Customers aren't always in the right, but don't tell THEM that! Some people just don't know how to treat other, and some people really need to get into anger management classes! The food service employees did their best to give their customers the best service possible, but that just wasn't good enough for these entitled people, so they totally flipped out for the absolute dumbest reasons. Content has been edited for clarity.
A Timely Delivery
“I used to deliver pizza. I had someone get irate and refuse the delivery because they’d ordered it to be delivered at 7 pm and I got there at 6:55. They wanted a new pizza because they said the one I brought would be cold by 7 when they wanted to eat. I told them we’d have to bake a new pizza then and it’d be late. They opted for late. I ran a few more deliveries with their pizza in my back seat and went back around 7:30 with the exact same pizza but told them it was a new one. They opened it to make sure it was hot and were happy with it. Then they called to complain about the experience. Then we had to update our order policy that if you specify a delivery time we can only guarantee a time range and not a specific minute.”
He REALLY Doesn’t Like Those Doughnuts
“I worked at a gourmet donut shop where we sold a maple bacon donut. One time a customer came in smiling, made polite small talk, and ordered the maple bacon. Two seconds after I hand the donut to this seemingly cheerful fella, he EXPLODES. Starts screaming at me about how he wants a maple donut with no bacon but that we don’t offer it. ‘Forget your bacon! You sell poison!’ The guy was livid and cursing up a storm.
At first I thought he was doing a bit, so I was laughing a lot which I think made him even madder. The donut cost $4.50. The guy handed me a $20 bill, shouted at me to keep the change, and stormed out of the shop.
Never saw him again. Hope he found his maple donut.”
The Customer No Fast Food Employee Wants To Serve
“In 2010, I worked at McDonald’s. There was this 300 pound lady who came in twice a day with her entire family. Each time, she would order a medium vanilla iced coffee with six creams and six sugar-free vanilla shots.
We often had to remake this drink up to 10 times per visit for several reasons. Sometimes the cream machine was messing up, other times the vanilla dispenser got caked up, and other times the coffee was just not to her liking.
So at a store meeting, we decided as managers that we would make it twice and if it didn’t work out, we would just refund her the cost.
I happened to be the first to have to enforce this policy and boy did the show begin. I calmly explained that if we cannot provide good enough service after two times, that I’d have to refund her money and she can try again on a different day.
This lady went nuts. She tried to make a scene in the entire store. Somehow returning her money meant I was against the disabled. She monologues for 10 minutes and insinuated she was going to hire some sketchy guys to come and kill us over coffee.
I stopped right there, called the police, and asked everyone nearby if they were willing to make a statement. Four employees and three other customers made a statement. They put a restraining order against her for every person working the front and a total ban on all stores in a 20-mile radius.”
Ungrateful, Much?
“When I worked at McDonald’s, I had a guy yell at me for asking if he’d like to donate to the Ronald McDonald house. He then proceeded to explain to me why. Apparently when his child had cancer, he and his wife were able to stay at the Ronald McDonald house so they wouldn’t have to pay for a hotel. He was angry because they were expected to help with the taking care of the house, just like everyone else. He also called me and the Ronald McDonald house the C word. All in front of his child.”
What Did She THINK She Was Gonna Get?
“She ordered a chicken salad sandwich and the chicken salad had chicken in it. According to her, anything with the word ‘salad’ should be vegetarian. I asked her what she thought she was going to get ordering a chicken salad sandwich and she replied, ‘NOT THIS,’ took the sandwich and threw it at the wall. I asked her to leave and she refused, saying that she wouldn’t leave until we got her order right and sat down in the middle of the floor.
Police were called. They walk in, I explain the situation to them. They walk up to her and ask her to step outside and she tells them that she won’t do anything or answer any questions without her lawyer present. They give her a warning that either she can come peaceably or that they can forcibly remove her. She spits at them and one officer grabs her and starts trying to handcuff her when she kicks the officer in the groin and takes off running. She runs down the wrong side of a busy intersection and runs back up the other side and jumps into her car on the passenger side like they would do in the Dukes of Hazzard and slouches down on the floor.
