Jane
Complaint regarding the staff at the Blessington
On Fri 17th March 06 I called into the Blessington Carriage for a drink with a friend. On being served at the bar as the bar maid was bringing my ordered drinks over I was searching through my bag for my money so that I could pay her, which I unfortunately couldn't find. I explained to the bar maid, 'I can't find my money so could you please put the drinks behind the bar until I've sorted it out', to which she immediately became verbally aggressive, shouting, 'put exactly where behind the bar, you're drunk!'. Although shocked by her unsympathetic reaction, I was much too concerned as too possibly having lost my money, so I didn't react and went with a friend to the toilets and emptied out my bag where I luckily found my money which has slipped out of a pocket in my bag into the bottom of my bag. I then went back up to the bar with my friend to purchase the drinks that I'd previously ordered and was looked over to but totally ignored by the bar maid, so I went up to her and asked to see management to which the bar maid replied, 'No!'. She then walked off and I saw her talking to one of the male bar staff. Another bar maid was walking by, so I caught her eye and asked her if I could speak to management, to which she went up to the same man that the unpleasant bar maid was talking to. After a good few minutes the bar manager came over and my friend and myself started to explain what had happened, and we were blocked by him, also saying that I was drunk, and that he could serve my friend but if she gave me alcohol she would be committing an offence! I tried to talk to him, saying to him that if he listened to me that I was totally coherent and in no way drunk, to which he very patronisingly answered, 'I can't understand a word you're saying love!' I can honestly say that I wasn't drunk, as my friend any myself hadn't gone out till late, my friend was driving and we were having a quiet evening out, and we had both only had one glass of wine before we went into the Blessington carriage. I'm still upset by the incident, firstly because the bar maid was so unnecessarily unpleasant and secondly that the manager had already made up his mind that his bar maid was in the right before he'd even spoken to me, and it ruined what had been up till then a perfectly nice evening. I'm hoping that you will post this complaint on your web site as I wasn't given room to complain on the evening concerned.
If I had of been drunk I would of held my hands up to it and been mortified that I'd caused offence to people, but as it was I was sober and because of the pure unpleasantness of the situation and the people concerned I will not be going into the Blessington carriage ever again!
