Story and photos by Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet TM

All rights reserved

MUCH ADO ABOUT COOKIES!!!

The indomitable and implacable Travelling Gourmet TM tells you about the saga of ordering Dolce Gusto coffee capsules for…

MY Dolce Gusto coffee maker! I ordered the coffee capsules online on 18 February, 2015 on Chinese New Year’s Eve. My capsules were not delivered and there was no email to arrange the delivery. Therefore on 23 February I called Dolce Gusto on their hotline number 1800 8367 009. I have found that the Dolce Gusto Customer Service is very bad. You can never talk to a Manager but only to Adilah or Irene who always told me that all the Managers were on leave, or attending  courses, and therefore not available to speak to me. Their excuse for the non delivery of my coffee capsules was because it was Chinese New Year! Chinese New Year holidays were only on 19 and 20 February so this reason is balderdash and nonsense!

Suffice it to say, today, that is  27 February, 2015, I finally got my coffee capsules! That is a full nine days after I ordered!!!

Just go to the Dolce Gusto Facebook page to read the NUMEROUS complaints from customers about ordering Dolce Gusto Coffee Makers and Coffee capsules! Seeing is believing! The link is: 

http://www.facebook.com/dolcegustosingapore

For example, see what Evon Soh says. Also Cassandra Tan had this to say:  Hi, I’ve emailed twice and as well called the hotline twice but till today, I have not gotten any reply. this is disappointing. There are more of such posts…

Another issue was the special Dolce Gusto CNY promotion of free cookies from Cedele with my order. Accordingly, I went to Cedele in Raffles City on 21 February, only to be told by Clifford the Manager that I could not get the cookies, because I did not have the hard copy of the delivery order. I told him the coffee capsules had not been delivered yet...CATCH 22!

Then at the Cedele in Rail Mall on 26 February, I could not get the cookies because there was no soft copy of the email confirmation of my online order, although I had the soft copy of the delivery order which Dolce Gusto had emailed to me. What the hell!!! CATCH 22 again!

Finally today we have got the Cedele cookies! They are savoury sweet mini Sesame Seaweed flavour…and are according to the writing on the box…artisan handmade cookies.

How to improve…

People who organise promotions should realise that by making their promotions so customer UNFRIENDLY and so full of bureaucratic red tape, they do not generate good will but create ILLWILL instead! I have brought this up to helpful and amiable Annie Tan, the Marketing Manager of Cedele who said she will take note. I have also brought this up to the MD of Nestle Singapore, as Nestle is in charge of Dolce Gusto. I have also brought this to the attention of the CEO of Nestle  in Vevey in Switzerland about the poor service and general inefficiency of Nestle  Singapore. I do not believe in half measures…as they say in England: in for a penny, in for a pound!

So Dolce Gusto and Cedele, I strongly recommend that you GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER PRONTO!!!

Sometimes life is like coffee…to get the best flavour, you must apply pressure! So ist das Leben.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22  – this link is about the novel “Catch 22” by Joseph Heller

In the book, Catch-22 is a military rule typifying bureaucratic operation and reasoning. The rule is never explicitly stated, but the principal example in the book fits the definition above: If one is crazy, one can be discharged from the army. But one has to apply for the discharge, and applying demonstrates that one is not crazy. As a result, one will not be discharged. The narrator explains:

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. (p. 56, ch. 5)

Classic scene from the movie “Cool Hand Luke” starring Paul Newman

Dirty Harry played by Clint Eastwood doesn’t like sugar in his coffee…