Whether an employee works at a restaurant, hotel, or front desk, they deserve respect from customers. While most customers are respectful, every once in a while an employee will encounter a rude, entitled, and demanding individual. Luckily, good samaritans are willing to step in and stop terrible customers from wrongfully berating employees. These brave customers share the times they stood up to another customer for telling off an employee. Content has been edited for clarity.
Table of contents
- 1. First Date Gone Wrong
- 2. “The Waitress Was Nearly In Tears”
- 3. “Go Buy Groceries And Be Miserable At Home”
- 4. “The Cashier Did The Worst Thing I Could Imagine”
- 5. “You’re Setting A Bad Example For Your Kid”
- 6. “I Had A Gut Feeling She Wasn’t Going To Leave Without A Fight”
- 7. “Maybe He’ll Shut Up And Let The Rest Of Us Eat In Peace”
- 8. “This Lady Is A Witch”
- 9. “Both Of The Diners Began Screaming”
- 10. “The Man Was Becoming Agitated And Abusive”
1. First Date Gone Wrong
“I have stood up for a customer service worker more than once.
The most memorable occasion was when I was out on a date. The woman who I was on a date with and I were sharing a meal, but she was being persistently rude to the waitress. I tried just giving her ‘the look’ of disapproval, as I was good at it. However, my date didn’t get the hint.
After several attempts at this, I waited for the waitress to walk out of earshot and then asked my date, ‘Why are you being so rude to the waitress? She didn’t do anything wrong.’
My date looked surprised and replied, ‘What am I doing wrong? I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong.’
This seemed like a ridiculous assertion to me. My date was indisputably rude, in my opinion. She even got a few startled looks from people at other tables.
My date also used the fatal phrase, ‘Anyway, she’s only a waitress.’
That statement was the end of her chance of being my partner right there.
When the waitress returned to our table I asked, ‘Is it too late to cancel the dessert I ordered? I would like to leave early.’
Surprised, the waitress replied, ‘Of course, let me go check for you.’
It turned out to be too late to cancel the order, so I paid for the dessert and left it uneaten. My companion was shocked about how I wanted to leave, but to her credit, didn’t argue. Since I made it clear I was going straight home and not to our planned destination, my date elected to stay and finish her meal. Whether or not she went to the movie we planned on seeing afterward, I had no idea.
Before I left the building, I tipped and complimented the waitress stating, ‘I hope the woman I was with didn’t upset you too much.’
The waitress replied, ‘It’s all in the territory of my job. It doesn’t get to me much anymore.’
‘Please, always remember you don’t deserve it,’ I told her as I walked out and left my date in the restaurant alone.
I hated doing things like this, but it was warranted. I only hoped my date learned her lesson, despite it being the hard way.
I had always been puzzled by the attitude embodied in the phrase, ‘Anyway she’s only a waitress.’
Only a waitress? Wake up, waitresses are human beings!”
2. “The Waitress Was Nearly In Tears”
“My second husband and I used to stand up to mean customers all the time. Ever since he passed, I started doing it by myself.
Some people could be mean, especially in restaurants. I worked as a waitress, hostess, and assistant manager of restaurants over the years, so I came in contact with my fair share of terrible customers. My children also worked in restaurants as waitresses, waiters, hosts, and cooks. I had soft spot for the industry and its workers.
Most recently, I witnessed a waitress taking a huge tray of drinks out to the patio area of a restaurant I was eating at. My friend and I noticed a group of guys at one table, and they were picking on the waitress. She was trying to handle it, but five guys and one of her wouldn’t turn out to be a fair fight.
When one of the guys knocked a drink out of the waitress’ hand, the group thought it was funny.
The manager on duty didn’t see what happened and told the little waitress, ‘You know, the drink and broken glass will be coming right out of your paycheck,’ and the guys at the table thought it was hilarious.
At this point, the waitress was nearly in tears. When the manager walked back inside, I followed him to the back office and spoke with him about what was going on. The manager tried to dismiss me as if it weren’t a big deal. As a mother of four girls who previously worked in the industry, I knew what the drink and glass were going to cost the waitress. It wasn’t fair!
Then I went out to the patio and told the guys at the table, ‘I don’t think your grandmothers, mothers, or sisters would appreciate your behavior. You owe the waitress for the drink and damaged glass.’
Three of the guys figured that the one guy who had caused the spill and broken glass should be the one to pay for it. As the mother of four boys and girls, I told them how they were all responsible.
