The customer is NOT always right and sometimes it's more important to let them know how wrong they are than it is to coddle them, especially when they're as obnoxious as these customers. Finally, badly-behaved customers got the karma they deserved.
She Had WAAAY More Than 15 Items
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“I work at a grocery store and at the time was cashiering at our express lane, which was 15 items or fewer. Some lady hopped in line with obviously over 15 items, so I politely informed her that this was the express lane. She snapped back, telling me she counted and it’s 17 items, only a bit over. We were not allowed to fight with customers over our express lane, so I was forced to move on. Finally, it was her turn and I angrily scanned and bagged her items. She had that smug little grin on her face that made me just wanna punch her. Anyway, it got to the end of the order and I saw on my register the item count was 34! What happened to 17?! I was annoyed, but we are ‘encouraged’ to be calm, collected, and not fight with our customers. So to tell her the total, I put on my biggest retail smile and said in my best, overly perky, sarcastic voice, ‘Your THIRTY-FOUR items will come to a grand total of $112.34!’
She got flustered, then walked away without saying another word to me.”
That Day, She Finally Had Enough Of His Nasty Attitude
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“I used to work at a Starbucks in an area where NFL owners, professional athletes, and the like lived. One of our regulars was some guy who had spent his life wallowing in orange spray tan and had the whitest hair one could imagine.
Every day he would come in and order a green tea, literally a tea bag with hot water. No matter what, there was always something wrong with it. Too hot, too cold, cup was weird, whatever.
Anyway, one day during my last two weeks, this guy comes in when we’re being slammed. He orders from me and I call out another order seconds later, ‘Green tea latte for Rick.’ Notice I did not say ‘green tea,’ or the complaining guy’s name.
He comes back up and snaps, ‘Excuse me, I ordered a green tea. It’s literally water and a tea bag. How stupid can you be?’
I turn toward him, look him dead in the eye and loudly go, ‘That’s not even your freaking order! Every time you come in here it’s something else, if we’re so stupid then go to another location.’
He stepped back and didn’t say anything after that.”
This Trophy Wife Took Her Diet Very Seriously
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“One time went into a Corner Bakery and I was waiting in line trying to decide what to eat. As I was about to go up to order, your typically former Southern debutante trophy wife (who is no longer happy in life and had gained a bunch of weight) stormed up to the counter red with anger.
She started yelling at the ladies at the counter, one older sweet lady, and I think a 16-year-old who was just trying to hold a job.
She freaking lost it, saying how she ordered extra chicken with her salad because she’s on a ‘special’ diet and she NEEDS the extra protein! The older lady at the register politely went, ‘Oh, no problem, ma’am! We’ll get you more chicken right away,’ with the sweetest smile.
Trophy Wife wasn’t having it.
Trophy Wife snapped again and went, ‘Well, you should have gotten it right THE FIRST TIME! You two are so pathetic, you both work here and can’t even get THIS right!’ Then 16-year-old slowly begins to break down crying and the older lady looked like she’s about to follow suit, but Trophy Wife wasn’t done yet. She continued to go on to say how they won’t amount to anything in life and were basically useless.
At this point, I’m fuming because I hate seeing people abused, especially when they were so kind and eager to fix the ‘mistake.’ After about 30 more seconds of me trying to stay calm, she said, ‘You two deserve to be fired, I can’t BELIEVE they would hire people so incompetent! I want to speak to a manager! I am on a strict special diet and you’ve ruined it! My diet requires extra protein, if you can’t accommodate me on that, then you deserve to be let go.’ She goes on for a bit more, mentioning her diet every two seconds.
I finally snapped with, ‘Are you on a nag diet too?! Because that doesn’t seem to be working either!’ I went onto to say that if she’d lose the stick up her butt, maybe she’d lose a few pounds and while she was at it, possibly gain some class, too.
Her jaw dropped and she let out the most pretentious scoff I have ever heard and said how she’s never been SO disrespected in her life, stormed off saying how she deserves to be treated with dignity and attempted to slam the door. Meanwhile, the two at the register were trying so hard not to laugh.
