About 2 months ago, i went to a restaurant where I encountered a very painful and distressful…read moreexperience where I felt bullied.
They took my phone to "repair" but until now, countless tries of contact them and i still haven't gotten my phone back.
This is what happened.
I was at Cookhouse Joe, SOHO brunch, on Monday (28 July) for dinner with my friend. It all went well until a waitress dropped a knife on my mobile phone and leg. The screen on my mobile phone cracked as a result the phone is not usable anymore, but fortunately for me, my leg was alright.
The waitress immediately apologised and said that she will pay for the damages. I'm using a mobile phone that do not have an office in London and therefore no service centre.
But after that, the manager told us that the restaurant will be responsible, however they could not offer any form of compensation as it was too late at night (9.05pm) because they could not get in touch with the boss. We then told the manager that the waitress offered to pay and there was no need to contact the boss. When we spoke to the waitress again, she said she will only pay for repairs but as I was using a Xiaomi phone, I told her that they didn't have a service centre in London and I need a phone as I didn't want to be uncontactable. She then asked us to give her a minute.
We told them that I need a phone immediately or at least the next day as I am here alone and my family contacts me everyday to make sure I'm okay. So we suggested that they got me a spare phone or a new phone.
Next thing we knew the manager came to us and shouted that "I already told you to come back tomorrow, and now you are making my waitress cry" and started chasing us out of the restaurant.
While chasing us out, he sure didn't forget about the bill and demanded that we pay for the dinner before we leave.
We called in the police but they mentioned that as this is a civil dispute, they could not get involved. We also contacted the embassy for advice but they referred us to the police, so we are back at square one.
We went back the next day to get things settled during the time stated by the manager, as he said the boss will be around during that time. When we were there, all he told us was "the boss doesn't sit around" waiting for us to come.
He also started calling us names like stupid and said that we were trying to blackmail / threaten them. I have never felt more threatened by a person! Not only was my phone damaged and unusable, my friend and I were bullied and insulted.
I have a recording of him calling my friends and I stupid, at least twice because my friends posted a bad review online.
He said that, "We can't be going into a restaurant and just expect cash like that."
He also chased me out and said that I was trespassing his restaurant and that I wasn't to step foot in the restaurant ever again. He took my mobile phone and mentioned that because we didn't pay for our bill of 30GBP, they can only try to repair my 150GBP phone and won't guarantee until we paid. The whole experience has been seriously distressing and traumatising.