She Had A Complete Mental Breakdown…Over Ranch Dressing
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“The one lady had a complete mental breakdown in the middle of the store because we wouldn’t give her a free side of ranch. Keep in mind that a side of ranch was already given out for free with each pizza. She already had 5-6 sides of it that were free and wanted more. You want more, you pay for it. That’s how this works.
She was probably having a bad day and that was it for her but that stuff was 75 cents and she already was buying $80 of pizza. She was stomping her feet and shedding legitimate tears in front of 20-30 other customers in line.
My manager was cool though and refused to deal with her crap. We ended up having to call the police to have her removed and the staff ate her pizzas.”
“She Accused Me Of Attempted Murder”
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“I worked at a pizza place in college. I would make the to-go salads. We had red cabbage that was cut to look like onions. I had a woman who, from her uniform, was a fairly high ranking officer at the local Air Force base. She lost her marbles, accusing me of trying to poison her with onions that she claimed to have said she was allergic to (I took the call too, this never came up). As this escalated, she eventually accused me of attempted murder of an officer in the Armed Forces. I mean, she went ballistic over red cabbage.
At no point did she listen when told that it was red cabbage, not onions. In fact, she accused me of lying about this at least once. Had this happened after 9/11, I can only imagine what other rhetoric she would have added.
She proceeded to yell and scream about this for five minutes before the owner finally came to my aid and ultimately banned her from the restaurant. He also let me go home with pay early for handling it as professionally as one could under the circumstances.”
The Customers That Broke Her Down
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“I had a middle-aged couple (both the ‘can I speak to your manager’ types) come in and just start complaining non stop about everything. Every single time I saw them, there were a ton more problems but for some reason, they directed all their hate towards me.
The husband also started calling me names and such, too. I brought out the breadsticks too slowly because I was an idiot. I didn’t know how to do my job probably since I was sleeping around. Stuff like the pasta being too salty was my fault, too, even though I was the waitress. The whole time, the wife just sat there nodding/agreeing.
It was a generic chain restaurant so my superior couldn’t care less. He was always the type to suck up to even the worst customer while throwing you under the bus. Near the end, he said something like, ‘I wish we got any other server here instead of you. You kind of ruined our night.’
I started tearing up and I just said I’m sorry, and while I was gathering their plates, the woman said, ‘Um, crying on the job is… just really unprofessional.’
Luckily this was basically at the end of the night since the whole experience really broke me for the rest of the weekend.”
The Situation Escalated To Be A Family Feud
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“The owner’s relatives, like his aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews, were the worst.
He really hated them but he had to be a good host to them whenever they visited because they were whiny and destructive.
The first time I met one, who I’ll call Dom, he just walked in through the back kitchen door and took some beef stew, chatted me up, took a bottle of vino and left.
Dom was the most frequent visitor, he’d come several times a week and sometimes stays for hours, eating anything cooked and taking any intoxicating drink he can find. He was also easily agitated and even once threw a whole pot of beef stew at one of the cooks because they tried to stop him from eating food that was being sent to the customers.
Some of the other relatives would come in through the front and order so much food and tell/yell at the servers that they were family of the owner and that they should eat free. We just kept the receipts and told the owner whenever he stopped by. Eventually, the owner told everyone to not serve them anything and kick out them when they come because he couldn’t take them basically eating him to bankruptcy.
We had a rush of robberies during the summer months and the owner changed the doors and locks. One day we came to work seeing the doors wrecked, and seeing the kitchen destroyed, and some the food and drinks were stolen.
CCTV showed who the culprits were: the owner’s uncle and other relatives.
Police were called and after I quit, I found out the owner moved to a new location and put restraining orders on his relatives.”
Catering To “Little Monsters”
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“I worked at a local California-Mex restaurant. A family would sometimes come in, and I HATED THEM SO MUCH. They always had about 3-5 kids with them (I don’t know if they were all their kids or friends too), and the kids were all dressed so pretentiously–pricey designer blazers over band shirts, expensive sneakers, fedoras and newsboy caps (these kids were a range of ages from like 5-9).
