The spirit group!!

fridgehead

What an awful company. So we had a wake recently at one of their pubs, paid for a buffet for 60 people in a function room at £7.89 a head, to start from 3.30-4. what we got was far below expectations. we turned up at 3.45, and were told that the food was not ready yet, so we smiled, and asked if we could go into the function room then to take off our coats and sit down from the walk there from the cremetorium. we were told no, we were to sit in the public area of the pub and get drinks there. one of our party wanted a cup of tea, and so ordered this and paid for this, even though free tea and coffee was part of the buffet and did not get their drink until almost 45mins after they ordered it, and then only when she had gone back up to the bar to enquire about it, the manager then huffed and told her to sit back down and to be shut up. when we finaly got our food, it was very poor and it was also quite obviously from the frozen buffet section of iceland, we know this because some of the food was still frozen. not only this, but there was hardly enough food for 20 people, let alone the 60 people we had booked for. after selling us three rounds of drinks, the manager came out and ordered that everyone show him ID. this was completely unfounded, there were only 2 people who were under the age of 21 (both aged 19 at the time) and neither of them had been drinking alcohol. i understand the 'if you look under the age of 21 you will be asked for ID' rule, but this was a private function, you wouldnt ask ID for a 10 year old who had come to the funeral with their parents, so why ask it of them. this was a clear attempt by the manager to stamp his authority on the place, and was completely unfounded and irrespectful of the situation. then during the wake, the manager demanded to speak to mr ........ even though it was mrs.... who had booked the wake, and was the widow of the man whom the manager had asked for. not only this, but he came to the figure of £556! this for extremely poor service, disrespectful remarks and a small amount of still frozen food. the bill was settled, with some reservations, even though a member of staff had kindly apologised for the quality of the food and said that she would arrange a discount for us. furthermore, when a member of our group had quietly sat grieving all afternoon got up to go to the toilet, the manager laughed and made an incredibly disrespectful remark towards her.
we wrote off to complain, getting a letter back saying briefly that it was being sorted. not being satisfied with this, we wrote off again, this time getting a letter back saying that they dont see what the problem is or was and that we should basically stop wasting their time.

sorry for this long story, but we were very angry about this and would like some advise as to how we should proceed.

Thanks in advance
Fridgehead

hollydays

Sorry you feel upset,at what is already a sad time.x
Did you get a written quote for the food etc?
Why did the Manager "demand" to speak to a named person,what was the issue there?
The main issue that could clearly be identified was your feeling there was not enough food. Could you clarify with them how much food per person they were planning to provide.
Edit-in view of the reviews in post number 9, I think posting here is the best thing you can do.,I think we will all be avoiding the Chiltern Hundreds in Maidstone.

chuckles1066

World's longest paragraph. Ever.

hollydays

chuckles1066 wrote: »

World's longest paragraph. Ever.

Worlds most useless contribution,ever.

shellsuit

£556?!

You could have all had a hot meal at a around a fiver a pop for around £300!

The way you were treated was shocking. Alarm bells would have rang for me when you were told you couldn't go to the function room!

Even if the food wasn't ready (defrosted!), they could have let you use the function room that you had booked ~ that is BAD customer service.

I don't understand why the manager would ask for ID, if the younger members of your group weren't even drinking alcohol.

Name and shame the branch!

fridgehead

Hi thanks for the replys, sorry about the long para was very lazy when typing it.
Yeah it was my mum who sorted out as the pub we wanted to go to was fully booked so we decided to try that place out, there was no written quote as it was over the phone, he claimed it was there standard price and at the time we just agreed. The place was the Chiltern hundards in maidstone.
The manager had no social skills, Well if there was 60 people turned up there was no where enough food for everyone. Even the bar staff told us that he regularly gets threatened by customers for being rude, the barmaid offered us a discount but then the manager came along and told her not to think his name was barry as well.
Does anyone know what we can do, im not too worried about the money i just would like to see the manager lose his job realy just for making a bad day worse.

Cheers

maninthestreet

"Why did the Manager "demand" to speak to a named person,what was the issue there?"

I think you'll find the person the manager had asked for may well have been the deceased.

hollydays

According to google Publican is Aaron Abbott-Johnson.(?) Chef and Brewer

maninthestreet

If it is the pub referred to above, it seems like the manager/landlord has a reputation:

http://www.bestpubs.co.uk/layout0.asp?pub=106534

gunsandbanjos

Wow, he sounds delightful from those reviews:eek: I've worked in restaurants for coming up 8 yrs, and there is NO excuse for treating customers like that!
Hope the OP gets this issue resolved;)

fridgehead

when the manager wanted the bill settled he came over and asked for the deceased man, dont know why, as it was his wife that called up and sorted everything out and no one had ever given the impression that it was a man paying for it. maybe he just assumes that women shouldnt worry their pretty little heads with something important like money. even so, it just upset people by his lack of forethought.

the real issue here is that there was extremely poor customer service and that the management within the company are not paying attension to our complaints.