H.Wilson

In regards to H.Wilsons comments, Debenhams catering team are aware of the difficulties faced in the opening few days. The team has been newly put together employing some staff that this is their first job, they have been trained and the unit opened it's doors to a huge amount of customers as you can imagine over the BH weekend. This is a new concept and is being improved with the staff giving it 100% to get it right. It clearly states as you enter "Please wait to be seated" but as they are busy and every table is allocated to a customer the wait can be a few minutes. The tables are allocated so every customer has their own table and it does not get pinched when they go up to order by people that could not be bothered to wait like yourself. When you get to the till the server will ask you your table number that you have been allocated, unless you could not be bothered to wait and just pinched an empty table that may have been someone else's. Food that is served is taken to that table that you were given. "Oh yes, you couldn't be bothered to wait". The team have been sworn at, shouted at and through thick and thin have stood by the restaurant throughout the busy/manic few days some doing a 14 hour day, kids that have started their first job and you want to punch them in the face for not getting it right, hell we are not perfect and I've been running a restaurant in Hereford for 14 years and we still get it wrong on times.

Woooo Hang on a minute, I am a very reasonable person and also a paying customer, we were asked on here to give our comments on our experiences at the OLM, which is what I have done, I have tried to be totally honest about our visit, I appreciate it's a new store but I was not offered a cheaper deal because of a very slow service. I certainly did not abuse anyone for a start off. You talk like we know how their system works! 

This was at almost 3 o'clock in the afternoon, not lunch time, the restaurant was not even half full, so before you go off on one, may I suggest you read it in the manner it was written. We also witnessed other people waiting and waiting and waiting, nobody and I mean nobody approached them and they ended up walking across to the till too.

I have run a restaurant that caters for 130 covers so I am also talking from experience. 

I was not being nasty, I was just stating what happened. The people sat opposite us waited for over 40 mins. I now realise the reasons for your outburst, your lady works there, (according to the above reply) so I understand your anger and defence but I was not out to condemn anyone, just telling as we saw it and we were not the only ones. Would you prefer all praises and congratulations perhaps? I give credit where credit is due.

To be honest with you and I am sure many other people would have felt exactly the same as we did, the couple said how will they cope when it's busy? because it was quiet, it really was, had it of been lunch time or very busy you would have a point but believe me when I tell you it was not busy. There is no excuse for staff arguing in front of customers though. 

We will be going back on Friday because we will be shopping at Waitrose with my daughter and we will probably go back to Debenhams for some food, I will add my comments again here if we go there and if our experience is a better one, I will be the first to say so.

It is a difficult job, I know and I am also aware how difficult managing and motivating staff can be, so I sincerely wish your lady good luck and reading the previous post I am sure she will have it all ship shape in no time.

Debenhams Restaurant SLOW Service!

Hmmm, we went into Debenhams again today, the restaurant was an experience on it's own. When you first get there, a sign says wait here to be seated...we waited...we waited... and waited, eventually we gave up and walked to the till. There was only one girl serving even though there were 3 tills. I stood waiting behind 2 other customers, so easily 15 mins before we got to the till. The girl was very polite (also very slow) and took our order, then made our drinks which seemed to take forever, still we were patient. She asked us which table we were at, I said oh, we will sit over near to the window and pointed at an empty seat, she then sarcastically said, what table number I meant! I said I don't know, you tell us, to which she replied oh it's table blah blah blah (I forget the table number).

She said take a seat and your food will be brought out. My wife ordered salad and I had curry and rice. The meal took over 25 minutes to be placed on the counter, then we watched a guy named James walk past our food on 4 occasions! He was just filling the shelves and generally doing not a lot. My curry was going cold, a couple who were sat opposite us complained to us that they had been waiting for 40 mins for creamed tea's! The waiter was walking in and out from the kitchen side with clean glasses etc completely oblivious to our food still sat there going cold, in the end, I called the girl over from the till and asked, is that our food going cold?, she said oh yes sorry, it must of been on the counter for a good 8-10 mins. The food was okay but there was no mayo to go with the salad which was basically leaves and peppers, my wife had to ask for it.

There was another waiter wondering around cleaning tables but the guy behind the counter I could of slapped, just generally on a go slow, no sense of urgency about him at all. You would think food waiting on the kitchen hatch to be a priority! 

Then we heard the kitchen staff arguing, just the whole experience was pretty poor to be honest, I was quite taken back.

Once the new Odeon cinema opens at the end of this month in the Old Market, what will happen to the one in Commercial Rd? I assume the cinema will close or will the nightclub be extended possibly? Anyone know?

This should of been implemented years ago. Signed and shared 

Disappointed because most of the units are still empty. Debenhams was about the best store currently open in our opinion, cannot see how they can justify the car parking charges when 60% of the units are empty. Like a few other people have already said, I too am looking forward to the cinema and additional restaurants to open.

Interesting article, thanks for sharing it Bill.

There has always been concessions within Wyevale as long as I can remember, yes I notice that now there are more but what can the council do about it? How they operate their business is down to them surely? Plus they employ quite a lot of people. They also have an insight restaurant (which is also very expensive) did you use that?

I was in a Tesco in Manchester recently and they had a Costa Coffee which was inside the store, so even the big players have them. 

Go into most garden centres nowadays and you will find all sorts of other products besides garden items.

Merton Meadows pricing is realistic, where are the prices to park at the Old Market a ridiculously high, good start then... :Cha ching:  :Cha ching:  :Cha ching:

They also have a Facebook Page here a Twitter page here you may want to read this too

I was not attempting to put you down and I have the utmost respect for anyone who gives up their own time to help others, it would just make sense to work together or agree to disagree and move on. All this trying to gain brownie points over each other does neither of you any good...

