Rich people aren’t always snobby but the snobby ones certainly have a way of making themselves memorable!
All content has been edited for clarity.
Maybe He Just Got It Detailed
“I worked valet for about a year at a really classy hotel downtown.
We routinely had Mercedes, BMW’s, Range Rovers, football players’ candy-colored cars, Porsches, etc, pretty much any kind of high-end, 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 was still holding the driver’s door open, he starts disassembling the newspaper like he was about to clean up cat urine off the hardwood floor. Once he had four or five single sheets of newspaper, he began setting the newspaper on his driver’s seat, as to protect it from my apparently dirty rear end.
He didn’t even have to say anything, and it was the rudest insult I had ever received.”
A Different Perspective
“I started dating a woman after I was recently out of school who was born into wealth. I would somewhat regularly go to eat with her family.
I had gotten to know her pretty well before getting to know the family as is pretty common. I had never once seen her talk down about servers or service. She could be judgemental on the quality of food, but that was about it.
Her parents and her youngest brother were absolutely some of the worst people I had met in regards to treating people in the service industry people with respect. Her father would snap his fingers at people and wave across the room. He would often get upset if the server in question did not immediately drop what they were doing and attend to his needs.
Her mother was the kind of person who simply set herself apart from anyone else in the world who did not meet her standards. ‘These people’ was a common phrase heard from her in almost any given situation where ‘lower class’ people could be judged.
Her brother would often mirror the mother’s behavior. He seemed to set himself apart from most people. He seemed to enjoy making remarks that he probably would not consider cutting or offensive to boost his own ego.
How she did not pick up any of this is still a wonder to me. I have a bunch of stories actually from ‘fine’ dining with these folk, but this was my favorite.
We got invited to join the family to go eat at this posh steakhouse. Real fancy joint. We get there and the mom is already complaining about some other table that is seated next to us. Keep in mind this place has probably an eight-foot gap between tables. So we were not packed in.
We sit and they bring water, bread, menus, etc. The dad is snapping his fingers about two minutes in at the poor unsuspecting busboy, who comes over.
‘Where is our server?’
‘I don’t know sir, let me find out.’
‘YOU DON’T KNOW?!’ spluttering and harrumphing commence.
Poor unsuspecting bus boy scurries off to find our server.
Two minutes pass. I swear, a hundred and twenty seconds. Probably less. Server arrives.
‘Good evening my na-,’ started the unsuspecting soft-spoken waitress
The dad demanded, ‘Where have you been? We having been waiting twenty mins!’
‘I am very sorry for the wait, may I-‘
‘We are also very sorry,’ said the mom in a very sharp tone.
Orders were taken. I was just stoked to be there, but this was actually one of the first times I really experienced this with her family. I happily sip my expensive drink and make small talk with everyone, kinda feeling like I am being grilled over high heat. Her family never really approved of me either, but that is a whole different story.
The mom proceeds to engage her son in banter about how it’s amazing the people here keep their jobs. How stupid they are. How none of them were properly educated. She seemed to enjoy trying to repeat this every time our server was on the way to the table or at the table.
Well, appetizers were served and we ate. More talk. Wait for the main course. The mom starts up with the talk again.
The server brings main courses. Mom starts talking to the brother, ‘It’s amazing that they keep hiring such dumb people to work here. Nothing is done right. What do you expect from a bunch of dropouts? Blah blah blah.’
At this point, my jaw was probably on the table. The waitress was literally putting food in front of us as she is saying this.
‘Oh don’t worry I am not talking about you.’
‘Can I bring you anything else,’ The waitress managed to squeak out.
We ate. The mom still seemed to want this poor server to know she did not approve of her at all. After dessert is served she proceeded to ask the waitress what her plans are after she leaves the restaurant.
The server responded that she planned to work two more months and start community college in the spring. She had plans to become a teacher as I recall. The mom looks her up and down and scoffed, ‘Typical.’
I was just keeping quiet but had found newfound hatred for that woman that day. I knew if I ended up marrying her daughter (bullet dodged and another story) I would fit the stereotype of hating your mother-in-law.
