 4pm, I posted about the incident on Instagram.
Let’s take a closer look.
Yes, it was damn unfortunate of me to kena cut by a piece of your furniture. Tone of voice: Indignant much?!
Plus, it’s a bench, not a table. Isn’t my description of the incident pretty detailed? Not even a #SorryNotSorry here. It’s a ‘too bad lor. got plaster leh? you make noise for what?’
A friend’s comment on Facebook.
Picture of wound again.
Are you freaking kidding me? Come back to kena cut again? I haven’t recovered from this wound. It’s still bleeding by the way. If your ‘server-manager’ tried to get your attention in regards to a customer’s feedback, it is quite pressing isn’t it?
But of course, sales promotions comes first. Over customer’s feedbacks. Or injuries.
Unfortunately, I have other pressing issues like finding a doctor first thing in the morning and getting a tetanus shot.
Wound looks even more infected, swollen and nastier. Wound hurts. badly.
Again, nasty bench at The Bravery Cafe. Avoid at all costs. Not sure if metal bits are rusty or part of design. ARGH.
In anycase, beware of The Bravery Cafe. Nasty furniture that may cause cuts.
At 8ish pm, Sabrina commented.
Honestly, if he had wanted to talk to me immediately, he would have. Right after I had told him in an upset tone, wouldn’t he have bothered to find out from his server (or manager as he said) there and then?
My friend TigerKiller said it best.
I mean, come on lah. Do you leave your customer waiting at the counter while you talk to your vendor?
In restaurants, when customers would like to talk to the chef, do the chefs wave them off dismissively? Or do they try to stop what they’re doing and immediately talk to their customers?
Or did he only bother because I posted about the incident on Instagram? By the way, I wasn’t pleased that my number was given without my permission to him. I told Shak to email me instead but he only did so, much later.
Almost ten hours after the incident.
Number 1: Had he bothered to even address the issue in the first place, in his cafe, this would not have happened.
Number 2: Responses on Instagram made it worse. He sounded indignant in fact.
Number 3: There was no apology whatsoever till after midnight. Which is after this post was published. After numerous comments on Instagram and Facebook.
This, my friend, is an example of a huge PR FAIL. Guess that you’ll have to be brave to eat at The Bravery Cafe.
Updated: This post has been updated as of 18th January 2015, 8:05am
I’ve visited a doctor and got the wound cleaned and a tetanus jab. Doctor indicated that the wound is a deep open laceration and infected.
Zzzzz. Have been applying antiseptic cream and hopefully the wound will heal fast.
The main point of this entry is to highlight that customer service is very important. Why wait till shit happen and THEN work on service recovery. Shak sent another email after all this drama FINALLY apologising and suggesting that I sent my medical bills to him. (It’s pretty evident, someone helped to craft out the email or advised him on tone of voice)
Which should have been the way in the first place! At the cafe, he should have apologised immediately.
Was I angry I got cut? Â No. In Shak’s words, it was really unfortunate of me.
I was angry at his response at the cafe (twice) and on social media. I do not wish to seek compensation nor do I wish to return to the cafe for a coffee or a discussion with Shak on what they can do for me.
I really do not want anything from them.
Well, just one thing. To fix their furniture before someone gets fatally hurt. I won’t be returning to The Bravery Cafe ever again. But for those who do, do comment and let me know if they’ve fixed their furniture.
Thanks for those who felt so indignant for me and helped to share this post. Was really touched by everyone 🙂 I’m also shocked to hear stories from those who know Shak personally and what he really thought of the incident. But like I said, I don’t wish to continue this anymore.
I won’t be updating this entry anymore. Close case liao.
