Coffee store apologises to grieving household after waiter known as them ‘depressed’ on receipt throughout father’s wake

A coffee shop has apologised to a grieving family after an employee described them as ‘depressed f***s’ on a receipt from their father’s wake.

Hannah Pharoah blasted staff at Crossroads café, in King Charles‘s model town of Poundbury, Dorset, as ‘disgusting’ over the ‘sick joke’ after her father Steve’s funeral.

Her mother Sue chose to hold the two-hour wake at her favourite coffee shop and paid more than £200 to hire the venue with a spread of tapas snacks and drinks.

But the 30 mourners were unimpressed by the service and claimed staff were rude and dismissive.

Ms Pharoah, 34, said she felt they treated the wake as an inconvenience and wanted them to leave so they could re-open the shop to the public.

At the end, she asked for a printed receipt and put it in her mother’s purse without checking it.

The next day she was shocked to see the name on the ticket was ‘depressed f***s’.

Ms Pharoah showed her widowed mother the receipt before calling Crossroads to complain.

She said she spoke to co-owner Matthew McCaurtie, who served the family at the wake, and he blamed another staff member, told her it was a joke and apologised.

The business also refunded the family in full.

But matters escalated after the family wrote about their ‘appalling’ experience on social media.

Afterwards someone connected to the business messaged Ms Pharoah directly and called her: ‘s***y human being.’

Sahil Dalvi, another Crossroads co-owner, offered his sincere apologies on social media and said the staff member concerned had been suspended.

Ms Pharoah said: ‘I found the whole thing disgusting. We were a grieving family at a wake for our father and this sick joke has made things even worse. We are beyond angry.

‘There were about 30 people there dressed in black and there were orders of service around. They knew it was a wake.

‘We were a grieving family and a room full of friends paying our respects. To mock our grief and my father’s death in that way is beyond unprofessional, it is cruel, arrogant and heartless.’

Steve Pharoah, a former urban planner, died last month aged 67.

His widow regularly goes to the Crossroads coffee shop with friends and decided to hold a small wake there because it was a nice place.

Ms Pharoah, a personal trainer, said: ‘We noticed early on that the staff seemed eager to move us on.

‘They were clearing half-drunk glasses and plates with food on.’

She said they felt they were a ‘burden’ to the staff and they wanted to re-open the shop.

‘They were rude, disinterested and visibly eager to hurry us along, as though our gathering was an inconvenience,’ Ms Pharoah added.

‘There was no warmth, no professionalism and certainly no compassion, something you would expect as a bare minimum when hosting a wake.

‘Somebody got the wrong coffee and they were treated like it was their fault.’

When the family came to pay they asked for a tax receipt so they could invoice the wake expenses.

Ms Pharoah said while they were settling the bill, the staff member ‘stood there with his arms crossed and smirked at a colleague’.

‘He gave my mum the card receipt and she didn’t look at it and put it in her purse.

‘The next day I looked at the receipt and our party had been labelled as “Depressed f***s”.

‘I found it disgusting and my mother was so upset by it.’

In a social media post Mr Dalvi said there had been an internal review and ‘regrettably, the complaint is valid’.

‘I want to offer my sincere apologies to the family affected,’ he said.

‘The circumstances in which this occurred make it even more upsetting and I’m truly sorry.

‘A full refund has already been issued. The staff member involved has been suspended pending further action and I have requested a formal written apology from them.

As a small, family-run business, we take pride in treating every customer with respect and compassion. This behaviour does not reflect our values, nor the standard of service we work hard to uphold.’