A celebrity chef was accused of tracking down a customer’s Instagram profile and harassing them over a cancellation fee, thus prompting serious backlash, the deletion of social media accounts, and an avalanche of negative reviews. The social profiles of Jen Royle and her three TABLE eateries went private or were deleted Friday (February 23) after a user on X (formerly known as Twitter) shared damning screenshots of a quarrel between him and the owner.
Highlights
- A celebrity chef was accused of harassing her customer over a cancellation fee.
- Social media backlash led to the deletion of her restaurant's accounts.
- The customer used travel insurance to avoid a $250 cancellation fee.
It all started on Thursday night (February 22) when a New Yorker named Trevor Chauvin-DeCaro took to his X page to write: “Last month, we had to cancel our Boston trip after I was hospitalized.
“As a result, I had to use travel insurance to get my money back on our hotel, train, and restaurant reservations. Today, I got this message from (TABLE).”
Trevor Chauvin-DeCaro exposed a dispute over a cancellation fee he had with celebrity chef Jen Royle
Image credits: Valeria Boltneva/Pexels
Trevor’s first screenshot exposed a message from what has been assumed to be the account associated with TABLE’s North End restaurant, located in Boston, USA. The message was seemingly sent from the owner, Jen.
Since Thursday, the post amassed 23.8 million views and revealed a lengthy exchange with an Instagram direct message allegedly sent from the restaurant that read: “I just wanted to personally thank you for screwing over my restaurant and my staff when you disputed your cancellation fee.
“I really hope in the future you have more respect for restaurants, especially small businesses such as mine. Pathetic.”
Image credits: TABLE Boston
As presented in a series of screenshots, Trevor sent an extended explanation to the rebuke from the restaurant, saying that he used his travel insurance tied to his credit card because of the “unforeseen circumstances” that resulted in him being unable to visit Boston as he had initially planned.
As revealed by Trevor’s DMs, this helped him get out of paying a substantial cancellation fee of $250.
According to the online restaurant reservation platform Resy, TABLE has a 72-hour cancellation policy, and those who cancel the day of their reservation face paying their full fee. Additionally, there are no exceptions to their policy.
You can read the message Jen allegedly sent to Trevor via his Instagram DMs below
Image credits: trevorshowvan
The screenshots further exposed another reply from TABLE, presumably Jen, arguing that Trevor could have called and given his honest reasoning for canceling instead of disputing the charge.
Later, an employee from TABLE told Boston.com: “Nobody on the TABLE staff has ever received a phone call or spoken to Mr. (Chauvin-DeCaro) or anyone in his party; therefore, nobody was aware of any emergency, illness, or said hospitalization.
“We just learned of that on social media.”
Moreover, Jen’s attorney, Michael Ford, also told the Boston Globe that the chef doesn’t believe Trevor canceled because he was hospitalized.
Trevor, who had planned to visit Boston with his husband to see Madonna perform, said they were all set to go to the Amtrak station, but the train was delayed, Boston.com reported.
Around that time, while waiting for the train, Trevor reportedly said that’s when he began to feel ill. The couple subsequently decided to go home, where Trevor had a telehealth visit.
Trevor, who had planned to visit Boston with his husband, ended up in the ER after falling ill
Image credits: trevorshowvan
The disappointed traveler was then told to go to the ER, which Trevor said is where he was the whole of the next day.
In the midst of his health concerns, he and his husband called Amtrak, the hotel, and TABLE to cancel their reservations, a move that he also described a couple of times in the DM exchange exposed on X.
Trevor told Boston.com: “Each business has its own policies, and some of those businesses were like, ’Sorry, this is our policy.’
“Great, that’s why I have travel insurance with Chase.”
The stunned customer said that’s what TABLE told him to do as well, quoting the staff he spoke with as saying that he was “so butt hurt about” the policy.
In screenshots shown on X, Jen seemingly said her staff would never speak to someone in that manner.
TABLE also told Boston.com that “credit card disputes are detrimental to a small business” when asked if they were financially impacted by the travel insurance claim filed by Trevor.
You can read more of Trevor and Jen's heated exchange below
“We did not receive the money,” TABLE told the website. “We received a credit card dispute, filled out the proper paperwork, and we lost.”
Evidently, this isn’t Jen’s first online dispute with customers. As reported by Boston magazine, it’s also become part of her persona, one that has attracted fans of Jen, as well as people who say they’ll never eat at one of her restaurants.
Last Friday, Jen reportedly said her businesses were indeed open and “very busy.” TABLE said it shut down its accounts and switched its Google Card to “permanently closed” because of the growing rude reviews and inundating threats.
Image credits: trevorshowvan
While many who had commented on or shared Trevor’s thread on X showed him support and seemed against Jen’s cancellation fee and response, he said he has also received threats and slurs.
He reportedly said the famous chef had shared his contact information and the last four digits of his credit card when sharing a screenshot of the credit card dispute.
Jen’s lawyer reportedly said the posts on X with the screenshots were unintentionally shared and taken down.
Using his travel insurance, Trevor was able to get out of paying a substantial cancellation fee of $250
Image credits: TABLE Boston
Trevor told Boston.com: “It was never my intention to go viral, and two, to drum up a bunch of hate for a local business, and three, to get people to leave reviews on behalf of me.
“I never called for that. Stop doing that.”
Online hospitality review platform Yelp reportedly said it was monitoring TABLE’s page after the restaurant was seemingly review-bombed with one-star reviews, many of the users citing the screenshots on X as a reason for their review.
TABLE serves Italian food communal style and charges people per seat for a seven-course meal, which is $125, except for Sunday Supper, which is priced at $98.
Jen Royle is an American former sports reporter. She is known as a chef and contestant on ABC’s The Taste and Food Network’s Beat Bobby Flay.
Trevor's screenshots sparked more reactions
