‘If your son was sick I’d assume it was a lack of personal hygiene’: Burger shop’s Facebook rant

THE owner of a burger restaurant has caused outrage with an expletive-laden Facebook rant against a customer who complained about food poisoning.

Burger shop’s Facebook rant backfires

THE owner of a New Zealand burger restaurant has caused controversy with an expletive-laden rant against a customer who complained about food poisoning.

Mike Duffy, owner of Wellington’s Ekim Burgers, sparked outrage on Tuesday when he posted a screenshot of a private message from a customer.

“Hi, firstly this is not a complaint but I just thought you should know that we ate at Ekim on Friday night. Three of us had the same burger and my son had the burger with bacon and avocado,” the message read.

“He vomited all Friday night. It is the only thing he ate differently from us that day so we assume it was the burger. Just wanted you to be aware. We thought the burgers were fantastic and know it was probably a one-off.”

That apparently didn’t go down well with Mr Duffy, who replied: “We sold well over 1000 burgers that day a large number had bacon in them ... If your son was sick I’d assume it was a lack of personal hygiene but I’m not the sort of person that assumes.”

Mr Duffy posted a screenshot of the private conversation to Ekim Burgers’ Facebook page, with the caption: “Just wanted to get in first, you never know these days with social media.”

Customers were unimpressed, describing the post as “irresponsible and unprofessional”, with many calling for an apology.

Just wanted to get in first, you never know these days with social media.

Posted by Ekim Burgers on Tuesday, 28 April 2015

“This is a pretty terrible thing to do,” Fraser Pearce wrote. “You posted a screenshot of a private message they sent you. This is not on. They sent this message to you in confidence that it would be purely a dialogue between you and them.

“What you’ve done exposes her to public ridicule — and from my view it looks like you’re attempting to gather sympathy from all the bad things that have happened to you, at the expense of this woman.”

Craig Doolan added: “They complained nicely and were polite and you responded by trolling them about their personal hygiene then went on to post a private message publicly, that’s arsehole.”

In response, Mr Duffy blasted his critics as “total hypocrites”. “I’m not looking for sympathy,” he wrote. “I’m tired of giving people who are ill informed and accusing the benefit of the doubt along with a $50 voucher so as to avoid confrontation.”

But he wasn’t done. In an epic follow-up rant, he went on to slam everyone from “pissed-up office jocks” and “middle-class no-idea housewives” to “little sh*t kids” and “dimwitted parents”.

“Almost 20 years in this f***ing industry and never had a person who ate what I cook get sick from it,” he wrote. “The point most of you d***s miss is ... don’t point fingers unless you know for sure. Especially when it’s something as serious as a potential food poisoning outbreak.”

Gareth Leniston-Lee offered some free advice: “Stick to the grill man. You make wicked burgers but you suck at PR.”

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