Five Guys issues response on Twitter to customer complaints over Sheffield re-opening

Customers complained about two hour queues for food and a lack of social distancing measures in place.

LATEST: 15 photos of Sheffield life in lockdown to make you smile

A video filmed by one customer showed a crowd of customers at the doorway to the restaurant waiting for food to be brought outside by staff members at pre-arranged times.

LOCKDOWN: Police chief sends message on mass gatherings and people ‘wilfully breaching’ Sheffield lockdown

But some said they were forced to wait for two hours for their orders and left without picking up their food.

CRIME: Police officer may stand trial for murder of ex-Sheffield Wednesday player in September

Five Guys launched a ‘click and collect’ service yesterday for customers to order and pay online before calling at the restaurant at a pre-arranged times to collect their orders.

But staff appear to have been overwhelmed with the level of demand for the new lockdown service yesterday.

One woman, Zo, said there were around 100 customers in the queue while she waited for her order and she ended up abandoning it because she could not get to the restaurant door ‘safely’ because of the crowd outside.

Posting on Twitter, she said: “Wow! That click an collect system at Sheffield was really poorly set up, around 100 people all in close proximity of each other, waiting for their orders.

“I had my order booked for 7.30pm and had to leave with out it as I couldn’t get to the door safely.”

In response, Five Guys said: “We're sorry for the inconvenience caused. Please can you direct message us so we can sort this out for you?”

One customer claimed over-run staff ‘abandoned their posts’ during the chaos, leaving customers to ‘serve themselves’

But a woman, who has friends and relatives who work at the restaurant, criticised the actions of some customers.

She said: “They left to keep their self safe because the public were not abiding to the social distancing rules.

“The public were awful.

“They (staff) put themselves at risk to provide for the public, and for what?

“The public did nothing but humiliate and embarrass staff.

“The staff are just as scared as the rest of the public about Covid-19, they should be cut some slack.”