The South African horseracing establishment have adopted a whole new approach to customer complaints and added a new dimension to their service levels. Just ask Wayne Kruger of Cape Town.
On Sunday he was a dissatisfied punter.
On Tuesday evening he appeared live on Tellytrack at the Turffontein night meeting and was given a platform to vent his disappointment.
The penny has finally dropped it seems. If your customer is not happy, it is going to affect your business. So listen to him and do something about it. Hooray Saftote!
Lifelong punter Wayne Kruger (it’s his real name) was one of the lucky winners of Saturday’s bumper Pick 6 at Turffontein that paid R2 044 599-20 and held a ticket from an unnamed Marshalls World Of Sport branch near his home that said he had won 20,60%, or as he calculated it, R410 000 odd.
Interviewed by Lyle Cooper and given valuable live Tellytrack air-time, Wayne Kruger has got to be the biggest winner ever in South African horseracing history.
He just doesn’t realise it yet. He is famous.
Wayne wanted to banker Trip To Heaven
Wayne apparently took a R380 Summer Cup Pick 6 and was a happy man on Saturday evening – even though Vee Moodley had swung him away from bankering Trip To Heaven in the first leg and he went wider – costing himself a full bet as opposed to a fraction.
He says he is a 30 year lifetime punter who thought he had achieved a career best after doing his maths following the mammoth dividend declaration.
“I took my bet and just left and went home to follow the racing. Everybody was happy and was jumping up and down when they heard about my win.”
On Sunday morning he went to Marshalls and decided not to cash his ticket as the ‘money was in the bank.’
It was only after chatting to the teller in the Marshalls branch that he realised to his horror that he had won ‘only R96 000.’
Wayne alleged that the teller had told him that ‘they phoned us to put up the limit notices.’
“I have never been aware of the payout limits and nobody has ever indicated to me that odds limits apply. They didn’t tell me when I took my bet and it is not indicated on the ticket. All I saw was the word ‘Saftote’. This is not the right thing to do,” Wayne told Lyle Cooper.
One of the scariest things to come out of this is that an influential, supposedly trained and, hey one assumes, informed Tellytrack on-course staffmember like Lyle Cooper says he wasn’t aware of this policy either.
“Hopefully someone might pick this up and fix what happened to you. You have every right to be cross,” said Cooper passing judgement in favour of the distraught Wayne and ensuring his job was safe.
But are we impressed?
Nah.
It is not Wayne’s fault. We would also be disenchanted in his shoes given what he says he didn’t know. R300 000 short is a lot of tom.
But maybe we will change our opinion when we can watch Marshalls giving their side of the story during the Kenilworth meeting tomorrow afternoon – and extended the same platform to argue their point. Then we can feel that some justice and professionalism still exists in this game.
This whole event frankly smacks of gross opportunistic and disingenuous use of an industry instrument for propaganda purposes.
Some will call it marketing or PR.
But to think that intelligent men can stoop to depths and allow themselves to be used as puppets to spew forth absolute you know what in the name of protecting their salaries and currying favour with their bosses is disappointing.
Just goes to show how dangerous arrogance in a monopilistic environment can be.It can make you look plain stupid.
And suggesting that punters get a raw deal when placing an open bet versus Saftote suits the corporate ideal.
But what Saftote or Tellytrack, or whoever paid for Wayne’s air-ticket and accommodation and authorised the interview have done is conveyed one side of an argument.
Because where has customer service ever received such vigorous and enthusiastic attention from officialdom and is Wayne the first punter in 30 years to be peed off by the Bookie limits on the open bet?
Well what the authorities have done is effectively opened the floodgates.
From Kuruman to Kimberley to Kokstad, if you are disenchanted you should jump on the phone to Tellytrack and demand your moment in the limelight.
Matthew Brittan is apparently the guy to speak to.
You deserve to be heard!
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