This just in from the tourism awardsSpringfield Store and Cafe: Come for the award-winning pies, stay for the abuseBlair Ensor·08:17, June 30th, 2019A rural Canterbury cafe has attracted dozens of terrible reviews and a visit from police offering customer service advice. Its owner has been described as the rudest woman in New Zealand. BLAIR ENSOR reports.Springfield, about 65 kilometres west of Christchurch, is the last petrol stop on State Highway 73 before the road snakes through the Southern Alps via Arthur's Pass to the West Coast.
The rural town, which has about 500 residents, is best known for its large pink doughnut sculpture, a nod to cartoon character Homer Simpson who lives in a town of the same name and loves doughnuts.
In more recent times, conversations about the town have turned to the Springfield Store and Cafe – dubbed the "F… Off Shop" - which has attracted some of the worst feedback of any cafe in New Zealand.
STUFFKaryn Cullingford and her husband Donald own the Springfield Cafe and Store. She's been called the "Wicked Witch of Springfield" by a reviewer.
Since February 2014, the cafe has been the subject of 101 reviews on TripAdvisor, including 71 "terrible" ratings, the most recent of which was posted in the past fortnight.
Customers have likened it to Fawlty Towers, a British sitcom about a badly run hotel, and say the owners are grumpy, rude, abusive and a disgrace to hospitality.
There are mixed reviews about the cafe's food and coffee. It's twice won national awards for its pies. A flat white will cost you $5.30.
"The best part of this place was the salt on the average chips. Worst service I've ever experienced and the … rudest," a February review says.
"Horrible customer service. I don't like saying anything bad about a place, but I couldn't help myself here. Rude. Unfriendly. The food isn't even good. Do yourself a favour and keep driving," another review posted a fortnight later says.
Among the three five star reviews the cafe has received is one from a customer last August who says the food is good but "we generally stop purely for the entertainment". "The lady is so grumpy . . . but she can cook. We recommend stopping by. If you're feeling brave, make a complaint."
Police say they have received complaints from people who've visited the cafe. They've spoken to the owners and provided "customer service advice".
Stuff has been told of people being chased from the cafe by the owners. Others have left in tears.
Some Springfield locals boycott the cafe, which they believe has tarnished the town's reputation.
"It's an embarrassment to our community," resident Graeme Dawson told Stuff. "I want them gone – the whole town wants them gone."
STUFFSpringfield, about 65km west of Christchurch, is known for its pink doughnut, a nod to cartoon character Homer Simpson who loves doughnuts and lives in a town of the same name.
'AN UTTER DISGRACE'Chloe Tipple and several friends visited the Springfield Store and Cafe in early January and watched as a woman was abused by a staff member and left in tears.
The woman, an Australian tourist, was with her partner eating lunch at the cafe and politely asked the barista when their coffees would be ready.
After some confusion about the sort of coffee the woman had ordered, the man "proceeded to humiliate her", Tipple says. He yelled that he'd give her money back, then got inches from her face and insulted her, telling her she was rude.
The woman "burst into tears" and left with her partner without finishing their food.
STUFFThe Springfield Store and Cafe has been a mainstay of the Springfield community for more than 50 years.
Tipple, from Christchurch, had never visited the cafe and was unaware of its reputation.
"It was like he [the staff member] flicked a switch. I think he was probably under pressure but even if you're busy you don't snap at a customer like that."
Appalled at what she'd seen, Tipple felt compelled to write a review on TripAdvisor. She was amazed to find dozens of posts from people who'd also had terrible experiences.
"How embarrassing for us as a nation to have a cafe renowned for bad customer service. What an utter disgrace."
Locals in the town are reluctant to talk publicly about the cafe, but say there have been several incidents where customers have left in tears. The busier the cafe is, the angrier the couple who own it seems to get.
STUFFSpringfield, population about 500, is a tight knit community, home to three cafes and service station.
Dawson, who's chairman of the Springfield township committee, says the cafe is run by a "bunch of lunatics who hate serving people".
"You don't have to talk to too many people before you come across somebody who's had a bad experience there."
Springfield is a "natural stopping place" for people heading east or west on State Highway 73 and the cafe "does nothing for this township's reputation", he says.
"It's become known for the F… Off Shop because that's what you get told [when you go there]. If you stop there you won't be treated like a human - you're more than likely to get abused."
Dawson, who's lived in the town since 1997, says many in the "tight knit" community want the cafe shut down, but they're powerless to do anything other than pull their support.
The Springfield Store and Cafe has been a mainstay of the Springfield community for more than 50 years. It's one of three cafes in the town. The next place you can get coffee en route to the West Coast is Arthur's Pass, an hour's drive away.
STUFFSpringfield farmer Graeme Dawson believes the cafe has tarnished the town's reputation and he wants the owners gone.
Former Selwyn mayor Bill Woods bought the business and the building that houses it in 1983.
