The Island Queen, Islington

I have been a long term patron of The Island Queen and have often recommended it to people looking for a good pub in Islington. However, the treatment I received at the hands of its present manager, Antonia Orpen, whose customer care skills are beyond appalling and more in the realms of a horrific car crash, simply have to be given as a warning to anyone thinking of using the place. I have never, ever been treated so disgracefully as I have been by this woman, and if the problems others have reported vis a vis bad service are to be believed, then it is little surprise given the atrocious attitude of the person in charge. If I was the owner of this pub I would be horrified to find out that someone as awful at dealing with customers was supposedly the representative of my business.
The other day I rang the pub on behalf of my girlfriend to find out if she had left her black scarf in the pub and if it had been found. Ms Orpen reported that it had been but managed to hang up the phone before I had a chance to tell her my name, when the scarf would be retrieved and the name of the person collecting it. I had to ring back, and when I pointed out that she had hung up the phone before I had had the chance to pass on the information, she proceed to scream denials and blue murder down the phone at me. The following day my girlfriend took an hour out to go and retrieve her scarf, but on arrival it had bizarrely gone missing and no such item was to be found. However, when I called the pub back to find out what the story was, there was actually a scarf, but it had turned pink overnight. Ms Orpen proceeded once more to shout down the phone at me and hang up again. I phoned a final time to try and give her a chance to sort this situation out but once again I was shouted at, abused and hung up on.
Such epically bad behaviour would usually see an employee fired, but to see it from a manager beggars belief. Such individuals do a disservice to the good pubs we have and eventually will start deservedly impacting on business. Antonia Orpen should think long and hard about her chosen career as she simply is not suited to working with people. Similarly, pub owners Mitchells and Butlers would do well do dispose of her questionable and limited talents before they cost a good pub not just money but also its reputation.

25 Oct 2011 15:10