Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Pizza Hut in row over bill with Bournemouth football players

December 6, 2010 by Michelle  
Filed under All News, General News, Pizza Hut

A Bournemouth branch of Pizza Hut has found itself in the midst of a race row after a group of black AFC Bournemouth players were asked to pay for their meal before their food arrived because of the way they looked.

The group of players had headed to the pizza restaurant over the weekend after their training had been cancelled because of the weather. After placing their order, the manager approached their table and asked them to pay the bill before their food arrived.

When the sportsmen asked if this was normal policy, the manager admitted it wasn’t, but they needed the group to pay before the food arrived because they thought they could potentially leave without paying because of the way they looked.

The AFC players described how they felt they were singled out by the restaurant in an interview with a local Bournemouth paper as they explained how another group of young men, this time white males, came into the Pizza Hut restaurant, and were not asked to pay upfront.

The police were eventually called to the eatery to escort the group of players off the premises after they refused to pay ahead of their meal.

Pizza Hut strongly denies that the decision to ask the Bournemouth football players to pay upfront was racially motivated. They explained that they had been advised by the police to start asking for customers to pay before their meal arrived after the restaurant experienced a spate of incidents in which diners left without paying their bill.

However the pizza restaurant did apologise that the policy was not being carried out in all instances and that another group of young males had not been asked to pay in advance.

Pizza Hut says they are planning to retrain their staff to ensure this kind of incident doesn’t arise again. The restaurant chain said they would also be contacting the group to formally apologise.

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