Dear Mrs Barnes,
I am sorry that you were not passed on the full story before taking the time to post your review.
On the evening of the 2nd July; our staff arrived at the wedding venue at 5pm for set-up purposes to begin serving for 7pm. At 5.30pm during set-up; an intoxicated guest (your daughter/and also the brides sister) came over to our staff with threats of violence, intimidation, and an assault on a member of our staff.
Our company policy with regards to Workplace violence is as follows -
'Baristaroo will not tolerate any type of workplace violence committed against any of our staff. Our staff are not required to tolerate any abuse, swearing, bullying, threats of violence, sexual misconduct/sexual abuse of any sort, or physical violence. All of our staff have the right to a safe working environment without fear of harm. Violence or abuse of any kind will not be permitted and will be met with an immediate refusal of service, the police being contacted, and potentially a prosecution'.
We appreciate that this is your daughters wedding/a party that you had attended; however first and foremost for our staff - this is their workplace. As a result of this breach of the above policy; our staff spoke to the bride/groom to terminate the agreed catering service through fear of their own safety. Whilst discussing this with the bride/groom; your daughter came over for a second time and assaulted a member of our staff again (she had to be physically held back and restrained by the groom himself). The bride (your other daughter, was mortified).
The bride/groom are a lovely couple and were extremely apologetic on behalf of her sister. They both (along with at least 3 other sisters) explained that she has adult behavioral issues and were extremely used to this behavior at family functions.
They did plead with staff to stay regardless. As a result of the bride/groom's suggestion of a removal of her sister from the reception entirely, the bridge/groom asked our staff whether they would
consider staying and not phoning the police. Our staff felt very sorry for the lovely couple; they agreed to help salvage what was left of their big day on the understanding that staff safety was secured first by removing the guest in question.
The guest was confirmed to have been removed; and the staff completed the service of pizza/waffles - Staff were met with some very lovely compliments from many guests including the bride/groom, who couldn't hug the staff enough!
Additionally; As we were not informed that this reception would be held entirely on a campers field prior to the event; a responsible staff member had contacted the site owner on arrival to check that if in the event of
driving the catering unit on the field and getting stuck/bogged on the way out; there would be some assistance available (via a tractor) on helping the unit off the field safely. We have delivered these services for 10+ years, and there have been some instances where the venue has not made prior provisions, resulting in an expensive removal via an external company to help our catering unit back off the field. Therefore; our policy is to guarantee beforehand that if when running into these kinds of issues; we have something in place to ensure that staff can leave and the grounds aren't destroyed. The UK has also recently had 1-2 weeks of extreme wet weather resulting in flooding; and therefore even though it may have not have rained that morning; the field can still most
certainly be an issue for heavy load vehicles.
This is certainly the first time we have ever been met with a violent situation, and as a result this has caused us to re-look at the way we deal with violent behavior in the first instance with no exceptions; as, as you can imagine upon completing this service our staff are still extremely disturbed by the events of this night, and i am certain you are as shocked as we are to be informed of the full details of the incident.
Kind regards,
Baristaroo
