Restaurant under fire for sharing ‘no show’ diner’s personal details on Twitter

A restaurant owner has faced criticism after posting the personal details of a ‘no show’ customer on Twitter. Russell Bullimore, manager of Bully’s in Cardiff, took a picture of the customer’s booking details and posted it on social media after she failed to turn up for her reservation on Saturday (21 April) without informing the restaurant. That same night, bookings for a table for two and a table for six failed to show. In a post which said, “I’m going to start tweeting no shows”, Bullimore shared Emily Quinlan’s reservation which showed her name, email address and telephone number. Bullimore put the post up 26 minutes after Quinlan’s 7pm reservation time. Quinlan responded to the post: “Seems like the name of your restaurant is quite fitting. I’ve had an emergency that I had to attend to and phoning to cancel my booking was the least of my concerns. I will be passing this on to the Information Commissioners [sic] office. “Your complete lack of decorum has clearly lost you a lot of custom already. It was a table for two and I highly doubt you lost £400. Maybe you should reconsider the industry in which you work. Absolute joke.” Other users also responded to the post, with one who said: “You should probably delete this. it's not going to help anyone. Start taking non-refundable deposits.” Another added: “Some business's lack of decorum and understanding is crazy! People have lives and sometimes things come up! But sharing someone's personal data for not showing up to a booking is beyond disgusting! I've never been to your restaurant and now I never will @bullyscardiff!” One other user said: “This is the worst example of customer data misuse I have ever seen, it's not even accidental - it was malicious and deliberate. I hope Emily reports to ICO. Bully's, if you have a reservation no show problem then simply stop taking reservations rather than "bullying" people.” Just quick tweet to say that I will never be eating at or recommending @bullyscardiff They tweeted personal contact details of a no-show customer. ICO needs to be informed of this (0303 123 1113) and hopefully a hefty fine will discourage others who might think of doing it — Steffan McMahon (@Steffan_McMahon) April 22, 2018 I hope for your sake the person involved doesn't decide to take this further - the fine is up to £500,000 and can carry a prison sentence. Also you're not helping yourself with some of these responses which are very unprofessional. Deep breath before tweeting and keep calm — Melissa (@bassmel86) April 22, 2018 You should probably delete this. it's not going to help anyone. Start taking non-refundable deposits — Still the Doughnut king! (@Donkomaniac) April 21, 2018 Some business's lack of decorum and understanding is crazy! People have lives and sometimes things come up! But sharing someone's personal data for not showing up to a booking is beyond disgusting! I've never been to your restaurant and now I never will @bullyscardiff pic.twitter.com/tmFe8FgYpU — Abi Louise 🍓💕 (@Louise97Abi) April 21, 2018 This is the worst example of customer data misuse I have ever seen, it's not even accidental - it was malicious and deliberate. I hope Emily reports to ICO. Bully's, if you have a reservation no show problem then simply stop taking reservations rather than "bullying" people. — Matt Smith (@smithofthediff) April 22, 2018 Bullimore then deleted the tweet and apologised the following day: "Apologies for last nights [sic] tweets guys. It was fuelled by emotion and for that we can only apologise profusely. Please remember that this is a family business run by passion and a strong community spirit. We’re not a chain restaurant, we’re an independent that loves what we do.”