- This topic has 24 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 2 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
-
-
-
-
One of the party of diners has posted the true account of what happened in this restaurant in The Olive Press and named the restaurant, it is a sorry tale, a rip-off, a roughing up by establishment and Police and somewhere to avoid. Many of the Trip Advisor reviews are damning. Seems par for the course by a bunch of thugs who run it 😡
The restaurant is Taberna Divisa Blanca Granada, ride on by if you see it 😉
-
Cops slam UK press “paella prisoners” story…
http://www.thelocal.es/20130614/cops-slam-uk-press-paella-prisoners-story
The restaurant owner decided eventually not to prosecute the couple but told IDEAL what had happened.
“They asked for a paella but, as it says on the menu, it’s for a minimum of two people, €15 per plate, so €30 in total.”
“They had a lot to drink then they went to leave without paying.”
Seems the police claim Cox lashed out at them – also the restaurant owner states they’d had too much to drink… We may never know the full truth behind this, but it’s certainly the case that they admit refusing the total bill
-
We may never the truth, but apparently some previous Trip Advisor reviews lean towards the Cox party’s version, also mentioned somewhere is the term ‘enchufargo’ and that one cop was seen to be smiling/acknowledging that waiter as if they knew what they were doing! 🙄 Maybe a tried and tested scam on those the restaurant know they won’t see again who probably pay up without fuss and move on, but then again ????????? 🙄
-
One Spaniard refers to the place as Mafioso, place has plenty of bad reviews. The waiter says they drank a lot…he would wouldn’t he 🙄 A middle class couple on a cycling holiday…not actually your average boozer in Torremolinos are they. Anyway we have Marcos on the case trying his best to rubbish the story.
I wonder why Paella is priced for 2 in lots of places. If it’s made fresh that’s fine but it rarely is. Establishments who do a fresh one usually have a sign saying 45 mins or more wait.
-
@katy wrote:
One Spaniard refers to the place as Mafioso, place has plenty of bad reviews. The waiter says they drank a lot…he would wouldn’t he 🙄 A middle class couple on a cycling holiday…not actually your average boozer in Torremolinos are they. Anyway we have Marcos on the case trying his best to rubbish the story.
I wonder why Paella is priced for 2 in lots of places. If it’s made fresh that’s fine but it rarely is. Establishments who do a fresh one usually have a sign saying 45 mins or more wait.
Not a case of trying to “rubbish” a story – just pointing out we don’t know all the facts. Well the only established fact is that Geoff Cox + party refused to pay their bill – and they admitted that. What happened after is one persons word against another.
Can’t see how being a “cyclist” means we should believe they are obviously innocent. I’ve known some aggressive cyclists out there. Middle-class? Again – we read of murderers from good backgrounds. Or is it because they’re from Surrey, that we should take the “knee-jerk” obviously innocent line you’re insisting upon… Unless you personally know the guy (maybe you met at a ukip meeting 😆 ) how do you know what he’s capable of on a night out?
-
What a load of crap. There are rip off places in tourist joints all over the world. This particular one has bad reviews on trip advisor, some from Spanish people. The Police may well have been mates who pop in for their regular freebies.
So this middle aged, middle class man who has never been in trouble in his life goes on holiday to Spain and has too much to drink and causes bother. If I thought I was being overcharged I would create a rumpus too, so would OH. I wish I did know the guy, I would send him a link to what you have been saying around cyberworld 😆
-
Worth reading Geoff Cox’s account on the Olive Press article, seems believable to me, and, there could be a link between copper and waiter/owner since some reviews of the restaurant point that way too 🙄 I expect their own reviews to be on there soon, look forward to them 😉
http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2013/06 … -punch-up/
Another poster says the ‘Spanish enchufargo system is notorious’.
We knew the Guardia Civil (because we really did know a couple of them who’ve left the service) around towns like Coin, Cartama, Alhaurins etc like to turn their blind eyes to mates and some willing punters who wished to get off driving and other offences 😉
-
@katy wrote:
What a load of crap. There are rip off places in tourist joints all over the world. This particular one has bad reviews on trip advisor, some from Spanish people. The Police may well have been mates who pop in for their regular freebies.
So this middle aged, middle class man who has never been in trouble in his life goes on holiday to Spain and has too much to drink and causes bother. If I thought I was being overcharged I would create a rumpus too, so would OH. I wish I did know the guy, I would send him a link to what you have been saying around cyberworld 😆
I know you take a knee-jerk anti-Spain position on all subjects, but the only specific thing I have said about Geoff Cox and his party, is that they refused to pay the bill required by the restaurant. You will find that he’s accepted that this happened, but that they got annoyed by the inability of the waiter to explain the bill.
Now the next bit is the “open to question” evidence. The police were called, and since the couple didn’t have their documents, the police asked them to go to the hotel to show their id. According to the police Cox and his partner lashed out at them – according to Mr Cox it was the other way around.
As I said, it’s one person’s word against another. I would suggest that there is no way we can know the truth based on someone’s occupation or mode of holiday.
However, it’s one thing to query a bill (I’ve seen this so many times, and done it the odd occasion myself), quite another to refuse to pay up.
