Brits, when would you write a negative review?

Posted by Regular-Wonderful@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 151 comments

What the title says. Brits of Reddit, what would be your limit when it comes to bad service? When would you write a negative review? Would you ever write a negative review, or would you just move on?

Tl;dr: new-ish server in our local family-friendly pub mocked me loudly to colleagues, then messed up the order for my table, and argued with us when we asked for the issue to be rectified. When he finally sorted it out, he spent the rest of the evening glaring at us every time he came near. I worked in pubs and cafes for three years and would never have behaved like he did. Should I leave a bad review?

My partner, his friend, and I were in a pub for drinks after work. It was early on a Thursday, and the pub was pretty empty. We decided we wanted a snack. The pub has various food items, including loaded nachos in individual and "sharing" sizes. They also do loaded fries with all the same topping options as the nachos, at the same price - however, no sharing size on the menu. The menu does not specify no substitutions.

I went to the bar and asked if there was any chance of doing a sharing size of the fries, and said I'd pay the difference. The young man behind the bar said no. I said smiled and said that was a shame as it would be a great addition, and I'd check with my party and be back. As I walked away, I heard him say to his female colleagues, "Who does she think I am, the chef? Stupid bitch." They laughed at this. He wasn't trying to be quiet and intended me to hear.

I went to our table and told my partner what had happened. I didn't want to eat there anymore, but as we were all seated, the men went in to order the "beef brisket nachos sharer" and more drinks. They came back out and agreed that the server was weird with them. Food came 10 minutes later...nachos, without any brisket. The male server brought it.

My partner stopped him and asked about the missing brisket. He flatly denied that we had ordered brisket and said, "Look, it's here now, can't you just make do?" We were all shocked and confused by this attitude, so my partner asked if he could take it to the kitchen and just have the chef put the brisket on top. He said he didn't think the chef would do that. I then asked if he could bring the brisket out in a bowl, and we would put it on ourselves. He said he'd see, but we would need to "pay the extra", which we said we would, of course. Finally, about 5 minutes later, he brought out a small bowl of cold brisket, charged us £2 extra, and literally stomped off. He then glared at us every time he came near until we left.

I've done his job, and I know how bad customers can be, so I will never allow myself to be rude a rude customer. However, I would also never have dreamed of behaving like he did, especially to customers who were as polite and understanding as we were. We kept cool even when he was basically stomping his feet like a sulky child and, in the end, we even provided solutions so that he could rectify the problem with the least possible inconvenience to himself and the kitchen. Also, we're pretty sure that we paid the full and correct price for the brisket nachos the first time.

My colleagues all seem to think that this behaviour was so extremely bad and inappropriate that I should leave a bad review, but I don't know.

What would you do?