

Last Friday at 9 p.m., on the upper floors of the Global Harbor mall in Shanghai, an incident occurred at a Japanese restaurant called Akasakatei, where the manager (of all people) was seen smoking and was thus chastised by a pregnant customer. Despite efforts to dissuade the manager from reacting, nevertheless he came to blows with the woman and also verbally abused her. As it turns out, the boss had had a bit to drink before the incident.



Reporters have questioned if such an incident really did happen at Global Harbor. Turns out it really did and there’s even video evidence.



According to NetEase, the video shows a woman wearing a purple t-shirt yelling “Akasakatei’s manager is hitting people!” as well as a physical struggle in which several staff members wearing black try to calm the situation and prevent the woman from coming inside the restaurant. At that point a man in a white shirt (the manager) comes out and shouts that he was the one smoking, but he’s paid for her bill so she can leave, telling her that if she has any problems come and find him.



Afterward, a man’s voice shouts for the boss to give the money to her, but the purple-shirted woman nevertheless tells the police officer who has arrived that she wants to report that she has been threatened and attacked. The man in the white shirt begins to throws slurs one after another, and aggressively tells the woman that when she has evidence then she can file a report.



On the 15th, around midday, Shanghai Morning Post reporters went to the restaurant to request an interview, but were rejected. When they tried asking about the news online regarding the incident, reporters were only met with, “The news on the internet isn’t true, you either come in to eat or go.” Cold much?



Soon after, reporters went to Global Harbor’s customer service department and got their confirmation. A staff member told them that he had received a call on Friday about a Akasakatei staff member attacking a pregnant woman. By the time he arrived at the restaurant, both sides were engaged in a heated argument and police were called in to deal the situation.

Smoking inside is banned at Global Harbor, although there are designated smoking areas outside the mall.



Global Harbor has responded to the incident, saying that such vile behavior has damaged its reputation. The head of customer service has expressed furious indignation and demanded that Akasakatei headquarters deal with the incident and punish the attacker accordingly. Global Harbor has also asked the restaurant to directly address the matter; however, the restaurant’s chairman did not answer multiple calls made by reporters.



As you’d expect, the incident has also sparked a barrage of criticism online:

“The service industry’s biggest taboo is taking advantage of its customers, you build an enterprise through such painstaking effort, and you need so many people to make a good company. One stupid employee can ruin the reputation of a whole company, the internet is so developed nowadays that any bad experiences will be known in half an hour all over the world, the reputation of a company completely obliterated,” one netizen commented.

“Sweet talking is an easy way to get to the top, but it doesn’t do anything to change your terrible inner nature,” another added.

“In a public place, would you smoke near your kid?” one web user asked.

Well, let’s hope this boss was actually super super drunk, otherwise his customer service skills are on par with that restaurant owner who attacked a customer’s door after the customer had dared to leave a bad review of his restaurant online.

Watch the video below:

By Kitty Lai

[Images via NetEase]



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