When you work in the food service industry, or just around food in general, you get used to the odd requests and demands that come flying at you everyday. It's just a part of the job. Then you get people like the ones in these poor food workers had to put up with. Some people just can't be made happy, so they make it their job to make everyone else just as miserable as them. This time, though, karma was waiting to get them and it was oh, so sweet.
“Be Nice To Your Barista, Yo”
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“I worked at Starbucks for about four years, anyone who was rude to me got decaf. There was this unspoken bond between all of us co-workers, so even if I was making drinks and saw a customer being a jerk to the person at the cash register, I would give them decaf.
Never the other way around, though. You don’t want to give someone regular shots in their latte if they asked for decaf because they could have a serious problem with caffeine. So in that case, if they’re a jerk, I let their shots ‘die.’
If you’ve ever been to a coffee place and your coffee/latte tastes ‘burnt,’ that means the shots are ‘dead,’ meaning they sat in the espresso shot glasses for too long. You’re supposed to mix the espresso with milk or cream after the shots are all done being poured. It tastes disgusting if you let them sit there for too long. Be nice to your barista, yo.”
“No Matter What We Tried To Make This Woman Happy, It Wasn’t Happening”
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“I worked as a pizza delivery driver and had a difficult customer who kept sending me back and forth to the store to get her pizza ‘right.’ It never was. No matter what we did to try and make this woman happy, it wasn’t happening.
She made my day worse by stressing me out, being a total witch, and costing me loads in gas money.
I had three large garbage bags full of my recycling (pretty much just bottles) at home. I loaded them into my trunk, hauled all three bags to her house, and scattered the contents all over her lawn. Forget. Her.
Foodservice is not the industry for me.”
That Regular Was Always Hitting On Her, So Her Boyfriend Took Matter Into His Own Hands
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“I work at a bar and for the past several weeks I’ve been dealing with a regular guy who just hits on me all the time in the sleaziest ways possible. Trying to look down my shirt, touching the small of my back, he even called me his girlfriend while talking to a co-worker of mine. I’ve told him countless times that I’m not interested and that I actually found his advances inappropriate and incredibly rude. Of course, this doesn’t stop him.
I had the day off and decided that it would be fun to visit work and have a few free drinks while watching the election progress. So I brought my boyfriend to the bar and sat down on a stool. Lo and behold, this guy came up. He ignored my boyfriend and puts his hand on the small of my back again and said, ‘Hey you, I have a booth if you wanna put your hands to work.’ Suddenly, he looked at me a little closer and grinned a sleazy smile. ‘Oh yeah, I knew you wanted it all along. You got nice hands baby.’
I had no idea what he was talking about since I wasn’t holding his hand. He then looked at his hand at my lower back and his face went pale. He wasn’t holding my hands, but my boyfriend’s. He’d snuck his hand around to hold his and made this jerk think that I was holding his. My boyfriend then looked at the guy and started talking in the most feminine voice. ‘You know it, baby! Now, where’s this booth?’ He then kissed the guy’s hand! The guy’s face: PRICELESS! He let go of my boyfriend’s hand and ran out of the bar. My co-worker was standing there, looking at everything and started cracking up. It was the best.”
Her Soy Milk Rampage Was Utterly Epic
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“My friends and I were in line at a coffee place on a boardwalk after a day surfing. Suddenly, the woman in front of me went freaking crazy and started screaming at the girl making the drinks. It went something along the lines of, ‘You ingrate! I’m deathly allergic to milk, you idiot! I want to speak to your manager before I rip your head off. I specifically asked for soy milk. How could I be any more blunt about S. O. Y? You could have killed me.’
She was told to stop swearing or they would call the police, and she denied her bad language and steadfastly demanded soy milk. I then stepped in and pointed out the fact she didn’t ask for soy, and I could prove it. She then proceeded to call me a ‘big man with a small brain’ and asked me to prove it. I then pointed to my buddy’s GoPro that I still had mounted on me after messing around on the boardwalk. I had the BacPac screen so I could show them exactly what she said. Low and behold, she was proven so very, very wrong and hastily steamed away. The girl thanked me and her manager gave us free coffee!”
“Bob” Had Real Issues With Her Name
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“I was out at the local watering hole having a few with a group of friends. The group became larger and larger with time. After a while, I got semi-separated from my fiance.
I was introduced to a guy, we’ll call him Bob. The introduction went like this: ‘Bob, this is Lily, Lily, Bob.’
To which he said, ‘Every ‘Lily’ I’ve ever met is a bimbo and a harlot.’
Now, I don’t get bent out of shape without good reason, so I just brushed it off as banter, or maybe a recent breakup with a Lily and said, ‘Ha, well…I’m neither, but nice to meet you anyway, Bob,’ and shook his hand.
The rest of the night, he would go to the bar, walk back and give me the stink eye. For whatever reason, he didn’t like me. The feeling was becoming mutual. I decided ignoring him would probably be best. He was certainly not in his right mindset.
A few hours passed, and I was sitting by his female friend, having fun talking and giggling. He put his elbows on the table in between us, staring at me like I had done him wrong somehow.
I just kept on with our conversation and ignored him. He then puts his nasty face right next to mine and said, ‘So, are you a bimbo?’
My temper got the best of me and I yelled, ‘No, and what the heck is your problem, exactly? I’ve been doing my best to ignore you. Get a clue.’
He then chest bumped me and said, ‘Do you wanna go?!’
I’m all for equal rights, but this was the first time an able-bodied adult male has asked me, a girl if I wanted to throw down.
