These waiters share the most snobby customers they have ever had the displeasure to serve.
Does She Think She’s Royalty?
“Used to work in a ‘high end’ tea room, and we had this regular who was an absolute terror.
I was on my knees cleaning up a drink that another customer had spilled and the lady needed to get past me. I said ‘sorry, I’m almost done!’ and she said, in the most condescending way possible, ‘That’s quite alright, I like having people at my feet.'”
He Didn’t Even Have To Speak To Make His Insult
“I worked valet for about a year at a really classy restaurant. We routinely had Mercedes, BMW’s, Range Rovers, Football player’s candy-colored cars, Porsche’s, etc, pretty much any kind of high end, non-sports car, I drove.
One time, a guy pulled up in a decent Mercedes, not an AMG or anything super high dollar. He seemed cool at first, but after I gave him the valet claim ticket, he casually went to his back seat and retrieved a newspaper.
As I still holding the driver’s door open, he starts disassembling the newspaper like he was about to clean up cat piss off the hardwood floor. Once he had 4-5 single sheets of newspaper, he began setting the newspaper on his driver’s seat, as to protect it from my apparently dirty butt.
He didn’t even have to say anything, and it was the rudest insult I had ever received.”
She Felt So Worthless After What He Said
“I was opening a bottle for this table and I started getting chest pains and I got scared because the last time that happened I had a seizure. I almost dropped the bottle because of how quick the pain started.
So I put the bottle down on the table real quick just in case. One lady was like, ‘Honey are you okay?’ because it was clear something was wrong. But the guy who ordered the bottle said, ‘We aren’t paying $50 a person for you to die here.’
After a couple seconds which felt like forever the pain gradually went away and I apologized and explained what happened to me last time that happened as I opened the bottle. Then the guy goes ‘at least you didn’t drop the bottle — it costs more than your life.’
Tears silently came down my face as I poured their drink. I never went back to that table (the bottle costs $300).
The lady who asked if I was okay came up to me later and apologized for the guy. She gave me $100 in cash tip. But still, I remember feeling completely worthless at that moment.”
He Left This Rude Customer Speechless
“I was bartending one night when a rude man asked how I was ever going to get a job with all of my visible tattoos. I responded with ‘Well, as you can clearly see, I am at work right now.’ He gave me a condescending half smile while I poured his drink.
I responded to that with ‘And I own this restaurant!’ I then chugged a drink in front of him I had just poured and said ‘It’s great to be the boss!’ In hindsight, I wish I chugged his drink.
I do really own my own restaurant and I work every job there when needed.”
Not Only Was He Rude, He Was Racist
“I worked at a country club in Texas for four months. I asked a customer who had been drinking for awhile if needed anything else besides his next drink. He said, ‘Some air that lacks the stink of welfare.’
He wasn’t talking about me, he was eyeing the pretty black waitress serving at the bar. That dude made me so angry, but I had to smile at him fake laugh, else I’d have been fired for disrespecting the clientele.”
She Was Stunned By What He Said… And How Her Boss Reacted
“My wife and I worked at Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, VA. It’s an EXCLUSIVE CC with celebrities and people like that. Pretty much anybody who has a horse and loves to golf belongs. Anyway, I have tons of stories about people being rich pricks, especially the freakin’ teenagers that went there and signed their daddy’s name on everything, but the best is a story from my wife.
She moved to C-ville after graduating from William and Mary to wait for me to graduate. This place had three different restaurants on site, all with differing levels of service. I worked the main dining room where I wasn’t to make eye contact with the members. My wife worked at the 19th hole and the other restaurant which were less formal.
Anyway, she is waiting on a member and his family and it’s obvious he and his daughter are arguing. My wife comes to the table to fill the tea or something and he says to his daughter, ‘If you don’t go to school, you are going to end up like her.’ whilst pointing directly at my wife.
My wife takes a second to collect herself and says to the member, ‘Sir, I went to William and Mary and graduated with a double major.’ He says nothing and she leaves. 10 minutes later, my wife is called into the manager’s office and reprimanded (officially) for being ‘discourteous’ to a member.
That’s just one of the many, many humiliations we suffered at that place”
“So…This Is Your Life Now?”
“Father of a friend I grew up with is the department chair in a prestigious field at the nearby university, it’s publicly available that he makes over $400k and all of his children went into successful careers straight out of college.
He walks into the restaurant I work at, looks at me, looks around the restaurant and says ‘So…this is your life now?’
It was definitely a slight against me. I wanted to ask him, ‘How’s your son’s third DUI treating him?’ but I didn’t. Instead, I said, ‘Yes sir, can I get you anything to drink along with your water?'”
He Threatened Her Job Over His Own Mistake
“Just a couple days ago I was serving a very important business meeting, important enough to where one of the gentlemen flew in from Hong Kong for it.
I guess the left some documents on the table that got thrown away and they came back in a couple hours later frantically looking for them, pulled me aside and said, ‘Look, I make more in a week than you do in a year. Find me those papers or I’ll have you shining my shoes just to make a little extra.’
