Read the invisible print
By Nathan Green October 14th, 2006My mother has been visiting me in Shanghai for the last couple of weeks. In preparation for her visit I bought an “Enjoy Shanghai” coupon book, planning to take advantage of the two-for-one specials and other discounts at eateries around town.
The first attempt took me by surprise when I failed to notice that the 100RMB discount on meals over 300RMB at Simply Thai was accompanied by fine print that the discount only applied to food purchases and not drinks. It struck me as pretty churlish, but I could only really blame myself for not reading the fine print.
Regardless, the food was great and it was a simple matter of sitting back down and ordering a round of deserts to tip the total over 300RMB, which threw the whole restaurant into dissaray and made me look like a complete knob. The price I pay for principle.
Lessons learned
On the way to brunch today at Kabb in Xintiandi, buy-one-breakfast-get-one-free coupon in hand, my mother reminded me to check the fine print. “No worries,” I said, checking the coupon carefully. “There is no fine print”.
Arriving at the restaurant, I was startled to find that the coupon didn’t apply to my visit. “It’s only for Monday to Friday,” the waiter informed me, shrugging his shoulders when I pointed out it would be useful if the coupon, rather than the staff, carried the irksome details.
I checked with the manager. This time the response was that the coupon only applied before 11am. Two excuses, both obviously outright lies, and both absolutely inextricable.
Again, I only have myself to blame. I really should have read the invisible print, the one that says “do business in China at your own risk”.
But, in a population of 1.3 billion, is it any wonder business operates on the principle that another sucker will be along any minute. In the fastest growing and most magnetic economy on earth, nothing is more certain.
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October 15th, 2006 at 10:02 am
Nathan,
I am one of the founders of Enjoy Shanghai. A friend pointed your blog page to me this morning.
I can understand and sympathize with the frustration of the experience you have described…especially when entertaining out of town family, it is just plaint cumbersome and annoying to read the fine print. I know the offers inside and out and I still run into such a snag from time to time.
When we negotiate the offers with the merchants, we suggest, encourage, beg, plead and insist to have the offers be as simple and straightforward as possible, and we do routinely reject offers with excessive terms. However, these are generally small business owners operating their businesses in a very competitive market…general business sense and practicality does have to be considered, and it is reasonable to exercise some restrictions on the offers in order to make them higher value offers overall.
In the case of Simply Thai, ther terms \”when you spend ¥300 on food\” is not on the small print on the reverse, it is printed right there on the front— in 12 point Franklin Gothic regular font. And let’s face it…it is a good deal either way.
As for Kabb’s offer…I am not sure what happened the day you visited the venue, but the offer is not restricted to Monday to Friday…(unless, perhaps Kabb does not have a “breakfast’ on the weekend, due to their brunch special, which would already be a promotion in their minds). I’m writing this on a Sunday, so I cannot say until tomorrow, but if we ever receive a complaint from an Enjoy member, we immediately call the venue to clarify, and usually either we or the venue offer some kind of compensation for the bother and in gratitude for the complaint.
But look—there are HEAPS of fantastic, extremely valuable offers that have no cumbersome restrictions whatsoever.
Take, for instance, the 40% off at Senses wine bar—worth up to ¥1500!….
50% off lunch bill at A Future Perfect—worth up to ¥500…
There are free bottles of wine or sangria and Buy-1-get-1 free deals and so forth at dozens of restaurants!
There is generally 10-15% EVERY SINGLE TIME at about 200 of the best spots in Shanghai including restaurants, shops, bars, etc.
Were you to use your enjoy card 2 times a week and use every voucher in the book, we calculate that you would save over 50,000 RMB in total.
For a product that only costs ¥299 in the first place, you have to admit—that’s a pretty darn good deal, with or without a few terms and conditions here and there.
Nathan, I write this on 10/15 at 10 am. I am going to find out the answer to this question about Kabb and call you tomorrow to invite you to lunch—with just one bit of ‘fine print’—I hope in return I can ask for your suggestions (and those from any readers of this blog) on how we may improve communication of the terms and conditions.