Officers open the door, get her restrained and out of nowhere, her husband appears (he wasn’t with her in the restaurant) and attacks an officer. He gets dog piled and retrained.
Everything finally calms down, police leave and she is charged with like 11 different things, he is charged with battery of a police officer and resisting arrest.
Apparently the woman’s husband was a lawyer and they tried to take the owner to small claims court because she was suing for $3.89, the price of the sandwich….
It was dismissed.”
“You Look So Familiar”
“At my old job, I had a customer who said to me, ‘You know, you look so familiar.’
I said, ‘Well, I’ve worked here for about a year now.’
And she says, ‘No, I remember you used to work at [other nearby supermarket].’ I had only just moved to the city a year ago, and hadn’t held another job here yet, which I told her.
Well. Instead of just laughing it off and admitting she was mistaken, this woman got FURIOUS. She remembered me! Why was I lying?! She knew she’d seen me before! She snatched up her order and stalked off and I never saw her back in that store again. It was hands down the most bizarre reason a customer ever got mad at me.”
That Nasty Woman Had This Poor Girl In Tears
“I was 16 and working at a sushi restaurant. This was my first job but I did really well at it. I took tons of to-go orders, it was the main part of my job as a hostess besides seating. I get a call from a lady named C, she orders a California roll with real crab. Our crab mix has real crab in it, so I was like ok and put in her order. She might have been purposely trying to confuse me or something because she kept saying, ‘No white or green stuff,’ and I was like you mean avocado? Seaweed? Rice? She meant ginger and wasabi but didn’t know the names.
Anyway she gets there and I give her her order. She takes one look at it and begins flipping out on me. She’s going on about how I’m trying to poison her with mayonnaise (in the crab mix), but she never specified no crab mix, only that it was real crab (it was). She was screaming at me. She calls me dumb, stupid, calls her friends on the phone, like right in front of me as I’m just asking the sushi chef to make her what she wants, and she’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be 15 minutes late because this stupid hostess can’t do a single thing right.’
I was a small, young, and sensitive adolescent. I teared up, I was really upset that this woman would be so awful to me. My co worker comes up and says a little something to try to cheer me up/calm me down. I smile at him a little as a thanks. She FLIPS THE FREAK OUT and screams at me, saying I was laughing at her, that she was going to call the CEO of the chain to get me fired, personally. She was making such a scene. I was just a 4’11 girl, quivering crying as spittle came flying from her mouth.
At that point, my managers were already involved, so they just gave her the food and she left. She spent the next couple of days trying to get me fired. She called multiple managers, demanding free food. My managers literally called her a hag. I was upset over the verbal attack for three days. My GM finally told me that they told her she was now banned from the restaurant for creating issues and abusing the staff (me) in order to get free food.
I honestly still boil thinking about it.”
Fried Means FRIED?!
“I had a woman order a three piece fried fish platter. When it was brought out to her, you would have thought someone was stabbing her repeatedly with a dull, rusty butter knife. She apparently was doing some kind of diet and she didn’t know that the fried fish would come out fried. She said (yelled) she couldn’t eat fried foods. Straight up toddler tantrum (she was like 40). She ate her fries, though. Stupid hag.”
“Excuse Me, SON!”
“The service industry is the worst.
I work at an Irish pub frequented by mostly young people, it was a very casual place. This prick comes in with his girl and orders drinks and food. When I take it to the table, I say, ‘Here’s your food guys.’
He gets all testy and says, ‘Excuse me son, we are not young lads. It’s not appropriate to refer to us as “guys.” It shows little respect from your part and you should treat us with the respect we deserve if you want our business.’
This idiot was the same age as me, why the heck was he calling me son? I assumed he was just your typical idiot who wants to show off to his date by talking down to the waiter.
I said, ‘Sorry, dude, but this is how we treat all customers in our pub.’ He got all worked up and asked to speak to my manager, saying he was gonna get me fired. Little did he know my manager, who was the bar owner, wasn’t one to put up with pompous pricks like him.
