Wetherspoons bans pensioner after he complains about being served five pieces of chicken in 10-piece meal

A pensioner says he was banned from Wetherspoons after making a complaint about missing chicken.

Derek Elliot, 69, from Cornwall, has been visiting the chain of discount pubs for many years with his friend, 76-year-old Mike Trewartha.

But, despite numerous successful lunch trips, their most recent outing ended in disaster when Trewartha claims he was served just five pieces of chicken in a 10-piece meal.

After being served the meal at the John Francis Bassett in Camborne, Elliot took it upon himself to complain about the missing chicken.

He claims he politely spoke to a member of staff regarding the issue, and claims his complaint was ignored. But Wetherspoons insists that he was 'abusive' to a staff member.

“I politely called over one of the staff and asked if my friend could have the other five missing chicken pieces,” Elliott said.

“He rudely ignored my request and insisted that Mike would have to pay another £1.45 for the additional pieces.

”I showed him the lunchtime menu, which we had ordered from, which clearly indicated 10 pieces of chicken chunks.

“The staff member started to walk away and ignored our comments, I started to again ask that he looked at the menu but he refused and continued to walk away.”

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By this point, Elliot claims that other customers were encouraging him to speak to the manager so he went to the bar to try and resolve the issue.

However, he was met by the same member of staff.

Despite an apology from one of the bar staff for making a mistake with their food order, the manager continued to refuse to apologise to Elliot and his friend before asking them to leave.

“As there was still no apology from the manager I had to tell him how disappointed my friend and I had been with his complete refusal to investigate our complaint to which he replied that my friend and I had to leave,” Elliot explained.

“I told him we had not even finished the drinks which came with our dinners but he just went to the till withdrew around £4.50 and insisted we left.

“When I went back to our table, two or three people were watching and asking me what was going on. When I told them we were being thrown out they could not believe it.”

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Angry and embarrassed, Elliot went home and e-mailed the discount pub chain regarding the incident, but he did not get the reply he was hoping for.

Instead, the company insisted they backed the decision of the pub manager and banned the pair from using the pub for bad behaviour and bad language.

“I’m absolutely shocked,” Elliot said.

“I’m a quiet person and the worst part is he wouldn’t come over and look at the menu when we had the evidence of how much chicken Mike should have had right there in front of us in black and white.

“After I emailed them they didn’t even ask for my point of view before banning me. I’ve done nothing wrong whatsoever.”

Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon commented on the incident saying: “We appreciate there was an issue at the pub.

“However, the reason the gentleman has been barred is that he was abusive towards staff.

“We will not tolerate this behaviour and back the decision taken by the pub manager.”