Dear Restaurant Association of South Africa (RASA),
As much as I was happy seeing my Beerhouse win your Top100 Rosetta Award of Service Excellence in 2016 and I appreciated your telephone call today, that we will be listed as one of 100 SA’s Award Winning Restaurants 2017 in your ‘reputable guidebook’, we need to talk about something:
I do not appreciate receiving this image via text/MMS message earlier today and I wonder, if I’m alone or if there are other restauranteurs, who received something similar? I do not ever book any print advertising and know, that no one in my company does. Imagine, if I had just forwarded this order confirmation to our finance department for payment and this payment reminder was sent to dozen or maybe even hundreds of restauranteurs, that you got in your database?
“Thank you for your A5 booking in SA’s Award Winning Restaurants 2017 the book is in print payment needs to please be made by Friday R3500 inc Vat to FNB FOURWAYS 251655 RMS ACC NO xxx many thanks Wendy & Aysha”
After I posted this message on my Facebook and tagged the RASA and their frontwomen in it, it didn’t take her 5 minutes to call me and threaten with legal consequences, if I didn’t immediately delete the picture. What followed was a conversation with RASA’s legal counsel who could also only threaten to sue for damages due to reputational damages. This surprises me, as I’m only showing the communication you are sending out and explain the context. It seems, that I hit a nerve somewhere?
So my question stands: did anyone else receive similar order confirmations with demand for payment from RASA / Restaurant Association of South Africa without placing an order? Feel free to comment below or send me a confidential message