Cuffy/Skill - Stafford customer service thread - Stafford retailers reports.

peggy

peggy

Well-Known Forumite
littleme said:
Strange, we went there a while ago & it was really dirty & grimey, we walked in & then straight back out! - we'd gone hopeing that the garden centre might of improved since the last time we went ....but it hadn't ;(
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what a shame, when did you go? Its had new management for about a year.
it looked very pretty, was clean and tidy. Kids enjoyed the food which consisted of jacket potato with curry, macaroni cheese and and a ham sandwich, followed by cakes.
staff were friendly and chatty, seem to have lots of crafty days going on for adults and kids. All in all couldn't find a complaint...except I would have preferred my scone warm but hey i coped.
 
Maryland

Maryland

Well-Known Forumite
Since was passing, decided to stop at 'ESSENCE of the Orient' and get some takeaway last night. Never been before, but had heard good reports. It was around nine, there was nobody about, the restaurant seemed quiet. Went into the little takeaway section, where there was a middle-aged man behind the counter shouting into a mobile. Nobody else in there. Chap saw me come in - couldn't avoid it really - but didn't acknowledge my presence in any way and carried on having his shouted conversation about a delivery. I didn't mind much - such is the nature of the business - and perused the menu for a while. Finished that, and moved towards the chap intending to order. He still gave no acknowledgment of my presence. The shouting continued. It really was uncomfortably loud in the small space. I looked behind him into the apparently quiet restaurant section. A young woman behind the bar was tidying things up. She saw me in there waiting, with the shouting, and disappeared round the corner. The shouting continued. By this time I'd been in there perhaps a minute and half, perhaps two. Chap hadn't looked at me once. The shouting was loud. I leaned towards him, caught his eye, said loudly and firmly 'OK then, thanks for your attention', and walked out. He briefly noticed that I was speaking to him, but didn't disengage in any way from the mobile conversation.

Never been to ESSENCE of the Orient before, will never go there again.
 
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littleme

littleme

250,000th poster!
peggy said:
what a shame, when did you go? Its had new management for about a year.
it looked very pretty, was clean and tidy. Kids enjoyed the food which consisted of jacket potato with curry, macaroni cheese and and a ham sandwich, followed by cakes.
staff were friendly and chatty, seem to have lots of crafty days going on for adults and kids. All in all couldn't find a complaint...except I would have preferred my scone warm but hey i coped.
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It would of been around 6months-ish ago, a lady at Penkridge market gave us a leaflet (I presume she was from the tea room as she had cake & lots of pretty china) - so we went on the way home....maybe if we had stayed we might of found the food over-rode the cleanliness....

Anyhow, we went to Sugnall Kitchen Garden today - very nice - & they're having a Gin day on the 23rd May!
 
proactive

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
Maryland said:
Since was passing, decided to stop at 'Pearl of the Orient' and get some takeaway last night. Never been before, but had heard good reports. It was around nine, there was nobody about, the restaurant seemed quiet. Went into the little takeaway section, where there was a middle-aged man behind the counter shouting into a mobile. Nobody else in there. Chap saw me come in - couldn't avoid it really - but didn't acknowledge my presence in any way and carried on having his shouted conversation about a delivery. I didn't mind much - such is the nature of the business - and perused the menu for a while. Finished that, and moved towards the chap intending to order. He still gave no acknowledgment of my presence. The shouting continued. It really was uncomfortably loud in the small space. I looked behind him into the apparently quiet restaurant section. A young woman behind the bar was tidying things up. She saw me in there waiting, with the shouting, and disappeared round the corner. The shouting continued. By this time I'd been in there perhaps a minute and half, perhaps two. Chap hadn't looked at me once. The shouting was loud. I leaned towards him, caught his eye, said loudly and firmly 'OK then, thanks for your attention', and walked out. He briefly noticed that I was speaking to him, but didn't disengage in any way from the mobile conversation.

Never been to Pearl of the Orient before, will never go there again.
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Where is Pearl of the Orient?
 
Maryland

Maryland

Well-Known Forumite
I've no idea where Pearl of the Orient is either, but am reasonably sure it's somewhere.

Place that cheesed me off through its total absence of customer service skills is right here in lovely Stafford, as we all know, hard by Sainsbury's carpark. Which I can recommend for its general flatness, other than where something's gone wrong with the bridge, its pleasantly marked bays and enticing views of the River Sow, romantically choked with Indian Balsam.

I shall use the carpark again - only after charging hours, obvs - but my huff with the adjacent Chinese restaurant shall remain.
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
You used to be able to hire a rowing boat from there when it was the New Inn, and the river wasn't choked - if only UKIP had done better and it could be choked with English Balsam.
 
proactive

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
I use Essence of the Orient quite regularly for take-aways and must say I've not found the service to be worse than anywhere else. The food is great though. Still we must all speak as we find or there's not a lot of point to this thread.
 
Glam

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
proactive said:
I use Essence of the Orient quite regularly for take-aways and must say I've not found the service to be worse than anywhere else. The food is great though. Still we must all speak as we find or there's not a lot of point to this thread.
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Me too. Who knows, we might've been in there at the same time!
 
Maryland

Maryland

Well-Known Forumite
proactive said:
I use Essence of the Orient quite regularly for take-aways and must say I've not found the service to be worse than anywhere else. The food is great though. Still we must all speak as we find or there's not a lot of point to this thread.
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Might try a delivery then. I had heard the nosh was tasty. But it really was quite extreme. You don't just completely ignore a punter standing in front of you for minutes while you have an extended shouty convo on your mobile.

But then, I am an angry middle aged woman who's generally had enough of putting up with shit.
 
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