Family’s funeral reception left in tatters as Hornchurch pub makes ‘mistake’.

A Rush Green family who booked a reception at the Harrow pub in Hornchurch after their mother in law’s funeral, arrived to find the staff had no knowledge despite two confirmation emails.

Erica chose the Hornchurch pub as it was just round the corner from where her 94 year old mother in law lived and thought it would be an appropriate location to have the reception. She told the Havering Daily: “I booked the pub on December 15, I spoke to staff on the phone and paid in full. I received a confirmation email and then on the 28, the day before the funeral, I received a further confirmation email.”

Despite the two emails, when Erica and her family arrived at the Harrow staff had no knowledge of her booking and no food was laid out for them.

“There were 14 of us, some of whom had travelled from Norfolk which is a two and a half hour drive and many were elderly as they were friends of my mother in law.

“They provided us all with tea and coffee then I went over and asked the lady behind the bar where the reserved funeral section was. I could see she looked confused and went out to ask someone. She returned and pointed us to a different part of the pub. I then went over and asked when they were bringing the food out. The manager then came out and wasn’t helpful, he turned his back on me and said he would offer us a refund and could provide us with some chips.

“It wasn’t the refund that mattered, it was the fact that I had family members there who had travelled a long way and had nothing to eat. It was very embarrassing and we landed up leaving and going to a nearby Wetherspoons pub in Hornchurch.”

Erica and her family were left extremely disappointed and embarrassed by the pub’s failure to provide the reception she had booked two weeks befoire hand.

“I was really annoyed, they couldn’t even give my family a plate of sandwiches. I really don’t want anyone else to experience what we have. The funeral was distressing and then to arrive and to find the pub had no knowledge of my booking was just awful.”

A spokesperson for The Harrow, told the Havering Daily: “We apologise for the mistake we made with the booking on such a sad occasion for our guests.

“Our team had prepared seating for the group and mistakenly thought they would be ordering from our main menu, rather than the buffet requested. Once we realised our mistake, we apologised and offered a variety of sharer food options but unfortunately the guests were dissatisfied with the options available and chose to leave.”