She went to his table and told him she doesn’t stand for annoying customers talking down to her staff just to make themselves look better in front of a date, so if he had a problem, he should hit the road.
The prick started yelling about his 60 Facebook friends and how he was gonna get us closed down.”
He Was Unreasonably Upset About His Bill
“I worked at a lobster shack in Maine and one customer was freaking out at me because of the price. Here’s where it gets weird…he was yelling at me because he wanted to pay MORE!
The basis to this ridiculous claim was, ‘I WOULD HAVE PAID MORE TO HAVE GOTTEN MORE!’
What’s crazy is I literally had to throw him and his entire family out. I had gotten into it with customers before (kind of the shtick of that place was how brash I could be, it was awesome), but nothing to this level. The dude was pointing at his receipt, appalled at how little he spent. I literally couldn’t believe it.”
“HE HAS TO EAT ORGANIC”
“My first job was in the produce department of a local grocery store. One morning, a middle aged woman came in and asked me if we have any organic pears in the back room because the ones up front didn’t look great. I explained to her we would be getting our shipment in the following morning and she could come back then to pick some organic ones up, or we have regular pears available in the next row.
She did not like this.
Aside from getting yelled at, she requested to speak to my manager who also had to get an earful of complaints. This isn’t anything super out of the ordinary and I was kind of used to the occasional upset customer, but what killed me though is as she is about to walk away, she turns and says, ‘I’ll be back tomorrow to get the pears, but I don’t know what my bird is going to eat today. HE HAS TO EAT ORGANIC.'”
No Sneaking Up On This Customer
“So a few years ago, I was working as a cashier and it was my job to watch over the self-checkout machines and help anyone who was having trouble. So middle of the day, I see this guy having trouble with one. He didn’t understand that you need to scan the item and place it on the scale before scanning the next one, so I walk over and ask him if he needs any help. He nearly jumps out of his skin and starts yelling at me because apparently I ‘snuck up’ on him. He demands to see my manager and I’m just flabbergasted that not only would someone be so situationally unaware that they couldn’t see me walking up beside them, but that they would be so angry that they would want to see my manager over it.
I go and get my manager and he comes over. This guy says that I snuck up on him and was also very rude and laughed at him, which was a lie and another customer who saw the whole thing even called him out on that. Eventually the manager tells him to leave with his stuff and that he’ll ‘talk to me,’ and seemingly the guy was satisfied. My manager just says, ‘Uh, don’t sneak up on people or anything.’
I simply respond, ‘Sure,’ and got back to work. That was the only time a customer ever got angry at me.”
“Our Family Does Not Believe In Carbonated Drinks
“I worked in a concession stand for a local youth baseball league.
One time, a little girl (maybe five or six years old) came up to the window and ordered a soda. Nothing at all out of the norm. I took her cash, filled her soda, and gave it to her.
Probably thirty minutes later, this woman comes up to the window absolutely ticked off.
Lady: ‘What the heck is this?!’
Me: ‘A soda?’
Lady: ‘Our family does not believe in carbonated drinks.’ (As though carbonation is like Santa Claus?) ‘How dare you give my daughter a soda!’
Me: ‘She ordered it.’
Lady: ‘No, she didn’t. She has never ordered a soda in her life, and would never order a soda! This is your fault. Replace this with something uncarbonated. RIGHT. NOW!’
It was as if it never occurred to her that an unsupervised six year old surrounded by other six year olds enjoying refreshing sodas on a hot summer day might be tempted to see what all the fuss is about.
I like to think that kid is a rebellious teenager now, chugging all the carbonated beverages her heart desires!“
Want Fries With That?
“This customer ordered a dish that always comes with french fries. He got mad when he got his french fries because he wanted bread. No big deal – I apologized (although I did nothing wrong) and brought him some bread immediately. Problem solved, you’d think, but he then started yelling at me because apparently the restaurant ‘always serves this with bread.’ I should’ve just agreed with him, but I foolishly didn’t. He told me I was wrong. I told him I had worked there for 5 years, that I knew I wasn’t wrong, and I advised him to tell staff that he wanted bread when ordering next time. At this point, he got red in the face and screamed that he knew better because he’d been a customer for 10 years, which is rich, since the restaurant hadn’t even been open that long.
