An Australian cricket journalist was mistakenly charged £55,000 ($NZ106,408) for a single bottle of beer in a M
Peter Lalor ordered the £5.50 Deuchers IPA at the city’s Malmaison hotel before being stunned to discover he had been charged £55,315.12 ($AU99,983.64).
Mr Lalor, who was in the city to cover the Ashes series, now believes he drank “the most expensive beer in history”.
A spokesman for the hotel apologised and said an investigation had been launched.
However, the money left Mr Lalor’s bank account and he says he was told it would take 10 business days for the refund to be processed.
The journalist, who writes for The Australian newspaper, said he had alerted the barmaid after having a “sixth sense that something had gone wrong”.
“Australians find England pretty expensive usually, but this takes the cake,” he said.
“That’s a lot of money. I’m just a cricket writer, I don’t earn big bucks and it’s costing me in interest.”
Writing on Twitter, he said: “I didn’t have my reading glasses when she presented me with a bill. I said I didn’t want a receipt and she went to leave.
“Something, however, made me ask: ‘How much did I just pay for that beer?’ She checked, covered her mouth, started to giggle and refused to tell me, saying only there had been a mistake and she would fix it.
“She kept giggling. I told her it needed to be fixed and fixed right now.
“She ran to get her manager who took the situation far more seriously and went about attempting to arrange a refund. She told me somebody would be in contact.”
Two mornings later, Mr Lalor said he took a call from his wife to say the money had indeed left their account.
Mr Lalor, who also writes about beer for his newspaper, said: “To add insult to injury they charged a £1,000 transaction fee. Until the money comes back I won’t rest easy.”
A hotel spokesman said: “We are currently carrying out an investigation into what took place. We have been in contact with Peter to apologise and ensure this has been resolved as quickly as possible.”
As for the beer itself, Mr Lalor said that at least was a success.
“It’s a good beer,” he later tweeted.
“The original version of it won a heap of awards, including the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain, but if you are thinking that no beer is worth the best part of 100,000 dollars, then I am inclined to agree with you.”
A spokesman for Visa said the “unusual” case shows how important it is to always check details of payments and receipts.
He added: “Visa does not make decisions to authorise payments. It is the responsibility of a cardholder’s bank who will make a decision based on a number of factors including the funds available.
“We will work with both the cardholder’s and merchant’s banks to help resolve this error.”
RECALL QUESTIONS
THINKING
DOCUMENTS
RECALL QUESTIONS
1. Who is the main person or group of people in this news article?
2. What was the key event from the news article?
3. Where did this event take place?
4. When did this event take place?leo.
THINKING
1. Find a quote from the main person in this news article?
2. In your own words describe what happened in this news article.
3. Find out where this event took place and include some information about this place.
4. Tell us when this event happened and explain what might happen in the future.
5. Explain in your own words why this event took place.
6. Use the Dictionary in the bottom right hand corner to find the meaning of 3 words from the article.
DOCUMENTS
Current Events Web
Find the Who, What, Where, When, How and Why in the article to complete this worksheet.
I Think Because
Share what you think about the article and explain why.
My Questions
Write a question map about questions that you have after reading the article.
News Review
Give the news article you have read a review
KWL
Write what you KNOW about the topic in the article, what you would LIKE to find out and then what you have LEARNT.
Newspaper Bingo
Play newspaper bingo. Find a number of different articles to complete the grid.
Questions and Answers
Write a set of questions and then their answers after reading the article.
The Big Idea
Find the big idea by highlighting the 5 W’s and 1 H. then select 25 of key words associated with the article.
Word Investigation
Vocabulary exercise where students find key words within the article.
