The Flying Standard - JD Wetherspoon — Restaurant in Coventry

COVID AND DISCRIMINATION

I was kicked out of the Flying Standard in coventry. And refused service with my disabled mum, an autistic cousin and 2 others because the child that was with us was asking questions about covid and isolating and how people should stay safe, a member of staff said they 'over heard' my litte cousin say he was self isolating which is 100% untrue! We was seated at our table number 8 for at least 20 mins and the staff had already decided not to serve us but didnt tell us till the manager had come on to his shift which is appauling considering we was kicked out for being "a high risk" but we was left there waiting for an answer and a refund for at least 30 mins in total! They knew they was going to refuse us service but still let us order over £30 worth of food and drink over the app! I have to wait 4 days to go into my bank considering we had to fork out extra money to! To eat else where with an autistic child and a disabled woman! Both are classed as risks themselves in this pandemic and would NEVER put anybody else at the risk of dying! That's inhumane! We was well and truly embarrassed! We know members of staff don't have to give over there names when asked but they freely walk around with name tags for great service and to be friendly but soon as i asked for there names so i could make a complaint and contact HR smoothly he became hostile and rude... he then turned around and said I quote " i cant give you my name but I can give you my shoe size" that lack of respect for me in that moment coming from a manager of a establishment is so disgustingly rude! Iv never been spoken to that way from someone who is supposed to be at such a professional level! The manager whose name i still dont know walked away and said we was being aggressive for trying to reason with him. We tried to ask for his name to prevent further misunderstandings totally professional! He was patronising and honestly rude and refused to have a civilised reasonable conversation with us. He walked of mid way through conversation and was constantly talking over me as I was talking! And quite honestly i feel like he was discriminating against us because no such thing was said so what else could it of been this is the 21st century and we shouldn't have to deal with this! We understand there is a pandemic going on and we comply with the rules 100%. Also we tried to explain my cosuin had autism and no body wanted to listen, clearly not a safe environment for him if staff are not even willing to listen.

With autism you cannot filter what you say before processing it and thinking first, so for that staff member to run and say that isn't credible, it isnt credible enough to use as reason enough to refuse and kick us out let alone out of an autistic child's mouth who is 9 years old. Its not justifiable and certainly isn't credible and completely unjust. He told us we were getting aggressive just as excuse to end the conversation but as you can see in the cctv, we all remained seated and noone shouted. Please please please...

Despite having previously enjoyed this Wetherspoons, our visit last night was frankly appalling for many reasons. We started off the night sat outside where we ordered both drinks and food. We noticed straight away the server Jay had a very poor attitude. After waiting about half an hour for our food we enquired as to where it was. Jay was dismissive, reluctant to help and rude saying to one of us "check for yourself mate" and rushed off. Although taken aback a couple of us went to check. Shortly after, Jay returned with said food, telling us he had forgotten to bring it to us. The food was cold and he did not apologise. We continued our night, later moving inside. Whilst inside, Jay briefly walked past our table, holding a nearly empty bottle of absolut vodka, and made a quick comment saying "no more of this, you've gone through a whole bottle". For reference, we were a party of 9, and for the majority of us, absolut vodka with mixer was our drink of choice for the night, and therefore it's more than understandable that during our 3 hours there, a lot of the bottle was used. We thought this was blunt and unnecessary, and didn't really make sense, as we were paying for the drinks and none of us were any more than tipsy - definitely not drunk. After this incident, we stopped ordering that drink as not to cause a fuss, so instead, one of us ordered and paid for a cider. Jay refused to serve him the drink, claiming that he had previously told us that we were cut off. This was not the case. Understandably annoyed, we asked for the manager, Jamie, who demonstrated even worse customer service skills than Jay. Apparently they were cutting us off because we were "too drunk and rowdy". This was also not the case. At this point, they stationed a bouncer by our table, and refused to refund my friend for the cider he never received. Feeling uncomfortable with the bouncer's presence, and unwelcome in general, we decided to leave. We had to wait outside for an Uber for a while, during this time, many clearly drunk people went in and out of the pub, and my other female friend and I were bothered by two drunk men, whilst the bouncers watched and did nothing. Overall, an awful experience which we will be taking further. We will not be returning to this wetherspoons, and...

Ordered food via the app, drinks delivered fine, waited for food. Nothing came, questioned this, the boy had to go away to find out what's going, he came back and said there is a 45 Min wait. Advised him we had not been told, he said we should of been told at the bar, so I said we ordered via the app. His response was well how are we to tell you then? So I asked who delivered our drinks and in a really snarky attitude he said he did not know, I said so could they not have advised us of the wait. His response was a look of disgust that he was even being questioned. Asked for the manager who was very apologetic and emphasized with not being told about the wait. She offered a full refund and apologized again. We then went to the earl of Mercia up the road where instantly had better service. We like to support wetherspoons but will only go to one's where they can treat the customers with a bit of respect instead of disdain for being there.

So update to this review, dated 28/07/19

Went again after the pub had a refurb of the kitchen. Hoping for better service etc. Well used table service again to order food and drinks. The food came out after 10 mins, still had not received the drinks by this point. The food was hot but it looked like the food was thrown at the plate, asked for the lamb shank to be sent back and the bowl cleaned. The drinks came after the lamb shank had been returned. Asked to why we had to wait for the drinks. We were told they were left short staffed, after a rebuttle to that I was then told in a condescending manner that I could of gone to the bar, well I was on my way to the bar when the food came. No check back to see if the food was ok and when plates cleared, the member of staff didn't even acknowledge us, she could of asked if everything was ok but I suspect she was told that we were not happy so avoided the situation. Again the staff do not know how to speak to customers. I would suggest that if you are left short staffed then perhaps don't run table service. Teach your staff how to actually speak...