They thanked me and offered to give me a free drink, which was so sweet. I refused and gave them an extra big tip. Also spoke to the manager to make sure if the lady writes a review online, the two cashiers wouldn’t get fired.”
The Amish Were Real Hellraisers
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“Years ago, I managed a supermarket in a very small town. A group of Amish people had recently purchased several farms and set up a community in the area. While I’m sure that most Amish people are good, honest, folks, many members of this community weren’t. By the time of what became known as ‘the incident,’ several Amish people had already been banned from every bar, restaurant, and several retail establishments for fighting, shoplifting, and general bad behavior. Word got around, so my employees were keeping an eye on them in the store.
The day before ‘the incident,’ one of my cashiers had caught a young Amish woman shoplifting a roll (10 cans) of Skoal and called me up front. She had watched her hide them in her clothing. When she checked out, before giving her the total, the cashier asked her politely if she was going to pay for the Skoal. The Amish woman did give the Skoal back to the cashier, saying she forgot she had it, paid for the rest of her purchases and left.
The next day, an older Amish man came in asking for the manager. The girl up front called me to the front of the store. He then told me he wanted to speak to the manager, I told him I was the manager and asked how I could help. He then asked to speak to the real manager. I knew where this was going, both because I’m female, and the near miss shoplifting from the day before. I let him know I was all he was going to get manager-wise.
He went on to try to explain to me, in a very slow, disappointed tone that implied I was obviously too stupid to understand what he was saying, that he wouldn’t tolerate his people being watched in my store. I explained, in my very calm, yet intense if-I-could-kill-you-with-sheer-force-of-will-I-would manner, that I would not tolerate shoplifting in my store. I told him I had witnessed the exchange and everything was done in accordance to store policy, which I had established.
He then said something like, ‘I would expect this from a store full of women.’
I really don’t remember what happened next, but according to more than one employee, I got six inches taller, my voice became very low and quiet, and I backed the guy out the door while banning him and, ‘all his ilk from my store forever more.’ I had gone Old Testament.
A few weeks later, a few older Amish people (both men and women in the delegation) showed up, told me they had come to the community ‘to see that things went better’ because at this point nobody in town would do business with them. I lifted the ban, they were good to their word, and there were no problems after that.”
He Was On Both Sides Of Bad Customer Interactions
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“I owned/managed a Little Caesar’s pizza joint for a bit. One night, some guy came in and told my counter girl we messed up his food last time, so this time it’s free. My cashier perfectly explained the return/we made a mistake policy and asked for the guy’s name since we have a book we write them in. The guy started losing it and yelling at my 16-year-old employee. I calmly walked over to her, asked her to go in the back, then called this guy out for swearing at a young girl, and told him how he is a piece of crap, he has no respect, get the heck out and don’t ever come back. The random customer left in the lobby gave me a high five.
Second story I was actually the customer at a Little Caesar’s.
It was probably five minutes to close when I rolled in and asked for a Hot and Ready since I was headed to a friend’s house and I didn’t want to show up empty-handed. They told me it will be about a minute since it was still in the oven and they had to cut it. My first thought was, ‘Sweet, fresh pizza.’ After I paid and moved to the side, a lady walked in and asked for two pizzas. The kid behind the counter told her it will be about three minutes. At this point, the lady started losing her mind, ‘This is bull, it should be hot and ready, I should not have to wait!’ The kid behind the counter was clearly still in high school and trying to do his best, so I stepped in.
I slammed my hand on the counter and said, ‘Lady, are you kidding me right now? What gives you the right to talk to someone like that, over three minutes? Everywhere you go, you have to wait to at least pay. How important are you that you can’t wait for three minutes for hot, right out of the oven pizzas?’ She was silent. As I looked up, the kid in the back gave me a few fist pumps. When the first two pizzas came out, I offered her mine so she could get back to her important life faster. She declined and said that she could wait.
The next time I stopped in, it was the same two guys. They gave me my pizza and said this one is on us. After that, they would always hook me up with crazy bread.”