Long story short, the owner came over to his table, she supported me, the guy ate his food that must’ve been cold by then and never came back.
I’ll never forget his poor wife, quietly trying to calm him down and to get him to let it go. She was incredibly embarrassed but I doubt he even noticed.”
“Sometimes Stupid Can’t Be Fixed”
“I worked at a Burger King in high school. A guy came in one day complaining that he put in money to get a newspaper in the machine outside, and it wasn’t this Sunday’s paper. He wanted a refund. I told him we didn’t own that machine and we weren’t able to give him his money back. I also mentioned to him it was actually…Saturday, not Sunday. He flew into a rage, threw last week’s Sunday edition of the paper all around the restaurant and behind the counter. My manager came out and threatened to call the cops.
Dude leaves screaming about how we ripped him off. Sometimes you can’t fix stupid.”
She Spoke To Him Like A Child
“I remember one time when I was bagging groceries where I put a bag of chips in with this older lady’s bread because those were her last two items she put on the belt.
She brought her cart over to the side, went through everything, then tapped me on the shoulder. Her exact words to me, a 20-year-old:
‘THIS IS A NO-NO!!’
I just looked at her confused to what she was complaining about before saying, ‘Have a nice day!’”
What Did She Honestly Expect Him To Do For Her?
“I used to be a delivery driver for a Japanese restaurant when I was in college. One night, I dropped off a hibachi/sushi order at one of the nicer neighborhoods in the city and was sitting in my car entering the next address into my GPS. All of a sudden there is a knock on my window. It was the lady I just delivered to. I roll down the window and she says, ‘I forgot to say I wanted an extra sauce on the side, could you go get one for me?’ I told her sorry, but I couldn’t because I had other deliveries and she responded, ‘It’s not that far.’ I said sorry again and that I wouldn’t be able to do it. She scoffed and stormed back up to her house, ticked that I wouldn’t abandon my other deliveries to get her the side of sauce she forgot to order.”
She Accused Them Of Purposefully Sending Her Away
“A lady and her adult son (both regular dinner customers) came into my restaurant around noon. She demanded to know why she wasn’t greeted at the door by a hostess and immediately taken to a table. When I explained that we weren’t open yet because we open at 4 pm everyday, she tells me, ‘Oh, don’t make excuses.’ After I pointed out the business hours on the door, the completely empty restaurant, and the fact that the Front of House lights weren’t even turned on yet, she tells me that it’s really because they’re black and they will never be back again. They never came back.
Yeah lady, we chose our hours of operation and don’t staff a closed restaurant because YOU are black.”
He Ruined His Own Chances At A Nice Brunch
“About 6 years ago, I ran the reservations for a busy Friday lunch at the restaurant I work at. This was Easter weekend. We take all large party reservations up to 30 days in advance for any day and any host can take down reservations, except for the big holidays which are only handled by our Event Coordinator and certain ‘senior’ members of the host staff.
With only two days to go, we were of course being flooded with phone calls for people who are trying to make their reservations last minute. Some are understanding that it’s their mistake in waiting, some plead even though we don’t have the space, a few escalate to management who just reiterate that last point, and a few do get angry with us but realize they still aren’t getting that reservation.
Oddly this was over a reservation I knew we actually had. There was a last minute cancellation for an 8 top and our event coordinator updated us. During the lunch rush, I got a phone call for a party of 8 for our Easter brunch. I happily told the gentleman we’d had a cancellation and if he’d hold one moment, I could transfer him over to our coordinator to have his reservation taken.
Then, just before I can put him on hold, there is a brief pause before he calls me a prick.
I take a breath and say, ‘Sir, you know you’re still on the line with me?’
He replies, ‘And you’re still a prick.’