Well. We finish up and the check was brought. It was obvious our server had been crying. The mom again couldn’t resist and mentioned ‘weak people’ or something to that effect as the server is walking away.
We sat for a few more minutes. As we got up to leave, the server kinda rushed up to the mom as we headed toward the door.
‘I just wanted to thank you. You reminded me I should never be weak. I just quit my job. I was scared, but I am not weak. No, I am gonna be strong and make a change. I don’t want to help you or anyone like you anymore. So thank you.’
I probably did not get what she said exactly right, but something to that effect. It was so awesome. Apparently, it really rubbed the mom the wrong way as she complained about it the next time we went out to eat and the next few times. I eventually just started declining invites.”
Absolutely Psychotic Behavior
“I was working a catering job for a 4th of July party at an exclusive yacht club.
I went about my business and was clearing used plates from tables. After stacking as many plates as humanly possible, I turn and start walking back to the kitchen. The next thing I know, I feel something hit me in the back of the head. A chicken bone.
A grown man who was watching me the entire time, with his four-year-old son at his side nonetheless, decided he didn’t want to wait the five minutes it would take for someone else to come by and clear again, so he chucked it at my head. And then cracked up while pointing at me.
Calmly set down my tray, and just walked on out without saying a word.”
You Don’t Get Paid Enough For This
“Once I had a job as a waitress at a bar in Hollywood, it was very ‘A-List,’ lots of movie stars and celebrities in there all the time.
One very busy Thursday night, I was running drinks back and forth from the bar to tables. One of my tables had about five women that looked like a girls’ night out, they were probably in their late twenties. Obviously, they had money, I could tell by the purses, shoes, and snotty attitudes.
I put their order in for their second round of drinks and I was rushing by their table holding a tray full of drinks going to another table.
This one girl decided she wanted to change her drink order so as I passed by her she turned and grabbed the back of my dress to stop me so she can change her order. Of course, my tray tipped when I was jerked back, and the drinks crashed to the floor.
I turn and gave her a withering look and she just said, ‘Instead of a cosmo I want a grey goose on ice,’ then turned back to her friends as if nothing happened.
I was mortified and furious.”
Text Source
“Do You Know Who I Am?!”
“I brought waters and menus, did the welcome speech, and asked if they would like to order drinks right away.
The man glared at me and told me that I’d have to do better than that if I expected a tip. He wanted the best service.
I was a little befuddled, smiled, and said that I would do my best to make his visit an enjoyable one.
‘DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!’
When I admitted that I did not he was really offended. He then informed me that he was a professor at the community college the next town over.
Seriously. The community college.
His wife was shushing him and face-palming like crazy. Poor woman.”
Please Drop Her Phone
“A few years back, I used to work 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 bottle of riesling.
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 is worth more than what you make in a month, so be careful.'”
Mustard Man
“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 (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?’
More yelling.”
Fresh Lobster
“I work at a pretty high-class seafood restaurant in Rhode Island and one evening I had a table of people that I assume were not from around there considering their accents. I went to clear their table, all of them had some form of a lobster dish, and one of the men complained that the lobster was not fresh and was frozen.
I politely informed him that the lobster was never frozen.
He was very adamant that he was the correct one.
So I said sorry and walked off, and I passed my manager and mentioned it to him and he said,’ Go back to that table and tell them we have 250 pounds of fresh lobster every day.’
So I went back and told them again, politely, and once again the gentleman was still not convinced the lobster was frozen.
One more time I told my boss and he just stormed off to come back five minutes later with a cardboard box full of live lobster and said, ‘Go show those idiots.’
One last time I walked out to them and set down a box full of ten or so lobsters and said, ‘See. Fresh.’
And the guy’s dumbstruck face was so satisfying. His tip was not so satisfying.”
She Had This Coming
“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 was no way I nor my friends could afford that. We weren’t 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. I have to 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 rear end’s off.”
This Guy Is Awesome
“I bartend at a Ritz Carlton. Not directed at me but there was this solo businessman from New York sitting at my bar, deep into his work so I left him alone.
This other gentleman came up and held out a twenty asking me to make change.
