Why you should avoid a Wetherspoons pub
Bendy Girl had a very bad experience at a Wetherspoons pub where the manager harassed, intimidated and humiliated her in front of the clientele.
Bad enough, you might think, but even worse for someone who was in a spot of bother, needed understanding and help (on her own terms), and whose friends were trying to protect her.
I also think the attitude of the rest of the bar staff shows just how far out of line the manager was.
I’ve let Wetherspoons know what I think, but I’ll also be avoiding any Wetherspoons pub in the future as well. (Not that I frequent many pubs, but I’ll make sure the few don’t include theirs.)
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The incident has also been picked up by A Very British Dude and Humaniform (scroll down to this week’s links), so in the interests of solidarity I’m giving them a mention. If you decide to take this up and give Wetherspoons a slap, let me know and I’ll link to your post as well.
I would write to them as well but it would make sense to know which particular Wetherspoons it was.
I’ll just boycott them personally instead.
Well Well Well!
I wish I were a frequenter of Wetherspoons pubs, then I could boycott them.
This is a dreadful example of bad management, not to mention disability discrimination.
I have commented on the site and will post about it myself too. It is amazing that so many years after the Act, we still see these things happening.
Being one with the same condition I too have had this at a cinema.
The disabled get preferential rates but when I asked about it I was told in loud voice ‘your not in wheelchair, that means your not disabled’.
So me being be me I replied equally as loud ‘no I am not at present but if you wait 10 mins I will go a get it and you will have to accomdate me and my carer (for free) in a suitable area of the cinema so that I can both see the film and not cause a fire and health and safety risk and you will have to arrange for staff to ensure I am safe’
Funny how quickly she became silent and handed a ticket to me. I hobbled away with the passing comment
‘you don’t have to be a wheelchair to have a disability’
just as the manager stepped up and acknowledged the wrong doing.
I have two things to say to bigots like these…there by the grace of god go you and becareful what you wish for!
LM, there are wider reasons for Bendy Girl not being specific about where she lives or which pub she frequents, so I think it best to respect that. Besides, it has more impact if Wetherspoons as a whole realises that the misbehaviour of one employee in one pub has much wider implications.
I suppose Bendy Girl will write in stating which specific pub it was….then I suppose if we all write in mentioning that we’d heard about it the big chief would realise that he’d got a problem on his hands.
Now…..where’s that Wetherspoons website….?
All done! I’ve e-mailed them with my concern.
(I don’t think a special link to my blog would be relevant as it is not mentioned there….I did it in my own name.)
Sorry I will have to abstain. Since I am America, and have never been in a pub. I come from a culture/religion where alcohol and dancing is a sin. And dry (can’t sell alcohol) counties are still around. Here you can’t buy alcohol on a Sunday. So yep teetotaler here.
Oops meant american.
But that does sound bad once I read it. I do hope she does okay later on.
Thank you so much Stoney for posting on this subject. I have just posted an update on the situation. BG x
>Humaniform (who is I think Matt Wardman)
Indeed. It may one day be my personal blog, but for the moment it helps with traction in google.co.uk and gives me a place to post about things that are not political enough for The Wardman Wire (e.g’, town planning) or that I do not want there out of consideration for the others who write there (e.g., if another set of Motoons came out that needed to be posted).
Matt W
I had a bad experience in our local Weatherspoons and have never been back.
I took my daughter, son-in-law and grandson for a meal there. First we were told we had to sit in a designated area for children which was fair enough but not much fun as we were alone in the area and it was shut off from the rest of the pub. Then we were told that we could only have one drink each in the children’s area. Well I’m far from a boozer but one glass of wine isn’t going to last me through the 20 minute wait for the meal, the meal itself. and then the dessert. Being as my daughter wasn’t drinking that night, I couldn’t see what the problem was. As I said, we were alone and we weren’t about to drink ourselves into oblivion and cause harm to my grandson.
When we ordered we were told that my grandson would have to have a meal, too. He was 8 months old at the time and hardly likely to want steak and chips or beef and ale pie! Eventually they allowed us to order a plate of chips for him which we then shared between us, leaving him a few to chew on.
On top of that we were told that we would have to leave after 90 minutes and move into the main pub, which we couldn’t do as we had the baby with us!
Never again!!
Stoney, I’m still catching up with comments on my blog but I’m sorry you’ve been having problems there, the only thing I can come up with is it being something to do with blogger. Expect another update to the situation in the next few days.
Sharon, that sounds just like the situation which caused such a stir in the media recently…it wasn’t you, was it?! BG
Wetherspoons have criticised LibDem MP Vince Cable for saying High Street banks “had become the financial equivalent of a Wetherspoons pub – but with even less of a sense of social responsibility”.
The pub chain protested that “it took its social responsibilities seriously”.
How does that fit with Bendy Girl’s experience?
I think I’ll email Vince Cable with a link to Bendy Girl’s post…
I witnessed in the local wethers’ in fife, where a girl that I new of who was a diabetic, was in the pub with some friends and she fell unwell going into a hypo in the pub. The staff were informed but they bodily escorted this girl out of the pub,thinking that she was drunk………the Girl eventually got to hospital with no effort from wetherspoons……..damned scandalous, they should be ashamed.