Anyone who has worked in the service industry will tell you that handling customer complaints comes with the territory. Now, more than ever before, online reviews are the lifeblood of the food industry. One bad remark can quite literally mean the difference between life and death.
But when a rude and unreasonable customer recently tried to gaslight the Sticky Walnut bistro by giving them a two-star review — the owner decided to respond back with a rather sharp and scathing explanation of his own.
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Recently, a patron of the Sticky Walnut bistro in Hoole, UK decided to leave a rather unflattering review of the restaurant on TripAdvisor.
The user, who goes by the name Rob V., began his review by explaining that “The good news is that the food here is very, very tasty and deserves a high rating.” However, they quickly followed up that statement by comparing the customer service experience to RyanAir.
If you’ve never flown within Europe before, RyanAir is an economy airline known for its cheap flights and absolutely abysmal customer service.
Rob accused the management of not caring about the customer experience.
“A restaurant that aspires to offer fine dining experience but has lost the ability to empathise[sic] with customers and ignores them when they complain? That really is a shame,” Rob said in his review.
After the dust settled, Rob’s complaint was brought to the attention of the Sticky Walnut’s owner — Gary. Wanting to set the record straight, Gary decided to answer Rob’s scathing review with one of his own.
“For goodness sake Robert,” Gary began. “I’m supposed to be in TwitAdvisor retirement so let’s not waste any time.”
Gary explained how Rob reserved a table and had agreed to a time slot of 1 hour and 45 minutes — a common practice on busy nights and during COVID times.
“After your dessert course the Manager, who you said “doesn’t give a toss”, gently reminded you that we would need the table back shortly,” Gary recalled. “You ignored the Manager and proceeded to order another round of drinks.”
To make a bad situation worse, Gary claims that Rob and his party didn’t even show up on time.
Gary continued on, saying that “When the Manager came back a final time to politely let you know we needed to clear the table for our next guests you got up out of your seat, towering over the Manager, pointing in their face.”
The manager stayed calm and politely asked Rob to please stop waving his finger in their face. Rob responded with a verbal assault on the staff, and claimed that the manager wasn’t fit for the role.
“Your Mother then joined in by adding to the vitriol being directed towards the Manager,” Gary continued on.
At this point that, according to Gary, Rob and his mother began relaying their own experience working in the service industry to the manager and staff. “We should be getting these drinks for free ,” Rob rudely asserted.
After all that was said and done, Rob then threatened the manager by saying that he (Rob) would be contacting his friend the owner (Gary) in order to complain personally.
“Not surprisingly, to either me or the Manager, you and I don’t know each other Rob,” Gary wrote back.
Gary then went on to talk about how at least once a month, some rude customer comes in off the street claiming to “know the owner” in order to get special treatment. It’s an intimidation tactic and it isn’t taken lightly.
“I did read your email. I did “give a toss”, but not about you Rob, but about the way you treated the team ,” Gary shot back.
Gary concludes by explaining how instead of replying back directly, the restaurant chose to block Rob’s number and ban him.
Oh, and one more thing — “With regards to the Manager who “doesn’t give a toss” they have managed Sticky Walnut for the last 8 years,” Gary explained.” Coincidentally, every year since they were hired, Sticky Walnut has been a Top 100 UK restaurant eight years in a row.
So the next time you find yourself feeling full of piss and vinegar, do yourself a favor and count to 10. Who knows, it just might save you from getting banned in perpetuity from your favorite restaurant.
