A customer who wrote an online review of an independent cafe was left outraged when he was branded a "miserable c*nt" for his efforts.
Neil Masey paid a visit to the Marwood Bar and Coffeehouse in Brighton, England, which boasted a rating of 4.5 out of 5 on Facebook.
Masey, however, was not impressed with his experience, and left what he now claims was a "witty comment".
Masey, who once used to run his own restaurant in the seaside town, wrote "I don’t know why I’m here. I’m not 21 anymore, I prefer sitting on a chair rather than a scaffolding plank."
"I don’t like zoning (laptop only areas, laptop-free zones etc), moody teenage servers are NOT cool and I prefer to not pay through the nose for anything (Greggs was busy)," he continued.
He was quickly rebuked when someone on behalf of the cafe replied, "You sir are a miserable c*nt, stick to Gregg's."
Manager of the cafe, Harry Petrakas has since stated, "Our team are not ‘moody teenagers’, they are talented, charming wonderful individuals."
"We can take negative feedback, but come after our team with snide online Facebook comments, and then we take it personally.”
Masey later took to Facebook to defend himself.
"It was never my intention to piss anybody off regarding my recent post on here, but I clearly have and I apologise for doing so. I appreciate Marwood is a cafe loved by a lot of people, I appreciate it does a lot for the LGBTQ+ community, I appreciate it's vegetarian and vegan - all these things are very dear to me, so you'd expect the place to be right up my street," he stated.
"But I didn't enjoy my visit and I stand by that sentiment at least. I feel that as a business owner you can't just call a customer a c*nt for not liking a your business. Some businesses might want to engage with the customer to dig a bit deeper to see what the issue is, others might ignore any negativity, some business do of course call people out in situations like this which is fine. But to call a customer a cunt is a disproportionate response to a negative review."
"I have deleted all my posts and the comments. I have edited my review of the place on Google: "I appreciate it's a cafe loved by a lot of people, I appreciate it does a lot for the LGBTQ+ community, I appreciate it's vegetarian and vegan - all these things are very dear to me, so of course I am appreciative of these things. But I didn't like the place when I visited
I hope that helps to re-balance the situation a bit?"