Pub owner’s brutal response to ‘entitled toddler’ customer who complained after ‘spending £700’

One pub customer, after attending The Cowshed at Hucknall, took to Facebook to leave a scathing review of the restaurant and its staff, only they weren’t ready for the owner’s response. 

The woman, known as Jo, ‘checked in’ to the restaurant on Facebook to give a long complaint about the service she and her family received while celebrating her sister-in-law’s 50th birthday.

But the owner’s reply to the review provided an eye-opening insight in to what might have actually happened that night, including the party being sick and not abiding by social distancing rules. 

Jo’s review began: “Went here yesterday for sister in laws 50th lovely little bar – spent approx £700 between us on drinks and pizza – to be served by some members of staff with awful attitude – to be told we must drink up and leave can’t come back because one member of our party was too drunk.” 

The woman continued: “To be them apologised to because someone had told them we were all too drunk – take in to account the money we had spent – to be them told half an hour later the owners wanted us out as we had stood up – bearing in mind we were stood up next to our table away from anyone else…

“…and that we were barred – didn’t mind taking the £700 though I have never been spoken to in such a way / maybe they should open reviews and yes our family member was sick and YES WE CLEANED IT UP – so no members if staff were affected by this…

“…maybe a course for your staff in customer service wouldn’t go amiss – rude staff huffing and puffing because they had a large round to bring out !!! [sic]”

It’s quite the review and anyone who has ever worked in customer service has probably dreaded the moment they would get one like this. Any small business owner knows the damage such a review can do. 

With that in mind, the owners and team behind The Cowshed did not hold back in their response. 

They quickly put to bed the accusation of ‘spending £700’, by explaining to reach that amount the family would have to order 77 of the most expensive pizzas on the menu or 115 double gin and mixers. 

The response said: “So let’s split the difference, seeing as you had spend the ‘£700’ on both pizzas and drinks.. you and your party would have to have ordered 39 of our most expensive pizzas and 57 of our most expensive drinks to have spent £700 at our bar. You ordered no where near this, Jo… not even close.”

If that wasn’t bad enough, the owners literally pulled out the receipts to prove it. 

Adding: “So seeing as you are having trouble with your memory & maths, I went over our point of sale system this afternoon for you, along with viewing our footage of your party on CCTV and our copy of your receipts. What you & your party spent, Jo was a far more realistic and believable £280 (£225 on 5 rounds of drinks and £55 on 8 pizzas).

“If you are going to lie, embellish or try to fabricate a ridiculous narrative about your time at our bar… at least make it a believable one.”

The Cowshed, which has a five star rating on TripAdvisor, also had something to say about the claims their staff needed a ‘course in customer service’, and instead took to holding Jo and her party accountable for their behaviour towards staff and fellow diners. 

The pub said: “With the ironic exception of the young adults that were in your group and one or two others, you all acted like belligerent, entitled little toddlers from the moment you walked through our gates.

“We allowed members of your party to bring in food from other venues to circumvent their food allergies. We cleaned up all the smashed pint glasses you broke and birthday cake you dropped and smeared all over our tables & benches, and tolerated the many loud family rows you were having with each other.

“Rather than treat our staff like human beings that are just trying to earn a wage, you decided to treat them like your own personal servants, clicking your fingers, shouting, swearing and barking your orders at them, to the point one was almost in tears and refused to deal with you any more.

“You were the loudest, most obnoxious group in the whole bar, just being a nuisance in general and other customers were starting to complain about you at this point. Then, for your party’s grand finale, the gentleman in the blue shirt headed into our bar from outside and decided to vomit everywhere but the toilet.

“Our staff stepped into to help, but you demanded to ‘deal with the situation’ and rather than clean up the mess, proceeded to smear it over an even wider area with our mop, whilst… once again, being loud, rude, sticking your hand in our staff’s faces and shouting over anybody who was trying to communicate with you or help.”

The restaurant went onto explain why they have reviews turned off on social media – as it only gives one side of the story. 

They also added that Jo wasn’t barred on the evening, despite ‘clicking fingers, shouting, swearing and barking orders at the staff’, which lead one member of the team to tears. 

They explained: “We don’t bar paying customers on a whim. You could have come back, apologised, been given the ‘don’t let it happen again’ speech we’ve all had at one point or another and we’d have all moved on, but no… instead you ran straight to the internet, played victim, and told a pack of lies.”

But it was bad news for Jo in the end anyway as the owners added: “So now consider this your official barring… don’t you or your group ever set foot through our doors again.” 

The team ended the post with a statement that said the team ‘won’t be making any more comments or responding on this thread’, and that as far as they were concerned ‘the matter is now over’. 

The response, littered with sarcasm, has racked up a few supporters with one person saying: “Congratulations Cowshed, you have won the internet today!”.

Another added: “Coming from a hospitality background having worked in many pubs and restaurants reviews like this can be so damaging and most of time (no one is perfect) extremely untrue and made up! When people read reviews like this they believe that the customer is right.”

A Facebook user added: “Read the review online & omg you nailed it, no establishment should have to deal with selfish morans [sic] like that…my guess is it’s going to give you more publicity. Well done guys”