Chorlton bar and restaurant The Laundrette has hit out at a customer who left it a 1-star review on TripAdvisor, despite not turning up for her booking.
The customer, who was unhappy at being charged a £60 ‘no-show’ fee after she ‘forgot’ to cancel her booking at the busy eatery over Christmas, made her feelings known on the public review site in a long rant.
Revealing that she also works in the hospitality industry and ‘understand it’s their policy to debit a table that hasn’t shown up, and they were just following procedure’, she went on to say that she still felt she should be issued a refund.
After her card was debited, she had emailed the restaurant to ‘explain the circumstances’ and after twelve days had still not heard back on her request – leading her to take to TripAdvisor to make her feelings known more publicly.
Image: The Laundrette, Chorlton
The customer, going under the name Lauren B, said that she works in an independent restaurant in Chorlton and had booked a family meal at The Laundrette on 30 December 2021 in advance.
On the day, however, she says a couple of her family members were taken ill with Covid and she herself was being asked to go into work to cover for her head chef, who had also tested positive with the virus.
Saying that she ‘may have forgotten to cancel’, she goes on to appeal for some sort of solidarity in her bid for a refund, making comparisons with her own workplace saying: “At my restaurant we wouldn’t just bill the card payer and not display any sympathy to the circumstances.
“It’s unprecedented times for everyone at the moment, but especially the hospitality industry, and I know that we have barely made it through this festive period due to staff constantly isolating, tables no-showing, bringing front of house staff into the kitchen to cover in emergency circumstances.
“But I would like to think that despite these uncertain times, local businesses still appreciate human error and genuine mistakes.”
She also implied that the Laundrette didn’t need to charge her for the no-show as she ‘can see out my window [they] are constantly flipping tables.’
The restaurant has since replied, saying: “Your table sat completely empty for 2 hours on a day we were fully booked.
“This is why you were charged.”
Taking aim at the unhappy customer, it went on to say that as a hospitality worker herself she ‘should know way more than most how detrimental tables not showing up is for a small businesses.’
The post continued: “And on top of that you then seem to think it’s acceptable to leave a bad review on trip advisor despite knowing you are 100% in the wrong.
Image: The Laundrette, Chorlton
“We make it extreamly easy to cancel bookings. You can do it online yourself. You can message us on any social media platform. You can call us.
“As you live on the road you could have easily just mentioned it to any of our staff while walking past.
“Unfortunately you didn’t bother doing any of these.”
Adding that ‘we hate charging no shows but it’s the only way to protect ourselves’ the restaurant’s public relations manager finished by inviting her to give him a call, but not before delivering one more blow.
“Normally we are absolutely demoralised by negative reviews but… I’m more than happy for this to stay up and be public so everyone can see.
“Not showing up for restaurant bookings is an extremely rude and disgusting practice.
“It’s the only reason we have put our charging system in place.”
Chloe Kelly delivers powerful patriotic statement after the Lionesses’ Euro 2025 win
Danny Jones
Match-winner Chloe Kelly has delivered a powerful and patriotic statement following England’s second consecutive Women’s Euros win in yet another moment of national pride for the Lionesses.
The former Manchester City player, who faced doubts over even being included in the Euro 2025 squad, once again enjoyed the hero moment in the final against a very talented Spain team, firing a rocket of a penalty into the top left corner.
It wasn’t the first time she’s played the role of difference maker either, not only having scored the winner in their last European final against Germany, but scoring the decisive goal in the semis against Italy to book their final spot in first place.
Here’s the moment she almost took the roof of – both metaphorically and quite literally:
Speaking in the immediate aftermath to the BBC, the 27-year-old Arsenal star was clearly full of all the emotions, so much so that she did let a little swear word off, telling a reporter: “When we were down against Sweden and down against Italy, we f***ing showed grit and determination and we came back.”
However, not only was she given instant dispensation and forgiveness for the expletive slip-up (she’s just won the Euros for the second time, after all), but this wasn’t even close to the stand-out comment from her post-match interviews.
Kelly went on to say, “I’m so proud to be English”, adding that whatever the circumstances in a major tournament or otherwise, for that matter, “you can’t write us off.”
For a country that has regularly wrestled with the muddy line between patriotism and nationalism, especially over the last couple of decades, it came as a breath of fresh air to many of those watching back home.
An unpolitical, simple moment and declaration of something people don’t say as much as they perhaps should.
“For all the sneering from some quarters, that’s just such a wonderful thing to hear. Much more of this, please, in all kinds of arenas.”
It goes without saying that we couldn’t be prouder of the England women’s team, and we can’t lie, we definitely enjoyed Chloe Kelly lapping up the plaudits and proving her haters wrong.
The so-called ‘Queen of Clutch’ now has two different European Championship-winning strikes and her big finish in the Finalissima shoot-out against Brazil.
"The first time was so nice, we had to do it twice." 🏆🏆
Safe to say, the London-born forward has well and truly earned the right to soak up these scenes and enjoy her moment in the spotlight yet again.
It was almost as if she was trying to reel off as many famous phrases and clippable sound bites as possible, telling national media in the post-match press conference: “Thank you to whoever wrote me off, I’m grateful.”
Rejoice, England: football came home – you could say it never left.
Featured Images — BBC Sport (screenshots via YouTube)
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Former doctor jailed for sexually assaulting patients in his care in Wigan
Emily Sergeant
A former doctor has been jailed after being found guilty of sexually assaulting patients in his care in Wigan.
Vijay Gaikwad, from the Lowton area of Wigan, appeared at Bolton Crown Court last week, and was convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault following a thorough investigation by Greater Manchester Police (GMP), alongside the ‘courageous’ testimonies of the victims.
The 44-year-old psychiatrist was found guilty of sexually assaulting three patients under his care.
The offences, according to GMP and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), occurred during medical appointments between 2019 and 2020 made to discuss their mental health and ongoing medication, where Gaikwad exploited his position of trust to inappropriately touch the victims.
In each appointment, Gaikwad suggested that he needed to carry out a physical examination of the women.
During the examination, he touched and squeezed their breasts, despite there being no medical need for him to do so.
Vijay Gaikwad, 44, has been found guilty of sexual assault after inappropriately touching three female patients during unnecessary physical examinations.
In his police interviews, Gaikwad denied carrying out physical examinations of the women’s breasts, and further denied sexually assaulting his patients.
Gaikwad was sentenced to six years in prison last week.
“As a Doctor, Vijay Gaikwad was trusted by his patients,” commented Gill Petrovic, who is the Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West.
“He abused that trust by sexually assaulting three patients in his care. Gaikwad’s sickening actions have had a profound impact on the women who came to him for help. One woman told police that she had self-harmed after this incident because it had upset her so much.
“Gaikwad failed to take responsibility for his actions, making them relive their abuse at trial.”
Detective Constable Lucy Page added: “Gaikwad abused his position of trust in the most egregious manner, and today’s outcome reflects the seriousness of his actions. This sentencing will provide some sense of justice for the victims.”
Georgina Pellant -
18th January 2022 
