Alumni Club


Country United States
State Ohio
City Gahanna
Address 395 Stoneridge Ln
Phone 614-475-6000

Alumni Club Reviews

  • Jul 4, 2015

I went to the Alumni Club in Gahanna,OH off of Hamilton Rd on 06/19/15 to celebrate my birthday with a friend. Since my friend had ordered drinks at the last bar, I deciding to buy him and I a couple of drinks at this one. My friend lives in Northern Columbus and I live out east. Once we finished our two drinks each, he was ready to go, but since I lived out east, I told him to go ahead and leave and I would order one more drink then head home. When my bartender brought me my bill, I noticed that I had $15 extra on my bill. I proceeded to ask what the extra charge was for, and he stated to me that it was for having my drink with "ice" included and that it was $3 extra per drink? This sounded like a scam and totally out of character from any bar that I have ever gone to, so I asked for a Manager. He proceeded to come back with the manager, so I asked the manager the reason for the charge. He proceeded to say the same thing, but also added that on top of the ice, once the ice is added, the drink then looks low because of the ice, so the bartender tops off (or adds) more liquor into each drink, so for that service, they charge you for doubles?

So again, this sounded like a bad coverup and less-than-forthcoming practice, so I asked the manager, if this was a practice that you perform on a regular basis, shouldn't you inform the customers of what you are doing before you perform this action, especially since your customers are not aware of the practice and the fact that this practice is not posted at your bar or inside the establishment? The manager then stated that he doesnt have to inform any customers and that customers should ask this before ordering drinks. I then stated, how does a customer know to ask about this practice when it is not a norm for bars or posted in the bar? I told him that I had been drinking for almost 30 years and have never encountered anything like this. The manager then proceeded with a racial statement by saying, "See, that's what's wrong with you black people today, you always want something for nothing." The manager was Caucasian. I am African American.

I was very thrown back by his remarks and statement. Not only did it catch me by surprise, but it also made me very angry. I replied to the manager by asking "what did you say to me?" The manager could see the anger on my face. He then tried to back-peddle and say "Well im just saying that it doesn't look like you've been drinking for 30 years because of how young you look." The first bill that the bartender tried to bring me was $65, but after the manager tried to recant his racist statement, he then quoted "I'm sorry Mr. Holloway I will take care of this bill for you". He then proceeded to print me out a new bill for $30. I grabbed the new bill and went home in disgust. The next day when I looked at my online banking info, I noticed that there was a hold on my account for $20 instead of $30 for the Alumni Club. It stayed that way for a couple days. But, when it finally went through, it went through and processed for the $30. What that tells me from a bar tab transaction is that he changed the bill to $20 and then added the extra $10 as a tip. So on top of the unfair practice that they did, AND the racial statement that was made, he gave either himself or the bartender a $10 tip for the horrific service, which is also illegal because it was something that I did not sign for nor approve.

6 on your side please help. Apart from the attempted ripoff and racial bias that was done to me, I want to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else. Im not sure if you can maybe do a test or pilot by asking other African Americans to sit in to see if it happens to them or not, but I truly believe that it's worth the investigation. This incident happened during close to closing hours on that friday (around 2:15am), so not sure if this is a practice because they think that people are too intoxicated to care or recognize the situation or what, but this practice and treatment was very wrong. Thanks for your time and feel free to contact me if any additional questions. Thanks..

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