2/5 Nasser A. 6 years ago on Google
A
family
member
was
one
of
the
first
people
to
patronise
the
cozy
coffee
shop
shortly
after
opening
less
than
a
year
ago
and
post
a
picture
of
the
place
on
their
social
media
feed,
bringing
the
quaint
cafe-
with
its
relaxed
and
unpretentious
ambiance-
to
my
(and
many
other's)
attention.
Ever
since
then,
I
have
been
smitten
with
the
place
and
would
go
there
quite
regularly,
stringing
family
and
friends
along
whenever
possible,
even
befriending
the
friendly
staff
and
owners.
Fast
forward
to
a
few
weeks
ago,
I
decided
to
host
my
first
ever
event
under
my
newly
registered
PR
&
Marketing
start
up.
My
concept
was
to
organise
an
all
out
Qatari
bazaar,
where
I
would
make
a
small
commission
off
of
the
vendors
I
would
bring
to
participate.
That's
when
things
started
to
go
awry.
You
see,
the
focal
point
from
the
get-go
was
the
newly
appointed
manager,
a
Greek
lady
who
used
to
work
for
another
popular
chain
coffee
shop
in
Qatar.
Attitudinally,
she's
nice.
Professionally,
well,
she's
a
mess.
Case
in
point,
up
until
the
very
last
day
before
the
event,
security
for
the
residential
towers
in
which
the
cafe
is
located
made
a
fuss
about
the
food
trolley's
that
were
being
set
up
in
the
outdoors
area
because
we
"did
not
have
permission
from
higher
management",
even
though
I
communicated
it
to
her
from
the
very
beginning
(*at
least*
2
weeks
prior).
She
would
call
me
incessantly,
grumbling
about
it
as
if
it
were
my
fault.
Adding
salt
to
injury,
she
insisted
I
cannot
make
a
profit
from
my
event-
however
marginal-
so
the
patrons
don't
conflate
my
company
with
the
cafe--
meaning
they
do
not
want
to
be
perceived
as
profiteering
off
these
vendors.
She
opined
that
I
do
this
purely
for
marketing
reasons,
my
"debut"
if
you
will,
to
which
I
reluctantly
agreed,
offering
me
only
the
space
free
of
charge.
Thus,
my
vision
was
squashed,
and
instead
I
had
to
repurpose
the
event
as
merely
a
forum.
But
what
I
have
to
say
next
is
the
real
kicker,
to
which
all
else
pales
in
comparison.
After
pulling
off
a
successful
event,
with
a
full
house
who
were
mostly
new
clientele
(you'll
even
see
these
beautiful
light
fixtures
from
our
event
in
the
photograph
still
on
display
outdoors),
and
not
a
dime
made
to
my
pocket,
the
manager
printed
out
a
receipt
which
tipped
over
600
QR
shortly
before
closing
shop.
To
my
astonishment,
I
asked
what
was
it
for
since
I
hardly
had
anything
to
eat
or
drink.
She
replied,
and
I
quote,
"this
is
for
the
customers
who
didn't
pay."
Stunned,
I
asked
why
they
didn't
pay,
and
she
said
"because
our
staff
were
too
embarrassed
to
ask
the
Qatari
customer's
to
pay
for
their
drinks
and
food
once
they
got
up
and
left."
In
typical
fashion,
I
naively
opted
to
split
the
costs
with
my
friend,
asking
for
a
meagre
20%
discount.
Its
sad,
you
will
often
hear
how
customer
service
is
generally
underwhelming
in
Qatar,
and
mercenaries
like
her
out
to
exploit
genuine
and
well
meaning
Qatari's
certainly
don't
help
solve
the
problem.
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