He and his wife ran the store and cafe for several years before selling up and leasing the building to the new owner.
The business has passed through several hands since then. Karyn and Donald Cullingford, the current owners, took on the lease nearly a decade ago several years after they moved south from Auckland.
Woods says he and his wife find it "a little disturbing that they [the Cullingfords] are not treating their customers the way we did".
"There's nothing I can do because they comply with the lease. Of course we don't have it in the lease that they have to be nice to their customers because that's a given. People won't come back if you're not nice to them."
He acknowledges that he could choose not to renew their lease, but says that's not an option.
"The present lessees invested a lot of money in buying the business off the previous owner. If I was not to renew the lease that would mean that I would ruin their investment. Bill Woods doesn't do that sort of thing, he wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
"The best way to help the community if they don't like the business and the people themselves is to give [the Cullingfords] a lease with a reasonable period so they can sell the business and recoup their investment, and that's what I've done."
STUFFFormer Selwyn mayor Bill Woods owns the building that houses the Springfield Store and Cafe. He says he wouldn't be able to sleep at night if he didn't renew the lease.
NEW ZEALAND'S NASTIEST WOMAN?Karyn Cullingford was the only person working at the Springfield Store and Cafe when Stuff visited earlier this month. Her husband was at home.
If you read the reviews, Cullingford is apparently the "rudest woman in New Zealand", known for being blunt, unfriendly, and seemingly disinterested in her job.
"Avoid this place," a post on TripAdvisor in September last year says. "The lady behind the counter had zero manners and zero respect for her paying customers."
Stuff sat and ate lunch at the cafe - an overcooked steak pie and a lacklustre flat white – before approaching Cullingford for comment.
During that time, there was nothing about the way she acted to suggest she was the "Wicked Witch of Springfield", as one reviewer wrote in 2017. She was pleasant to the handful of customers who came into the store, and even managed a couple of jokes.
In between serving people and making coffees, Cullingford tells Stuff that she refuses to read the online reviews about the cafe, most of which are written by "keyboard warriors". The 60-year-old laughs when she's told some of the words used to describe her.
"A lot of people that read [the reviews] come in here to get bitten. Do I seem like New Zealand's nastiest woman?"
Cullingford, who placed fifth and second respectively in the cafe boutique section of the 2012 and 2013 Bakels New Zealand Supreme Pie Awards, acknowledges that on occasion, particularly when she's worked a lengthy stretch without a day off, she can be "a tad grumpy".
"I know I make damn good food and ... when people diss my food I do get a bit upset."
She doesn't buy into the idea that the customer is always right. In short, they're not, and people's expectations when it comes to the service they receive from cafe staff are too high.
"People should come for the food, not my wonderful personality," Cullingford says.
Those who leave their manners at the door are a particular bugbear.
"As far as I'm concerned, we don't have a class system in this country. You're just as worthy as I am regardless of your creed, your colour, your religion or your age. Everybody deserves some form of manners.
"If you come in here and treat me like a bit of s..., you're going to get it back."
Cullingford says she's been called some "really nasty names by people on the other side of the counter".
Over the years, she's been threatened with knives, and rape, and "I've had customers hold me over the counter and hit me in the face".
Cullingford says that she has a habit of talking to herself, so she doesn't forget what she's doing. On occasion that's got her in trouble. She recalls an incident where she was muttering caramel milkshake repeatedly and a customer said to her "are you calling me a b....?". That resulted in a negative review, she says.
STUFFDonald Cullingford and his wife Karyn have owned the Springfield Store and Cafe for nearly a decade.
Cullingford and her husband have seen a lawyer about the online reviews, which she believes have deterred some people from visiting the cafe. She also acknowledges that people stop by to see what all the fuss is about.
"If I'm prepared to go further with it she [the lawyer] is sitting there waiting … but I don't want the stress. A lot of it I've brought on myself – I'll totally say that, hands up."
Cullingford says she and her husband shifted to Canterbury for a change of scenery and a better lifestyle.
"We didn't think we were moving to a different country."
Telling people they were from Auckland was the "biggest mistake of our lives".
Cantabrians are "nasty", she says. "I get people who come in here and say 'don't give me any of that f...ing Auckland coffee'. Do you not understand how people [in Canterbury] hate Aucklanders? Man, it just blows me away."
Cullingford says that when she and her husband first bought the business locals came to them wanting discounts and favours.
"We had no loyalties to anyone in this town. I said 'no, I'm not here to make friends – I'm here to make money'."
Locals say the couple didn't involve themselves in community activities and became isolated.
"People in this town don't like me and I acknowledge that," Cullingford says.
There's some good news for those who want the Springfield Store and Cafe shut down. It's on the market and people – "the type … who don't care about reviews" – have shown an interest in buying it, she says.
Stuffhttps://www.stuff.co.nz/business/113722 ... -the-abuse 
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