First, the parents would sit down at a table prepared for the party, but the kids would run off to a separate table. Didn’t matter if it had a reserved sign on it and the parents sure didn’t correct them. After I had corralled them to an appropriate seating area, everyone would order drinks.
Parents: ‘Oh, we want something like a marg, but different…I think it had agave…the bartender knows what we like.’
Me: ‘Do you remember what the order was or if it was on the menu?’
Parents: ‘No…the bartender knows what we drink. Just go ask her.’ (Includes a real nice shooing motion here)
So I went to the bartender to figure out what they want so I can enter it into the system, and she literally had no idea what they’re talking about or who they were. I then went back to their table and after I diplomatically delivered this news, of course, they magically remembered what drinks they wanted with no trouble.
Then it’s time for the kids and these little fancy children ordered some pretty annoying things: rootbeer with grenadine and two cherries, sprite with grenadine and four cherries, you get the idea. I bring them all out their respective sodas with grenadine and three cherries each, and the youngest boy looked at me and said, in the snootiest lil tone, ‘I asked for two cherries.’ Like, just take one out you entitled hellion.
So I was ready to take their orders, but of course, while I was taking the parents’ heavily modified orders, the kids all scrammed to the bar area to watch TV. I asked the parents if they know what their kids wanted and they told me the kids could order for themselves if I went to ask them. Let me be clear, they wanted me to leave my tables to go track down each child and ask for their order.
Eating was no better. The kids were throwing food at each other, demanding like three bowls of the complimentary salsas each and then not touching them, shooting paper straws, and just delivering an impressive amount of attitude. Did the parents do anything? Why would they?! And at the end of the night, with two tables just wrecked by food and wrappers, and having run myself ragged fulfilling tons of requests and modifications, their tip was really bad. Maybe 5-10% for serving two tables, custom orders, extras, and having to cater to little monsters and clean up their wild animal mess.
I refused to ever serve them again. Luckily, my coworker didn’t mind taking them.”
The Customer Isn’t Always Right
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“I worked at McDonald’s for about a year out of pure necessity from being unemployed for six months. My McD’s is in the same shopping center as a Kroger grocery store. I came to quickly learn that 90% of the Kroger employees that came to us were huge stuck up pieces of crap that thought they were always right.
Our store is open until late, not 24 hours but typically until around 1-2am. Despite what day it is, almost all of our workers, save for three or four on busy nights like Fridays, got off at 11 pm, so we closed up and cleaned the inside and only took drive thru orders.
One night after we had closed the inside, around midnight, this woman started tapping on the door and pointing to the handle. I went to see what she wanted because we did get a fair bit of people that were walking home and such who just needed to use the bathroom. As I got closer, I realized she was wearing a Kroger uniform shirt. Had I seen it from behind the counter, I would’ve motioned to her that we’re only doing drive-thru. I was too close at this point, I couldn’t just turn around and look like a jerk. The following is basically how it went down. Let’s call her KG, for Kroger Girl.
Me: ‘What can I do for you?’
KG: (In a snarky tone) ‘You can let me in so I can get some food.’
Me: ‘Sorry, our indoor seating area is closed for the night, we’re only taking drive-thru orders.’
KG: ‘Your sign (points to sign on the door) says you’re open until 1, so lemme get some food.’
Me: ‘Yes, we are open, but because of how few staff we have available, we’re unable to do both walk-in and drive-thru orders, so we’re only doing one.’
KG: ‘But the sign says until 1, it’s only 12, lemme in.’
Me: ‘Let me go talk to my manager to see if we can open a cash register or something.’
(I started to close the door)
KG: ‘Excuse me, you’re just going to leave me out here? It’s freezing.’
It was like 70°F.
My manager is a short Mexican guy. What he lacks in height, he makes up for by having huge balls. He started telling this girl everything I’ve told him. She started getting mad, which makes him start getting mad. Norma, our cook for the night who barely speaks English, didn’t understand what’s happening other than the fact that things were going down. Eventually, my manager and this woman were just straight up yelling at each other and my manager was talking about how he doesn’t need her crap and telling her to get out.