She Got Something Extra Special In Her Kung Pow Chicken
“I used to be a Chinese food cook. One night, the kitchen was closed. I cleaned everything in the kitchen and everything we had in the food warmer was what was going to last the rest of the night. The store closed in 30 minutes. This lady came up to the counter and ordered kung pow chicken, which was the last thing I made before closing down the kitchen. This woman started whining about how she didn’t want the crap in the warmer because she was convinced it had just been sitting there all day. I told her that, unfortunately, the kitchen was closed and what was in the warmer was all we had, but it was the last thing made before closing the kitchen which was only about 15 minutes prior. She then started to curse me out and was telling me how I was going to get fired because I was being so rude and how she was the customer, which meant I had to do what she says. So I looked at her, said fine, turned around, walked into the kitchen and cooked her a new batch of kung pow chicken. I took the entire container of dried peppers and dumped it in the wok with the chicken. It was so strong, I couldn’t breathe when cooking it. I dumped it into the quart box and half the box was dried pepper flakes. Walked out, gave it to her, rang her up, told her to have a good night. I hope she went home and was furious about it.”
He Loved Being A Waiter, Except When It Came To Guys Like That
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“Before university, I worked at this awesome pizza bar as a waiter. I had this really scummy family walk into the place and demand a table. Being the upstanding citizen I was, I organized a makeshift table to decrease their waiting time. The father ordered a drink, so I went and put in the order. Now just to clarify, this place would get ridiculously busy, sometimes an order from the bar would take 10-15 minutes. Suddenly, after literally two minutes, the man stormed up to me and was like, ‘WHERE IS MY DRINK?’ I kindly responded by stating that I would bring it as soon as possible, however, the bar was backlogged. He responded, ‘Don’t you talk back to me, boy, and don’t even think about getting a tip.’
The evening carried on and I brought him his drink, he then proceeds to order a pizza. One of the most expensive pizzas at that. However, he requested: no olives, no cheese, no onion, no pepper, etc, – basically just the crust, sauce and meat.
The bill comes and I am immediately summoned back to the table. ‘WHY IS THIS PIZZA SO EXPENSIVE!?’ he questioned.
‘Because that’s what you ordered,’ I replied.
‘But I didn’t have 90% of the toppings!’ he screamed at me.
‘That does not change the price,’ I smirked.
‘I refuse to pay this,’ he argued.
I walked back into the store, found my manager and told him the story. I then proceed to package the cheese, onions and all other toppings into tiny plastic containers. Slammed it down on the table in front of the man and said, ‘There, you now have all your ingredients. Now pay the bill and get out of here.’ They paid the bill and got escorted out of the joint by the manager.
Honestly, waiting tables was fun, other than guys like that.”
She Was The Best Waitress The Cafe Had To Offer, But Nothing She Did Was Good Enough For Him
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“Worked for a few years at a cafe in Brooklyn – my first ever job in high school and into college. All in all, I was there for about three years; within this time I became an expert barista/waitress. I knew the regulars and their orders well enough to have them ready by the time they walked in the door, trained all the new employees, was the manager/owner’s right hand in all things cafe related.
This particular event happened on a Saturday night. Because we were well-known in the area and always pretty busy, we often stayed open until one or two on Friday and Saturday nights. A group of seven came in at about midnight and I always jump at the chance to serve big tables because it can potentially mean big tips. But, let me tell you, this was the worst group I had ever served. They changed tables twice for literally no reason, the gentleman demanded we give him his drink in one of the specialty cups on the wall (something I’ve never done for anyone because those cups are on display to be purchased), so on and so forth. When taking their orders, the special cup gentleman’s wife insisted she didn’t want anything. I said, ‘Are you sure? Can I get you a water?’ But no, she doesn’t want anything. I take the rest of the orders, make the drinks, then come back 7-8 minutes later and serve them. As soon as I finished setting the drinks down and walked back behind the counter, Mister Special Cup followed me behind the counter (even though customers aren’t allowed there) and threw a tantrum because I didn’t bring his wife a drink. He was full-blown screaming at me in this tiny cafe about how incompetent I am, this is the worst service he’s ever received in his life, he’s been coming here for years, but he’ll never come back here again and I should know that I am personally to blame.
