Call Me Honey - Chatime Indonesia

Chatime is a popular Taiwanese tea franchise founded in year 2005 in Taiwan with the numbers of outlets approaching 1000 in 80 cities worldwide (the US, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, UK, and UAE). There are already 72 Chatime outlets in Indonesia since the first franchise outlet opened in 2011.

In the beginning of November 2013, I received an invitation from Chatime for the launching of Honey Series. I declined the invitation because the time and location were not suitable for me. Two weeks later, the Chatime Digital Marketing contacted me again for Honey Series tasting. This time, I could choose the outlet and time.

Saturday, 23 November 2013.

It was 9.50 am when I arrived at one of the two Chatime outlets in Central Park mall. The cashier told me that the outlet would be opened at 10 am. Thus, I went to do some shopping first and came back to the outlet around 10.25 am. I told the cashier that I came for the Honey Series tasting. The cashier showed me the Honey Series brochure and asked me to choose one of the four varieties of the tea being offered. I was confused. I asked the cashier if I shouldn't try all the four series in order to review them. The cashier checked on the computer and said I was only entitled to get one drink. I called the Chatime Digital Manager but there was no answer.

The Honey Series are Honey Black Tea with Coconut Jelly, Honey Milk Tea with Pearl, Honey Green Tea with Rainbow Jelly and Honey Lemon with Aloe Vera. The price starts from Rp. 18.000 to Rp. 24.000.

I chose the Honey Green Tea with Rainbow Jelly 

I was already enjoying 1/2 of the drink then suddenly I felt something strange inside my mouth. I took it out of my mouth and found a strand of hair. Feeling shocked with what I found, I directly showed the stand of hair to the cashier. Then, I walked back to my table to take the drink and returned it to the cashier. The cashier apologized, but that was all. As the cashier didn't offer to replace the drink, I just walked out of the outlet and sent a text message to the Chatime Digital Marketing, telling her what had happened.

Until two hours later, there was no response at all. Thus, I tweeted about this incident. Again, there was no response either although the Chatime twitter was active during that time (there was a quiz to get a free drink).  

Monday, 25 November 2013.

Finally, there was a response from Chatime to my tweet.

Wednesday, 26 November 2013

The Chatime Digital Marketing sent me a text message replying to my Saturday text message. She apologized for the incident and informed me that the Chatime Customer Relations - staff would be contacting me to follow up.

In the afternoon, I received an apology email from the Chatime Customer Relation. At the end of the email, Chatime said as a gesture of gratitude, Chatime was giving me a free cup Honey Green Tea Rainbow Jelly Regular which could be claimed on Saturday, 30 November 2013. 

I could not believe when I read this apology email. I didn't understand what was the actual purpose of the invitation in the first place. I replied to the Chatime Customer Relation saying that I thought the reason why Chatime invited me in the first place was for tasting the four varieties of the Honey Series, but then I only could try one of them. Then, when there was a strand of hair inside my drink, Chatime didn't replace it at all, but now is offering me the same drink as a gesture of gratitude? What a big disappointment of a big tea franchise. 

Thursday, 28 November 2013

The Chatime Customer Relations-staff called me. She apologized and explained that there was a misunderstanding. She offered me that I could come back to the outlet so I could taste the four varieties of Honey Series. I refused the offer.

Friday, 29 November 2013

I was eating lamian with my ex-colleagues at Paradise Dynasty at Central Park mall when I received a call from a strange number. It was the Chatime Manager from the outlet in Central Park mall. He apologized for the incident and asked me to visit his outlet. He sounded so relieved and even praised God when he could finally reach me on the phone. He told me that he tried to call me a couple of times but couldn't reach me (it's true because there were three missed calls on my mobile phone). Again, I declined to come as he offered, but then when he found out that I was in Central Park mall, he even wanted to deliver the drinks. I was touched by how persistent he was, so in the end I decided to go to the Chatime outlet.

After eating lamian, I went to the Chatime outlet. The cashier and the staff immediately apologized when I mentioned my name. The four varieties of Honey Series were brought to me with small cups so I could try each of them. The drinks were without the toppings.

Honey Lemon Tea: It's refreshing. I like the level of sourness of the lemon mixed with the honey. It's good for the throat

Honey Green Tea: The nice fragrance and taste reminded me of a popular brand of a green tea and honey in plastic bottle.

Honey Milk Tea: I like the Chatime Milk Tea because although it's milk, the tea flavor is still strong. Compared to the Milk Tea using sugar, this Honey Milk Tea tastes much sweeter.

Honey Black Tea: Since the drink at Chatime could be tailored individually for the level of sweetness and ice, I prefer to have less honey for this drink the black tea itself already has the sweet honey flavor

After the Honey Series tasting (the four small cups pictured above), as a gift, I got a cup of Mango Yoghurt with Grape Jelly to bring home. 

Monday, 2 December 2013

To my surprise, the Chatime Customer Relations-staff called me again. She told me that Chatime would like to send me the four varieties of Honey Series since I refused to visit their outlet. I told her that I already went to their outlet and tasted the Honey series last Friday so there was no need to send me the drinks. The Chatime Customer Relations-staff was not aware at all that I went to their store but she kept insisting on sending the drinks to me.

Wednesday, 4 December 2013
I received the four Honey Series.

Honey Lemon with Aloe Vera, Honey Black Tea with Rainbow Jelly, Honey Milk Tea with Grass Jelly, and Honey Green Tea with Rainbow Jelly.

This time, I really like the Honey Milk Tea with Grass Jelly, I even think that the Honey Milk Tea with Grass Jelly is a better combination than with the pearl. The Grass Jelly is so smooth and good. I love the Aloe Vera inside the Honey Lemon. the Honey Black Tea is still too sweet, especially with the Rainbow Jelly.

Chatime Indonesia
Customer Service: (021) 5829099
Twitter: @ChatimeIndo
Delivery only for Central Park area: (021) 29200180