Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Ripped Off at Haagen Daz

 So Haagen opened shop in South Bombay finally, apparently they had an outlet at a mall in Malad a little while ago, so with 30 mins to kill before Hugo (fantastic movie, must see) we decided to head down to H-D and get some dessert.

Now, i am a fan of HD and no trip to London is complete without a session at their Leicester Square outlet, its something i have been doing for the best part of a decade. Same with their outlet in Singapore's Centre point. 

So what went down in the store was not just a massive disappointment it was also more or less fraudulent.

I ordered their coffee with beglian chocolate which is served with choc sauce as well. Now, i have had coffee at HD before many times and its almost always served like an afogato with ice cream, shot of espreso poured in along with milk or just the choc sauce. 

Now, completely oblivious to me,  the gentleman who took our order informed my wife that there was no Belgian Chocolate when she asked for a scoop. My nose was buried in the menu and i did not hear this bit. In any case she went for the chocolate chips and i went for a cup of coffee.  


Ten minutes later they come by with the coffee and one sip and i know there is no Belgian chocolate in it. I asked the server to come by the table and then i told them the problem.

He went on to tell me that they blended the ice cream in the coffee already which was a total laugh because the coffee was pretty hot, no way it was blended with ice cream, besides i was pretty sure that is not the way its meant to be served.

Then of course the wife chimed into say that she was informed there was NO Belgian chocolate so how come they blended the ice-cream with it.

At this point the chappie said he would be back and then 10 mins later sent his manager to deal with the situation.

The manager tried to fob me off with the same crap, saying its blended and when i countered that it was NOT blended and that they didn't even HAVE any Belgian chocolate he was speechless. He continued to insist that they have never had any problems and that this is exactly how the coffee is served. When i told him to maybe get me a book with directions from corporate which says so he had no answers.  

He did offer to get us something else but we had 10 mins to go before the movie started and i was already quite annoyed with all the lying. I wish customer service people would just stop lying and trying to save their own asses, it never works out well for anyone, not the brand, not the customer and certainly not the employee. 


For the record, the chocolate chips was atrociously bad. 

No chocolate anywhere whatsoever, i mean it looked the part but that was it. So for 240 rupees we had some pretty mediocre ice-cream and were lied to. as well. They got the décor right, that's about it.

Quite an experience. If you want chocolate chip get some from Amul, not only is it all kinds of awesome its cheap as hell too. Not going back i am sure.

Fortunately the movie was beyond great and ergo the evening was salvaged.

2 comments:

nika said...

i think Haagen Daz have to get their act together.. some time ago at their Delhi outlet they had a sign saying that only Foreigners were allowed or Indians not allowed.

Now to read this.... i am surprised you paid for the ice cream and didnt make a huge fuss.

Gaurav said...

Nika, i am not impressed by them either. Even besides the fast one they tried to pull the experience is seriously underwhelming and way overpriced.

A fundamental re-work of the quality and total attitude adjustment is surely called for.

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