Tea News - Wales

The following article is well written by Laura Conner entitled "We won't serve you hot water without a tea bag in it" -Bizarre stance of train staff".  This article appeared in http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/we-wont-serve-you-hot-6732393 on Feb 21, 2014.


A commuter says she was refused a cup of hot water 'on health and safety grounds' and that the water would have to have a tea bag in it

Commuting can be stressful at the best of times – but one worker claims she was refused a morning cup of tea on her train due to “health and safety reasons”.

Kelly Davies, 35, of Penarth, asked the First Great Western catering assistant from Cardiff to Bournemouth on Tuesday morning if she could have a cup of hot water – but she says she was told she would have to drink it with a tea bag for “health and safety reasons”.

“The woman at the trolley said I would have to pay the full price of a cup of tea for the hot water – £1.90 – and said I would have to drink it with a tea bag,” said Kelly, a PR manager.

“I refused to believe it because it was just so ridiculous. I said, ‘No it can’t be?’ And then she refused to serve me completely.”

Kelly wanted the hot water to have with her own decaf tea bag that she had brought with her. The train did not have decaf tea bags for sale.

“I was even willing to pay the £1.90 for the water,” she said.

But Kelly’s main concern now isn’t that she was deprived of her morning cuppa.

“What has bothered me more is how head office have dealt with it and how they weren’t willing to answer my questions properly,” said Kelly, who got into a Twitter row with the train company about the incident she jokingly dubbed “hot water-gate”.

Staff manning the First Great Western Twitter account said the issue was “just an unfortunate reality of our wider auditing requirements” and told Kelly she would have to email the company with her complaint.

But Kelly responded by tweeting: “No, I want you to take responsibility. Why make me do more stuff? You can feed this back. It’s your company.”

A spokesperson at First Great Western said: “Health and safety has nothing to do with it and we should have been more honest with the customer.

“While we are more than happy to provide free hot water for medicinal purposes or to warm baby food, we don’t provide hot water for customers to make their own tea on board our trains.”