My manager, upon hearing this guy berating me, came over to see what’s up. SC just continued to rip into me: my manager should be ashamed to have ever hired me, I should be fired immediately, he’s going to tell all of his friends never to step foot in this establishment ever again, blah blah. But then my manager stood up for me like I’ve never been stood up for before, ‘Sir, this young lady has been working here for years and I’ve never once received a single complaint about her. In all honesty, she’s the most experienced and probably the best server in this cafe. If you are having a problem with her, it’s because you are the issue. Now, I’ve never seen you here once before, so I can say with certainty that you won’t be missed should you choose never to come back. I’m not going to ask you to pay for your drinks, although I should considering how disrespectful you’ve been to my staff, but I am going to ask you to leave – immediately.’
They left and I immediately walked into the bathroom and cried, partially because I was just so shook up and angered by what the customer had said to/about me, but mostly because I was so grateful to have a manager willing to stick his neck out like that for me. Cheers to you, Bossman.”
In All That Time She Spent Complaining, She Could Have Been Served
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“For a while, I worked in one of those Starbucks in a grocery store. I came in as my manager was leaving. She hadn’t finished some stocking up front and I was working with one other girl who knew what she was doing. We always had a line, but it was Tuesday, so the biggest it got was four people.
I was stocking for like five minutes on a ladder when I noticed that the lady at the register had a lot of kids. The lady behind her left. No big deal.
Then this lady came up to me. I knew her face. She always complained, but in that, ‘I’m being extra nice because I’m on the verge of exploding tone.’
‘Excuse me! That other lady just left and I have been waiting for ten minutes. Don’t you think you should help customers before stocking?’
‘I’m sorry, but we always have a line. I need to get this done as quickly as possible, but you’re next in line, so you shouldn’t have to wait that much longer,’ I explained.
My boss was walking by. The lady called him over to tell him that I wasn’t working fast/hard enough. By the time she was done complaining, not only was it her turn in line, but everyone behind her had gotten their drink and left. My boss pointed that out. I made a point of making her drink and she got decaf that day. I never helped her after that. Always stopped, looked right at her, and then asked some else to take over the line.”
The Lady Was Going Off Just To Try And Get Something For Free
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“I was a customer. It was 28 years ago. I was at a fast food place (I think it was a Popeye’s) in a mall food court, and my family was seated at a nearby table while I stood in line. I watched the customer in front of me throw an unreasonable tantrum at the cashier to try to get a freebie, then when the cashier didn’t budge, she demanded the manager. All the while, I’m standing there waiting for her tantrum to be over so I can order.
The manager listened to her lie about the cashier, and started to offer her the desired freebie. I was sick of her bull and sick of waiting, so I spoke up and told the manager everything that had happened, told him the woman was a liar and the cashier had been exemplary, and that if he gave the woman anything or punished the cashier in any way, I would take my business elsewhere.
The hussy in front of me threw a tantrum at me and stomped off, without her food. The boss tried to comp me a meal, but I insisted on paying because I hadn’t done anything special, I had merely gotten ticked off she was wasting my time and told the truth. The cashier gave me the hussy’s food for free in addition to what I ordered since it had already been made/packaged and would go to waste. She was also very friendly to me every time she saw me afterward.”
It Wasn’t A Job He Normally Did, But He Was Doing The Best He Could
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“I work at a concert venue where I normally check bags and do security until Warped Tour came around.
The food vendors were understaffed, so I was moved to a stand where we never had enough food and I was the only one doing food prep, which I hadn’t learned how to properly do.
About two hours into cutting deals with people who ordered something I ran out of (‘Oh, chicken sandwich – sorry, just ran out – I feel really bad, but I have burgers and I’ll throw in some fries if that’s ok’), someone started giving me trouble.
My line was backed up like 15 customers, as it had been for an hour now, and this person somehow thought that I could magically make the food she wanted appear.
