Hotel gate - couple refused to pay their Wedding Bill shamed on Social Media

[StrawberryRed]

A hotel in my area 'The Townhouse Durham' was ripped off by a couple. The couple are trying to avoid paying there bill by complaining.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11257679/amp/Battle-Buffet-Town-House-Durham-shames-newlyweds-bill-dispute.html

There is a huge backlash against the couple with people sharing their own problems they've had with the couple - they seem like a pair of scammers.

HOWEVER

I'm finding the Hotel a BU now, they seem to be really enjoying the drama and stirring the pot with updates on social media in a vendetta against the couple, it looks cheap IMO. If their is a complaint in place, perhaps libelous and a breach of confidentiality?

Thoughts?

The PIP thing hits a nerve with me too. It is very hard to get PIP and it's a very dehumanising process. If you had seen my relative taking their child to the park and walking round the town the other day, you might wonder why they are getting PIP. What you don't see is that they are on a large number of tablets including pain medication and were having a "good" day that day. Now they are having a flare up and haven't left their bed all day or been able to eat anything due to pain.

I understand that's not really what the story was about, but the comments regarding PIP got to me.

I agree, the professional complainers get so much for free and then gloat about it publicly. I'm actually really glad to see a small, independent business stand up and say "hell nope you fuckers".

The FB comments are full of misogynist and homophobic slurs, loads of nasty comments about how the women look, and 'jokes' about beating them up.

Weird definition of 'pure gold', but ydy.

A Million Pounds worth of FREE advertising.
The hotel are on to a winner.

I'm in the North East, I think the venue whilst right to be annoyed come across as unprofessional. No contract, no card details taken etc. There media posters make me not want to set foot in the place.

I suppose

but I’d avoid at all costs based on this approach to this situation

I wouldn't touch that hotel with YOUR bargepole.

I'm divided on this. Having been the subject of a FB name & shame that was totally untrue, I usually hate any naming & shaming as its just not the way to deal with things. The hotel posted the first post, thats fine. I can see where they're coming from. But the gleeful suggesting names for the NEtflix series and posting 'you'll never guess whats happened now' and sharing of PM's I find uncomfortable. Its a bit unprofessional. (I'd still stay there though!)
Theres very much a 'Jeremy Kyle' feel to all of this which I think is what people are enjoying in a smug way.
Having said all that, I think these two chancers deserved to be called out on their lies. The hotel helped them out and provided a service in tough times and they just decide not to pay? Nah, thats totally out of order. You can't behave like that, take advantage of a service at a discounted rate and then go trotting off to the DM with your DM sad faces. Just pay the bill!

Vigilante justice is really gross. Let’s hope all the posters on here revelling in the couples comeuppance never find themselves in this situation either rightly or wrongly. The couple may well be in the wrong, they may well not be, but no one here has all the facts. Scary how willing people are to jump on the bandwagon of public ridicule.

There was the story of a TikTok recently where a woman was filmed arguing with an employee and branded a “Karen”, everyone piled on. It turns out the employee had started calling the woman a child abuser for getting her child to try on some jeans over some leggings. More video came out of the employee approaching the woman and starting to rant and rave for no reason and security marching the poor woman out of the shop roughly. The original poster of the video apologised to the woman when the new information came out and took the video down but it had already been shared and the woman publicly shamed.

Moral of the story is play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Both sides as neither come out of this well.

Yup. And the journalists who've put this in the papers did so knowing that would happen. Probably soft-soaped the couple telling them their side of the story needed to be told, then sat back and waited for clicks from lesbophobes, misoygnists and benefits bashers.

It's a disgraceful circus, showing mob mentality at its absolute worst. What's the betting people making the vile comments have Facebook pages full of 'be kind' stuff?

I did think it was a bit unprofessional but I think it's worked in their favour and they've gone a bit viral. The person behind the post (the business owner) is a human being so I'm not surprised it's gone a bit gossipy (pip) as it will always happen when opinions bounce off each other.

'All the gleeful cheerleaders in the comments section adding their own tales of woe.'

What do you mean by 'their own tales of woe'? If it's 'their own experience of this pair of grifters' then - fair enough, quite frankly. I'm really struggling to see how anyone is coming down on the side of two women with a proven, rich history of defrauding businesses.

@Brefugee My comment was to the poster who told op that she was jumping on the bandwagon and telling her to get a hobby.

I don't think it's being 'on their side' (are we still at primary school?) to dislike the homophobia, misogyny, personal insults, and threats of violence that are being celebrated here.

The hotel manager's recent posts on Facebook make him sound like an unprofessional, spiteful adolescent.

the couple ARE scammers, they have scammed many people.

The venue has PROOF they are lying and shared that proof.

Its the COUPLE that went to the press not the venue.

The venue has PROOF they are lying and shared that proof.

There's no proof at all, it's all hearsay.

@Antarcticant exactly. There are reasons the justice system have audit trails with evidence etc.

they posted they had a great wedding then when it was tme ti pay came up with complaints

theyre known con artists i say good for the business into shaming them

I'm the same. A professional response, politely refuting false claims, is fine, but so many venues get the tone of their response wrong. If you are rude, aggressive or sarcastic on SM, as a business, my expectation is that that is how you will treat me as a customer.

The time stamped buffet cctv pictures?

The photos show a member of staff setting up at 9.10 ie no guest present and then another photo little more than an hour later with guests present.

what exactly does this prove?

Exactly. The couple say the buffet was meant to be open till midnight, but the whole event was drawn to a close by hotel staff at 11pm.

That might or might not be true, but the pictures don't give any indication of how long the guests had access to the buffet.

Cool. 'Coming down on the side of' and being 'on their side' aren't actually the same expression, though, as those of us who indeed have something beyond a primary school education, know: one might say 'The committee came down on the side of the developers', as opposed to 'Chantelle said she was going to be on Mayzee's side because Tiana was a right cow' . . . That said, the notion of electing to favour one party, their account or position is fairly time-honoured and not really limited to the playground - you'll possibly be aware of such things as general elections . . . 🙄

I've said I think the hotel owners have behaved badly. But these women are scammers. Two truths and all that.

They said that the reason they wont pay is the buffet was only out for 30 minutes, the venue has posted CCTV all time stamped over several hours showing thats not true.