Afternoon tea difficulty

[TheAverageJoanne]

Well it's ATBU. Booked afternoon tea for a few friends on Saturday for a birthday. One person only eats cheese on sandwiches but she'll have chutney and things like that on them.

Unfortunately they are being rather difficult. When I requested cheese sandwiches when I booked she had to check with her manager who said it would be OK. They phoned today saying they could only provide cream cheese & cucumber, but not plain cheese! I pointed out plain cheese was available on the children's menu but they weren't able to change the sandwich selection, only for allergy or food intolerance.

AIBU to not leave them a tip, grumble on Trip Advisor and complain to them? We want it to go ahead. I'm going to make some and take along in a sandwich box for this person, too. She doesn't eat meat or fish.

This is a prestige hotel that charges a lot btw.

Anyway we've been and come back now. It was ok, though I had to ask for a replacement cup as mine was chipped and hadn't been washed properly.
Prestige hotel you say?

Well yes, it's surprising.

They had a wedding there today and they apologised saying they were short on staff because so many of them were working on the wedding.

This was nothing to do with Groupon or Wowcher either. I've no idea where that's come from, someone must have dreamed it.

This was nothing to do with Groupon or Wowcher either. I've no idea where that's come from, someone must have dreamed it

I see you say its not a Groupon, but I have to say I've had some really good afternoon teas in nice hotels and restaurants using Groupon.

I havent done one for a while so I'll go and see if there's any good offers on.
The last one me and dh did was a gin snd afternoon tea which was rather good.

Im a veggie and never had any issues.

So you booked it without even asking if they could accommodate your party?

That was dumb

And they clearly could offer alternative. She didn't like them. That was all

You can't say veggie and then say "only cheese". That's different things

@TheAverageJoanne This was nothing to do with Groupon or Wowcher either. I've no idea where that's come from, someone must have dreamed it.

I didn't dream it, it was just the only possible explanation I could think of for why on earth anyone in their right mind would book a place that refused to accommodate the dietary needs of everyone, or wouldn't immediately cancel the booking and rebook somewhere else once this became clear. The idea,that you would knowingly go to a place that you know will refuse to be flexible and plan in advance to leave a poor review having chosen to give the business money for a service that you know in advance is going to be unsatisfactory makes no sense in my mind. I suggested that a Wowcher/Groupon offer might be a rational explanation as to why you'd still go ahead, as that would mean that an alternative venue charging full price would be significantly more expensive. If that's not the reason I guess I just have to accept that rationality is overated for some people.

Was the waitressing service bad? As that is why you don’t leave a tip, It’s not their fault your friend doesn’t like egg.

We didn't tip.

No surprise there then.

The Wowcher comment wasn't from you as I realised later. It was a reply to a post that's now been deleted from a poster who's been reported several times by the look of it.

Incredibly slow, crockery not clean, no apology for that, brought out wrong drinks. Food was good though.

Glad you had a good time. I was wondering if they maybe buy in the stuff for afternoon tea rather than make it themselves - i usually find this is the problem when a venue won't budge.

I think they're being very unreasonable because you know cheese sandwiches are on the normal menu. It's very poor customer service not to accommodate this request. Is they're time to cancel and book somewhere else? Loads of places do afternoon teas.

Oh just realised you've been already.