Dinner ruined

[Kaftanqween]

I’m away with large family to celebrate a parent’s significant birthday. I booked a meal through a recommended catering company. Chef was due at 3 with meal served at 4.

At 3.15 the chef messaged to say I’m lost. Sorry. He sent me a pin to his location. He was 3 hours from me. I rang the company in a panic. They said he’d gone to the wrong place and they were weird and defensive demanding did I want to go ahead or not. It was awful. We’re in the middle of nowhere in a rented property we’d had a few drinks. I didn’t know what to do. So I said go ahead.

the chef turned his phone off and I really didn’t know if he would even arrive. The company were useless presumably unable to track the chef either. By this time I’d spent nearly 3 hours away from the celebrations.

Anyway at 6 he did arrive and served lacklustre, rushed food at 7. Half the table were missing as they were putting small kids to bed.

This morning I messaged the company and got a random response saying they’d investigate and get back to me in 7 days! I was flabbergasted and wrote a review on trustpilot and insta. Since then it’s been hell. Long, defensive messages, questioning what I’m saying. Also suggesting they won’t consider any recompense until I take my reviews down. Finally a response to my review online calling me abusive and saying I threatened to slander (sic) them all over social media unless I was immediately refunded. Also claiming they contacted me to resolve it early this morning. None of this Is true.

What the hell is wrong with them? why wouldn’t they just offer me a 50% refund or something and we can all move on. Should I take my reviews down? What recourse do I have? Just small claims? Hoping someone can advise.

Sorry your celebration was ruined. I think given even the late meal wasn't great, go for a full refund. Hopefully someone with legal nouce will come soon to help!

Thank you. It’s also taken most of today responding to their angry emails about my reviews. They won’t discuss any compensation with me as I’ve left them reviews which they say shows I am not acting in good faith?

We wanted to have the meal outside as it was good weather and we’re in a beautiful spot but it was too late at 7pm. Also as I said babies were going to bed by then. They said they offered me the option of cancelling and rearranging on a different day which they did not.

i just want this over with. It’s exhausting. But also I don’t really want to take my truthful review down until I do though they won’t compensate me.

Consumer Rights Act should cover this.

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act-aKJYx8n5KiSl

They sound massively unprofessional. You must have all been starving!

As long as your review is truthful you are not slandering them, but think about what you want to achieve. If you genuinely feel altruistic about warning others off then leave it, but it won’t help you get a refund. Might stick in the craw to give in to the bullying but by taking it down you’d have the moral high ground.

PS “not acting in good faith” is legally meaningless in this context.

Take the reviews down. Get the money back. Post new reviews.

Don’t quite understand how the call with the lost chef took you away from the gathering for 3 hours though?

I was constantly waiting for call backs (it took 30 mins for anyone beyond the switchboard to ring me) and trying to track the chef down. For a while I could track the chef but then he turned his phone off and I really worried he’d just gone home.

And for some time I was just staring into space thinking wtf and too embarrassed to go and face everyone. It felt like my fault as the organiser which it wasn’t obviously. It was my dad’s 90th birthday and I wanted it to be perfect. It was more like 2 hours. The last hour of waiting I went and joined the slightly subdued party.

I wouldn't have posted the review until I had had the refund or at least heard the conclusion to their investigation.

Having worked in similar environments, even when it's very obvious what has gone wrong, it's company policy to conduct an investigation to figure out what went wrong and avoid situations like this happening again. Often if the cost is too high it needs to go through to the relevant department to process the refund as customer service don't have the authority to do so.

I've had many cases where we were given absolutely wrong details/times/dates etc and followed them. The customer was adamant that this wasn't the case, after investigating it was confirmed it was the customers error and unavoidable given the information we were given.

I'm not saying this is the case in your circumstances at all but it's part of the reason why companies always have a policy to investigate before deciding on compensation and resolution. You'd be surprised how many people will blast companies on social media etc when they themselves have in fact given the wrong date!

Anyway I hope you find your resolution, I think the investigation will still go forward despite you posting the reviews and will hopefully be resolved. I wouldn't expect a full refund as the chef did arrive and serve a meal, although you may think it was lacklustre but I would expect a hefty partial refund and then leave reviews of your experience.

I am absolutely not minimizing your experience at all OP, I'm really sad that this happened to you was just trying to explain a bit more about what goes on behind the scenes in these situations. I can say that most of us who you actually speak to on the phone feel absolutely terrible and do our best to find out what's going on but are often sent to voicemail ourselves and unable to find any information at all. It's really frustrating for all involved and very much why I'm no longer working there! X

Personally I wouldn't take it down others like me appreciate honest reviews and if more people did it you probably wouldn't be in this situation. Can you try small claims court?

@Kaftanqween Thats really bad form you must have been mortified. Hope they had an enjoyable day nonetheless.
Do it the nice way with the catering company. If you agree to take your reviews give them 5 days grace for a full refund. If they then fail to do that do it the other way.
I'd be losing it.

They said they would investigate and get back to you, but you couldn’t wait and posted bad reviews in two places and now you’ve fucked up a fucked up situation even more because you’re incapable of keeping your fingers off your phone for more than 5 minutes while you have a little think.

