A hungry mechanic in Bolton has been praised after giving a hilarious response to an impatient customer that left him a damning review online.
After being confronted by a stroppy driver who insisted that he put down his food and fix her car immediately despite him not having stopped all day, cheeky mechanic Chris Hogan decided to take matters into his own hands.
The gearhead, who works at Eddie’s Motor Spares, was accosted by a rude customer during his 15-minute break just had he had sat down to a hot pie for his first break.
Ringley-based worker Chris had already told the customer that he would fix her issue in ten minutes’ time, once he was done with his pie and the rest of his fifteen-minute lunch break, but that wasn’t considered speedy enough.
Instead, she sped off and instead uploaded a negative review of Eddie’s Motor Spares, taking the business’s perfect 5-star score down to a 4.6.
He told The Bolton News: “I couldn’t believe it. We had been working without a break all morning and just sat down at 1pm for a hot pie.
“I took my first bite and a customer demanded I put it down and fix her brake light ‘because it only takes five minutes’.
“Now, if it had been a bad pie, I might have done just that, but it was so tasty and I had been looking forward to it, so I asked her to wait 10 minutes.”
Sharing a picture of himself to the social media networking site, Chris wrote: “Just adapting an eating tray so i can eat lunch and fit bulbs at the same time so the next reviewer won’t leave me a bad review for not leaving my half-eaten lunch so she can have a bulb fitted Immediately on demand.”
The negative review shared online by the customer who inspired the eating tray read: “Needed a brake light fitting. 5-minute job.
“Unhelpful lady behind the counter said everyone was on their dinner – saw two blokes in the back.
“I get everyone needs a lunch break but for the sake of 5 mins?! Phoned back later and still no joy so went Formula One in Farnworth.
“No probs there and no charge. Guess who I’ll be using in the future?!!”
Customers at the garage have been quick to pile on and offer support to Chris after he posted the picture of himself and his pie-eating tray to the business’s Facebook page.
One person wrote: “A nice meat and potato pie on a buttered balm would settle your nerves Chris.”
Another person said: “How DARE you have your dinner! Love the tray idea, keeping entitled people happy whilst having your dinner, that’s how businesses should be run. Bravo!”
A third joked: “Honestly having lunch instead of sorting out your customers,Next thing you be doing is going on holiday.”
A fourth commented: “Got to earn your bread & butter”
Speaking to The Bolton News, Chris added: “It is a family-run business, father and son, and we’re hungry mechanics but haven’t had a customer react like that in a very long time.
“The last person I remember doing something similar tipped a £1 coin, then came back in and asked to swap it back for a 20p.
“I couldn’t even buy a packet of crisps with that!”
Featured image – Eddie’s Motor Spares
News
Spanish journalist rubbishes reports of Barcelona debating ending Marcus Rashford’s loan deal early
Danny Jones
Spanish journalist Guillem Balagué has come out to rubbish reports that FC Barcelona have been considering ending Marcus Rashford’s loan deal early.
The well-known football reporter, who regularly works with the likes of Sky Sports, CBS Sports, BBC and more, is one of many to have publicly decried false claims made about the Manchester United loanee, who joined the La Liga giants at the start of this summer.
Barca themselves are also said to have quashed the rumours, with Balagué’s quotes having now been widely circulated online.
Speaking via X over the weekend, the 56-year-old put it simply: that the rumblings are nonsense, reassuring that the club have plenty of faith in his abilities.
Absolutely rubbish that Barcelona is planning to end up early @MarcusRashford loan deal
Barça told his representative that they have a lot of confidence in Rashford’s potential and that they believe he will recover as a top player
As you can see, the Catalan-born RCD Espanyol fan also chose to publicly align himself with former England footballer, Gary Lineker, who has suggested that a targeted and discriminatory narrative against Rashford has developed in recent years.
Though he didn’t state it verbatim, Balagué added: “No more to say, apart from the fact I agree with Gary Lineker and his treatment by some media.”
In case you were unaware of what he’s precisely referring to, Lineker said in a chat with the Man United forward on his The Rest Is Football podcast that he believes Rashford “wouldn’t face the same criticism if he was white.”
Having also made the move from Britain to Barcelona back in 1986 (spending a total of three seasons there), the 64-year-old knows plenty about adjusting from playing in one country to another.
You can see the interview in full here.
The interview was conducted shortly after Rashford’s loan deal was completed, and he had plenty to say about his boyhood team.
Responding to Balagué’s social media post, one commenter wrote: “This nonsense is coming from racist journalists in England who refuse to leave [Rashford] alone. They bullied him when he was in England, especially during times when he seemed unhappy.
“Now, these haters have followed him to Barcelona. Rashford is one of the kindest players in the world, but these clowns just won’t let him live his life in peace.”
It is worth noting, however, that the original reports in question and ultimately aggregated by media across Europe and here in the UK come from a domestic outlet, El Nacional.
While he is yet to rediscover the form of his peak years in United red at the Camp Nou, he is now entering what are traditionally seen as the ‘prime’ period in a footballer’s career and did show more positive signs on loan at Aston Villa during the second half of the previous campaign.
At 27, there is still plenty of time to turn things around; that being said, after being brought back into the national team and with his parent club holding an option to buy clause for around a reported £20 million, the question remains whether he will be returning to Old Trafford at the end of the term. Speaking of…
How Greater Manchester ranks as NHS ‘league tables’ are published for first time ever
Emily Sergeant
A ‘pioneering’ new system of league tables revealing the best and worst performing NHS Trusts has been published for the first time ever.
This marks a new era of ‘transparency’ and ‘accountability’ in the NHS, with the league tables delivering on the Government’s promise to drive up standards, tackle variation in care, and ensure people get the high-quality service they rightly expect.
Every trust in England – from urgent and emergency care, through to elective operations and mental health services – will be ranked quarterly against ‘clear and consistent’ standards.
“This is not just about data, it’s about delivery,” the Government says.
Letting patients and the public access more data will help to drive improvement even faster. It will support them to identify where they should demand even better from their NHS.
Read more about the new league tables on overall performance for NHS services across England ⬇️ https://t.co/e8DYNakbfR
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) figures reveal that four out of five of England’s 134 ‘acute’ hospital trusts are considered to be failing.
Among the best-performing hospitals in the country was Manchester’s specialist Cancer hospital, The Christie, which was actually ranked in an impressive third place, while across Greater Manchester as a region, the highest ranked trusts were Tameside and Bolton, which came in 58 and 59 respectively on the list.
Manchester University Foundation Trust, in the heart of the city centre, came in 71st place.
The rest of the region’s trusts all came in the bottom half of the rankings – with Stockport at 86, Wigan at 92, and finally the Northern Care Alliance at 116.
NHS ‘league tables’ ranking every trust have been published for first time ever / Credit: Stephen Andrews (via Unsplash)
Sadly, it was revealed that more than half of the 20 worst general hospitals are in the north of England, but it is London that dominates the top half of the table.
“These league tables will identify where urgent support is needed and allow high-performing areas to share best practises with others, taking the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS,” explained Heath Secretary, Wes Streeting.
“We must be honest about the state of the NHS to fix it.
Georgina Pellant -
14th August 2023 
