Ceynor is a seafood restaurant near Fort which is actually supposed to be OK. However, they’re severely damaged their reputation by trying to cheat HSBC customers – offering them a public discount and then giving them another menu with higher prices, thus negating the discount. It’s so stupid that it almost boggles the mind. In another country that might be serious damage to a business, but I oddly feel inclined to go try them now. I do hear that the food is ok.
As you can see from the menu above, their plan was to ask customers how they planned to pay (cash or card) and then give them a different menu. The HSBC discount was 20% and the doctored menus had prices around 50% higher, so they would have made a tidy profit, if not for those pesky kids. AKA, people who came to the restaurant and had cameras and email, thus spreading the foolish story everywhere, getting it back to HSBC and eventually shutting the whole promotion down.
You really can’t pull scams so patently dumb anymore, if you ever could in a small country like Sri Lanka. Huge pyramid schemes like Golden Key or Sakvithi or, say, the current stock market mafia, yes, but these Ceynor guys were really thinking too small.
RT @indica: New blog post: A Tale Of Two Menus (The Ceynor Scam) http://t.co/4nn69TY3
RT @indica: New blog post: A Tale Of Two Menus (The Ceynor Scam) http://t.co/4nn69TY3
This is a govt owned operation. Management may have been outsourced, but CeyNor is officially part of the Ministry of Fisheries.
Typical bloody govt org.
Somehow this seems in character with so much that is going on in SL right now – here we are, with such a beautiful country, some of the friendliest people in the world and such short term stupidity of this kind!
That strategy spells desperation, as well as stupidity, which probably means that they are short of patrons.
In turn, this probably means that there is something wrong with the place: atmosphere, service or food. I would stay far away. A dodgy seafood restaurant by a polluted lake? I would not take a chance.
Lol!
I actually liked this restaurant. Unfortunately I just cannot get myself to go there again after this. If they can resort to this level of scams, what is the guarantee that they serve what the menu says they will serve?
Check this article in Lankaweb. It describes the experience of someone who faced the scam. http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2012/12/08/the-scam-at-ceynor-seafood-restaurant-hsbc-credit-cards/
Like the private sector is any better. This is actually “typical” South Asian mentality. This is our so-called culture. Disgusting….