I agree with Frank! Sort it out guys your embarrassing yourselves. On another note there is already a Tenants Voice Here, I still think using the word voice is a bit cheeky personally and you are using that name as a cheap way of getting noticed on the back of all Hereford Voice's work, just my view.

Also this is CVP's original topic and you have now tried to make it yours, see the rules;

Rule 14. 14. There will be NO Hijacking of threads. Hijacking is where someone posts within a thread to cause it to change subjects to something other than what was originally created. Such posts may be deleted without reason. Multiple hijackings will result in a temp ban and could lead to a permanent ban. Please keep the discussion on topic or you can always create your own.

This is horrible to hear, I am surprised nothing has been done about it. Welcome to the club by the way 

 NO other planting is shown   

 

Looking like some kind of Ivy to me 

 

http://www.imagebam.com/image/5a463c319411645

OMG it gets worse!

It's looks like a shed and all of that wood looks **** and cheap, the other side looks better but too many bricks in my opinion, should of been beautiful glass all around that corner like somebody has already suggested.

I completely agree with everything you have written Alex, it's like they ran out of money edgar st side and someone suggested using a bit of timber 

Was Liz Hurley also unavailable??

 

What about Richard Hammond??

 

Or John Challis???

 

No?

 

Oh well. The Mayor it is then.

How extremely exciting.......!

I will take my autograph book and camera along for the big event. Is it still Councillor Edwards or has he now passed the baton over to another person looking for some extra kudos in their life?

Wow....

 

I am sorry if you are feeling threatened by the Tenants Voice as that is not the intention.  We are trying to compliment the work you do not "Take Over" your little empire.

 

I thought from your original post that the issue was about render, damp and the refusal of Herefordshire Housing to carry out the repair work they are legally obliged to carry out. I also thought you were accepting the illegal position of HHL because of a lack of knowledge but clearly you know everything there is to know.  I trust you will now make sure the repair work is carried out as you have your finger on the pulse of HHL and the rest of Newton Farm.

 

I would also ask that you state publicly if you have a problem with the 'Tenants Voice' or just me personally?

 

 

Hello smartie1, I have a lot of admiration for what you are trying to do for the community and residents of HH, have you thought about standing as a councillor?I reiterate what CVP has said that I also thought that there is already an association set up so can't quite understand why you feel the need to set up another? surely this will only go to confuse matters? I am not nit picking but can you not come up with a better name than Tenants Voice its very close to HV and may also confuse? Just my opinion

The surname is a Romanian name just as you have indicated Colin in your main update, that will not be popular considering all the publicity about Romanian's coming to the UK only a few months ago will the restrictions were lifted. Assuming that this person is actually Romanian of course.

You are throwing money down the drain in my opinion. I wonder how many of these club directors are going to put their hands in their pockets for the sake of the club, they have all enjoyed the kudos of being a 'Hereford United Director' in name, lets see how passionate they really are, time will tell. 

I have a cousin who is mentally disabled (he is 36 with a mental age of 8) does that count or is this only for not disabled people who have learning difficulties if that makes sense?

On the subject of vans....

 

How about we have some larger parking spaces? It's all well and good to give special treatment to disabled people and parents with kids who want more room to open their doors, but this is a town full of trades people, most of the vans won't even fit in a car park space let alone get the doors open.

You have hit the nail on the head, most parking spaces are only suitable for the average family car, but in reality you would struggle to get any estate car in them. Some people who have spend a huge amount of their money on a nice 4x4 or expensive truck try to avoid parking in these spaces in fear of their vehicles being damaged, which is totally understandable in my opinion, so as well as spaces dedicated for disabled and mother and baby how about large vehicle spaces, it would not matter if they were further away from the stores, but I can see why people in larger vehicles choose to use the larger spaces such as mother and baby, either that or make spaces bigger! I have no problem with people using disabled or mother and bay spaces 30 mins before the stores close when there are usually loads available either.

There are too many disabled spaces, I cannot believe that there are more disabled people around now than there were 20 years ago, maybe there are a few more scammers! Which is sad and unfair on the genuine disabled people. I think 2 hour parking is necessary in order to have a quick wonder in town.

This is actually quite a modern looking building for it's time. I recall a party here and outside on the grass for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977. I had become a bit of an eye sore once it had stopped being used but still a little sad to see it go.

They will soon kick off if you don't pay your council tax if only they put the same enthusiasm into cleaning up our lovely city. 

Ended up walking around Tesco's in town at 2.30am looking for something to eat this morning, we were not the only ones either. Council should be supporting the local trades not killing them off, especially now that the ESG is not far off opening, you would think the council would be doing all that they can for them. 

I recently visited family in N. Ireland, and it was noticeable in all the towns that I visited that the townsfolk really care about their environment . The streets were immaculately clean (without exception), I couldn't get over how well maintained the towns were. In Belfast, well placed signs warned people that they would be fined £80 for dropping litter - it seemed to work! My point is that yes, our town administration has it's role to play in keeping our streets tidy, but we also need to find a way of encouraging all the citizens of Hereford to take pride in our city and to respect it. Why do a large number of people seemed to think that the responsibility is not theirs...?

I totally agree with you but I also think that the council/police should enforce the law and when people juts throw rubbish on the floor they should be prosecuted where possible. I witnessed a couple walking in front of me earlier today and the woman just threw an empty crisp packet on the floor! I am quite shocked how blatant some people really are, she did not have a care in the world. I wanted to say something but it looked like they were having some sort of argument so I decided not too. We have CCTV so why is this no being used and a police officer or CSO called when this sort of thing happens?

Great pix thanks for sharing them with us.