Vancouver restaurant responds to one-star review, claims customer harassed staff

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The manager of a Vancouver restaurant is fighting back after a customer, who she claims was harassing a female server, left a negative review online.

Rachel Zottenberg, manager of the Rumpus Room in the Mount Pleasant area, said she “had to respond” after she saw a one-star review written by someone calling themselves “Kal vin.”

In the review, the person wrote they had “one of the worst customer experiences.” The person went on to say they would never step foot in the Rumpus Room again.

But Zottenberg said the customer had actually been harassing a female server all night.

“Throughout the evening it just got more and more aggressive, to the point that we had to kick the customer out,” she said.

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On her response online, Zottenberg wrote the customer had “aggressively” cornered the server while she tried to leave the bathroom. She also said the customer tried to make the server dance with him and that he had tried “several advances towards her,” noting the server had let him know she was not interested.

“Our restaurant was not having an ‘off day’ we do not allow men or anyone for that matter to create uncomfortable environments for our staff or customers,” she wrote.

Zottenberg said they are not a big restaurant, noting she knew exactly who “Kal vin” was, as that was the only issue they had had that night.

“I was 100 per cent sure who it was. It was the biggest event of our night,” she said. “It was one of the most uncomfortable events that’s happened in my restaurant to date.”

She said she gathered staff at the end of the night to make sure nothing else had happened that could have lead to someone writing that review.

“I just felt the need to respond to it and also sort of finally speak out about what had happened because I do feel like not enough people get a voice for it,” she said.

Since her post, Zottenberg said she’s been getting a lot of support. She said she had to do something because she wanted to stand up for her staff, especially the served that was allegedly harassed.

“As for you never stepping foot in here again…Sounds good to us,” Zottenberg wrote at the end of her response.

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