Pubs caught out over cancelled Carlsberg promotion
A licensee was forced to hand out free pints to angry customers after Carlsberg cancelled a high-profile giveaway promotion with a national newspaper.
As revealed exclusively in The Publican, Carlsberg, sponsors of Liverpool Football Club, ditched its bank holiday free pint link-up with The Sun after furious objections from football fans on Merseyside.
Many supporters still boycott The Sun because of its highly controversial coverage of the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 Liverpool fans died.
But some publicans were left red-faced after promoting the offer to customers. Jeremy Jeffery, licensee at the Royal Oak, in Beverly, East Yorkshire, claims he received no notification that the promotion was cancelled.
"I displayed all the posters beforehand," he said. "Then I had customers turning up saying there were no vouchers in the paper - but they still wanted a free pint.
"I'm only a small pub, so didn't want to cheese off my regulars and felt I should honour the offer. I ended up giving out about 30 free pints."
Another licensee, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had not received any notification from Carlsberg that the offer had been pulled.
He said people had been left with "extra stock in cellars and egg on our faces". He has also written a letter of complaint to the company threatening to call for compensation.
A statement from Carlsberg said: "Carlsberg made every effort to ensure that all licensees were informed of the decision made to cancel the free pint promotion with The Sun, and apologises unreservedly if a customer did not receive a phone call or follow up letter as part of this effort.
"Any customer complaints should be referred to our customers services helpline on 08457 820820, where they will be handled as swiftly as possible to ensure a happy resolution to this issue."
