Asshole Customer Gets Yelped Back

Online review platforms are treacherous terrain for business owners, opening up their reputations to the whims of the public.  And while restaurant owners must concede that it’s impossible to keep every customer and staff member happy, some refuse to take unjust criticism lying down.

The Sticky Walnut, an eatery in northwest England (south of Liverpool) has racked up more than 1,990 reviews and earned itself an average rating of 4.5 out of five stars.  But something happened when Gary Usher, who runs the Sticky Walnut spotted a two-star review of his high-end restaurant on Tripadvisor. 

A reviewer named Rob V, titled his post "Excellent food let down by Ryanair style management."  It read as follows:

"The good news is that the restaurant management doesn't give a toss about customer experience.  I ate here on July 9 and had a complaint that was dealt with badly enough by the manager that I wrote to the owner.  A restaurant that aspires to offer [a] fine dining experience but has lost the ability to empathize with customers and ignores them when they complain?  That really is a shame."

One might expect a restaurant to respond to such condemnation by apologizing for the diner’s negative experience, but Usher took a different approach.  In a jaw-dropping reply, the restaurateur laid out Rob V's bullshit for all the world to see:

"Rob-- you reserved a table on a Friday evening and agreed to a 1-hour,45-minute time slot.   A standard practice (particularly on busy periods) that guests and restaurants worldwide agree to.

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. You ignored the Manager and proceeded to order another round of drinks.  Perhaps if you party had arrived on time for your reservation this could have been avoided. When the Manager came back a final time to politely let you know we needed to clear the table for our next guest, you got up out of your seat (towering over the Manager), pointing in the Manager's face.  The Manager's response was "Sir, please can you stop pointing in my face."  You proceeded to tell the Manager that they didn't deserve to be a Manager and weren't qualified to be in the position.  Your Mother then joined in, adding to the vitriol being directed towards the Manager.  That's when both you and your Mother showed your true colours with the classic "We've both worked in restaurants so we know how it works. We should be getting these drinks for free."

You, Rob, then threatened the Manager by saying that you would be contacting the owner because you know him and that the owner (me) would be appalled to know how you ("my friend") had been treated.  The Manager politely pleaded with your whole table to just listen while they explained.  No one did.

In a strange turn of events, you emailed me (your "friend") at Sticky Walnut's email address (you must have lost my number).  Not surprisingly (to either me or the Manager) you and I don't know each other.  Every few months, a rude guest will use the "I know the owner" line to try and intimidate team members and bully them into thinking that they will get into trouble because they didn't look after the owner's "friends" well enough.

I did read your email.  I did "give a toss."  But not about you, Rob-- but about the way you treated the team.  So instead of replying to you, we chose to block your phone number (and your Mum's) and put a note in our booking system to not accept future bookings from you.

With regards to the Manager who "doesn't give a toss"-- they have managed the Sticky Walnut for the last eight years.  Coincidentally, during that same length of time, the Sticky Walnut achieved a Top 100 position in the National Restaurant Awards in the UK.  I think that make them both extremely deserving to be a Manager and absolutely qualified to hold that position.

Regards (not your mate),

Gary (another owner you don't actually know)"

The review was the first one Rob V had ever written on Tripadvisor, despite joining the platform in 2010.  After this humiliating experience, he's probably not in a hurry to write another one any time soon!