Advice please - tricky situation with restaurant

[hairbearbunches]

Any advice on this welcome. I'm not sure what to do next other than chalk it up to a poor experience and move on, but I'm pretty cross about it. Went to a pretty upmarket restaurant last week not far from where we live. Second time I've been. DH has been a few times more with work colleagues. The waitress dropped some cutlery behind my chair as she was clearing away the plates of the table next to us - group of 5 women. Loud noise, nothing more than that or so I thought at the time. As we were leaving, DH went to loo and asked me to take the dog who had been sitting underneath his side of the table the entire meal. I took her lead and she started paying serious interest in my coat which was hanging off the back of the chair. When I looked down, it was covered in grease marks, there was pretty much a perfect imprint of a greasy knife up the left hand side of the sleeve as well as other biggish greasy marks. It was quite obvious what had happened so I went and told the waitress who had dropped the cutlery. She looked a bit rabbit in headlights and I got the distinct impression she knew it was already there and had been hoping we weren't going to notice. The coat is a waxed coat from Toast. I got it in the sale but it still cost £175. It can't be dry cleaned, hand wash cold only. I've tried to get the grease out and made a decent stab of it, but it's not the same coat. There are still stains on it.
Anyway, long story short, I finally got an email back from them tonight saying they'd spoken to the waitress and the knife (singular) she dropped was nowhere my coat and therefore they believe that my coat was already greased up before I got there and the dog licking it has made it worse (the dog licked it once).
What would you do? Put it down to bad luck and accidents happen or pursue it further. I'm pretty hacked off with their dismissive attitude. I walked in to their restaurant with a pristine coat and walked out with it in a right mess and they've made me feel like I'm trying to pull a scam on them.

Agreed!

I remember eating out and a group leaving the next table after we'd been there a good 90 mins. Out trotted a dog and I made that exact comment!

I just looked at some of the "posh" restaurants near me and the local Tom Kerridge restaurant allows "well behaved" dogs.

Shame they can't say they only allow "well behaved" patrons too!

Cliveden hotel not only has dog friendly rooms but dog friendly dining too. Given that's it's a minimum of £500 a night to stay with a dog, I'd say it counts as "posh".

Like it or not, dogs are accepted in more places nowadays and they're not a sign of a place being "common"!

Seems fitting for a coat from Toast to have a greasy knife mark on it.

Have you tried Swarfega? My mum swears by it. Any stains we get, or my sister , adult children, we all send the clothes to my mums. She is remarkably good at removing stains. She hasn’t been defeated by a grease stain yet!!

Ok, so latest email from restaurant says that if a customer chooses to wear an item of clothing that both stains very easily and cannot be cleaned, that's entirely their decision and the customer needs to take some responsibility for that. They don't feel obligated to purchase me a new jacket (I didn't ever ask them to and specifically said in my email I wasn't looking for a like for like replacement). I'm not sure the coat does stain easily, any coat would have stained that badly with that amount of grease on it for a good hour. Not being able to dry clean a wax jacket does not make it a non-cleanable item either.

I called them just now and to say the manager was chippy is an understatement. Things like "I understand you bought the coat from a discount outlet" is a fairly condescending piece of bullshit to come out with. He might as well have said 'you're not the kind of customer we're looking to attract'. He might rue being such a snotty knob. People have no idea who they're speaking with, no idea who those people know, no idea what industries those people work in and how likely word is to spread, or how much money those people have got. In the words of Julia Roberts..."Big mistake. Big. Huge!"

Anyway, they have said they will look at the cost of rewaxing the jacket, assuming I can get the stains out, which hopefully will make the coat almost as good as new.

The only thing left to say is that I really, really wish we'd gone to eat somewhere else last week. You live and learn.

It's a coat. Get over it. She didn't do it on purpose did she!?

just take it to the small claims court and let someone else tell the restaurant - that you don't have to wear washable non stain items to the restaurant when you eat ffs and get the Money to replace the coat - perhaps then the restaurant will take responsibility for there staff training on clearing crockery

That’s awful. Restaurant’s reply doesn’t surprise me though. The level of customer service and support from most companies is just non-existent. I would post on SM and avoid the venue.

