Pizza Hut and those rumours
Have you received e-mails or heard about how Pizza Hut was selecting between different race before charging them extra on service charge etc? Well, I have been receiving it for like a few times a year. So I decided to find out the real deal once and for all. After all, maybe people might have mistaken it for something else. True enough it was for a survey purpose. Last week I wrote to Pizza Hut via their website and this is the reply I received:
Dear all Pizza Hut patrons,I want to thank all of you for taking the interest in reading the hate email that has been circulating in the net about the non service charge for Malay customers by Pizza Hut Malaysia.
Please be assured that there is NO truth in the email. It is a malicious email out to create hatred against Pizza Hut for no reason.
I am Lawrence Ding Hwa Ming, the Senior General Manager of Pizza Hut Restaurants Malaysia. The email was written by a malicious person with a malicious intent.
Pizza Hut is a public listed company under QSR Brands Berhad and we abide by all the laws of this country. It is mandatory by law to charge 5% goverment tax while the 10% service charge is for table service in the retail hospitality industry.
It is true that we conducted a 3 months internal research about 3 years ago when we change our Pizza Hut Brand Identity look from a Fast Food Concept to a more Casual Dining Concept (with dimmer lights, wamer ambient colours, better cozier ambience, different menu items etc). We spent many million of Ringgit to steer Pizza Hut away from Fast Food Concept. This was the Brand direction we took then.
The idea of the internal research is just to see how different people of different ethnic groups react to our menus.
The research was only for 3 months and I have to say on hindsight that it was not well conceived. However, some irresponsible people has turned it into a hate campaign against Pizza Hut! How unfortunate.
I have attached a company statement to confirm what I write.
If you want to read more about how this email was further propagated, you can also access a blog that started this and I have also posted my reply on his website: www.harisibrahim.wordpress.com
We live in a wonderful country. We must do our part not to ignorantly inflame further the fragile racial harmony in our nation. It is already very fragile, we must try to protect whatever harmony that is still left.
I would greatly appreciate if you could help stop this hatred email by forwarding my reply to all your friends.
So please be rest assured, there is no truth in the malicious email and you are invited to go to any Pizza Hut Restaurants Malaysia nearest to you and check it out. You may contact me at the email address or mobile number below if you want to confirm this statement of mine.
Thank you very much for your help.
Cheers and God Bless
Lawrence Ding Hwa Ming
Senior General Manager
Pizza Hut Restaurants Sdn Bhd
Mobile: 019 329 8687
Office: 03 2026 3388 ext 623
Direct: 03 2732 8383email address: lawrence.ding@qsrbrands.com.my
Well Mr Lawrence, I hope this blog post may help spread the truth about all the lies that has been spreading about that survey.
Ad: Now everyone’s happy why don’t you get yourself some nice Hella truck accessories?
I get my fuel from my music. Help me replace my guitar strings. Click the guitar.Popularity: 9% [?]
Enjoyed this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed!
You actually emailed them? Heehee. I wanted to email KFC before about their pretty sucky service.. but was too lazy to write one. Maybe you can write for me? People seem to reply your emails most of the time…
I got this spam email too. I mean about selecting races. Pretty interesting. Nice of Mr. Lawrence to reply back.
But it seems so real, that the rumours was long ago.
Then Pizza start to concern when other new stuff coming up, such as KennyG(roger i mean), KFC & Pizza same roof(no need compete liao), Svensson, Fish & Co, (Rival Secret Recipe), Burger King, MacDonald, (SugarBun died), what else..hehe
Cindy- Well, I need to seek the truth. Why don’t you just write to them. It’s your right. Btw they are under the same company ya, Pizza Hut and KFC..
PaPa- Yep. At least we know the bottom line instead of talking in the kedai kopi.
DKeaton- Not sure what you mean by “Pizza start to concern” but yeah. Competition is high in this industry. You have to adopt and make changes in order to sustain. Or else jadi macam other companies that did not do enough market study.
One thing I want to feedback to pizza hut if they are reading this. Please can you not make your base sauce to be spicy. My children cannot take it!