The worst prosecco brunch Wowcher voucher ever! Do not go to Roxy Bar & Screen!

I didn’t plan to write about this but as I did promise a few rants from time to time, here goes…

A few weekends ago I had a prosecco brunch booked for myself and 3 of my best mates. It was a treat we had been looking forward to since the start of the New Year and, from what we saw online, the venue looked pretty cool.

The day came for our brunch and first impressions were not good. The place looked run down and as though it was about to go out of business – maybe that’s why they had offered up a service on Wowcher.

At the door we were greeted by a very hostile women who was furious that we were about to walk in. She had apparently hired, and paid for, exclusive use of the venue. We had booked months ago and felt completely miffed as to how this could of happened. As much as this lady was a bit of a douche and I disagree with her shouting at us, we felt her frustrations – I’d be pretty pissed off too if I had hired a venue and 3 gorgeous chicks and their fat friend* rocked up for a brunch.

*That’s me by the way.

We go in and it looked disgusting, plus the tables on show had no chairs around them – they definitely weren’t ready to cater for us. The first guy we spoke to didn’t give us much, just said that the venue had been hired out and we couldn’t have our brunch there. After a bit of back and forth he then said we could go across the road and have our brunch. We couldn’t see what we thought the sister venue would look like and so we asked him to show us.

He takes us across the road to an even more gross pub. He offered us the first table by the door, underneath a TV playing footy – not really the glamourous location we had envisioned for our girls day out. The staff didn’t seem to care at all, or see why we were livid with this half-arsed solution. After a visit back to Roxy Bar & Screen the manager eventually appeared and offered us the table at the front of the original venue. Angry lady who had hired out the venue overheard and was about to kick off again. We politely declined his late offer and asked for a full refund, but because the brunch was booked through Wowcher, we had to go through them. He gave us his word that when he was contacted he would immediately agree to giving us our money back. We left and hoped he was telling the truth.

The next day would be refund request day, but for now we wanted to get some prosecco down us as soon as possible. As we talked about where to go next, we burst out laughing when we saw staff from Roxy taking brunch from the kitchen, across the road to their second venue – the vile pub. Is that sanitary? Surely not. Anyway, we were delighted to get out of there and so glad we didn’t end up eating anything made there.

Once we re-grouped in a lovely place round the corner, with glasses of prosecco, we had a look at the tripadvisor reviews of Roxy Bar & Screen. OMG, we so should of done this first, but lesson learnt. The reviews are hilarious and equally as disappointed with the venue, food and staff. Loads of reviews even included the spotting of mice!

The next day I went to log my complaint, and if you’ve never had to request a refund from Wowcher, I hope that you never have to. It was the most painful process ever, and eventually I had to go via a third party to get in contact with the company and request my money back. Thankfully Wowcher did respond, as did the manager of Roxy who tried to say that we had refused to eat there first – not because they first told us we couldn’t, or that the venue had been hired out for a private function. Sneaky Jay! (That was his name by the way.) Absolutely crazy, but I’m glad to end this review with good news…. we got suitably plastered on prosecco (ordered elsewhere) and Wowcher have given us a full refund.

Three things I’ve learnt
1. Never use Wowcher – I’ve had four awful experiences with them now
2. Always use tripadviser before booking anywhere – it’s so insightful
3. Never set foot anywhere near Roxy Bar & Screen near Long Bridge – awful awful awful place