@HeddaGarbledthat’s not quite true. They didn’t come back to me with any sort of response about my evening for 24 hours. I didn’t even receive an apology until then. They only responded to me after I’d posted a review. How hard can it be to investigate. The chef went to the wrong place. It’s either his fault or the company’s fault but it definitely isn’t my fault. I can see the correct address on my online booking.

Have you read the same things I have? They sound rude and obstructive

Can you read?

If you paid by credit card, contact your credit card provider

Pot. Kettle.

I doubt you got the chef you booked, or perhaps he wasn’t even booked by the company on the day.

I’d email them and state that unless you’re given 50% refund, you will take it to the small claims court. I think it’s unreasonable to expect the full refund as presumably they purchased food which was consumed even if 4 hours late.

😆

The big question here is why the chef went to the wrong address. If that is the fault of the catering company or the chef, you clearly have a claim for a refund. However, if you were to blame in some way, you are not entitled to a refund, and they could sue you for libel due to your reviews. I know you are certain that you are not to blame, but they need to check. And, as another poster says, they may well have processes that they have to go through that mean the customer services staff dealing with your complaint cannot give you an immediate refund.

From a practical point of view, they said they would investigate and get back to you in 7 days. That doesn't necessarily mean they will take the full 7 days. It depends how long it takes them to figure out what went wrong and, assuming it is their fault, organise the refund. However, you have pre-empted their investigation by immediately posting negative reviews. From your post, it seems you didn't allow them any time at all. I am not surprised they are upset.

I think your best approach is to take down the reviews and let them investigate. Doing so does not in any way compromise your legal rights. If you are still unhappy at the end of it, you can post the negative reviews again and, if you think any refund they offer is inadequate, you can reject it and take them to the small claims court.

i don’t know about your legal situation, but I think everyone dealt with this badly. Was there no one sober enough at 3pm to call a local restaurant and go down and collect some nice food? You could have cancelled at 3 and had everyone eating mid afternoon.

Leave the review. Do a charge back or dispute the charge with your bank

In your first post you wrote “They said he’d gone to the wrong place and they were weird and defensive demanding did I want to go ahead or not. It was awful. We’re in the middle of nowhere in a rented property we’d had a few drinks. I didn’t know what to do. So I said go ahead.” So you were given the option of cancelling, which would probably have been the most sensible choice.
The problem here is that they told you it would likely take 7 days to investigate and get back to you, but you went ahead with the scathing review before giving them the chance to deal with it.
I completely understand your anger but do feel you’re slightly going OTT. No way were you taken away from everyone else for 3 hours whilst trying to find out what was going on - you knew at 3.15 that the chef was in the wrong location and likely would be 3 hours late, they sent you their location so you would have known not to expect them until 6. You chose to continue with the booking rather than saying - sod it, let’s go to the pub for a meal instead.
Take the review down, get the refund then rewrite the review.

Thanks for your help everyone which has given me some clarity. A couple of points. Yes I could have said cancel and let’s go to the pub but when I first called them they wouldn’t discuss anything except are you going ahead or not and I didn’t have much time to think. It would have been better following agreeing to go ahead if the chef hadn’t turned his phone off with none of us sure he would turn up at all. He’d already driven two hours the wrong way and the only communication I had with him was a message saying he was lost and a pin drop off his location. It was a shock to see where he was and not to hear from him again.

going out or bringing food in was difficult. There’s 18 of us including 3 under 2. A severe nut allergy sufferer and a milk allergy sufferer. We’re also not at home and very rural so didn’t have an idea of places around.

I explained I was away from the party for two hours not the full three we were waiting and that is true. I was mortified and felt I couldn’t face people which was daft I accept. I was also ringing every 30 to see if they’d heard from the chef. They never kept me updated.

perhaps I did review in haste. But their attitude and defensive approach showed really terrible customer service. The 7 days investigation message was a really standard sorry you’re unhappy type of thing saying things like did the chef know you were unhappy and did you tip him. I had expected a phone call from someone apologising and saying they’d sort it, at the very least.

I’ve taken the reviews down. Mainly because of all the emails they’re sending me about it. I feel a bit exhausted and want the whole situation over. As a lesson in how to handle customers they’re back of the class. In contrast, the house rental company recommended them and asked how it had gone. When I told them they immediately sent me a case of wine. The contrast in approaches is stark.

as an aside they have mainly good reviews but also lots of 1 stars when it’s gone wrong. They obviously have a bit of form for not handling things well in a crisis

That was probably the right thing to do re the reviews. Good luck. You should stand your ground. Read up on the link I sent you. The cancellation vs “come later” thing is a red herring. You did not receive the service that you contracted them to provide and there is a huge difference between 4pm and 7pm. They could have a reasonable argument to charge you something for what you eventually ate and the chef’s service but you should insist on a discount north of 60%.

Your update is interesting as in fact their losing the backing of a cottage owner who routinely recommends them will do more damage than a bad review online.

It would also suggest that the company have catered in that accommodation before, so no excuse for not knowing how to get there.

My bet is they used an agency chef who did not know them or the area.