I’ve given up on J.D.Wetherspoon’s Sir Robert Peel pub in Bury. For years I’ve gone on Sunday afternoon for a meal and a few pints. Now I’ve moved to another pub nearby, less choice of beers, more expensive food, but with some idea what customer service means, which Wetherspoon’s seem to have lost altogether.
They need more and better-trained staff. It’s common to stand at the bar for several minutes waiting for a staff member to appear, only for them then to serve their mates first. How do I know they’re their mates? Because they call them by name, and serve them all before asking “Who’s next?” Even if you walk up to an empty bar you have to wait for the bar staff to finish their chit-chat. Once, when I asked one of them if I’d suddenly become invisible, I obviously had, as she walked the length of the bar to serve somebody who hadn’t even reached it yet.
Now winter’s here the pub is bitterly cold, as it is every winter. Almost everybody sits in topcoats, and there appears to be no source of heating.
The cold also applies to the food. You can sit near the kitchen and see meals emerge only to spend five or ten minutes getting colder before someone arrives to deliver them to a table. Incidentally, the tables are cleared with the frequency of petrol price reductions, and with the same reluctance.
Still on food, Wetherspoons make much of their Steak Night, but if you order a steak dish on Sunday, you’ll get an ordinary knife, completely unsuitable and unusable. If you ask for a steak knife they can’t find any, even if you’re the only person eating food of any sort. Do they hire the cutlery for Tuesday nights only?
Amazingly, this pub serves a whisky in a half-pint glass. It’s true. When I asked for it to be changed I was told they didn’t have whisky glasses, always served it that way, and nobody else complained. Really? Everybody I’ve told is frankly incredulous. Eventually, having been shown every type of glass behind the bar, I got my whisky in a wine glass, unsatisfactory, but the best they could do. This aberration also applies to the Wetherspoon’s on Piccadilly in Manchester! As with steaks, I can’t understand why Wetherspoon’s boast about their whisky selection and prices, when they haven’t a clue how to serve them.
I do miss the guest ales, I admit, but not enough to sit all afternoon without heating or eating or being able to finish off with a whisky in a proper glass. Until I hear things have improved I won’t be back.
Yours regretfully
Ex-customer
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
i went to use the mans toilets at your godalming pub on monday this week 2 of cubicals had no seats and one that did was not clean i said something 2 girl working at bar and she sorted it however she said the girl that was ment to be checking toilets would not do mens as she dont like doing it now having done a job that invoiled doing that i understood however i was not impressed 2night when i was waiting at bar and she would not serve me over it when she was 3 and i had 2 wait till someone eles was 3 i think this is bad everyone one eles there works so hard and i wont stop going there over it but i am not happy
i totally agree with what you two have said, i until recently have been working with wetherspoons and was horrified about the way they act upon staff.. food falling on the floor inthe kitchen and then them picking it up “10minute rule” they would say.. and then place it back onthe plate to be served.
absolutly appauling i must say.
TIM MARTIN loosing money,
i am a fan of all wetherspoons in u.k.
but of late the scarborough branch lord roseberrys some staff a very minority one in this case in particular has had a very bad attidude to her staff working under her,(down stairs)
the reason came to a head when i visited their last night tuesday the 9th of march
i work at east coast promotions scarborough some times very late where i met my friends
one 72 years old the other 76 for a drink,
i asked the lady in charge the bar (no name badge)
if i could have a look at a bottle of wine in the cooler
i asked quite politley twice the second time i asked i was told that i should not ask
in a tone of voice, both my friends said politely to her that i did ask twice,
according to others this was not the first incident.
another customer not in our company comented on her attitude,
i read your latest magazine and have always wished you well and over a number of
years have sent countless visitors to roseberrys through my connecting with business
in the u.k. and abroad
i always send them details of scarborough with starting phrase
(ROSEBERRYS IN SCARBOROUGH THE STARTING PLACE FOR PLEASURE)
i do think that this should be sorted as i am hearing varied reports,
again i would say that i wish all the good staff all the very best
i agree with the comments of TIM MARTIN in the last magazine
and hope he takes notice of what is basicly a great asset to the town
the lord roseberry.
yours f tait 124 victoria road scarborough
promo@eastcoastpromotions.net
p.s. great steak meals all the best
Hunters Hall Pub Galashiels.
Ourselves regular users
Menu and Recommadation displayed in Guest House.
Most members of staff ok.
Except Now the manager and at least 2 staff do not know how to deal with customers and there complaints. In other word they should be fired.
