A London pub manager has called out a furious customer’s ‘misleading and negative review’ on Facebook after they complained about their ‘nonchalant’ attitude.
Posting on the group East Dulwich Forum, the customer in question, called out the Watson General Telegraph in East Dulwich for running out Sunday roasts on February 12th after their daughter had booked a table.
However, the ‘disappointed’ manager responded by claiming there were ‘several details missing from the original post’, saying she’d phoned multiple times to warn the customers who made a same-day booking for 5pm.
The customer wrote of their fury when the arrived at the London pub only to be denied a roast dinner, calling the manager’s attitude ‘just so renk’ – a slang word for horrible.
An angry customer of the Watson’s General Telegraph has left a furious review on Facebook’s East Dulwich forum for not having any Sunday roasts left when they arrived for their booking
They said: ‘My little daughter booked us a table at Watson’s Telegraph Forest Hill for 5pm yesterday and specifically booked the Sunday Roast.
‘Arrived for the manager to nonchalantly inform us that they had sold all the roasts and had none left, even though we had booked and reserved.
‘She couldn’t have cared less.’
The customer continued: ‘We left in search of a roast and were kindly welcomed by The Cherry Tree Ed and had a lovely one there.
Posting on the group East Dulwich Forum, a customer, called out the Watson General Telegraph in East Dulwich for running out Sunday roasts after they had booked a table
The pub manager, in question, responded to the customers comment claiming that they had missed out important details
‘Next time we’ll stick to either there or The Signal FH, always lovely staff and a great service.
They ended their complaint with: ‘Not one for for naming and shaming usually but the attitude was just so renk — feeling angry at Watson’s General Telegraph.’
The manager of the pub, which has a four star rating on Facebook, responded to the negative comment.
Replying to the apparent angry customer they said: ‘Really disappointed to read such as misleading and negative review of the Watsons General Telegraph.
‘As the “manager” in question I had actually tried to ring the customer had booked a roast for 5pm a couple hours after they had made the booking (11am on the day!) to inform them that we were running low on Roasts and discuss options e.g. moving the booking forward, preordering or cancelling the booking.’
The manager explained how they had tried calling the said customer multiple times during the day and left them a voicemail to inform them of the situation.
They continued: ‘I couldn’t get through and then left a voicemail explaining the situation, bare [sic.] in mind this was still hours before the scheduled booking was due to take place.
‘It is regrettable that the customer perhaps hadn’t seen the missed call from us or had a chance to listen to the voicemail we left and we completely understand how disappointing it must have been to arrive and hear that we had no Roasts left and for that I do apologise but I would just like to stress again that we did try and contact the booking prior!’
Ending their response, the manager noted their regret at the disappointing experience but reinforced that important details in the story had been omitted.
‘As important as I feel it is for people to be able to freely share their experiences it makes me sad to see post that so blatantly conceals/twists certain truths of a situation.
‘We would advise anyone wanting to come and try our delicious Sunday roast to book for as early in the day as possible and going forward we will be taking walk-ins only for roasts after 3pm.’
Many followers of the Watsons General Telegraph and East Dulwich Forum wanted to share their opinions.
And while a lot of people, who have previously worked in hospitality, sympathised with the manager there were equally as many to say that the customer was correct in her view to expect a roast dinner after booking a table for one.
Many followers of the Watsons General Telegraph and East Dulwich Forum wanted to share their opinions, with a lot of people, who have previously worked in hospitality, sympathising with the situation
One person commented: ‘Instead of the army, I would make it obligatory for everyone to spend at least 1 year working in hospitality… So that people would learn to be considerate, kind and respectful towards one another even when it’s hard….’
While another was of the opinion: ‘The fault lays with the manager.’
This was reiterated by someone else who posted: ‘Not really sure why you are ‘disappointed’. The customer was right to post her experience on here. If a customer booked a table in ADVANCE for a roast and the booking was accepted then I would of course expect my roast. I mean isn’t rocket science. Maybe the lesson here is to be a little bit more prepped for the day.’
Yet a fourth replied: ‘Reasonable and measured response from the restaurant. They tried their best to mitigate the problem and have learnt and taken measures to ensure this doesn’t happen again.’
And a fifth commented: ‘People really don’t know how food businesses are run. When you book a table you don’t book the food. And standards of food have to be kept, one can’t just pop into Tesco’s for extra supplies. Most people expect roasts to run out on Sunday especially if they book on the day. In future don’t take on the day bookings for roast…’
Responding to comments the manager eventually turned off comments for their post and thanked people for their support.
Responding to comments the manager eventually turned off comments for their post and thanked people for their support
They said: ‘I’m going to turn the comments off to this post.
‘I would like to thank everyone for their support etc but I honestly really didn’t foresee the comments section becoming such a battle field!
‘I only shared the original post as I was unable to comment on it and I could see the attraction it had gained despite being, what I felt was an inaccurate reflection of what had happened.’
They went on to sympathise with the customer but ultimately held their ground over their version of events.
The continued: ‘I completely understand the disappointment and unhappiness over the situation, however my main issue lay in the fact that there were several details missing from the original post which in turn painted a picture of a different scenario to the one that had actually played out!
‘In this current climate, times are tough for a lot of people as well as a lot of businesses(particularly those in the hospitality industry). I would just please urge people to think twice about posting an inaccurate review/post as this can have an unfairly damaging affect on businesses.’