Britain

[Flashermac]

Man charged £55k for a single beer in Manchester hotel

An Australian cricket journalist was mistakenly charged £55,000 for a single bottle of beer in a Manchester hotel.

Peter Lalor ordered the £5.50 Deuchers IPA at the city's Malmaison hotel before being stunned to discover he had been charged £55,315.12 (A$99,983.64).

Mr Lalor, who was in the city to cover the Ashes series, now believes he drank "the most expensive beer in history".

A spokesman for the hotel apologised and said an investigation had been launched.

However, the money left Mr Lalor's bank account and he says he was told it would take 10 business days for the refund to be processed.

The journalist, who writes for The Australian newspaper, said he had alerted the barmaid after having a "sixth sense that something had gone wrong".

"Australians find England pretty expensive usually, but this takes the cake," he said.

"That's a lot of money. I'm just a cricket writer, I don't earn big bucks and it's costing me in interest."

Writing on Twitter, he said: "I didn't have my reading glasses when she presented me with a bill. I said I didn't want a receipt and she went to leave.

"Something, however, made me ask: 'How much did I just pay for that beer?' She checked, covered her mouth, started to giggle and refused to tell me, saying only there had been a mistake and she would fix it.

"She kept giggling. I told her it needed to be fixed and fixed right now.

"She ran to get her manager who took the situation far more seriously and went about attempting to arrange a refund. She told me somebody would be in contact."

Two mornings later, Mr Lalor says he took a call from his wife to say the money had indeed left their account.

Mr Lalor, who also writes about beer for his newspaper, said: "To add insult to injury they charged a £1,000 transaction fee. Until the money comes back I won't rest easy."

A hotel spokesman said: "We are currently carrying out an investigation into what took place. We have been in contact with Peter to apologise and ensure this has been resolved as quickly as possible."

As for the beer itself, Mr Lalor said that at least was a success.

"It's a good beer," he later tweeted. "The original version of it won a heap of awards, including the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain, but if you are thinking that no beer is worth the best part of 100,000 dollars, then I am inclined to agree with you."

A spokesman for Visa said the "unusual" case shows how important it is to always check details of payments and receipts.

He added: "Visa does not make decisions to authorise payments. It is the responsibility of a cardholder's bank who will make a decision based on a number of factors including the funds available.

"We will work with both the cardholder's and merchant's banks to help resolve this error."

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-49593291

 

[baa99]

... and he didn't even tip £5,500. 

 

[Steve]

I'm convinced there will be a massive global crash, much bigger than 2008. The EU is going suffer a bit more than some places like the better Asian economies from what some financial experts are saying. Its debatable if Germany is actual in a recession right now. If its not, its very close. And of course its Europe's biggest economy and if that's teetering on recession so goes the dominoes for the rest of Europe. 

That said, is the UK better off on its own with this impending crash or better off as part of the EU? There are advantages and disadvantages to each. 

[buffalo_bill]

Khun Steve,

I am not fully aware what sort of data the wise people use to explain what a recession is. No doubt also due to the amok- Donald international trade goes down and should influence German economy. Maybe more than others.

Looking at the micro-economy I have had the best week online sales ever in history, looking for a warehouse man a local website showed over 240 vacancies, all small business owners I know are desperate for staff. Dentist, plumber, hairdresser(not mine ), without all the immigrants the infrastructure would collapse ( sorry Cav) . So if that is already the recession : may it last into eternity.

 

[Steve]

26 minutes ago, buffalo_bill said:

Khun Steve,

I am not fully aware what sort of data the wise people use to explain what a recession is. No doubt also due to the amok- Donald international trade goes down and should influence German economy. Maybe more than others.

Looking at the micro-economy I have had the best week online sales ever in history, looking for a warehouse man a local website showed over 240 vacancies, all small business owners I know are desperate for staff. Dentist, plumber, hairdresser(not mine ), without all the immigrants the infrastructure would collapse ( sorry Cav) . So if that is already the recession : may it last into eternity.

 

Great that you are making money. May it long continue. May the forum be prosperous. I mean that, I'm not being sarcastic. I want us all to do well and would be sad to hear the opposite. That said, your prosperity is anecdotal but the stats suggest you are the aberration not the norm. 

Anyone that shorted the market and bought real estate in the midst of the carnage in 2009 made out like bandits. I think I read somewhere about the extraordinary amount of wealth some people got in 2009, 2010. They were able to pick up assets at fire sale prices. However they were not the norm. 

I had a friend who was in the mortgage lending business in 2007 and 2008 and chastising and teasing me for not getting in on the business. The industry seemed like it was literally printing money. Of course after October 2008, that business bankrupted. Point is (and I sincerely hope this does not include you), there are always plenty of people making money off economic bubbles. The person buying tulips in early 1637 Holland thought he was about to live like a royal. 

 

[Steve]

...anyway, the UK is big enough to get through anything I think. If history is anything to go by. 

[baa99]

19 hours ago, chocolat steve said:

...anyway, the UK is big enough to get through anything I think. If history is anything to go by. 

How big is the UK without Gibraltar, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland? 

[radioman]

Well then it's England plus the Isle of Wight. So about the size of Lichtenstein then I guess, will probably have about the same global presence soon as well.

 

[Coss]

Recent commentary about how much land area NZ has, compared to Europe got me thinking.

NZ, UK and the important bit of Australia. At the same scale (hopefully) from Maps.Google.com

 

 

[Coss]

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