A pub owner has hit back at a customer’s negative review after a family birthday party ended in a dispute. The Cowshed at Hucknall, based in Nottinghamshire, boasts a high 4.8 star rating on Google, with customers praising their ‘amazing’ food and ‘efficient’ service.
However, a woman named Jo had a different experience when she visited for her sister-in-law’s 50th birthday in 2020. Jo claimed that her group spent £700 on pizza and drinks, but their celebrations were cut short when staff asked them to leave for being too drunk and rowdy.
She criticised the pub’s staff in a Facebook review, saying she had ‘never been spoken to in such a way’. “Maybe they should open reviews [on their website],” she said. “Yes, our family member was sick and YES WE CLEANED IT UP – so no members of staff were affected by this.”
She added: “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.”
The pub, boasting a five-star rating on TripAdvisor, quickly responded to the allegations, the Mirror reported. “Hi Jo, thanks for reaching out. We love feedback, whether it be positive or negative, we especially love feedback like this so others can see the type of people we have to deal with sometimes.”
Firstly, the team argued that Jo hadn’t splurged quite as much as she suggested. To have racked up such a cost, she would have had to order 39 top-tier pizzas and 57 of the priciest drinks, it was claimed.
The Cowshed went on: “You ordered nowhere near this, Jo… not even close. What you and your party spent, Jo, was a far more realistic and believable £280 (£225 on 5 rounds of drinks and £55 on 8 pizzas).
“You all acted like belligerent, entitled little toddlers from the moment you walked through our gates. At 4:30pm you showed up with the tables you wanted already taken, but not to worry, we shuffled other customers about at your request in order to accommodate you.”
“Then you proceeded to pull our light fittings loose off our boundary fence in order to hang your birthday decor. We cleaned up all the smashed pint glasses you broke and birthday cake you dropped and smeared all over our tables and benches, and tolerated the many loud family rows you were having with each other.”
The group are also claimed to have treated The Cowshed’s staff like “personal servants.” It wrote: “Clicking your fingers, shouting, swearing and barking your orders at [staff], to the point one was almost in tears and refused to deal with you any more.”
But it didn’t stop there. He also claimed the group refused to abide by social distancing rules at the time, during the coronavirus pandemic. – The pub concluded: “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.”
“Don’t worry, the staff member that you nearly had in tears earlier on cleaned it up for you. So now consider this your official barring… don’t you or your group ever set foot through our doors again.”
The restaurant’s straightforward response became a hit online after being shared on Facebook. One person commented: “Congratulations Cowshed! You have won the internet today!”
