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With travel restrictions remain in place, many people in Singapore are finding interesting places to visit with their family.
Especially for special occasions like birthdays.
On Nov. 1, 2020, one Edroos Alsagoff shared that he and his family had visited a Harry Potter-themed cafe, Platform 1094 to celebrate his son's birthday.
As it was a special occasion, his children were dressed up in Harry Potter-themed attire.
Photo via Edroos Alsagoff on Facebook
Prior to their arrival, they had allegedly tried to make reservations by dropping the cafe a Facebook message.
Edroos said that they also called the cafe "at least 10 times" that morning, but did not receive a response.
Nevertheless, they decided to try their luck and headed to the cafe.
Photo via Edroos Alsagoff on Facebook
No tables available
When the family arrived at the cafe, an employee of the cafe told them that the cafe was fully booked and there were no tables available.
Edroos recalled the exchanges that he had with the employee where he said that he is willing to wait and asked if an alternative arrangement can be made.
Photo via Edroos Alsagoff on Facebook
However, the staff allegedly turned them down and said that she was not able to assist them.
Other customers allegedly offered a table if they were willing to wait
As Edroos and his family were about to leave, a man and his child approached the same staff and was allegedly offered an outdoor table if they were willing to wait.
According to Edroos, the man and his child did not make a reservation.
Edroos claimed that the option to wait for a table was not offered to his family and said,
"This immediately caught my attention as this solution or alternative was not offered to my family in the span of the 10 minutes that was spent bickering over reservations and overlapping time slots.
Yuling was clearly very adamant to make us leave without a chance to dine at the cafe at all. She appeared flustered and left no room for any form of dining options despite our pleas."
Edroos also added that the man offered his table to his family.
Later, another woman and child arrived with no reservation and were allegedly also "offered an alternative by another server".
Edroos claimed that his family was not given the same treatment as other guests and questioned whether the staff was being discriminatory.
Here's the full post:
Cafe says it was a misunderstanding
In response to Mothership, Platform 1094 said that they take all racial discrimination seriously and have since conducted an internal investigation.
The cafe said that when Edroos and his family visited on Nov. 1, the family arrived with no reservation and asked to have a table.
At this point, the customers queueing behind the family asked if they could queue for an outdoor table. Thus, they were placed in queue.
No table was offered to the customers behind Edroos and his family.
The cafe claimed that Edroos and his family got angry because they thought that the customers behind them were given a table.
Later, a table was made available and offered to Edroos, however, they allegedly rejected the table and said that they would bring the matter online.
However, Edroos told Mothership that he did not demand for a table and did not mention bringing the matter online.
He also wishes to highlight the need for fair treatment for all customers.
Cafe staff receives hate speech & vulgarity
Platform 1094 also apologised for the miscommunication between the staff and Edroos.
"It was an unfortunate event where communication error between our staff and the customer turned into a situation of racism in the eye of the customer. We would like to apologize on this end and will continuously train to ensure better communication by our staff in future."
Edroos' Facebook post has since garnered public attention and Platform 1094 added that they have been receiving hate speech targetted at the said staff.
The cafe said they would make a police report if the situation gets worse.
We would also like to highlight that the company has been receiving hate speech and vulgarity towards our staff. We will not tolerate any abuse and will be making a police report if the situation gets worse."
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Top photos via Edroos Alsagoff on Facebook