I explained, ‘Any one of you could have stopped what you were doing, don’t point fingers’.
One of the five thought I was being too hard on them, so I told them, ‘If one of my sons had been a part of what you did to the waitress, I would have expected them to clean up the mess.’
One of the guys tracked down a busboy and picked up a bucket, rag, and trash can to clean up the mess.
I told the guy cleaning, ‘See, now you’re a man. All of your other friends are just boys.’
At this point, three of the others joined him in cleaning. The one left sitting at the table wasn’t buying it and never joined his friends in the clean-up efforts.
My friend told me, ‘I’m worried you’re going to get in trouble for going after the group.’
I replied, ‘I don’t care. If I didn’t speak up, nothing would change and things would have only gotten worse.’
The group made sure they were polite to the waitress from then on. They also left a great tip. I couldn’t just stand around while those guys disrespected the young girl.”
3. “Go Buy Groceries And Be Miserable At Home”
“There was a Vietnamese noodle restaurant in the neighborhood I had recently moved to, and it was in a cosmopolitan area of apartments, Airbnb’s, short-term, and long-term rentals. This meant patrons of the restaurant could be locals, tourists, displaced working professionals, or university students.
My friend and I were waiting for our takeout order, and the waitress was having a hard time as she was the only one at the front of the house. The point of sale system wasn’t working correctly and was experiencing delays. We had already paid with little difficulty and stood off to the side to wait for our order.
A tall man in sunglasses and his dog came in and the man asked rudely for a menu.
He made his selection, haughtily demanded a takeout menu, and asked, ‘How long is this going to take?’
The waitress took his order and answered his question. She tallied his order and handed the machine for him to pay. As it turned out, on top of the delays with the machine, the customer was trying to pay for his meal with a foreign debit card. He thought it was the waitress’s fault the card machine wasn’t working.
‘Why isn’t the machine working?’ the man questioned, ‘I just know it’s your fault! Run the card again!’
My friend and I, as well as the other customers in the restaurant, watched as the overbearing man and his dog followed the waitress around the restaurant complaining and shouting.
Finally, the man threw the payment machine at the waitress, lifted his finger, and demanded, ‘You’re taking forever to make my order, and your machine doesn’t work! I’m leaving my address for you. You’re going to deliver my order when it is done, and I will pay when I receive my food!’
The waitress, clearly having dealt with nutjobs like this before, stared at him with large eyes and explained, ‘I’m sorry we don’t do delivery and you haven’t paid yet. I can’t make your meal unless you’ve paid.’
The man unloaded more rudeness and some name-calling to round out the experience. My friend and I had enough, so we jumped in and interfered.
We told the man, ‘You and your nonexistent funds are not welcome at this restaurant. You need to leave. How dare you speak to people in such a demeaning manner!’
The man didn’t take this to heart, so my friend and I stopped playing nice and straight up asked him to leave.
I cried, ‘Leave the restaurant! Just leave! They don’t need customers like you. Just go buy groceries and be miserable at home!’
The man finally did leave, with no loss to the restaurant, and no loss to the other patient customers.
My friend and I have since become regulars at the restaurant and have gotten to know the family who operates the restaurant, too.
If I didn’t stick up for my fellow neighbors, who would have?”
4. “The Cashier Did The Worst Thing I Could Imagine”
“I have stood up to a rude customer before.
It happened at a Mcdonald’s in Dubai. There was someone ordering food and something had gone wrong. The customer was irate and screaming profanities at the cashier.
I let go of the first sentence or five the man said to the employee. I didn’t feel comfortable interfering with the man and employee at first. Then it kept going, and people around started to get uncomfortable. I’ve already ordered my food. So, I decided to pipe up.
I told the man, ‘Hey, excuse me! Listen, you have said your piece. It’s your McDonald’s order someone messed up, not your firstborn. Relax, man.’
‘Hey, stay out of it,’ the man replied.
At this point, I squared off.
I replied, ‘I tried to stay out of it, but you’ve gone far beyond reasonable. I’m happy for you to pick a fight with me instead of her at this point. Everyone in the room is uncomfortable with what is happening here.’
Then, the cashier did the worst thing I could imagine.
She handed me my ice cream cone.
I didn’t know it would be so hard to act tough while holding an ice cream cone.
Being a reasonable improviser, I swapped scripts and turned to the cashier.
