Ali Baba Kebabs and their Dodgy Loyalty Cards

Related Stores

Ali Baba Kebab

• 

  baz96 on 21/02/2015 - 17:37

  +6

  It annoys me how some businesses don't realise how important it is to retain a customer. I mean based on my experience with this particular store, their kebabs aren't considered to be that great anyway, so they might as well boost their service skills to at least attempt to meet our expectations as customers..

  • 

    Ughhh on 22/02/2015 - 00:18

    +5

    You realise that the kid doesn't represent the whole company, nor is the boss nor did he design the system. He's just a staff repeating what the system says and following the rules. It probably was a system glitch, unfortunately nothing he can do as he most likely doesnt have the authorisation edit it or give out freebies, just because a customer said so. If you've worked in retail/food industry long enough, you'll see that there are many customers who lie and scam to get free food (Im not saying you are or the guy thinks you are), hence they have to be careful with every customer. Also, I guess some customers think they're VIP whereever they go and get upset when servers dont bend over and risk losing their jobs to keep the selfish customer happy (again, Im not pointing this at you, its a general comment).

    So rather than jumping into conclusions that Ali Baba Kebabs hates you, wants to ruin your life and will do anything to make your day miserable by refusing you a free kebab, calm your tits down, send the company an email and see what they have to say first. If they deny, then bring out your bazookas and pitchforks.

    • 

      baz96 on 22/02/2015 - 09:50

      I haven't had the same experience as the OP with the loyalty card thing, but i'm mainly talking about some businesses in general and their customer service. I'm not targeting Ali Baba specifically, since I've just used them as an example in this situation. Although, you said that the employee doesn't represent the whole company, but when you're an employee working for a specific company aren't you in actuality representing the whole company? One little mistake can make a loyal customer, who in the long term brings the store profits, turn into a stranger (in the company's view).

      I have worked in retail where there are customers who can be frustrating or try to act smart, but that's why as an employee representing a particular company you have to handle the situation responsibly in a why that keeps the customer happy, even if they're wrong.

      You know what they say: It costs five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain a customer.

• 

  Schezwon on 21/02/2015 - 20:13

  +5

  Ali Badbad Kebabs more like it!

  • 

    mini2 on 22/02/2015 - 15:02

    +1

    Had one last year and that flimsy piece of Lebanese bread and some dried out meat is a poor excuse for a kebab. I'd rather Maccas and I'm not even a Maccas person…it's that bad.

• 

  RockyRaccoon on 21/02/2015 - 21:56

  +7

  Relax

  the guy in the store has no data to work on except what the system tells him and probably has no authority to correct it.

  Wait until you see what happens with your web complaint before setting the store on fire.

  You may be surprised how it works out. If not then you can skewer the local store with your wrath, getting worked up isn't worth the few bucks this is causing you at the moment.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 21/02/2015 - 23:05

    +1

    +1 How long have they had those electronic fancy shmancy cards, anyway?

    Back in 2010, while I was living in Canberra, my workmates and I would get kebabs more frequently than we probably should have.. and the loyalty cards back then were still paper punch style - buy 5 (or some other quantity?) and get one free? Either way, it was still a manual dealio, no high tech crap that they've got going now.

    I hadn't been back for a kebab until a few months ago (in Sydney this time) when everything had changed. I guess things had been changed for a long while though. Anyway, they offered me a loyalty card but I never bothered activating it since their food is quite expensive IMO. My local kebab joint is run by a lovely Turkish family who sell theirs for $6.90 and I struggle to finish it every time :( Anyway… tangent.. perhaps it was more bad luck and a technical issue rather than a pervasive dodgy practice they use to scam all customers across their brand? :P I'd go with RockyRaccoon here. Wait and see how they rectify the problem.

    Sure it sucks and is rather poor customer service to be simply told they can't help you, and leave you hanging with no offer of resolve, but you do seem to be jumping to rather big conclusions. I can understand the anger though. Maybe it's more sensible to be directing the anger at the person who served (or failed to, rather) you, rather than boycott the whole franchise? :P

• 

  Settero on 22/02/2015 - 00:05

  how long between activating the card and attempting to redeem it ?
  sometimes rewards lag behind and take a while to activate ?

  • 

    LakeVostok on 22/02/2015 - 12:00

    There was 1 week gap between the activation and the attempt to redeem the offer.

    • 

      Bargainlove on 07/03/2015 - 16:50

      Hi barbedwire, After register the card, you will receive an email and you need to go to mailbox to activate the card, just wondering if that has been done?

• 

  Baysew on 22/02/2015 - 10:25

  +1

  Computer says no.

• 

  cloudy on 23/02/2015 - 12:32

  Aren't those the guys that for a period was always on groupon/scoopon? Like literally it was on for 6months, that always rings alarm bells to me so I stayed away anyway.