Or was this restaurant useless?

[mslevine86]

Starting to doubt myself a bit so thought I would ask for opinions.
Last night was our anniversary and OH had booked a restaurant, told him to keep where it was a surprise but knew it would probably be one of about three places.
Turned up at said restaurant and it was closed!! Ok surely a mistake made somewhere, rang them no answer, stood outside in the cold. Went on their Facebook page and there was a post from the previous day stating they were shut from Tuesday til Thursday (no reason) my OH has fb but doesn't really use it and clearly hadn't seen the post. I didn't know we were going there and don't follow the place on fb as haven't been before so I didn't see it either. Checked his phone and they had actually tried to call him a week ago, one missed call. Rang voicemail number as no notification that they've left one and there was a message from them to say can you give us a ring please? He was in work at the time and it wasn't saved in his phone so ok he could have checked who had rang him, but could but am I being unreasonable that they should have made more effort to let us know? In this day and age a text even? And if it was something like this rang more than once? He had actually rang them yesterday afternoon to confirm with them as it's a 'fine dining' type of place (tasting menu wine flight etc) and he would have spent quite a bit on the meal and drinks, when we've eaten at these types of places before they normally ring to confirm were still coming. They have a cancellation policy on the website that if the customer cancels with less than 48 hours notice they charge 50 pound per head so although they didn't answer he assumed all was ok.
I was really disappointed as was my OH and commented on their post to tell them we were stood outside and did they think it was acceptable to which I've not yet had a response and I've drafted what I think is a very reasonable message to tell them this in detail as I think we deserve an apology. Luckily we managed to get in at another restaurant after my OH phoned round a few places so it wasn't a wasted journey but it wasn't what he had planned so did put a bit of a downer on the evening.

[RedHelenB]

They left a message so yabu.

[ShatnersBassoon]

They did ring, leave a message and ask for the call to be returned.

[bridgetreilly]

Your husband could have been a bit more on the ball, but when he hadn't responded to their first message, they definitely should have tried again, even if only to leave another message saying it would be closed, rather than to ring them back.

[TheDailyMailIsADisgustingRag]

I think you’ll get your apology, as these places should go above and beyond with customer service. That said, I think yabu to call them useless. They left a message which your dh didn’t receive, but that wasn’t their fault.

[cushioncovers]

What bridge said

[Snowysky20009]

They did tried contacting you🤷🏻‍♀️

[TeddyIsaHe]

I run a restauarant and YANBU. In the very least they should have left a message explaining the closure if they couldn’t have got in touch with you. Extremely poor customer service.

[MermaidTailUnicornHorn]

Sorry but how many times should they try and get in contact with you? They rang and left a vm. The fault lies with your husband.

[DeathStare]

They tried contacting you. The fact that your DH didn't check his voicemail is hardly their fault.

TBH it sounds like something fairly urgent has happened for them - which probably means they are very busy dealing with the emergency. In such circumstances I think expecting them to chase up after customers who haven't replied to their message is pretty unreasonable. Sorry

[mslevine86]

Thanks, I know they did try to contact him but my AIBU was whether or not they made an effort to do so bearing in mind we had a reservation with them from over a month ago? I'm thinking if I was cancelling my reservation and had rang once and left a voicemail asking them to contact me and they didn't respond then would I assume it was ok to not turn up on the night and not pay the cancellation charge?

[frasier]

What else do you think they should have done?

Not close because of your booking?
Ring and ring in the hope someone would answer?
Write to you, did they have your address?
Email, did they have an email address?

Why were they closed? If it's health and safety you've dodged a bullet!

If they had an email address and didn't use it, they were out of order after not reaching you on the phone. I would have tried a few more times on the phone and given my reason for ringing in the message (pet hate of mine is someone saying "ring me" but not saying why when it takes all of ten seconds to say what it is concerning) but you didn't check the message until it was too late anyway, and that is not their fault.

Useless? If they are, so is your OH!

Complain by all means about them only ringing once and not leaving a full message, but complaining because they were closed is not right. They did try to tell you, if a bit ineffectually.

[Trinity66]

Yeah sorry but have to agree that yabu, they contacted your DH and left a message

[mslevine86]

Thanks teddy. Deathstare they rang last Thursday so not an emergency as they were open over the weekend and the Facebook post did not mention unforeseen circumstances etc.

[PuppyMonkey]

They were a bit useless leaving a message to say “call us back.” They should have just told you the issue in the message.

However, your DP was also a bit of a numpty not to ring them ASAP and see why the problem was.

Worth contacting them to complain I think as they should have known they hadn’t actually spoken to you about it properly.

[mslevine86]

I'm not complaining that they were closed, I'm complaining because they didn't let him know they were closed and my message to them says that. With a weeks notice we would have been able to sort something, I'm guessing that they probably weren't busy and couldn't be arsed opening for a couple of people which is fair enough and makes business sense but I think it's poor customer service not to ensure we were aware of this. Yes I know he should have checked his voicemail that's fair enough but my AIBU is that they should have made more effort to be certain we knew about it

[sonyaya]

Another one agreeing with bridge

Your husband could have been more pro-active but it’s poor customer service. They are the ones cancelling a booking and the onus should be on them. One phone call is not good enough, they knew he hadn’t called back so why not try again?

And I agree, if you’d done the same you’d have had to pay the £50 charge.

[mslevine86]

I asked him why he didn't check and he said it was a number he didn't have saved and because they only rang once he assumed it wasn't important- if he had even had two missed calls he would have thought twice I guess.

[MissionItsPossible]

No YANBU. There have been plenty of calls to my mobile where I dont recognise the number so will let it go to voicemail to see if it’s legitimate or spam. I too have been in the situation where I have a voicemail but no notification so had no idea I’ve got messages I haven’t listened to. One phone call does not suffice. It’s not your husbands fault, it’s there’s. If they had rung more than 3 times I’d say he was at fault but they didn’t. This is going to be an evenly split thread I think.

[MissionItsPossible]

Theirs*

[Seeline]

You said DH rang to confirm your booking. What happened then?

[Nicknacky]

But how many times so you expect them to call? It's not their fault he doesn't answer unknown answers or listen to voicemail. Onus was on him.

[mslevine86]

Seeline he rang yesterday lunchtime to confirm the booking as they hadn't rang him (he obviously hadn't scrolled back a few days he gets a lot of phone calls in work from suppliers etc) and they didn't answer but he assumed they were busy with lunchtime service. A lot of assumptions I know! So as he didn't know they tried to call we just turned up :(

[mslevine86]

I would have expected them to try more than once, as I said if it was the other way round I'd make sure they knew we were cancelling, one because it's polite as their running a business and I wouldn't want them to think bad of us, two because they have a charging cancellation policy

[Chowmum]

Given that they had a mobile number, it wouldn't have killed them to send a text. YANBU.