I hung up the phone. He can tell his family why he didn’t get them their reservation. Waiting in front of me to check in was a businessman who overheard much of the exchange. He told me to breathe, I started to laugh, and then told one of my runners to give him whatever table he wanted.
I’ve been yelled at countless times over seating, reservations, food prices, menu availability, bad servers, and the like. Some of those things are par for the course and sometimes we can fix the issue and sometimes we can’t. I’ve never been insulted/yelled at for giving a customer exactly what he was asking for.”
She Called Him A Thief To His Face
“The Pizza Hut I work at lets you get a small pizza, salad, and drink for $7. The lady who came in ordered a water, but on the ticket I entered a Pepsi because the discount does not work with water. So I hand out her ticket and she starts screaming at me about being a thief for charging her for a water. I explained to her about the discount and told her that the meal would cost $11 if I took the Pepsi off. She demanded I take the Pepsi off. Then, when she saw the ticket went to $11 she called me a piece of crud, disrespectful, racist (despite the fact we were both Caucasian) and that a thief like me should rot in jail instead of having a job. She then told me to get my manager. I then said, ‘Let me grab him,’ ducked under the counter, and popped back up saying, ‘Oh yeah, I’m the manager,’ pointing to my name tag. The color drained out of her face so fast.”
He Could Have Just Asked For Onions
“When I worked at Jersey Mike’s, I was wrapping up a sandwich for a man and he asked as I handed it to him, ‘Did you put onions in it?’
Me: ‘No I didn’t, sir, but I could pu…’
And he threw the sandwich at my chest and swore at me.
I walked into the back and started rage cleaning dishes…I can’t handle that crud, I’m a human being.”
They Almost Lost Their Little Buddy
“I was working at a supermarket in Trinidad. A customer came around to the loading bay to pick up a couple cases of soda. In the semi outdoor loading bay area, there was this big old iguana that liked to hang around with the guys. We used to feed him the occasional banana that had gone too black to be sold. The customer saw him and picked up a board from a broken pallet and ran after him to bash him with it. Three of us had to jump in front of the guy to stop him. The prick looked at us like we were mental and started swearing. He couldn’t comprehend why we wouldn’t let him kill it.
To be fair, iguana is a delicacy here.”
The Straw Fiasco
“She asked me to stir her glass of Lemon, Lime and Bitters. I was on bar at a lunch function and this bar doesn’t have any stirrers, so I grabbed one of the straws from the counter to stir it.
She loses her absolute mind because ‘straws are bad for the planet and the environment.’ I stop. I hadn’t given her a straw because the straws were literally right next to where I put her glass and if she wants one, she can grab one. I look for something I can stir with, but it’s either a dirty old knife or a straw.
I go back, apologize that I’ll have to use a straw and she loses it again. She doesn’t WANT a straw. I kinda snap and start telling this rude old lady off, that if she wants a straw, she can grab a straw herself but if she wants me to stir her stupid drink like she asked, I can either do it with a clean straw, my finger or a dirty old knife. She keeps arguing that she doesn’t want a straw.
So forget it, I grab two straws and stir it.”
At Least He Got A Snack Out Of This Experience
“This guy was irate because I didn’t get his pizza delivered on time. He yelled at me and said he didn’t want it and would never order from us again. I just got back in my car and, as he stared me down from the porch, I started eating his pizza. I took a couple of bites then drove off with both hands on the wheel and a piece of pie hanging out of my mouth. He was very polite when he ordered again a few days later.”
Apparently, Her Back Brace Meant She Thought She Was “Better”
“I have a bad back and will sometimes wear a brace to take some of the strain off it. Said brace basically forces you to stand up totally straight.
I once had a customer absolutely lose her mind over it. She dragged the manager to the area where I was working and demanded that he fire me for ‘acting like [I’m] better than [her],’ and screaming at me that I’m worthless and a bimbo and other various insults. The manager was one of those ones that caves to every customer demand, no matter how stupid, so he tried to bully me into taking the brace off, at which point I threatened to file a workplace health and safety complaint.”
