And making it to the shortlist of the 2009 Lead Hands Trophy for Worst Customer Realations is The Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst. Congratulations, guys, on a job so badly done it was a beautiful piece of work.
Let me explain... a couple of friends and I went along to The Taphouse to enjoy an afternoon of wine, food and beer. All started off well. It was a very convivial couple of hours. No complaints about the lunch, beer samples, the wine or indeed the friendly service by bar staff.
Nearing the end of our last bottle of wine and our afternoon, we were approached by someone (the manager, as it turns out) asking if we were 'here for the comedy'. We told him we were not. He told us if we wanted to stay we would have to pay $10 each because a night of stand-up was about to commence. He invited us to go upstairs. We said we'd rather finish our glass of wine each where we had spent the last few hours and quite a bit of money. He said with a laugh that he'd simply get security onto us, and left.
Incredulous, we remained to finish what was about half a glass of wine each. Security did indeed approach us in the form of a solid guy so seething with anger during the resulting conversation that he was physically trembling. I asked him to please calm down and tried to explain that perhaps they were beig a little unreasonable when I was told by the bouncer, "Look, you can either get upstairs or you can fuck off." Said with a baffling, barely contained rage. Clearly he comes from a long line of diplomats.
We accepted the snarled invitation to finish our wine upstairs, thinking that perhaps more warning and less anger might have been appropriate. Perhaps we should have been told when purchasing the wine so close to the start of the comedy night that those not there for the comedy would have to purchase their drinks from upstairs and remain up there. Just a thought.
Love ya work, The Local Taphouse.
Any other nominations for the 2009 Lead Hands Trophy?
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
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7 comments:
At first I thought the show was upstairs, which would make sense.
hahhahaah Oh my God. What a lie! 'Lee' I recognise your picture as I was sitting at the next table on that very night. I remember the entire scenario vividly because my friends and I discussed it later that night.
Firstly, the manager was nothing but friendly and respectful when he asked you to either pay the comedy fee (as everyone else had done) or move upstairs. In all honesty you responded like a petulant child. Though I must exclude your friends from any criticism. They seemed quite reasonable.
Then the bouncer (whom I know both personally and professionally) arrived. In all the time I have known him I have never seen him anything but personable, polite and professional - he has been doing his job for a long time. To claim that he was "seething with anger" and "physically trembling" with "barely contained rage" is an outrageous misrepresentation.
I stumbled on your little rant whilst searching reviews of The Local and it really has made my day. Wow. Yes you did acquiesce to the establishment's requests eventually. But perhaps the next time you lose face in front of your friends you should keep your thoughts to yourself, rather than attacking a third party for some sort of perceived slight.
Just setting the record straight.
I usually delete pathetic anonymous comments like this, but this is just ridiculous enough to be amusing. How lame.
If you really were sitting at the next table (yeah right) you would have heard the bouncer tell me to fuck off. Sorry - he was angry and he was aggressive and he was totally unprofessional. I was calm and curious to see just how heavy handed things were going to get. I asked the bouncer to calm down because his anger was completely out of line given the nature of the situation.
I lost no face. The others at the table are still appalled that things escalated and the whole thing was handled so badly by management.
I also have the balls to put my name to complaints like this. It's pretty obvious to everyone who reads this who is behind this anonynous comment. Seriously, so lame.
I had been going to take this post down after speaking to the very reasonable owner, Steve, but you, 'amused' have changed my mind.
Please - for your own self-respect - don't try to be clever again.
a personable, polite and professional bouncer? Amused - you have no cred.
methinks your anonymous blogger may actually work at the pub....
Smells a bit like that, doesn't it. The anonymous comment just above is actually Don, one of the other "guests" that day. He said the same thing on Facebook, where a few others are having a laugh about it. Amused would have been much better to have not said anything and I would have taken the post down.
Mr Lee,
I'm not a staff member of the hotel, nor do I care about your tacky review.
Poor service is nothing to be proud of however your tone is ugly.
Don't you think that this negative energy of your's should be put to better use?
Plant a tree?
Pam Neuf
Darlinghurst
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