I've been a local regular to this pub for a number of years. The ownership has recently changed and since the food is still very good I feel sad that I no longer feel welcome.
I have just experienced the worst possible customer service and I am still in shock at how I have been treated.
I arrived a few minutes before 12, another local regular was before me and opened the door. A member of staff came to the door and told us that since it was 11:55 we had to wait outside until they open.
Both myself and the person in front of me have walking aids and clearly have disabilities. When they let us inside I explained that I was not happy that they had made two people with disabilities wait standing outside, as it is painful to stand and I felt they could have let us come in and sit down on the chairs by the door until they were ready for service (i.e. the pubs inside waiting area).
The lady apologised and said she would take this on board. I excepted her apology but asked if I could talk to the manager. I wanted to talk to the manager as I felt it was important for the establishment to understand the need to make adaptations for disabled people and so wanted an assurance from management that they would let people with disabilities sit in the waiting area. She showed me the manager and I approached him and explained that the people told to wait had disabilities and that they should have let us sit down by the door to wait.
The manger completely blanked me, he completely ignored me as I was talking to him, he did not say a word and acted like I was invisible. The poor waitress had to come over and tell me that she would pass on the message to the owner and sat us down at our table. I could not believe how badly I had been treated by the manager.
When the manger came over to take payment from me I told him that I was unhappy with the way he had treated me, that he should not have ignored me and should have responded to me when I spoke to him. He rolled his eyes at me then smirked at me and said "what are you talking about you never came over to talk to me" and walked off.
The owner then came out and apologised and offered us a free meal next time we visit, but I did not complain in order to get free food so I explained that the behaviour of the manager was not acceptable and therefore it should be the manager that apologises to me.
He eventually came over to me, rolled his eyes, smirked at me and in a very unprofessional and antagonistic tone said "sorry but I did not have to deal with you because the woman at the desk was dealing with you". He stated arguing with me, at which point I decided to leave as I did not want an argument. There was no professionalism and his conduct fell very short from what is expected in hospitality.
The reason for me wanting to talk to the manger was not to get the waitress into trouble, I just wanted the mangers to understand the impact of not allowing people with disabilities to sit down whilst waiting a few minutes for service to start, as something like that has a big impact on disabled people and the previous owners always used to let us wait inside.
Incidentally the manger put a bottle of wine and two beers that I had not ordered on my bill a few weeks ago and he did not apologise for that at the time either, he just walked away without talking to me and got others to deal with it.
Treating customers like this is not acceptable, I was not difficult or rude to anyone, I was polite and well mannered, did not raise my voice and was raising a legitimate concern. I payed my bill in full, I was not trying to get money off or a free meal, first I just wanted the establishment to have more disability awareness and then after the conduct of the manager I wanted an apology for the shocking way he treated me.
Although the food is good, it's not acceptable to be treated this way, I felt that his behaviour towards me was aggressive and unprofessional, I'm still in shock that this has happened read more