I also hope–do not insist, but hope– that you will choose in the end to remove this blog, publish the other side of the story….or at least revise the last paragraph of your piece which is patently untrue and I think more than a bit irresponsible journalism. In another country, a court of law might even recognize the untrue or hastily suggested parts of this blog as libel.
Cheating in China is real. Since I set up Enjoy in 2003, We have faced never-ending trials of corruption, deceit and intellectual property theft from government officials, any number of small unscrupulous suppliers and competitors, and even recently from one of China’s largest banks. Every day is a challenge running an honest, hardworking business trying to be good and fair to our merchant partners, staff and our Enjoy members. If you are so short on stories of companies getting suckered in China that you have to go after Enjoy Shanghai, then the well has really run dry….I am all too happy to help out with handfuls of real cases for you. But Come on—We really are part of the solution, not part of the problem, and it disturbs me greatly to know that people reading this blog are going to walk away with an unfair and untrue assessment of Enjoy….a labor of love, rather than wealth, I assure you.
To wit, we have been an advertiser in your SinoMedia sister publication EuroBiz, and had a bit of a misunderstanding just recently about being charged for 2 half page ads after we already cancelled the contract. It was frustrating because I didnt want the ads, I certainly didn\’t want to pay thousands of RMB for them, and I had already notified the sales rep of that in writing. I was frustrated, but I didn’t write a blog about it front and center on our website accusing your company of corruption or abusing caveat emptor, I called an accounts manager and discussed it…well, what do you know?—It turns out I had not read the fine print carefully enough. I had a look at the contract, realized I was in the wrong, and I agreed to the charges. I don\’t think SinoMedia took me for a sucker…it\’s just practical business and it\’s just life.
Sincerely,
Aaron Landis
Founder, Enjoy Shanghai, Enjoy China
86-21-3226-0252 extension 115
October 15th, 2006 at 10:03 am
PS…Your mom is welcome at our lunch.
October 16th, 2006 at 9:15 am
Aaron,
I was tying the experience I had with two restaurants (and I accepted my error in the case of Simply Thai in my post, but I fail to see how a 100RMB discount off a 300RMB meal can be a good deal when I inadvertantly spent only about 270RMB with another 200RMB or so on drinks) into a well known fact of life in China that there is very little concept of earning customer loyalty hence ensuring repeat business. Wih 1.3 billion people, there will be another customer along any minute.
As you yourself have acknowledged, the Kabb promotion does not only apply Monday - Friday, hence my post is completely accurate. Nor does it apply only before 11am.
You have also said the Enjoy Shanghai promotion is a great deal, the Kabb experience notwithstanding (by the way, Kabb is a great restaurant/bar, I go there a lot, and I recommend it wholeheartedly to readers, and the staff generally are some of the best in Shanghai) and you are right.
Just on Sunday I went to Ambre for brunch on Changshu Lu. Staff are great, food is fantastic, environment is chilled and coffee is one of the best in town. And they offer a 10% discount with Enjoy Shanghai. Which in China works out to 9RMB off a 245RMB meal. You do the math. I guess coffee wasn\’t included, nor all of the food we ordered. Once again, my mistake.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:24 am
Very interesting experiences Nathan…. Just thought I’d share mine.
I too have an Enjoy card - it has proven to be a great way of visiting new restaurants and getting some good discounts along the way. And I would thoroughly recommend it - well done Aaron for setting it up!
Unfortunately though, when the time comes to pay the bill, I’ve often found that I have to enter into negotiation (read: battle) to actually recieve the discount/deal that is listed on the voucher. I too have experienced ‘the invisible fine print’. This can be a stressful, embarrassing, uncomfortable, and bitter experience. Especially when the waiting staff conveniently forget their English skills.
I don’t believe that this is Enjoy’s ‘fault’. I’m from New Zealand where we have a similar scheme to the Enjoy system. When dining in a couple of Chinese restaurants last year in Auckland, I experienced the same as I’ve found in Shanghai: Negotiations, blank looks, lies, ‘invisible fine print’, etc. from the waiting staff.
I think the problem lies in the attitude or ignorance towards ‘customer service’. And also perhaps a lack of interest in training staff by the managment of the restaurants. I do not believe that this should stop people from using the Enjoy card - but they should be aware and prepare themselves to be put through a bit of stress to recieve the benefits of it occasionally.
