What does good customer service mean? I thought about this recently when visiting a pub near Devizes.

We’d arrived early evening and there was one other table occupied in the small dining area – other people were in the bar.

We ordered food, a bit pricey but the choices were varied. More than 30 minutes later there was no sign of our food. When you are with children, this can be an issue, especially when they are hungry.

When our meals came, they were good – all of us agreed. They were decent portions and tasty. Our waitress was helpful but not too intrusive.

However, context is important here. As I’ve said, we were waiting for quite a while for our meals. During that time we got bored and started playing with two candles on the table. Big, church-like candles.

Suddenly, across the room came a loud “please don’t do that!” A man, presumably the owner, came up and started explaining loudly why fiddling with the wax on the candle made them very difficult to relight as the wick would get covered when they were blown out later.

He then proceeded to ‘straighten’ the warm wax which we’d pressed down into the candles. I meekly apologised.

How did that make us feel as a family? Being yelled at for the sake of a candle? We were not inclined to add any tip to our £70 bill, that’s for sure.

This is the only tip on offer here – beware the pub where candles are more important than customers.

  •  If you’d like to share your views or make a comment, please feel free. You can write to me, Fiona Scott at Gazette & Herald, 100 Victoria Road, Old Town, Swindon, SN1 3BE.