Cafe owners who came under fire online after a customer was charged to heat their bun claimed the $1 fee was a mistake.
Controversy broke out when customer Peter Williams posted a review of Leaf and Vine cafe in Melbourne’s east, criticizing the business for applying the charge to his bill.
The review went viral and sparked a flood of nasty messages sent to the cafe’s owners, Bec and Pete Murray.
They responded to claims made by the customer and said that an employee who was training as a cashier made a simple mistake.
Both owners acknowledged the mistake, but claimed Williams never reached out to try to rectify the situation.
Owners of Melbourne’s east cafe Leaf and Vine, Bec and Pete Murray (pictured), have responded to claims they charge $1 to heat up muffins.
Williams said in the review that he only noticed the $1 extra charge on his receipt after leaving the cafe.
“It just left a really bitter taste in my mouth,” he told his Facebook followers, adding that he was “not in the space or position to defend it.”
The Murrays, owners of the cafe for more than a decade, blamed the $1 charge on a novice cashier and an overstocked cash register.
“It was a mistake made by someone who was training,” Mrs Murray told A Current Affair.
He assured customers that “they don’t charge to heat up a bun.”
“We never will and we never have,” he said.
They also took their share of the blame, saying there are “at least 2,000 options in the registry” that add or deduct different costs.
“Those 2,000 items don’t always work as planned – in this case this one had a surcharge, but it shouldn’t have,” Ms Murray said.
One customer posted a review of the cafe claiming they were charged for a hotter bun (pictured), as well as a photo of their receipt.
Instead, the cafe’s owners have claimed that they never and will never charge for heating muffins and that the culprit was a novice cashier confused by the more than 2,000 options at the register.
They claimed Mr Williams would have been refunded “the full bill” if he had returned to the cafeteria and shown them the surcharge.
Ms Murray added that she was disappointed that Mr Williams did not contact her when she messaged him to clear things up.
“It took him six hours to respond to me after seeing a blizzard’s plethora of comments on social media condemning us,” she said.
Williams’ video received more than 870 comments and more than 1,000 reactions before it was deleted.
The cafe offered free muffins Tuesday to help quell anger on social media.