I jokingly asked the cashier, ‘Why’d you do this? Now I have to try to keep looking intimidating while holding an ice cream cone!’
I made eye contact with some of the ‘audience’ standing around, who I had guessed would be sympathetic toward the employee. I got some laughs out of them. Then, I turned back to the guy.
Between licks of the ice cream cone, I told the man, ‘Anyways, as I said. Watch yourself, buddy.’
A couple of people laughed, and thankfully, so did he. He apologized to both the cashier and myself. I offered to buy the man ice cream, and all ended well.”
5. “You’re Setting A Bad Example For Your Kid”
“I stood up for a waitress once.
The ramen shop I frequently visited had a policy of ‘pay first, seat after.’ So naturally, the queue was long, but everyone abided by the policy. My friend and I already started munching on our ramen, when a family of three skipped the queue, sat beside us, and then forcefully slotted their baby stroller into the crevasses of the tables.
We were annoyed at this, but it didn’t take heed.
The waitress came and politely told them, ‘Hey, we encourage customers to order first, then sit down.’
The man replied, ‘You’re just a dumb waitress. What can you do?’
Everyone in the shop glared at the family, and the poor waitress ran away in tears. I didn’t take this too well, and I stood up afterward.
I told the man, ‘Can you please not swear in this shop and pay for your food first? Also, you’re setting a bad example for your kid.’
The man stared at me, sizing me up.
He screamed in response, ‘Who do you think you are? You aren’t the boss of me!’
Faint whispers around the shop started becoming audible. The patrons started standing up for the waitress as well and proceeded to bombard him with the ‘pay first, seat after’ policy. The boiling pot deep inside the man’s nerve ends exploded.
He loudly asserted, ‘Don’t tell me what to do! This restaurant is awful, I’m never coming back!’
The family pushed their baby stroller hurriedly out of the restaurant, and the patrons continued dining.
I felt pretty good, and the waitress and I shared a nod of approval.”
6. “I Had A Gut Feeling She Wasn’t Going To Leave Without A Fight”
“One time, I was sitting in a cozy family restaurant in Ann Arbor having breakfast with my wonderful wife. Suddenly, we noticed a couple in their late-20s engaging in a loud conversation a few tables away. The woman was getting more and more animated, and her voice carried further and further. People noticed and started looking over.
The woman kept going and started peppering in some colorful language as she heated up. It was a full-blown scene now as her boyfriend tried to calm her down. The hostess, who was the owner, came over to attempt to try and quiet things down. However, her tactics didn’t work.
The woman found herself increasingly angry being told she needed to quiet down and begins berating the hostess. I moved a little closer to the edge of my seat, and I heard the hostess now trying to remove the woman. I had a gut feeling the woman wasn’t going to leave the restaurant without a fight.
The woman took a slap at the poor hostess, who was probably 65 years old. Boom, that was it. I took a couple of steps over and placed myself between the two women. The hostess was upset, and she backed away as I looked over to the other woman.
‘Enough, lady,’ I angrily told the woman.
Her next idea wasn’t a good one.
I was about 5’10 with a stocky build. Years of studying Jjitsu afforded me the tools I needed to deal with this situation. In very short order.
The woman decided to take a swipe at me. I dodged her hand deftly, however, her fingernail did catch the very edge of my glasses. She saw this, then saw the ‘look’ I gave her.
Now, most people knew people who behaved like this woman were natural cowards. Cowards have seen ‘the look’. She knew. She ran out of the restaurant so fast, there was a vapor trail. The police showed up thereafter.
The elderly couple sitting next to us thanked me upon my return. They blessed me. For they had watched the entire thing and were actively hoping for a favorable outcome.
It was nice, I guess.”
7. “Maybe He’ll Shut Up And Let The Rest Of Us Eat In Peace”
“My friends and I had been eating dinner once per week together for nearly 30 years. We have had to switch locations occasionally and restaurants came and went, but we were always the type of customers servers preferred. We had a good time, didn’t ask for too much, and always tipped well.
One night, one of the other customers nearby our table began complaining about everything. The service was too slow, things weren’t arriving in the correct order, and items arrived too soon while others arrived too late. The guy wasn’t just calling the waitress over to complain or complaining when the items arrived, he bellowed his complaints across the restaurant as loud as he could. You could have probably heard the customer in the parking lot.
I finally grew tired of the man’s behavior and pulled out my debit card, went to his table, and instructed the waitress to put his bill on my card.
