Pub boss, 41, hits back at 'blackmailing' customer who claimed to have food poisoning and posted a bad TripAdvisor review because he refused to give a refund 

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Piers Baker, 41, was left furious after the customer claimed they suffered food poisoning after eating at the Sun Inn in Dedham on the Essex-Suffolk border

A pub boss has accused a customer of trying to blackmail him after they threatened to leave a bad review on TripAdvisor unless he gave them a refund.

Piers Baker, 41, was left furious after the customer claimed they suffered food poisoning after eating at the Sun Inn in Dedham on the Essex-Suffolk border.

Mr Baker said he was called three days after the meal by a member of a party who had eaten lamb at the historic 15th-century former coaching inn, and was told the customer and three others they had fallen ill. 

When they demanded their money back Mr Baker said he sympathised with them.

But he insisted he would only hand out a refund if food poisoning could be confirmed by a doctor or an environmental health or Food Standards Agency investigation.

Mr Baker said the diner then threatened to post a bad review on TripAdvisor if they did not get their money back.

And they followed through with their threat three days later.

The review by user Herbi B, which has since been removed, said: 'One of the other diners that suffered the gastric problems contacted the Sun Inn to complain. They were offered no sympathy and the insinuation was that it was a dishonest attempt to gain recompense.

'Consequently not only would I never revisit the Sun Inn, but I would also very strongly advise others to steer clear.'  

Mr Baker said he was called three days after the meal by a member of a party who had eaten lamb at the historic 15th-century former coaching inn, and was told the customer and three others they had fallen ill

Outraged Mr Baker, who also runs the Church Street Tavern in Colchester, Essex, said: 'It's extremely frustrating.

'If people don't like the decor or something that's up to them. I have no problem with opinions, I do with a distortion of the facts.

'We get it frequently, people who sit in and say 'if you don't take this off my bill we will put it on TripAdvisor'.

'We will take it off if there's something wrong with it, the threat is irrelevant.

'If they behave like that we don't want them back anyway. We value feedback, it is important to improve.

'But with this one they are saying we caused illness. It's libellous.'

The furious businessman added: 'I have replied to the comment which I don't like doing because I don't agree with it and don't want to be involved.

'I said when they called 'you are blackmailing us' and they said 'no, we feel you should inform people of it'.

'We know the meat came in good order, was stored correctly and cooked at the right temperature.

'We served 180 people that day, 48 had lamb - plus some staff - and we have had no other reports of food poisoning.'

Mr Baker said the victim could have easily caught a bug or virus off another person who may not themselves display symptoms.

TripAdvisor now appears to have taken the poisonous comment down.

Mr Baker said in his 14 years in the trade he's had to have such reviews removed from the high-profile global site twice before.

A TripAdvisor spokesman said: 'Our advice to business owners if they feel they have been threatened with an unfair review is to use our dedicated tool which allows them to report such threats to us before any review is published.

'Our team of specialists will then investigate and take action to prevent reviews that breach our guidelines from making it onto the site.

'For reviews that are published and do meet our guidelines, we give owners the opportunity to put their side of the story across by publishing a reply to each review.'

The Sun Inn was rated in the top 50 pubs in the Good Food Guide 2016.

Mr Baker said the picturesque eaterie has featured among the industry bible's 1,000-plus pubs since 2004.

And the Sun Inn scooped the top title for Wine List of the Year for pubs and restaurants across the country in 2014.