twenty.one tables+terrace steps up!

Okay, so my previous controversial post (twenty.one tables+terrace may actually be secretly robbing you...), highlighting their rounding up on bills was immediately noticed and the next morning, I was not only contacted by Ms. Janet Lam (GypsyQue3n on Twitter) to clarify the situation...

Excuse me Mr...

but Mr. Richard Holland, I quote " owner of the twenty one group", personally called me to sort the matter out.

My hats off to you folks! You guys are really on the ball! Excellent stuff. I am aspiring to be as top notch as you guys in the service industry. Kudos!

After a quick chat with Richard, he sent me an email immediately clarifying their policies as well as their practices.

*I know my name is spelt wrong but hey, nobody's perfect...*

twentyone

hi Leonard. firstly let me thank you for the call and the time to explain the situation.

as you know as a restaurant owner (congratulations) for the newlyopened mid valley outlet you mentioned, we take all and any complaints or issues very seriously as we are in the service industry.

in short the way we practice the rounding is as follows.

after bank negara Malaysia asked retail and cash businesses to try to phase out coinage in Malaysia where and if possible we took this on board and looked at what would work for us.

twentyone kitchen+bar sdn bdh and twentyone tables+terrace and bhd. both hold their WRT (wholesale & retail trade licence) this is issued by the ministry of domestic trade Malaysia. there are actually very few f&b outlets that even hold this licence. we are very proud to have achieved this in Malaysia.

as we are a wholly foreign owned company we are subject to be fully audited every year and have been by independent govt appointed auditors otherwise we cannot hold the wrt licence.

what we do in the twentyone outlets is rounding to do away with all coinage as per the suggestion by bank negara.

we actually set our pricing at normal ++amounts. then we price in our menus at rm1 below that. we do this to offset our rounding.

we have operated now in Malaysia for nearly 4 years but we have worked in f&b here in Malaysia for 10 years. in the last 4 years we have had only one price increase in the outlets.

if one has a bill of eg. rm9.49 or below then the bill will show as rm9.00
if one has a bill of eg. rm9.50 and above the bill will show as rm10.00

customs,wrt and all audited accounts show this also.


it is true that depending on the amount and mix of items. that will determine rounding up or rounding down.

I have included two examples for your reference.
(Look below)


we feel it is very important to show this on our bills as we do not want to hide this.

the simpler way (and I believe the wrong one) would be to do so internally and it would never appear on any bills.
yet as

twentyone is very adamant that we give full disclosure on all we do to maintain our wrt licence. then we choose to display the rounded amount.

I hope this clears up any queries and remain available anytime for explanation of the above points.

thanks again lenoard and have a great weekend.

Attached were two pictures as proof...



Alright, so I completely understand where Mr. Richard is coming from. I understand how Bank Negara Malaysia has requested retail and cash businesses to phase out coinage in Malaysia, due to the discontinuation of the 1 cents. Rounding up is just logical.

Unfortunately, after presenting this to the customers that brought the matter to my attention, they were not satisfied with the replies. Rounding up is logical, but according to them, 0.0x is a yes, 0.x is a no. They have consulted their lawyers and the rest is out of my hands.

Now that everything is on the table, I am dropping the matter onto both parties. May you both find a resolution to the dispute.

SO....
What are your opinions on the matter, you as a customer?