Coffee shop forced to apologise over note on receipt to family following funeral

By admin 18.02.2026 3 min read

A coffee shop has issued an apology to a grieving family after they spotted an insulting note on their receipt.

In the Dorset town of Poundbury, Hannah Pharoah said staff at the Crossroads café had performed a ‘sick joke’ after the funeral of her dad Steve.

Hannah’s mum Sue was a regular at the coffee shop and had paid £200 to hire out the café after the funeral so they could hold the wake there, though the family and around 30 mourners weren’t happy with the level of service and found staff to be rude and dismissive.

Hannah, 34, felt like they were being treated as an inconvenience and despite paying to hire the coffee shop out for two hours thought the staff were ‘rude, disinterested, and visibly eager to hurry us along’ as they were ‘clearing half-drunk glasses and plates with food on’.

When the family was leaving the coffee shop they got a receipt and the next day Hannah saw the ticket name had called them ‘depressed f**ks’.

Hannah 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.”

The woman showed her mum the receipt and they called the coffee shop to complain, with co-owner Matthew McCaurtie telling them a member of staff was to blame, apologised and said it was a joke.

The coffee shop also refunded the family their £200 booking fee.

When Hannah posted about their experience on social media she came in for some flak as somebody connected to the business messaged her online to call her a ‘s**tty human being’.

Sahil Dalvi, co-owner of Crossroads, has apologised publicly on social media and said the staff member involved had been suspended.

He wrote: “Following a full internal review, I confirm that the incident involved a member of staff and, regrettably, the complaint is valid. I want to offer my sincere apologies to the family affected.

“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.”