I explained what was going on to management, who then went and told the guy they’d been thrown away. Somehow they were convinced into searching for them in the trash, where the documents were unfortunately found and returned to the prick.”
“She Just Stood There, Aghast…”
“A girl I know got screamed at for not opening the mustard she served. She works in a relatively posh place, and the mustard comes in this little individual glass pot (I think Colman’s or whatever).
She hadn’t opened the mustard for them and was yelled at. ‘I work for the local paper! They will be hearing about this! I’ve never been so offended! Disgusting behavior.’
She just stood there aghast, and like ‘did you want me to open the mustard… now?'”
She Was Screamed At For Doing Her Job
“At the restaurant I worked at (and everywhere I’ve ever worked in the US), managers get really angry if you don’t ‘pre-bus’ the tables, which is just always be removing empty plates once people are finished.
I guess it’s sort of old-school rude to clear plates unless EVERYONE at the table is finished, as this one time I asked if I could take the three ladies’ plates out of their way while the older man happened to still be eating.
He looked at me said, ‘We do NOT clear the table until EVERYONE is DONE! GO!’
It was humiliating. And I’ll never understand why people allow their friends/family members to speak to others that way.”
“I Kind Of Snapped…”
“My very first job, when I was 16, was as a server in a very small very high-end lunch restaurant in a very wealthy seaside resort. Actually, scratch that, I was the only server. The place was so small that you could only really fit a couple of employees inside the back area, but we still had like 20 outdoor tables.
One day we got slammed at lunch and sold out of pretty everything. Chef was trying his best to make do, but still 86ing like half of the menu. We called the owner but he told us to keep seating people – such an idiot. So I sat a snooty looking older couple from somewhere in the Deep South judging by their accents. She wanted a lobster roll. I explained that we were sold out of a lot of stuff, including lobster rolls, she fussed but eventually made a decision. I tried to process her order, but as the chef went to grab what he needed he realized we couldn’t fill the order.
I go back out to their table to let her know I can’t fill her order and offer a special instead. The chef was awesome and he could come up with amazing meals out of nothing, and had come up with like a seafood paella he could throw together for her. As I leave her for a moment to consider her decision and see another table that is trying to flag me down, she straight up screams at me ‘DON’T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME!’
I was stunned. The whole deck area looked at her awkwardly. I apologized and told her I’d be with her in a moment but she didn’t take kindly to that and began to insult my intelligence. ‘What the heck is wrong with you?’ She was red in the face. Her husband looked really embarrassed.
At this point, I had been working for about three weeks without a day off, seven days a week, 10 hours a day (I was saving for university). I kind of snapped.
I first let out a burst of hysterical laughter, and then just started sobbing. But I was sobbing and laughing hysterically at the same time. You know in the ’90s Batman animated series when the Joker hits people with laughing gas? It looked like that. I took my apron off and threw it at her, stormed inside, still hysterical and grabbed a smoke from the chef, walked back out onto the deck, lit it and sat at the bottom of the steps, crying.
Another customer sat beside me and told me not to worry about awful customers. She told me she had been a server for years and she knew how I felt, which was really nice. All the customers on the deck were looking at me having a breakdown, it was awful.
The chef had followed me out to see what was going on. He was livid at the customer who had screamed at me, and asked the couple to leave saying something like, ‘She’s SIXTEEN! She’s working her butt off!’ They left, embarrassed, and were not allowed to return.
We stopped seating customers for the afternoon after that, closed up, and chef and I hung out all evening instead.”
Well Obviously They Liked It Enough To Eat It All
“I greeted some older woman after their meal and asked, ‘Did you enjoy your meal, ladies?’ One of them replied that their dog ‘ate better food at home.’
I had no response for this and hurriedly gathered up the rest of the plates and left. The plates were all empty.”
Excuse Me?
“A few years back, I worked in a Thai restaurant. A pretty fancy one. It was a slow night on a Tuesday. Two girls with Hermes bags came in and ordered a drink.
I went to their table to check on them and they wanted me to take their pictures, as I was about to grab her phone, she said, ‘That LV iPhone case worth more than what you make in a month, so be careful.'”
“The Best Insult Was The One He Gave Himself”
“In college, I bartended at a high-end steak chop house. 500+ bottles and bartenders call the cellar and have a bar back run up the bottles to the bar and tables. A lot of men and couples would eat dinner at the bar, have a cigar, and listen to the piano player. Cool vibe, horrible customers.
Once, I made drinks for a middle-aged, dressed-to-the-nines couple. They were short but not impolite (yet). I turn around and this guy claps his freaking hands to get my attention and asks ‘Should we just serve ourselves, or what?’ I get them menus sheepishly and provide a drink list which is bible sized.
He reviews the list and asks for the drink, but absolutely butchers the French pronunciation. It took all the effort in my soul not to smirk — this prick, for all his class and pretense, can’t pronounce anything. He can’t see his own faux pas.
