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.

That's quite a mark - what on earth was on the knife?
Keep pushing, they should offer something although unlikely to be a new replacement.

I would have thought they have insurance for this sort of thing. Waitress was probably shit scared she'll have to pay.

I'm fascinated by the idea that a high-end restaurant would a) allow dogs under the table and b) not take your coat on arrival.

OP, suck it up. Accidents happen. It's annoying but they do. Next time you buy a coat, buy one that can be cleaned. No everyday item of clothing should be capable of being ruined by coming into contact with something greasy.

Talcum powder will help to lift the grease, spread on quite thickly but do not rub it.

That doesn't look like an accidental brush from a falling greasy knife, the knife would need to be completely coated in grease and have lingered there for a while to produce such a large stain. It looks more like you've leaned on a greasy table/surface while wearing the jacket. I think you'd be unreasonable to pursue the restaurant without absolute proof (CCTV?) that the dropped cutlery caused the stain.

I would send a picture to the restaurant in your reply, and although I do think their response is poor, I also think the way you have spoken about the waitress and the assumptions you have made is as well.

You seem to have taken exception to her being a 'rabbit caught in headlights' - I assume looking/acting worried when you spoke to her and decided that means she knew, rather than she was reacting to what you were telling her and concerned about the damage and she was about to get a bollocking from a customer for an accident and one she didn't realise had happened at the time, and so you've decided she's deceptive and knew and lied about it.

I think the attitude you've approached this issue with is part of the problem. If you've approached her and the email basically accusing the waitress of lying and purposely deceiving you then I'm not surprised they've pushed back.

You're annoyed over an accident and the damage and I get that, but don't try and justify that by making the waitress dishonest and sly, that's not warranted.

The restaurant should make good the damage, but it was an accident and unfortunately not even hospitality staff are immune from the occasional accident or dropping things - they're human, not robots unfortunately.

' pretty upmarket restaurant '
' dog '
' my coat which was hanging off the back of the chair. '

really ?!!!

I think that if you wear a coat to a restaurant, having something dropped on it is a risk you take.

A coat that fragile could have got a mark any time you wore it.

I can't imagine a upmarket restaurant that's dog friendly

Absolutely this
Some pathetic jealous and crass comments on here

At the end of the day an apology and some sort of voucher or discount would have gone a long way here

It's not about the minimum wage employee or the cost of the coat. It's about taking some responsibility and trying to make amends. As you would do if you hit an expensive car in an accident?

"An upmarket restaurant"

If the next word starts with a vowel, 'an' precedes it, not 'a'.

My 7 year old taught me that rule the other day 😆

Don't know why you are getting such shitty, judgemental responses.

Surely an upmarket restaurant would have insurance to cover damage to customers' property. I would pursue it.

Perhaps also ask Toast how they would recommend dealing with that specific stain.

Thank You have a wonderful night! It is always so nice to learn something new. Thank you so very much

Would your home insurance cover it?

I have accidental damage cover which covers these sorts of things even out and about. Have you checked your policy?

People can be such bastards. Who goes to a posh restaurant with a knife stain on their coat in the hope that a waitress will drop a knife behind their chair so that they can claim recompense?

The restaurant needs to pay up.

It's possible that you brushed against something at some point and this happened is it? It's also possible that it happened as you guessed. You don't know really.

for me I would just chalk it up to experience. If it did happen as you say I think you can now assume that the restaurant is not very magnanimous. I would then extrapolate to say that's how they will be as employers, and if you are after £175 they would then be taking that off the employee, so no wonder she is lying, that'll be her whole shifts pay and maybe more, all for a split second slip of a hand.

The restaurant's response would wind me up too.

Dropping some cutlery might not seem like a big problem, but if the waitress had dropped a plate full of food down the back of your coat would they still do nothing? Surely it's the same thing. Something was dropped and damaged your belongings.

If they're adamant they won't do anything I'd post reviews on Google, TripAdvisor etc. explaining what happened and that they're entirely dismissive about it. Not being nasty, just factual.

Oh thank goodness! Thought the ending was going to be in the vein of William the Conqueror & the poor dog was going to end up with the knife to the eye!

i’d let it go. It’s one of those things and hard to prove after the event has passed.

@WildBear Don’t worry, she forgot her full stop. 😉

Small claims court

I'm very sorry for getting a word wrong or forgetting punctuation sometime. My daughter has graves disease and surgery soon. It gives her very bad insomnia between that and fear of surgery I am up with her all night if we get three hours sleep it's a good day. I go on mumsnet because it takes my mind off it. Thank you for pointing it out to me I didn't realize I was not writing well

Stop justifying yourself. If you know a solicitor, ask them to write a letter requesting that a copy of the video footage is sent to you (and the solicitor) and that your coat replaced within 14 days. You expect an apology also.

Oh sorry! I was trying to make you feel better. I meant to say WildBear missed her full stop, not you! ❤️

The thing is though, OP doesn't know for a fact that the dropped knife caused the damage, she didn't witness it. She has made an assumption that the dropped cutlery must have brushed against her coat causing the damage but there is absolutely no proof. You can't go online leaving reviews about something you only think happened.

Totally OT but why are you taking your dog out to a restaurant?
OT again but Toast is a caff near me that sells toast food.
Also OT but what has the waitress being 40 got to do with this?