Bad Customer Service Gets Great Publicity

Unless you've been living under a rock this week, you can not have failed to have seen the story about a member of staff at Hawksmoor, on Deansgate, who accidentally served a customer at the bar a £4500 bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol 2001, instead of the £260 Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 2001 ordered.

The story first broke when the restaurant admitted the mistake by tweeting their regards to the customer, who left unaware of the error, whilst management forgave the culpable member of staff saying "chin up! One-off mistakes happen and we love you anyway".

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Whilst it doesn't say much for the service or training at Hawksmoor, nor the fact somebody can spend £260 on a bottle of wine at a bar without even noticing it was not the one they ordered; the story did highlight that Hawksmoor not only have a bar, but are also a great company to work for - cynics may have noticed they also posted a Tweet the same day boasting "that they have been recognised as 1 of the UK’s best hospitality employers by the Caterer".

Whilst the tweet itself had over 66,000 likes, the story not only made all the national newspapers but even made it on to the bulletins of BBC, ITN, and Sky News, with many foreign news channels also picking up on the report. Not bad publicity for £4240. They may want to promote the hapless waiter or, if you're a cynic, whoever made the story up in the first place.

Whilst the press have so far been unable to locate the customer in question, we have had it confirmed by a few members of staff, with whom we are friends, that the story is in fact true. 

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