The Steel Foundry - JD Wetherspoon — Restaurant in Sheffield

This Wetherspoons has seriously gone downhill. As a regular, I’ve witnessed numerous instances of terrible customer service that has completely ruined my opinion of the staff and management.

Recently, I was sitting outside with my boyfriend, tucked away in a corner with nobody sat around us when a female staff member abruptly told me I couldn’t eat my chips. I hadn’t even touched them, but even after I put them away, she kept glaring at me and going back inside until my boyfriend noticed, then suddenly she smiled at him and stopped. When I ate half a chip to prove my suspicion of being watched, a male employee stormed out yelling that I’d been warned and threatened to refuse service if I ate again. The timing was so precise it felt like I was being watched. Sure enough, my boyfriend spotted a CCTV camera pointed directly at me, with no signs warning customers about surveillance, pretty sure that’s illegal. But it was clear they were after confrontation from the start, and I strongly believe the male staff was brought out to intimidate me, as he didn’t even address my boyfriend, just yelled at me in my face.

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt where I can, maybe they were both having a hard day, but I’m only human too, and when I’m being monitored like a criminal, and spoken to so rudely I’m reduced to tears, and for it to be met with an eye roll and him walking off, I find it deeply upsetting and disappointing in an establishment I expected more of. Especially when both staff members are usually quite nice. Admittedly I am quite sensitive, and things like this can upset me quite easily, but regardless it’s important staff consider how they talk to customers, using intimidation tactics and yelling don’t help create a nice experience.

On another visit, a male staff member told a woman to shut up just for laughing with her family, and only after the men left for the bar. It was blatantly unnecessary, and again, ruined the atmosphere, just like me and my boyfriend, her family left shortly after.

The kitchen is no better. I ordered a jacket potato and overheard the staff complaining about how inconvenient it was because the potatoes were “put away.” When it arrived stone cold, I wasn’t surprised. I’m not sure how hard it is to microwave a jacket potato, but I’ve learnt my lesson not to order it again.

I also saw staff kick out an elderly couple because of their quiet, calm dog. Instead of being reasonable, a male staff member lectured the woman for five minutes about how “in principle” they shouldn’t have brought the dog, despite it causing zero disruption, all after closing hours when no shops were open. It felt like the staff just wanted to cause trouble or were under some strict manager’s thumb, again it was only the woman addressed. Many people around the couple weren’t happy, me and my boyfriend included.

Policies here are enforced inconsistently, I regularly see people eating full McDonald’s meals outside with no issue, but half of a Cajun popeye chip is simply crossing the line. (You have been warned). This place is disrespectful to customers at the best of times. That being said it seems you get better customer service if you come outside of Meadowhall hours, and it’s less busy so there’s always that to keep in mind.

I hope to see this fixed, as the location is ideal, it’s cheap and the food is great when it’s not freezing cold. I’m not a Karen by any means, I’m just fed up of seeing customers being spoken to badly on a regular basis, hopefully this review will highlight the customer service to management, and it will be...

Following from previous reviews -

We went in as a staff night out. Some of the team were celebrating certain things in their lives, the rest of our group were just having a good night.

The pub was fairly quiet, and we were sat away from the vast majority.

The pub ‘management’ came over and told us we would no longer be served as a matter of being too loud and disorderly etc etc.

Firstl, yes, some of us may have been a bit loud, but if we were told beforehand to quieten it down a bit, we would’ve. Again, we were just enjoying our night.

The fact the team leader/supervisor whatever had the nerve to come over and tell us we’re all refused service and barred for no valid reason baffled me.

Ok, so we were loud…. One of the members of our group is deaf and relies on hearing aids. She may come across loud in some instances but never as a result of ‘too much to drink’. And NEVER maliscioisly. Using this as a reason to turf us away is disgusting - especially considering we were at a quieter and of the pub when everyone else was say down the opposite side. We were behaved, having a laugh in our group.

To say we visit this location many times in the week, and have never had to be told…. We will be taking our custom somewhere else from now on.

We were treat like we’d smashed the shop up.

All the staff had to do was give us a warning before forcing us out, and we would’ve rained it in. But clearly they didn’t want our custom

The young skinny team leader needs some retraining on how to fulfill his job role properly as his words quite frankly were malicious.

Again, we visit many times in the week and any other staff member would have told us if we were being too loud, politely. This one staff member knows our faces and could’ve done the same.

Sorry wetherspoons, but we will not be back to this location again! Your loss as we spend a fortune...

Had the worst experience at this weatherspoons there was 4 of us eating we ordered food and drinks my autistic daughter who is 6 years old is so fussy with eating so to be safe I went to McDonald’s and got her something I know she eats. She almost ate it all when a staff member came up to us and said she can’t eat her food in the restaurant she said there’s signs on the door as you come in that we couldn’t take our own food we didn’t see it with the amount of advertising there was outside. Our food came and the manager came out and said my daughter couldn’t eat her food she could go outside and eat it she’s 6 years old with additional needs as if. He was so rude and wouldn’t let it go my partner said we will know for next time and we are sorry I said you can bring a plate out and she can transfer it onto a plate but he said no the other waitress said she needed to put the food away how rude this is discrimination that my autistic daughter faces everyday just for being that little bit different from everyone else. We said we would be happy to leave with a full refund as we won’t eat somewhere my daughter isn’t allowed they refused a few times but we are not paying for a meal we can’t eat because they was kicking my 6 year old out. I knew westherspoons had no standards but didn’t know they didn’t have morals we got our full refund and left and went to a restaurant where my daughter was more then welcome and staff wasn’t narrow minded. Weatherspoons I work in hospitality myself and wouldn’t dream of doing what you did to my daughter you should be ashamed of yourself I will take this further I think you should change your no food from other chains policy and bend the rules a little cos believe it or not autism is more common then you think. Not be long until the weatherspoons chain is no longer with bad attitude...