Then he started going on about how she isn’t any better than him because even though he works at McDonald’s; he’s a manager whereas she’s just a bagger at freaking Kroger. The dude was going off. She eventually left and said she’s going to call corporate, to which he told her, ‘Go right ahead!’ My manager apologized to me in case his yelling made me think any less of him. I told him it made me think better of him.
I hated working there, but it was comforting to know my manager had my back when it came to rowdy customers.”
The Guy Who Embarrassed His Entire Party
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“I used to work for a banquet department in an Italian restaurant. They cater to business meetings, weddings, birthdays, baby showers, etc… I do not recall what this specific banquet was for, but I think it was just a private family dinner. The host (the woman who was our contact person) had chosen the drink choices that come free with the meal (water, tea, coffee). If you wanted sodas or other beverages, then you were on your own to pay for it. Most guests are cool with that considering that they aren’t the ones paying for the meal. Plus, the beverage choices are posted on the menu tent in the middle of the table. So it’s obvious what is being offered, and even if it weren’t, the servers are there to let you know.
Anyway, this one guy (who turned out to be the host’s husband) started screaming at me because we weren’t offering sodas and lemonade to people. At that time, I didn’t know that he was the host’s husband. I basically told him that I had no problem getting him what he wanted, but that it was going to be on a separate bill for him because we were only allowed to offer the beverages that his host had chosen for the dinner. He freaked out and started screaming at me in front of the entire group of 40-50 people. I’m like maybe 5 foot 2 and a half. This jerk was standing over me like he was about to hit me. His wife had to come over and explain to him that it wasn’t in their budget to offer the sodas at $2.50 a person for 40-50 people. This red-faced jerk then had the nerve to call me an idiot in front of the entire group of people. Like he was all sweaty and red-faced and ready to put a fist through my head.
The rest of the people in the room were coming up to me and apologizing because he was so freaking rude. One guy was like, ‘I bet it makes him feel like a big man to threaten a young girl like that.’
His poor wife took me aside at the end of the meal and apologized to me. She gave me an extra $50 for tip even though the gratuity was included, and that $50 obviously wasn’t in her budget. I think she was embarrassed by her husband.”
“In 6 Years Of Serving, I’ve Never Seen A Person Behave Like That”
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“A few days ago, we had a group of 10 show up an hour before closing. They wanted a specific table in my section and insisted on waiting for about 30 minutes before freaking out on one of my coworkers.
I couldn’t help but step in and tell them politely that the situation was beyond our control. We are a small restaurant with limited seating, etc.
One particularly obnoxious woman in the mob–it was clear she had been drinking and was slurring her words–started getting argumentative and aggressive, so I went to tell my manager that wherever they sat, I wasn’t going to serve them and nobody else should.
While this was happening, I heard that loud wench scream, ‘FORGET THIS PLACE!!’ toward the family (with young children) who were sitting at the table she and the degenerates wanted to sit at. As she backed out the door with her middle fingers up, she shrieked at the rest of us that, ‘YOUR MANAGER’S A FREAKING LOSER!’
There were lots of kids, man! They were all like 4-7. We removed the rest of the group and apologized to the poor family. Thankfully, they were super kind and understanding about it and continued about their merry night.
In my 6 years of serving I’ve seen some subhuman stuff, but I’ve never, ever seen a person behave like that. I’ll never forget it.”
“The Only Time Our Owner Took Our Side”
“This was the only time our owner ever took staff’s side.
I was heavily pregnant and working an early evening shift. I was serving a table that included a middle-aged man, a woman I assumed was his mother, and an elementary aged child. We weren’t busy and, to my knowledge, I didn’t do anything to offend him. By the time I brought their drinks, he was muttering crap and calling me names. I turned on the smiles and the faux niceness just to anger him even more. By the time I took the check out, he was livid and screaming about only leaving a one cent tip. The only issue was that the moron couldn’t do decimals and left 10 cents.
The little boy handed me a note that said ‘sorry’ as they left.
We had a frequent customer rewards thingy program and he used it. I told my owner mainly because I was amused at his math skills. She took offense, went to the office, closed the credit transaction so it would refund to his card, and sent him a letter (address in our database) explaining this and telling him to not return. And she stuck a dime in the envelope. The only time I ever liked that woman.”
