Joseph R.
Google
Extremely Rude Owner
I booked a table at Champany Inn 5½ weeks in advance for Friday 23rd January. One week before the booking, I received a call telling me it had been cancelled due to a private event that had been double‑booked by the previous owner who has sadly passed away. I explained that I book well in advance because of work commitments and arranging childcare, so being cancelled on at short notice wasn’t ideal.
I was spoken to on the phone by two members of the restaurant staff, both of whom were polite and professional. I was told that, as the staff members weren’t able to help me, they would get the owners to call me back to find a compromise, as their suggested solutions (changing the date or eating in the Chop House instead) were no use to me. That call unfortunately never came. Two days before my booking, I gave them a call to try and sort something out.
The phone call that followed with one of the owners was, without exaggeration, the worst customer service I have ever experienced. I had genuinely never been spoken to in such a rude manner. I was spoken to with sarcasm, interruptions, snide comments, and even laughter down the phone. At one point, the owner hung up on me. I had to remind her repeatedly that they had cancelled my booking due to their own error - not the other way around - yet somehow I was made to feel like I was being unreasonable for asking them to help fix a problem entirely of their own making. This was their mistake to fix.
I suggested a compromise - a cash alternative for the £100 voucher I had planned to use for my meal, so I could book elsewhere as, by this point, there was no way I was visiting Champany. Whilst I understand their usual Ts and Cs would prevent this from happening, I did feel it was a sensible thing to do on this occasion as a goodwill gesture. Instead, I was met with constant barriers, shifting explanations, and even demands to provide the names of the five people who had bought me the voucher. It felt like they were inventing obstacles rather than trying to help.
The owner eventually told me she would contact the other restaurant I had rebooked with and arrange equivalent vouchers there, but by this point it felt like damage limitation on her part given the way I had been spoken to and treated. Thankfully the other restaurant was accommodating.
I can accept mistakes happen. However, the owner’s attitude, tone, and complete lack of basic interpersonal skills were astonishing. A simple apology and a bit of respect would have gone a long way, but instead I was treated with rudeness and contempt from start to finish.
Champany Inn is a place we have stayed and dined at quite a few times over the years and would have happily recommended to others before this experience. It’s a shame the owner has completely ruined any chance of us returning.
