Being rather peckish one Saturday very recently, I rolled up for an early lunch and ordered the haddock & chips a dish which ought to take a real expert to make a mess of. Excuse me a dish, of which to make a mess, would take a real expert. The fish was actually rubbery at one end. Bleaugh.
However, I was hungry and so ate the more palatable parts, then when the landlady came to clear away, made my representations. She poked at the rubber with the fork and, all smiles, said it was the first complaint they'd had about their fish NOT what you should say to a customer with a legitimate complaint it's tantamount to saying well, no-one else has complained, which is in itself an utterly meaningless response. It dismisses the complainant, reduces their complaint to insignificance.
So rubbery fish, no sympathetic hearing, no offer of even the slightest refund.
Another customer had ordered fish, and when she left I followed her out, and asked her how her fish had been. I didn't finish it, she said, and pulled a face. It had been hot enough at one end, but cold at the other. She had been of two minds where to lunch that day, at the Black Lion or at a pub in Braithwell. She'd be going to Braithwell in future, she said.
So two fish meals, twenty quid plus drinks into the till, and two customers who will never eat there again. read more