"**⭐ 1/5 – Quite possibly the worst customer service experience I have had in years**
I genuinely cannot remember the last time I felt compelled to write such a negative review, but our experience at The Inn at Woodhall Spa was so extraordinarily poor that it deserves to be documented.
We stopped here because it was advertised as being open from **12pm for a carvery**. We had plans for the afternoon, so the idea of a Sunday carvery seemed ideal: straightforward, traditional food that should, in theory, make for a relatively quick and pleasant lunch.
What followed was an almost comical catalogue of poor organisation, terrible communication and, most disappointingly, staff attitudes that were utterly incompatible with customer service.
From the outset, the welcome was distinctly unwelcoming. The staff member serving us was abrupt and appeared thoroughly disinterested in being there. During the relatively short time I was at the bar, she managed to get my partner's order wrong, along with the orders of two other customers. Her demeanour was so miserable that it was difficult to believe she was working in a customer-facing role at all.
We then approached the bar to order food, only to be told that it would be **another hour before food was available and that they couldn't take orders until then**.
Fine.
We accepted that. We had a drink and decided to stay because we'd already made the journey and were prepared to wait the hour. We were also under the impression that, once the carvery started, the whole point of a carvery was that food could be served relatively efficiently.
No alternative food options were offered. No meaningful explanation was given. We simply accepted what we were told.
An hour later, we ordered.
The attitude had not improved.
We were then informed that we **couldn't sit in the restaurant**, despite having ordered a Sunday roast, and would have to sit in the bar area. Again, it wasn't the restriction itself that was particularly objectionable; it was the manner in which it was communicated. There was no warmth, no courtesy and no sense that anyone actually cared whether customers were comfortable.
We were told we would be called when the carvery was ready.
So we waited.
And waited.
**Forty-five minutes passed.**
Not a word.
No update.
No apology.
No explanation.
No attempt to manage expectations.
Eventually I went to the bar myself to find out what was happening.
What greeted me was possibly the most spectacular display of indifference to a customer I have encountered in a long time. I was told, with an attitude that suggested I was somehow inconveniencing them by asking where our food was, that it would be **another 15 minutes because that was simply how weekends worked**.
Apparently this was information worth keeping from customers for nearly two hours.
We had already made it perfectly clear that we had afternoon plans. We had been happy to wait the hour we were originally told about. What we were **not** prepared to do was sit around indefinitely while nobody bothered to communicate that the advertised "quick lunch" had turned into an extended exercise in waiting.
At that point, we'd had enough.
We requested a refund.
Even this apparently required considerable effort.
The member of staff dealing with the refund continued to behave with the same dismissive, discourteous attitude. Eventually the manager intervened. To her credit, she was the **only person who displayed anything resembling professionalism throughout the entire experience**. She listened, apologised, understood the situation and instructed the refund to be processed.
Unfortunately, even then, the attitude continued.
The money was handed over with virtually no acknowledgement, and when it went across the bar, the response was an exasperated huff followed by walking away.
That interaction summed up the entire experience perfectly: **the customer was treated as an inconvenience from beginning to end.**
And that is ultimately what is so astonishing.
Nobody expects perfection. Restaurants get busy. Food takes longer than expected. Orders occasionally get mixed up. Things happen.
What separates a good establishment from a dreadful one is how those problems are handled.
Here, they were handled with **indifference, poor communication and an attitude that seemed to suggest customers should simply accept whatever they were given and be grateful for it**.
The manager deserves credit for attempting to resolve the situation, and there was another young member of staff who appeared to have considerably more awareness of basic manners and customer service. Unfortunately, they were very much the exception.
The overall atmosphere was miserable. We heard other customers complaining, and the establishment itself looked tired and run-down in places. It gave the distinct impression of somewhere that has become complacent and forgotten one rather important detail:
**Customers are not an inconvenience. They are the reason you have a business.**
We arrived expecting a pleasant Sunday lunch.
We left having spent an unnecessary amount of time waiting, received no food whatsoever, had our plans disrupted, and were left genuinely astonished by the level of poor customer service.
I would be embarrassed to have staff representing my business in this manner. Quite frankly, if this is considered an acceptable standard of customer service at The Inn at Woodhall Spa, then the management has a serious problem that goes considerably beyond a delayed carvery.
**We will absolutely not be returning.**
More importantly, if anyone asks me whether I would recommend this establishment, my answer will be an unequivocal **no**.
There are countless places where you can spend your money and receive basic courtesy, communication and respect in return. Based on our experience, The Inn at Woodhall Spa was emphatically not one of them.
**An utterly miserable experience from start to finish. Avoid.**"
