pecking order

s'pose i should post this here - i did promise to last week. last i heard, i'd been lucky enough to have received unique interaction number 76165. wow. i'm impressed... not.

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Hi Lana,
I find it quite interesting that after submitting all of the information (on 12 August 2004) you've requested to your website, wait - your "Nando's Lifestyle website", I have been asked to send thisinformation to Customer Care again. I guess I've resigned myself to the fact that your "Lifestyle website" database is broken and/or does notreally exist. Perhaps the information got lost somewhere between Nando's and DigitalMall?
And so, for the second time, here goes:
The store I visited: Sandton City
Approximate date and time of visit: 6 August 2004, 13:40
A brief description of my Nando's experience: The store was busy and the take-away area was crowded, so I expected a slightly longer wait for my order evenbefore I placed it. I'm sure you'll appreciate that even with this expectation, I still ordered from Nando's and not one of the tens of other fast food outlets in Sandton City (which were, incidentally, handling the rush a lot better).I eventually managed to order after waiting in a queue for a few minutes and ordered a burger (extra hot), regular spicy rice and 500ml coke. Note the rice. The assistant who helped me said that she would bill me for a burger combo meal instead, 'as chips costed the same as the rice' and this would save me a few rands. She also said that she would alert kitchen staff to this change, and they would swop the chips with rice. I didn't question this idea at all, I mean, she did work at Nando's and had helped hundreds/thousands of people before me. I then waited for my meal and everyone who had placed orders at the same time as me started receiving their food. More people came to order food and they too started receiving their orders. I presumed that the rice or extra hot burger were the reason for the slightly longer wait (which at this stage was still fairly reasonable). It was only when another employee (who had noticed me waiting for a while) actually asked me for my order number, that my waiting made sense. Somehow my order had gotten lost in their system and they then 'rushed' to assemble it. I had now been waiting for close on 30 minutes. I received my newly assembled order which consisted of the burger, coke and chips. Note the chips. Note the absense of rice. I questioned the lady who gave me my order (who was not the same person who took my order)and she said that my slip indicated a combo meal and that is what I was served. At this stage, when I was genuinely too irritated to argue - I turned around and left. To make this whole experience worse, my burger was not anywhere near hot - let alone extra hot. And my chips were cold. This entire experience has left me in two minds as towhether I should actually ever eat at Nando's again. Is rice too much of a tall order?
While I appreciate the fact that you thank me 'in advance for this valued feedback', I do hope that the correct caution is excercised this time to ensure that feedback such as this does, not once again, get lost/deleted as I know that I will not have the patience to type this out/resend this again.
Regards

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