Well done Aaron, good work, good luck too! Nathan, its China - I’ve read enough of your writing to know that you know that!!
October 16th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Nathan,
Thanks for the detailed reply. I asked our merchant management people to look into the situation with Kabb and with Embre.
Aimee, the Marketing coordinator at Kabb, reports that normally breakfast is served only until 11 am. There is no breakfast menu on the weekend, so Kabb extends the buy-1-get-1-free offer to its brunch menu until 11 am on Saturday. So in a sense it appears BOTH answers you received from the staff were correct. Aimee tells us she will be calling you to offer you a free meal in apology for the confusion.
The Enjoy card deal at Embre is “10% off food”. Similarly to the Simply Thai scenario, that is written on the front of the offer in 11 or 12 pt. type. In the case you described, had you already used the Enjoy Voucher? That’s 50% off, and is valid for a total up to ¥300 on your entire bill—food AND drinks…so you could save ¥122 on that particular occasion.
I couldn’t agree more that service in China is often (if not usually) executed with little regard to customer loyalty or the credo that ‘the customer is always right.’ In defense of Kabb, which we both seem to agree is a mile and a half above your average restaurant, however, the issue appears to be far less one of ’suckering the customer,’ and more one of the challenge F&B businesses face finding and training service staff to know the correct answers all of the time. It is a high turnover profession, to be sure, and I think guys like Kabb owner Bob Boyce are doing a great job setting the bar higher and higher for Shanghai.
By the same token, Enjoy Shanghai hand selects our venues based on being a large cut above the rest in terms of service standard, food quality, ethics, and overall experience. When we select a new Enjoy merchant, we have a face to face with the managers and staff to work out how best to honor the offers, and we send our people out to each of our merchants on a regular, often monthly basis, to train new staff and to make sure management is fully honoring their program offers.
Are there occasional misunderstandings between customers and service staff even so? Sure.
Do some merchants find it necessary to limit their offers to ‘food only’ or to ‘monday to friday’ only? Necessarily, yes—and we’re up front with that in the enjoy book.
Does Enjoy Shanghai NOT disclose any terms on our vouchers, or concede to the common practice of “bait-and-switch” with our offers, or sacrifice good, honest consumer value in any way? I have to say with the utmost sense of principle: “Absolutely, categorically NOT.”
I’ve listed my personal extension in my comment above, and I wholeheartedly invite any enjoy member who feels that the Card and vouchers have not been absolutely worthwhile to give me a call personally anytime from 10 am to 6 pm ….but sorry—only Monday to Friday!
October 16th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Stazi,
can you email me, (aaron@enjoychina.com), call me, or state here the nature of your negotiations? I’d like to point it out to our venue coordinators to see that this kind of thing gets taken care of.
Thanks,
Aaron
October 17th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
[...] Read the Invisible Print was originally posted on the China Econimic Review Editor’s Blog on October 14, 2006 by Nathan Green. The reason I post this is it gives an accurtate view of the daily struggle in China and dealing with its pervasiveness of “customer-no-service” : [...]
October 19th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Nathan,
Now that we have had lunch, I am glad we have found very common ground!
Agreed that life in China can be very frustrating…All too often, has to dig a little deeper to get the service standards we are accustomed to in the West.
I am glad to see that Kabb has offered you compensation.
I am even more glad to know that you do not see Enjoy Shanghai as a business that “operates on the principle that another sucker will be along any minute.” Please enjoy that 50% voucher at Embre, and let me know how your future experiences are using Enjoy.
As for my earlier intimation of the potentially libelous nature of the original blog, thanks for the definition and defense of ‘libel’—you indeed know your stuff, and I wholeheartedly rescind any such suggestion.
It is a very interesting world we live in, with respect to the blogging phenomenon, and I’m truly glad to have had the opportunity to publicly air our little joust.
So Cheers, and thanks for coming to lunch and for the suggestions on voucher design improvements for 2007.
Best regards,
Aaron
PS: After you left Element Fresh, we used our Enjoy Card for the 10% discount, and—saved 37 kuai!