I looked at the man and said, ‘If he doesn’t have to pay for his meal, maybe he’ll shut up and let the rest of us eat in peace.’
The man looked at me angrily, and I returned the same look. He then looked across the table, then sheepishly down at his plate. He was in a corner booth, and I hadn’t seen his wife sitting across from him. If looks could kill, the look he was getting from his wife would have killed him several times over.
The waitress, one of my favorites, wouldn’t let me pay for his meal. However, the man was silent for the remainder of his visit. I asked after he left, and the waitress assured me the man left a good tip.”
8. “This Lady Is A Witch”
“A few years ago, my wife and I were sitting at a bar in New Orleans one afternoon. At a nearby high top sat a couple in their 40s.
The woman started off being rude to the server. Each time the server returned to the table, the woman became more hostile. The woman’s husband acted more embarrassed by the minute. The young server remained professional and apologetic which further antagonized the witch. The woman then started demanding to speak to the manager.
The manager was summoned. Upon his arrival, the woman began berating the poor server, making baseless accusations about his service and demeanor.
The server was about our son’s age, which just made it seem a little personal. I approached the table and rudely cut the woman off in mid-sentence.
I looked at the manager and loudly stated, ‘The server did an outstanding job. The problem here is that this lady is a witch!’
The woman’s husband slammed the car keys on the table and said, ‘Alright, I’m outta here.’
Snickering, the manager retreated. The woman silently paid and departed. As for me? I enjoyed a couple of rounds of free drinks and left with a great story.”
9. “Both Of The Diners Began Screaming”
“Years ago, I was eating at an Italian restaurant in Chicago during a huge storm. Suddenly, the power went out, emergency lights came on, and everything came to a halt. The horrible people at the table next to us, who had just finished a lavish meal, decided this was their opportunity to (not) pay with a credit card.
Since the power was out, the server couldn’t run the table’s credit card. I had a feeling the table next to us did this on purpose. The server politely explained how their card wouldn’t work, and both of the diners at the table began screaming at her.
Finally, the wife, the definition of a ‘Karen,’ yelled, ‘How about I give you twenty bucks and a promise we’ll never come back?’
I muttered, just loud enough for them to hear, ‘How about ten dollars, and a written promise?’
The server cracked a smile, the family left some amount of cash, then they stomped out. The server was awesome to our table the rest of the visit.”
10. “The Man Was Becoming Agitated And Abusive”
“This happened to a young woman working the front desk at a hotel I stayed at.
When I walked into the lobby to check in, a well-dressed man was demanding a free room upgrade because he was a member of the hotel’s loyalty program.
The front desk agent repeatedly and politely informed the man, ‘You can’t upgrade. You aren’t on the highest tier of the loyalty program.’
This argument had been going on for a little while before I walked in, as the man was becoming more agitated and eventually abusive to the young woman, which caused me to butt in.
I told the man, ‘Excuse me, but I have been waiting in line for ten minutes. I would like to check in before I have to go to work tonight.’
The man looked up at me somewhat surprised, as he didn’t even notice I walked in.
He told me, ‘I don’t care! I got here first, and she is refusing to give me my free room upgrade!’
I responded, ‘You are out of line talking to anyone like this! You should be ashamed of yourself. The front desk agent has been more than polite and professional while dealing with you. She already explained why she can’t give you a free upgrade.’
The man stuttered, ‘But, I’m a member of the program, and I am entitled to a free room upgrade!’
I replied, ‘Congratulations, I’m a member of the loyalty program, too. However, I wouldn’t ever talk to or treat anyone as poorly as you are treating her! The free room upgrade is only available to members in the highest tier of the loyalty program, which I have been for a while. Here, I’ll prove it.’
I whipped out my phone and opened the hotel’s app which not only showed my membership status but also my current reward points, which were just over half a million. I traveled for a living and stayed in hotels more than my bed.
Afterward, the man silently accepted his room key and slinked away like the lowdown skunk he was.
The young lady at the desk had a prominent and bright smile on her face as she greeted me! She was glad to be rid of the rude man, and I got a free upgrade to a jacuzzi suite for the week I stayed.
I told the desk agent, ‘I will also let your manager know of your professionalism in handling customers. You know, just in case he tries to file a complaint.’
I also called the hotel’s customer support line and let them know how well and professionally she handled the situation. Hopefully, the employee didn’t have to deal with anyone so awful again.”