Things like "I understand you bought the coat from a discount outlet"

How do they know where you bought it?

Omg! I absolutely can't believe the snotty response from the restaurant manager. What an arsehole. I would be sticking reviews everywhere! TripAdvisor, Google, tagging them.on FB. Honestly if it were me I'd have been annoyed that my coat was ruined but if they'd apologised about it I'd have been ok, even if they didn't offer me anything else. But their attitude is unreal! Absolute twats.

Oh my goodness. Is this the same manager who initially apologised for the first email being inappropriate?

Was this in response to a follow up you had sent them, after their £50 and dry cleaning offer?

@Katiesaidthat Oops! Thank you. Damn you, g€€gle translate!

@ohdamnitjanet

This.
Does @hairbearbunches expect a minimum wage waiter to pay for her posh coat?

No. I expect a company to compensate a customer when their staff have an accident.

@WatchandWaitorNot

Yeah, same guy. Honestly, I couldn't wait to get off the phone. He was dripping in condescension and clipped derision. And the number of times he called me 'madam' was excruciating. I called because I thought it might be a more amicable way than shooting off emails back and forth but he informed me that they preferred email because then everything can be documented. I guess that fair's enough but his tone of voice of fucking unreal. (I need a very big glass of wine 🙄)

I would dearly love to name this restaurant but I'm not sure how I stand legally, so I'm keeping schtum.

I used to be a barbour owner. You can't do that on a waxed coat.

Questioning your right to wear clothes you've chosen!!! FFS!!

People have no idea who they're speaking with, no idea who those people know, no idea what industries those people work in and how likely word is to spread, or how much money those people have got. In the words of Julia Roberts..."Big mistake. Big. Huge!"

What do you mean? Do you think the job a person does makes them better than others? The more money you have the more important you are? What word is likely to spread? 'My jacket got dirty, I didn't see what happened'?

I d be well pissed off. I would go back to the restaurant on this. Jus sayin….

@hairbearbunches a degreaser might be the ticket. It’s safe on fabrics and leather and can work miracles.

I’d find out how much it would cost to reward/ fix - maybe go to a laundry or dry cleaners to see what they suggest.

Then write back saying you are extremely frustrated that something that was acknowledged at the time by the waitress is now being denied & you are being accused of being a liar. The cost to get it back to anywhere similar to the condition it was in when you entered the restaurant is £??. You understand that accidents happen however, would expect the restaurant to pay for the damage caused by their team member as a bare minimum.

it is really odd they’re not offering to cover the cost of a repair or give you a decent voucher for their restaurant. If they don’t change their mind I would leave them a poor detailed review with pics of the coat on every website I can find them on.

Hope you get more than 3 hours sleep tonight and your daughter's operation goes well

I don't think it's always like that... money etc

I went to a bar with my dad, he rang beforehand to check the dress code. Arrived and the reception tried to turn us away as "no jeans" which wasn't what the manager said on the phone. He was also incredibly rude so my dad asked for the manager

Nothing to do with money or being more important etc. (I worked as bar staff at that time on min wage) ... but at that point (without being too specific) my dad was a huge part of an association to do with the bar and it was a case of big mistake by the staff member

I’d ask to meet the manager and take the coat, have a no nonsense attitude to their insinuations if you scamming them, that’s ridiculous and insulting! Also you wouldn’t have been wearing it if it was already in that state. I’ve seen a post about small claims I don’t know much about that but would do that if it seems realistic, also I’d leave a bad review.

There are some ridiculous posts about this. Whether or not you re wax your coat is irrelevant as is the fact that you have a dog!
Presumably the restaurant did not have a cloakroom or hanging space. If it did, and you chose to leave your coat over the chair, then what happened is partly your fault. The waitress made a mistake and your coat was damaged. These are the facts. I don’t think you are actually entitled to anything, but any decent pub or restaurant would try to recompense you in some way. But there is no way they would pay for a new coat. If I were you, I would push for a voucher, but that is the most you can hope for.

Forget the grease stains, If my coat got licked by a dog I would incinerate it! Who takes a dog to a restaurant anyway? That’s just gross.

Literally hundreds of people take dogs to a restaurant!

Do you want them all individually named?