Peter was fuming when he realised he’d been charged $1 to have his muffin heated up. Now the cafe has hit back – so whose side are you on?
Cafe owners who were criticized online after a customer had to pay to reheat his muffin claimed the $1 fee was a mistake.
The controversy arose when customer Peter Williams posted a review of the Leaf and Vine cafe in Melbourne’s east, criticizing the company for applying the charges to his bill.
The review went viral and prompted a flood of nasty messages to pub owners Bec and Pete Murray.
They have backtracked on the customer’s claims, saying an employee trained as a cashier made a simple mistake.
Both owners admitted the mistake but claimed Williams never reached out to rectify the situation.
Owners of East Melbourne cafe Leaf and Vine, Bec and Pete Murray (pictured), have hit back at claims they charge $1 to heat up muffins
Mr Williams said in the review that he only noticed the $1 extra charge on his receipt after leaving the cafe.
‘[It] just left a bitter taste in my mouth,” he told his followers on Facebook, adding that he was “not in the room or position to advocate for it.”
The Murrays, who have owned the cafe for more than a decade, charged a one-dollar fee to a novice cashier and a cash register with too many options.
“It was a mistake made by someone who was in training,” Ms Murray told A Current Affair.
She assured customers that they “will not pay a fee to reheat a muffin.”
“We never will and we never have,” she said.
They also took their share of the blame, saying there are “at least 2,000 options on the register” that add or subtract various costs.
“Those 2,000 items don’t always work to plan, in this case there was a surcharge involved, but that shouldn’t have been the case,” Ms Murray said.
A customer posted a review of the cafe claiming he should have a warmer muffin (pictured), as well as a photo of his receipt
The cafe owners have instead claimed that they never had to charge for reheating muffins, and that a novice cashier, confused by the more than 2,000 options on the register, was to blame.
They claimed Mr Williams would have had his ‘entire bill’ refunded if he had returned to the cafe and shown them the surcharge.
Ms Murray added that she was disappointed that Mr Williams did not contact her when she messaged him to clear the air.
“It took him six hours to reply to me after seeing the flood of comments on social media cursing us,” she said.
Mr. Williams’ video received more than 870 reactions and more than 1,000 comments before he deleted it.
The cafe offered free muffins on Tuesday to curb anger on social media.