WellUrban

Personal reflections on urbanism, urban life and sustainable urban design in Wellington, New Zealand.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Floriditas: the case for the defence

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I've just received an email that must have reached half of Wellington by now, complaining of bad service at Floriditas in Cuba St. While the behaviour described in the email is clearly unacceptable, I have to admit that I'm incredulous, as it seems completely out of character.

I must have visted Floriditas at least 20 times in the last few months, on occasions ranging from a quick coffee to a full dinner for ten people, and the service has never been less than friendly and professional. Some of the younger staff are a little inexperienced, but they've always been cheery and welcoming.

It's a pity that one bad experience can spread so far while good impressions rarely have the same impact. So here's a bit of balance: Floriditas offer simple food based on fantastic ingredients, at incredibly reasonable prices, in a stylish atmosphere with courteous and efficient service.

...

A quick update: I went there for dinner last night (for some delicious gnocchi with slow-cooked tomato sauce and fresh herbs) and the staff commented that it was their quietest night since opening. I asked whether they thought that it was due to the email, and while they hadn't seen the email, they remembered the incident when I described it. Not surprisingly, their recollection was rather different from the complainer (probably because the staff were sober). It's quite revealing that, apparently, some of the complainer's party came back afterwards and apologised to the staff about their friend's behaviour.

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And another update: I've just added a new post about the latest developments.

7 Comments:

At 1:37 pm, August 22, 2005, Blogger Hadyn said...

I hate being out of the loop! Now I really want to read that email. Was it scandalous or just nitpicky?

Anyway I came to apologise. I clciked the "flag" button at the top of the page last night because I though it was for "blogs you want to read again". Instead it is for "blogs that contain 'objectionable' material".

Needless to say after finding out I rushed straight back to de-flag you. So if you get "We're watching you" notices from Blogger, I apologise.

I'm learning not to just click any old button on the internet.

 
At 2:05 pm, August 22, 2005, Blogger Tom said...

If what the email says is true, the waiter's behaviour was totally out of line. But it's so out of sync with my experiences there that I wonder whether there's some sort of provocation that the email omits. Hence my reluctance to post the details.

Don't worry about the "objectional material" thing: any blog that contains no objectionable material is going to be pretty boring. There's very little here to object to, unless you belong to Destiny church or build McMansions for a living.

Though interestingly, my old "toyboys and sugar daddies" post seems to have attracted some unexpected attention, including being page ranked 17th out of about 70,000 on Google for the word "toyboys", and a (presumably disappointed) visitor from Serbia & Montenegro looking for "gay sugar daddy bear".

 
At 8:39 pm, August 22, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I haven't seen the email either but want to chime in in defense of Floriditas. Since they opened I've had dinner there at least 10 times, and the service (as well as the food) have always been excellent. I've recommended the place to others because of my great experiences there, and never heard anything other than positive.

 
At 4:45 pm, August 23, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The tale in the email seems rather far fetched to me. I too have had nothing but helpful and friendly service at Floriditas. It's a mystery. I really hope it doesn't hurt their business as I think it's a great one.

 
At 12:28 pm, August 26, 2005, Blogger Hadyn said...

I just got the email!
Yay! I'm not as out of the loop as I thought.

I sent the email back with a link to this page and a brief explanation. I hope we can reverse this nasty story.

 
At 2:29 pm, August 26, 2005, Blogger Tom said...

Good stuff, Hadyn. It would be interesting to follow how the email has spread and do some analysis on the graph theory of social networks. It reached us via 4 degrees of separation: the original whinger sent it to 40 people, who sent it to 20 people, who sent it to 6 people, who sent it to "All Staff" (about 150 people).

If only a fraction of recipients at each stage sends it on to a similar number, then there must have been tens of thousand of people who have seen that email by that stage. How many degrees of separation did it take to reach you?

 
At 4:17 pm, September 19, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

FYI.. The new seems to be travelling still.. A bunch of us only received it today, September 19th, almost a month after your posts..

 

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