1 Vincent Liao - 2 months ago
[Very Long Read]
Meet MARIA, or at least that's what I was told her name was. She was rude, and personally accounted for the worst shopping/sightseeing experience we have ever experienced.
My family and I were happily walking through the beautiful Watershed and browsing through all the cute little shops, until we walked into this place that sold vibrantly colored/patterned African clothing and fabrics, with MARIA sitting behind the cashier.
We picked out a few items that were interesting, and were happily browsing through the rest of the place, and that was when MARIA got up and walked straight to us.
"Can I help you with something?" She said in a surprisingly unfriendly tone, nothing we had experienced in our 3 week trip here.
"Oh thank you, we are just browsing." I answered, and was met with the most ridiculous remark I had ever received while shopping.
"BROWSING? I hope you are not trying to STEAL my design!" Maria scolded back.
Not wanting to escalating the situation and ruin our day, we decided to just leave, so we said "Excuse me, that was just very rude, and we are leaving," but MARIA would not let go.
"Oh, that's what YOU PEOPLE do, YOU CHINESE always do this, you come in and you STEAL my design!"
Granted, we are an Asian family and completely look the part, black hair, black eyes, yellow skin and all, but 2 of us were visiting from Los Angeles, and the other has been local to Cape Town for almost 30 years. This accusation was completely uncalled for.
At that point we decided to look for a management office to file a formal complaint, but was told by a few security guards that it was not open on a Sunday.
But it gets better.
We walked through the rest of the Watershed with no further issues, all the shops were beautiful and the owners were all as friendly as can be. We walked by MARIA's place a second time and snapped this photo.
That's when she charged out of her spot and chased us all the way to the marina side of the exit. She yelled at us when we tried to reason, and this time claiming 1u003e she had never seen us in her store. and 2u003e she had never said those things.
She continued to follow us in a threatening manner, even attempting to block one of our female family members from leaving, and that was when we were forced to call for security, but none of them did anything.
We finally managed to leave the area after causing quite a scene in front of all the visitors. I am sure there would be some record left on your surveillance system or daily log. If not, that means your security department has failed.
Yes, the Waterfront is beautiful, and the Watershed is a lovely setup, but one bad incident, like the one we encountered with MARIA, can ruined a perfect day for visitor who came from thousands of miles away.
Shame.