The Fall Of The Social Climber
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“She called our restaurant while she was sitting inside the restaurant to let us know that she was ‘still’ waiting for her water and hadn’t been greeted since being sat.
We were busy, but it hadn’t been much longer than usual. Average time for the level of business.
We already knew this woman to be the biggest social climber and desperate schmoozer ever. She’d come in on this particular day with a lady who held a high position in the government. She pulled this ‘calling-the-restaurant’ move as some kind of display of prestige, I think? Her actions were either to make it seem like she’s used to being treated like royalty and this was an outrage, or perhaps she was hoping the government lady would join her on her high horse treating us servers like servants.
It super-backfired and the government lady gave the woman quite a talking to. She later came up to us to apologize profusely and let us know that she’d admonished her.”
The Beef Between A Chili’s And A Vegetarian
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“I worked at a Chili’s briefly while I was trying to transition jobs and move to a new city.
One night, literally 10 minutes until close, a family sat down in the otherwise empty restaurant. Already annoyed, I walked over to get their order. They asked for time to look over the menu, and man did they take their time. I checked on them like four times before they admitted they needed help ordering. At this point, everyone in the kitchen wanted to strangle both me and them because it was like 20 minutes after close.
They then told me they’re all vegetarians. Cool, I’m vegan, so I know all their choices on the menu. It’s super slim pickings. So I told them the items they can order, and the wife began to yell at me because the black beans are not vegetarian. I kind of looked at her and she screamed, ‘THEY HAVE BEEF IN THEM.’
Okay. No, they don’t. I told her I’m vegan and I eat the beans, then I assured her they’re not cooked in beef fat. I even went as far as to bring her the giant can of black beans we literally just open and heat up that lists black beans, water, garlic salt, salt, pepper and what have you. No beef fat.
She then shuts up and orders a veggie burger, add bacon.
I told her bacon has pork in it and they LOST IT.
My manager had to comp their entire meal because they complained so much and refused to leave. I still, to this day, don’t understand what her deal was.”
They Wanted To Work With Her…Til She Started A Food Fight
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“I didn’t deal with this customer directly, but I was there. This lady got mad at my manager because her food was made wrong. I guess she didn’t want pickles and they gave them to her by mistake? I honestly can’t remember. What I do remember is her standing over the counter ripping one of the sandwiches apart to ‘prove’ that her order was wrong. There was no need for her to prove anything because my manager was trying to listen and get the correct order so it could be remade or issue a refund. She was willing to do either. She kept apologizing, saying that she understood and that she could fix it right away. Extremely polite the whole time. But the lady was already yelling at this point and insulting my manager, who then asked her if she could please keep her voice down.
Anyway, this made her so mad she actually picked up the food and started throwing it at my manager over the counter while yelling, ‘Can’t you do anything right?!?’
It landed close by to me. I remember trying to hold in a laugh, it was just so absurd. My manager told my coworker to call the police and the lady started yelling, ‘Really? You’re gonna call the police?!’
She said all this while raising her arms up in the ‘come at me bro’ gesture. She then left. Her mother came up to us and said, ‘I know she was a little rude but was it really necessary to threaten to call the police? You messed up the order, after all.’
Yeah lady, but your grown-up adult daughter was throwing food at people. All this commotion over pickles.
So glad I don’t work there anymore.”
Outraged Over ‘Fake’ Oreos
“I was a manager at Dairy Queen.
One day, a lady came in about half an hour before closing time and ordered an Oreo blizzard. We made her order and served it to her, and she drove home. Ten minutes later, I got a call from the same lady who was absolutely livid. She was screaming for two minutes before I could get a distinct answer. She had gone home and apparently ‘dissected’ the blizzard, because she wanted to make sure we were using real Oreo cookies.
For those who don’t know, Oreos have their name written on them normally, but Dairy Queen Oreos will occasionally be textured differently from regular Oreos and wouldn’t have any name or defining marks.
After she finished telling me about how her Oreo blizzard was fake, she threatened to sue our business for quote ‘lying to our customers.’ I then thanked her for her call and hung up the phone. She still hasn’t called back (as far as I know), so I think it’ll be fine.”
