David Matfield is my hero. Not because he posted a picture on Facebook of his mouldy burger bun that he received at the Silver Mountain Spur in Cape Town, but because of the way he has handled the situation.
With social media being such a powerful tool these days – things can go very wrong for restaurants in particular, especially those who serve up a sub-standard dish. With people posting pictures and naming names it all goes viral very quickly and irreparable damage is done in a matter of hours.
We came across the viral post yesterday and messaged David on Facebook for comment on his Facebook post of the Spur burger bun with mould on the bottom. (It got over 2000 shares, because honestly, who wouldn’t share a pic like that?)
His reply came as a detailed email on everything that took place and what struck us the most was his extremely balanced review of the incident, and how the situation was handled. I think we can all take a leaf out of David Matfield’s book when it comes to behaving like a decent person instead of a diva.
David’s response:
My mother, my girlfriends son and I went to the Silver Mountain spur at Blue Route Mall on Monday 13th April. We were seated by the play area and served our drinks.
Just next to us were two ladies and their kids also enjoying lunch at Spur. Unaware of what happened before we arrived, our burgers came. The one lady randomly told me to please check under my burger, just after I put my burger together I turned it around and there was the mould. I then took the picture of this.
What happened to the lady before was when her first burger arrived she somehow found mould and sent it back. The new burger that arrived for her was also sent back again due to mould.
I went up to the manager to get his attention and brought him back to the table. When I turned the burger around, he had a shocked and sincerely apologetic face and really apologised for this. The manager (I did not get his name) assured me that he will go in and make sure the next burger is freshly prepared under his supervision, which it was. I was hesitant about getting another burger completely. The burger was taken off the bill and he once again apologised for what happened. He did state that the rolls were fresh and brought in daily.
The same manager came back to me to apologise again, as well as to get my details for the ops manager to contact me. I then proceeded to give them my details.
By this time the picture had already gone viral and I am the only one who can see ALL the shares and their comments on Facebook, it seems like this isn’t the only incident (but across a few Spurs mentioned) . The Silver Mountain Spur just got the brunt of it all. A lot of people have been seriously ill before from Spur across the country, some people that I know of personally as well as stories we have heard.
Looking over some of the shares and comments after deleting the vulgar language. Some people said that they have posted the picture to Spurs Facebook page, which had apparently been removed, as well as some saying that Spurs Facebook admin asked them to be in touch with me to contact Spur, this was due to Spur not being able to message me on Facebook. All the people who messaged me privately to see if they couldn’t get hold of me, I sent them a reply back saying that if Spur really wanted to be in touch with me, then they would.
At 2pm Wednesday 15th April, I then received a call from Silver Mountain Spurs Ops Manager Sean (or Shaun) who really apologised for this. I could hear that the apology has been exhausted but it was sincere as there was absolutely no excuse for it, it just happened. He did mention that the kitchen manager is no longer working at the Spur anymore and that he is now going to be hands on and actively involved in the kitchen to get it all up to the standard it should be. He did mention again that there was no excuse for the bun being plated and sent out, the stock was meant to be checked daily and put on stock rotation for this to never happen. Another thing that was brought up was that all the managers will be doing retraining to ensure nothing like this happens again.
The retraining I believe should happen with ALL Spurs across the country due to the amount of comments and share comments that I can see, Some Spurs really need to work hard to get their customers faith back.
I still have not heard from Spur on Facebook but what I did got was this announcement on the picture:
Spur Cares
Dear All, We cannot excuse this and are extremely disappointed and embarrassed that this burger was served in one of our restaurants. We can assure you that this is not Spur standard and disciplinary action is being taken against those responsible. All management in this branch will also undergo retraining to ensure our strict food quality control procedures are adhered to and that an old roll does not ever end up on a customer’s plate again. Our sincerest apologies once again to David for the bad experience. Kind regards, Spur Steak Ranches
I am really impressed that they owned up to it, they made a plan to do something about it! This in turn means if they actually train to keep ahead with their management, then their Spur will be ahead.
It won’t be the last time that we would go to a Spur but I do believe that Spur has really handled this particular situation very well!
Should you have any further queries, or if anything is unclear, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best regards,
David Matfield
We think this was a perfect response from David, and we hope that his wish for all Spur branch managers to receive retraining in stock rotation is taken seriously.
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