If Geoff cox and his party refused to pay a restaurant bill, then it seems to me they are already guilty of a crime. This is not to say the police may or may not have been heavy-handed afterwards, but I suspect we will never know the full truth of that.
-
but the only specific thing I have said about Geoff Cox and his party, is that they refused to pay the bill required by the restaurant. You will find that he’s accepted that this happened, but that they got annoyed by the inability of the waiter to explain the bill.
That’s your account Marcos but that is not what the man said
“We pointed out the extra paella and the waiter went off like a firecracker,” said retired hosiery salesman Mr Cox, who is in his 50s.
“We put down €105 and said we would pay that, but he wanted €120.“
It got a bit ugly and when he said he would call the police we said, ‘Right, fine’, because we were certain they would side with us.”
But when officers arrived, the pair found themselves in the middle of a scuffle which saw Mr Cox’s glasses broken and both Brits arrested.
-
@katy wrote:
but the only specific thing I have said about Geoff Cox and his party, is that they refused to pay the bill required by the restaurant. You will find that he’s accepted that this happened, but that they got annoyed by the inability of the waiter to explain the bill.
That’s your account Marcos but that is not what the man said
“We pointed out the extra paella and the waiter went off like a firecracker,” said retired hosiery salesman Mr Cox, who is in his 50s.
“We put down €105 and said we would pay that, but he wanted €120.“
It got a bit ugly and when he said he would call the police we said, ‘Right, fine’, because we were certain they would side with us.”
But when officers arrived, the pair found themselves in the middle of a scuffle which saw Mr Cox’s glasses broken and both Brits arrested.
According to HIS OWN WORDS, they refused to pay the bill. Putting a portion of money on the table is not paying the bill. This is the one fact we know for sure about that night
If the waiter had explained that politely, we would no doubt have been a bit disappointed and paid. But he didn’t – instead he got very angry very quickly. An argument ensued, and when we put 105 euros on the table, the waiter refused them and didn’t hesitate to bring out the rest of the staff who hung about looking menacing to stop us leaving. After 15 minutes or so arguing, the waiter called the police. When they arrived, they were as bad as the waiter – aggressively told us to pay and started demanding ID. We were in a difficult place – to give in or stand our ground. We choose the later.
-
He still didn’t refuse to pay, only the €15. However much you try to turn it around most people will believe it and people all over the world follow trip advisor. What happened to the customer is always right. 🙄
Here is a review from TA.
Please heed the warning. Do not go to this restaurant. The waiter will tell you that your preferred choice is not available and bring you an expensive alternative. In our case in was a platter of warm seafood. The entire restaurant was dirty and the staff abrupt. We stayed for 45 minutes only out of sheer curiosity. During that time, 3 tables challenged their bills. The staff are either dishonest or inept – probably both.
This was posted before all the publicity -
@katy wrote:
He still didn’t refuse to pay, only the €15. However much you try to turn it around most people will believe it and people all over the world follow trip advisor. What happened to the customer is always right. 🙄
He refused to pay the bill. He later admitted that the bill was correct, as it included a minimum 2 person charge for paella. Which part of that do you not understand?
-
It’s no way to run a restaurant or any business if so many reviews even before this incident are so damning of the establishment and staff, there’s no smoke without fire, it seems quite likely to me that the owner/waiters have tried this before on people they don’t ever expect to see again and if you call the police then ‘buddy’ turns up to back restaurant up, probably returning later for his free meal.
In the UK if you query your bill the ‘customer is always right’ as far as I know 😛
You can’t help but be cynical about this set-up 😡
-
-
@GarySFBCN wrote:
Katy is right about TripAdvisor. I checked the reviews when this article was first posted. Several reviews discuss being ripped-off and the majority of reviews indicate the place is awful.
Whether or not it’s a good place to eat is missing the point I think. Were the restaurant and police over-reacting to a table that refused to pay the bill? Unless we were there that night, we may never know
Angie raises a good point though. Surely this type of publicity is bad for a restaurant? I thought so to begin with. Then I realised I was tempted to visit the place myself, to see what the deal was. Maybe they’ll actually gain from this article’s publicity?
-
-
There was a notorious case a year or so ago of an online retailer of spectacles in the US. He found that bad publicity and bad service actually increased his sales. All the bad word-of-mouth meant more people talking about his business, and more inbound links, which meant more traffic. You can read the story here
Maybe I should try it in this forum – tell you all to go to hell and see what happens 😉
-
-
-
-
Here we all are speculating but the one truism is angies reference to the GC.
Owning commercial establishments in Spain, it is important to strike a relationship with the GC to ‘sort out’ legitimate problems in the most ‘effective’ manner. Having said this, it is only possible because in my experiece, there is an underlying level of curruption there.
On the whole, it means that ‘justice’ is sorted out at a local level but with that power comes a potential for abuse.
It’s a double edged sword and will always carry a level of risk of abuse.
Interestingly, up here where I am in a more left leaning society, the rural areas consider the GC as the last remaining vestiges of the Franco years – and from what I’ve seen, I’m inclined to agree.
-
- The forum ‘Spanish Real Estate Chatter’ is closed to new topics and replies.
