A pub landlord has slammed a group of customers as “absolutely pathetic” after they refused to pay for their meal, even though they had eaten most of it.
During their visit to The Pack Horse Pub in Hayfield, Peak District, the customers didn’t initially report any problems with the food when asked by staff.
It was only when the group had eaten most of their meal that a complaint about the food was made, the staff claim.
Eventually, the group ended up leaving without paying the bill after their request for a new dish was declined, Manchester Evening News reported.
Understandably, the owner and chef of the establishment, Luke Payne, was peeved off with the “immensely frustrating” situation and took to Twitter to share what had happened.
They then refused to pay for anything, so we just charged their bill on stripe over our booking system, winks as they left, talks of cancelling card etc. how absolutely pathetic. Completely ready for their card to get declined.
— Luke Payne (@Lukepayne92) October 16, 2021
Although the pub had taken their card details when the booking was made (to prevent no-shows and walk-outs), the group were so determined not to pay that they said they would cancel their cards to dodge the bill.
Payne even noted how one member of the group had the audacity to wink at him as they left without paying.
“They were perfectly pleasant to begin with and then everything just changed,” Payne told the same publication.
“After they’d eaten about 70 per cent of the food, a lady brought her plate up to the bar and said it wasn’t to her liking, wasn’t what she expected, and could she swap to another meal for free?
“To which I said ‘No’, because she’d eaten most of it and we can’t give food away for free when it’s just personal preference. That’s not really how it works.”
He added that, if they’d flagged it up in the check-back, the pub could have done something to rectify it.
The pub landlord added: “We will always do our utmost to fix a problem if something is wrong - if we’ve made a mistake we’ll hold our hands up and we’ll own it.”
“So in an instance where absolutely nothing is wrong and people have kicked off, it hurts.”