I go to the phone and call down to the bar back: ‘Hello, would you please bring up the drink, please?’ I pronounced it like the customer had. The bar back laughs his butt off: ‘Are you joking? Tell me you are joking?’
I thought I did him a solid by not correcting him in front of his lady. But still, the best insult was the one he gave himself. Poetic.”
The Experience Went To Her Head
“A very wealthy couple I was friends with some years ago offered to take me to a legendary, top star Italian restaurant in the city with my best friend and her husband. They offered to foot the whole bill since there’s no way I nor my friends could afford that — not poor but solidly middle class with tons of debt.
I would have never guessed that my best friend would be so affected by the experience. She turned into a different person. She told the waiter she didn’t understand why she needed a menu when they should just ‘intuitively design her food experience for her.’ I thought I would die of embarrassment.
Gotta hand it to the waiter though, he said ‘very well ma’am,’ took the menu and came back with a plate of spaghetti and meatballs for her. We all laughed our butts off.”
He Threw A Tantrum Over 20 Seconds Of A Game
“Somebody went up to the bar and asked if we could put a specific sports game on the TV (we only have two). The bartender started to change the channel but a customer started yelling and swearing at him because there was 20 seconds left in the game that he changed the channel on.
I kind of understood why he was upset until we changed the channel back and he said ‘Finally. You almost just lost your job, buddy.’
This idiot thinks he holds our jobs in the palm of his hand because he may have met the owner once or twice. I’ve never seen an adult whine and cry that much over 20 seconds of a game.”
She Was Just Trying To Do Her Job
“I started off as a server assistant/food-runner (I’m a server there now) at a real ritzy steakhouse. Anyway, I was super nervous when I first started and one time I asked to clear a guy’s plate. His plate was empty, so clearly he was done.
Me: ‘May I clear your plate sir?’
Guy looks up at me and says, ‘You got any other bright ideas?’
I took his plate and smiled. Then I went to the first aid kit in the back for my burn wounds.”
He Wasn’t Rude To The Waiter, But To Someone Else…
“Guest says, ‘Do you know what anthropomorphism means?’
I say, ‘The act of giving human characteristics to something inhuman.’
Guest turns to his date and says, ‘Well, it looks like you should be the one waiting tables.'”
He Was So Condescending
“I was a cater working a very elite wedding in Manhattan. A young boy asks his grandfather why someone might choose to be a waiter as a job.
The old man explains that some people choose not to get an education beyond high school and so they can only get jobs like these. They were both fully staring at me, less than a 20 feet away…”
Who Would Say This?
“I used to bartend at a high-end golf club. This one really stands out for some reason.
Customer: ‘Did you go to public school?’
Me: ‘yes.’
Customer: ‘Yeah, I can tell.'”
Working At This Country Club Was Terrible
“I worked as a server at a high-end country club. They would snap at you to get your attention, call you boy, among other things. Once I put to much ice in an older woman’s ice tea and she threw it at the busser. Never made that mistake again.
Later decided it was not worth the money to be treated like human scum.”
He Couldn’t Believe What She Said
“A lady asked me what my full name was. I told her my name. My name is two first names (think Mark Martin). She told me that she doesn’t trust people with two first names and that she thinks it’s trashy.”
She Had No Control Over The Situation, But Was Berated Anyway
“I worked at a country club as a teenager. The kitchen was extremely old and we filled out tickets with the lunch order, sent them down in a dumbwaiter, and then waited for the food to come back up via the same system.
I sent down my ticket correctly. Up comes the order – one sandwich missing. I go to the table, explain, and serve the others.
You know what’s coming. I send the ticket down again, write THIS IS MISSING, and up comes the sandwich. IT’S THE WRONG SANDWICH. I go back to the man and explain, at which point he starts screaming at me in front of the entire dining room: ‘WHAT THE EFF IS WRONG WITH YOU! IT’S ONE EFFING SANDWICH! IS THAT SO HARD TO GET RIGHT? YOU MUST BE THE STUPIDEST BIOTCH I’VE EVER MET.’
I was 16. I burst into tears and ran back to the dumbwaiter to try again. My manager followed me over, asked what happened, and I told him. He went back to the table and apparently explained to the man that I had absolutely no control over the situation – the kitchen was on another floor and I could not communicate with them except by slip.
The man came back to me, huddled in my corner, waiting for the sandwich and said ‘Here.’ My manager said ‘Take it.’ In his hand was a $20 bill.
I was not a very outgoing person at that point in my life, but I’ve always been proud that not only did I not take the money, I took off my apron and walked out the door. My parents were big into work ethic and keeping jobs, but even they did not berate me for quitting.”
Saying That Was Just Unnecessary
“I work in a snooty people grocery store, so hopefully this counts. Once when I was ringing a rich lady’s groceries, she took a look at my name tag (I’ve got a fairly normal name, but it’s spelled… creatively) and she said ‘It’s surprising you could get a job at all, with a name like that.’
I know I’ve got the name of an exotic dancer. It wasn’t my choice.”