I didn’t even need to say anything. I just looked the bimbo in the eyes, shut my own eyes for a few seconds, took a deep breath, and then did an ‘exhausted hunched’ over the bar. When I looked up at my line of now 20 people, I made eye contact with the guy behind her in line.
He turned the girl around and said, ‘We’re here to see a concert, get wasted, and have fun while this kid is stuck slaving away making food for people all day. How about if you leave the kid alone, I’ll refund you right now. What did you get?’
For every one horrible person I deal with, there are at least five who put a smile on my face and make me happy to work there – then there’s that guy who brings a tear to my eye by looking out for me.”
He Had Something Bad To Say About Everything The Restaurant Had To Offer
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“This pompous jerk came into my restaurant one afternoon with his wife, and one of my favorite coworkers ended up getting him as a table.
Right off the bat, he started snapping his fingers at people to get their attention, cutting them off only to not say a word, then saying every type of passive-aggressive, negative comment about the restaurant he could, ranging from the seats to the table to the drinks and so on. I wound up having to run his food to him and when I got there, he was in the middle of scolding my friend on why our food was prepared a certain way. It’s a Cajun restaurant owned by a dude from New Orleans! It’s gonna be on the weird side.
So I went to set his food down once he stopped talking. I hadn’t even finished setting it down when he went, ‘Where are the crackers?’ I revealed my other hand, carrying as many packages as I could hold.
But, I smiled for my friend’s sake and said, ‘Oh, they’re right here, don’t worry, I made sure to bring you extra.’ I then set his wife’s food down, and again, before I’d even finished, he went, ‘Where are her sides?’
‘They’re right here on the tray,’ I said, grabbing them from the tray and setting them down.
By this point, I’m fairly irked, but the genius here didn’t seem to realize it, and he snapped at me, ‘Spoon?’ while shaking his head like you would at a child.
I had been sure to prepare this guy’s food perfectly before I brought it out, so he would have no reason to send me back for anything, and I knew I had remembered his stupid spoon. Smiling, I looked down at his plate and picked up the spoon resting in front of his stupid face and said, ‘Oh, well here it is. How ’bout that?’
My coworker got a kick out of that one – even the guy’s wife was smirking a little.”
He Made Sure To Let Management Know What REALLY Happened
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“I’m a pizza delivery driver. A few months ago, it was a normal day so far until I had to deliver to a really shady apartment complex in the downtown area, which wasn’t far from the store. Not so dangerous, but there were ALWAYS people in that complex trying to get free food out of us. I pulled up about a minute earlier than my promised delivery time. After he answered the door, the customer immediately cut me off before I could even greet him and said, ‘You’re late, I’m calling the manager.’ I tried to explain to him that I was in fact early, and his pizzas were totally still hot. He insisted that I was wrong, and slammed the door in my face. Now I’m ticked. I flew (almost literally) back to my store to give my manager a heads up that a dumb complaint was coming, and to not give that man a thing. As I stormed into my store, I heard the phone ringing, and guess who it was? None other than the number on my delivery ticket. I picked up, and he immediately asked to speak to a manager. I told him that I was a manager, and he could express his complaint directly to me. He said, ‘Your delivery driver was rude, late, and both of my pizzas were cold!’ Since he lied, I proceeded to let him know that he was speaking to said delivery driver, and that if he wanted to lie to me, then I would personally make it my mission to make sure he never got anything from our establishment ever again. He didn’t know what to say and ended up passing the phone to his girlfriend or whatever. Forget that guy and may he forever be deprived of pizza.”
He Was Treating That Poor Girl Like She Was Trash
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“Once when I was an apprentice baker, some middle-aged Mediterranean man was gesturing very lazily at what he wanted on the racks, and his accent was way too thick for any of us to understand. He probably wanted a pasta dura or something, but instead of being chill and saying ‘crusty loaf’ or whatever, he decided to yell at our tiniest teenage casual shop girl. So I walked out the front in my dusty apron, crossed my arms and bore into his nasty soul with my most murderous look. He backed off. Shop girl gave me a big old hug after, the poor thing. Funny how people back off when a bigger target presents itself. Middle-aged men need to chill out and stop trying to dominate young women.”
