Customer Care: How to make your customer feel like a criminal.

I was cycling through deepest Norfolk with my daughter.  It was raining, hard.  My daughter had started bitching.  A tea shop loomed into sight, it was dry and warm and served tea, my prayers had been answered.

25 minutes later, happy and content I went to pay the bill, only to be told that they didn’t take cards.  I am like the queen, I don’t carry cash and I stopped bringing my cheque book with me in 1992.

The “hostess” sneered at me that the Post Office might still be open, so I left my daughter (made me feel good about myself) and found the closed post office.  I went back and offered an IOU, not a winning option.  Next I was pointed at the corner store which gives cash back if you spend more than £6.  2 packets of overpriced coffee later I paid my bill (cash) and left under the disapproving eye of the owner.

No doubt she saved herself 50p by applying this payment rule but am I ever likely to go back?  And more to the point how many of my friends will I tell?

If you want to be treated like a criminal I can thoroughly recommend Swallows Restaurant and Guest House Walsingham Norfolk.

I know that was petty, but if you provide a penny-pinching service that does not accept plastic, at least put a sign on the door.

Photo by Blake Wisz on Unsplash