Without missing a beat, the businessman looks up at him and, in his uptown way, said, ‘That is change.’
I love that guy.”
Yachties
“I was twenty-one bartending in a snooty restaurant often frequented by yachties.
‘Oh, you look about my daughter’s age, except she’s away at college. A career is really important to her.’
I was graduating that year and off to grad school the following year.
‘Wow, that’s great. Another Grey Goose?'”
Fancy Insults
“Not a fancy restaurant, but a fancy lady in a nursing home I worked at.
Being a nesting ground of old gossips, she was at a table with some other barbarous women.
One of them made her angry, to which she said, ‘I would call you a dog, but that would be an insult to the loyal creatures everywhere, and I would call you the other bit but unlike some, I was brought up far better than that.'”
It’s Not That Deep
“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 were twenty seconds left in the game that he changed the channel on.
I kinda 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 complain and cry that much over twenty seconds of a game.”
Important Documents
“Just a couple of 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 they left some documents on the table that got thrown away and they came back in a couple of hours later franticly looking for them.
One of 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.’
Oh, I’m going to search super hard for those documents now, prick.”
Visible Tattoos
“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.”
Upper-Middle-Class
“I’m an event chef for a fine dining catering company. The wealthy tend to treat me well and with respect. They tend to understand you treat other humans with respect, especially the one in the chef’s coat and hat handling your food.
The most snooty customers are the ones who want to be wealthy. They’re usually upper-middle-class and think this is how the wealthy treat the help.
The ‘best’ insult I’ve had is with another company where I got a two-dollar tip (chefs get tipped too) for the whole night. Somehow worse than no tip.”
At Least They Tipped
“I had some friends that worked at a super-expensive restaurant in Boulder, Colorado. It was on top of a mountain and overlooked the town. One of the waitresses told me that an older couple goes there at least twice a month, sometimes weekly.
She overheard them talking about they like ‘looking down at all of the trash’ or something like that.
Good tippers though, apparently.”
Elderly Diners
“I greeted some older women after their meal and asked, ‘Did you enjoy your meal, ladies?’
One of them replied, ‘My 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.”
“It Costs More Than Your Life”
“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.
The guy who ordered the bottle said,’ We aren’t paying fifty bucks a person for you to die here.’
After a couple of 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 drinks. I never went back to the table. The bottle cost three hundred bucks.
The lady who asked if I was okay came up to me later and apologized for the guy. She gave me a hundred-dollar cash tip. But still, I remember feeling completely worthless at that moment.”
Bright Ideas
“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?’
The guy looked up at me and said, ‘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.”
Pre-Bussing Tables
“At the restaurant I worked at (and everywhere I’ve ever worked in the U.S.), 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. 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.”
Pizza Delivery
“I used to deliver pizzas in an affluent part of town. We had this repeat customer who would always ask us what we were doing with our lives. I had a co-worker who was the nicest and most hardworking guy ever, a psychology undergrad, who went to this guy once and was berated because this old man thought psychology was pointless. He literally said, ‘Why don’t you go to school for something useful to society so you can make six figures like my son does?’
The man was an old Indian doctor (or something to do in medicine) in his 90s, and I think he died recently; somebody else moved into his huge mansion. I’m going to find his grave and take a dump on it.”
Country Club Members
“My wife and I worked at Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville VA. Yes, I’m giving the real name of the place because I don’t care. It’s an exclusive country club with celebrities and nonsense. 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 Charlottesville after graduating from William and Mary to wait for me to graduate. (Yes it took me six years and no I’m not a doctor). This place had three different restaurants on-site, all with differing levels of service. I worked the main dining room where, I’m not even kidding, I wasn’t to make eye contact with the members. My wife worked at the 19th hole and the other restaurant which was less formal.
Anyway, she was waiting on a member and his family and it was obvious he and his daughter were arguing.
My wife came 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 said nothing and she left.
Ten minutes later, my wife was 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 for the (at the time) ridiculous eighteen dollars an hour they were paying us.
Also, I have some good stories of very nice members. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were members and every interaction with them was fantastic. Truly very nice people, at least to the waitstaff.
Howie Long was also a member, and he was awesome.”