For example if this idiot cost your company £30.000 pa in sales would you employ him
We complained bitterly on several occasions we complained bitterly about service, clearing of tables and this guys attidude. We did not go back to the place for 6 months then decided to try it again.
When we went to the bar we were tolod soory you are barred.
The manager at the time we complained was an Irish Guy. first class. and the the guy that barred us was a shift manager. but now he is Manager. How can you employ somebody like this who is losing your pup in Galashiels a fortune (much more than his salary)
we would like area manager to contact us for an interview. Before we go to the local press.
By the way we are local Business people that accomadated Witherspoons first manager when the place opened.
Mr & Mrs Eddie Dunlop
I am really disappointed with the Back of Beyond in Reading. They have absolutely no respect for any of their locals.
Many of it’s locals have recently moved to a near by wetherspoons because of the ill treatment they have received,
One elderly man had been visiting the back of beyond for years having brought his dinner there at lunch time every day 1st course and main, He returned to the pub from being in intensive care after a serious stroke and ordered his meal like usual with very little energy. When his food arrived he asked the management to close some of the doors as the wind was blowing all the menu’s into him. The management replied with a solid “NO, IT’S SUMMER TIME” and left him.
I was so shocked by the ill treatment of this man. I would never go to a wetherspoons again. The company dose not seem to care for it’s customers. What ever happened to the welcoming, homely community pub. Whetherspoons is slowly destroying. A pub is more than just pouring pints and serving food. It should be a place where you feel at home and can relax. A Public house.
I was very disturbed to find your wetherspoons in hemel hempstead had a fire door which could only be used by people with a code to get in and which was being blocked by a sofa anyway. Blocking of fire exits is illegal and the sign indicating it as an exit should not be there
service [if thats what you want to call it]! unless your a personal friend or family in the st annes branch [the trawl boat] lancashire, is a disgrace.and any brewery promotions are given too friends and family freely before the customer! the place is dirty and grubby and not to be recommended.the place i notice is started to be frequented by “local heavys”!…………if you can avoid a visit to this branch, do so! you will be doing yourself a favour.
sorry,mispelt,but hey……wetherspoons…..in st annes,lancashire [the trawl boat] clicky! dirty,and badly run………fact! and locally recognised as such!………avoid if you can.
Visited my local wetherspoons on Tues 20th July. Thought we would give the Steak Club a go. As it is advertised as 3pm – 10pm we had a drink before ordering at 8pm. Sorry no steak left!!As the pub wasn’t very full I think they should order more so that customers( there were 4 of us) don’t have to go elsewhere. Or at least advertise it as 3pm until we run out which is usually quite early!
Loretta Parker
Ernehale pub Arnold Nottingham
My local Weatherspoons The Sir Julian Huxley, Selsdon, is like something out of a Fawlty Towers sketch as how not to run a pub.
It opened in 2000 with no competition in the area and was initially ok. However it has gone steadily down hill ever since. They put the clock forward several minutes so they can kick you out earlier, the staff used to order you downstairs 20 minutes before closing time like herding cattle, which appears to have stopped, however their thunderous roar (mainly in shrill tones delivered by female bar staff) can still be heard at the appointed times throughout Croydon.
However (and they can bloody take me to court if they wish) … today they violated all that is right and proper in a decent pub – they watered down the beer !! without doubt. I am 48 and my brother 56, both experienced drinkers (not drunks!) First there was the a pint of Abbotts ale , very cool and watery with little body, which I drank, my brother drank the Ruddles ale, again watery with no body and little taste. We immediately complained to the bar staff getting 2 pints in return of Guiness. A drink that should have full body , flavour and a creamy like texture – but oh no watery with no body. I then changed to John Smiths in the vain hope of getting something that tastes like a pint of beer – no oh no oh no – watery with a sweet after taste and cold. When my brother again spoke to the bar staff he merely shrugged his shoulder, giving no eye contact – hardly refuting the point..
Weatherspoons is fast becoming the Tescoes of pubs. It is dominating most areas with smaller pubs having to close because of the cheap beer (i use the word loosely) that is offered.
However we have ourselves to blame in the pursuit of saving a fiver on a decent few beers we enter these emporiums of mediocrity , put up with surley service and endure bad beer. Although I rarely visit this shambolic establishment my recent experience has deterred me from re entering this ‘Flag Ship of what is wrong with chains’ pub ever again.
I will be writing a letter to the head office as I believe the pub is an essential part of our community, however Weatherspoons look disdainfully upon us thinking only of he pursuit of profits.
Beside that it was a good night…..