My friend and I were at the Peninsula lobby having our chamomile tea to cap the evening. When it was served, I noticed that there were too much tea leaves in the cup that were choking me. I told the waitress that Peninsula should change the tea strainer as it has always been like that. I asked her if I could express my concern to the supervisor so that this long time issue can be addressed. She nodded and left.
Twenty minutes after, there was still no supervisor on hand. I was complaining to my friend about it and he told me that he saw the waitress talking to the supervisor and motioning him to go and talk to me but he simply brushed it off. Since the supervisor was too busy to attend to me, I stood up, went to the service station and asked for the food and beverage manager.
When Mr. Testa came to our table, I started complaining about the tea. I was a bit agitated after being ignored for more than twenty minutes, but his manner of talking to me was not in any way helping to calm me down. While talking about the tea, in a high-strung and arrogant manner, he said to me, "You calm down!"
He said - Calm down! (3 or 4 times)
I said - I am!
No, you're not!
I am!
No, you're not!
I am!
No, you're not!
I was surprised by his brazenness - how can anyone keep cool when the one asking for it was himself high-strung and rude? I felt early on that his purpose was to irk me more than to help me. Why? Because he wouldn't want to listen and allow me to talk. How would anyone calm down that way? He was butting in and raising his voice. He was fighting with me!
Granting for the sake of argument that I wasn't as calm as Mr. Testa wanted it - should a guest be subjected to such arrogance? Mr. Testa being at the frontline should have at least apologized and sympathized with me first so that I would calm down and relax, and not talked to me in a manner that would aggravate an already tense situation. What he did was a big no-no in customer handling - no way to treat an irate (loyal) hotel guest.
Based on this incident, I believe that Manila Peninsula's Food and Beverage Manager, Javier Barenguer-Testa, needs to develop his skills in handling customer complaints. I rest my case!