I walked over a few steps to my fiance, who was talking to a bouncer friend of ours and said, ‘This guy says he wants to beat me up,’ while the jerk just kept advancing. The bouncer looked at him, gave a hand signal, and soon five red shirts (bouncer uniforms) surrounded him. He was ‘escorted’ out of the bar and went to his minivan, a bit worse for wear, in terms of his drinking.
I called work, and I work for the Sheriff’s Department. They got a good tip on a sure thing crime. I might not have thrown down, but I think I won that round.”
Her Impatience Wound Up Costing Her Even More Time In The End
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“I was next in line at the grocery store and there was a pretty long line. This woman behind me was making a huge fuss about them needing to open more registers. She was swearing and muttering under her breath. A second clerk appeared to open another register and looked at me and said, ‘I can help the next person in line, sir.’ The mumbling bimbo behind me saw the clerk coming, backed her cart up, and was rushing to get to the register that was opening before me.
Now, there was a cart parked between the opening of the two registers, which blocked me from walking directly. I saw the woman barreling towards the open register, so I swiftly pushed the cart blocking me into her path and moved my basket to the now open register. Her face got so red and looked like she was going to explode as she nearly collided with the cart. I just looked at her and said in the most innocent voice I have, ‘Oops. Well, he did call for next in line.’ Then I smiled and got checked out as she had to go all the way around.
The best part was that one other person managed to sneak in behind me and she ended up having to wait longer as a result. Best day ever.”
Textbook Reason Not To Give Your Bartender Attitude BEFORE He Takes Your Order
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“Where I work, the bar is an L shape. I was taking a break from serving people behind the bar and was sorting out some glasses and putting them in the dishwasher which is where the small side of the L is. There were three of my co-workers to my right/behind me who were all serving on the large side of the L.
Where the glasses and dishwasher are, you can’t buy drinks because it would interfere with a fire-exit. A woman and her husband came up to where I was and ordered. I told them politely that if they would like drinks, they needed to go around to the bar. She got upset and started swearing at me. I nodded, took two steps to my right as they walked around the pylon to order their drinks from one of the girls.
I smiled and told the girl who was about to serve them that I’d take it. The couple looked confused but ordered their drinks. I said that I was cutting them off. The woman blew up and asked why. I said that if she couldn’t treat the people who make her drinks with respect, she didn’t deserve to get drinks to begin with and that she had 10 seconds to leave the bar before I called security and had them escorted out.
I don’t consider it my job to be pleasant to people who aren’t pleasant to me. If you’re downright rude, you’re out and we don’t want your business.”
After All That, She Shouldn’t Have Been Surprised By What He Did With Her Application
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“I was working as a shift leader in a Dunkin’ Donuts and dealt with my fair share of rude customers. One particularly memorable day, a group of ladies came in during our busiest hour, just past noon. The line was almost out the door and we were short staffed, so it was pretty hectic. While they were ordering, one of them asked for a job application and started filling it out on the counter. She handed it back before they were finished ordering, and I stashed it on a shelf under the register and started making their food. They had a huge order and we did our best to get it out quickly, but it was obvious from the looks on their faces that we just weren’t quick enough for their liking.
They sat down to eat their food, and the girl who just turned in her application got back in line. I spotted her right away; she was standing with a glaring face, crossing her arms and tapping her foot, trying her best to look obviously (almost cartoonishly) ticked off. So I motioned for her to come up to the counter since I knew she had a complaint and I wanted to get it fixed right away. I assumed that in the shuffle, we had messed up her sandwich or something like that; anyone who’s worked in fast food knows that these things happen when it’s chaotic.
I asked her what was wrong, and she pointed to her bottled Mountain Dew and barked (definitely not an ‘indoor voice’), ‘This is flat!’ It was a bit accusing, as though it were my fault that the bottle of soda she just opened was flat. So I took it and told her to get another one out of the cooler, then check it to make sure it was good. After all that, she asked for a refund. I said, as politely as I could, ‘Ma’am, I replaced your soda, sorry if there was an inconvenience, but I don’t think a refund should be necessary.’ So she stormed, ticked off, back to her table and started complaining loudly to her group about not getting a refund.
So, since I was having an awful day anyway and really could not see a ‘lady’ like that ever working for us, I grabbed her application from the register, walked it over to the lobby trashcan nearest to her table, crumpled it up and threw it away as she watched. The look on her face was priceless.”
She Thrust A Bag Of Garbage At Him, How Did She Expect Him To React?
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“I worked at a supermarket in high school and was out collecting shopping carts. Some lady in a Mercedes pulled up next to me and in a demanding tone, while extending her hand out the window holding a bag of garbage, said, ‘Throw this away for me.’ I ignored her, knowing this was not my responsibility and I didn’t give a crap. So she curses, got mad, and drove off.
Then, a few minutes later, she swung around again and yelled at me because she spilled coke all over her car because of me. I actually laughed at loud at her.”
She Was Trouble From The Moment She Walked Through The Door
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“I’m a manager at a grocery store, so I get awesomely rude customers on a daily basis. Every Wednesday is senior discount day. You have to be at least 55 years old to qualify for the discount. Needless to say, Wednesdays are tense. Lots of seniors and lots of other people who don’t want to deal with the seniors. I don’t generally mind the old folks. Most of them are pretty cool and have some interesting stories and cute jokes.
This Wednesday, there was one particular customer who was being a huge pain in the rear from the moment she walked in. She was tall, blonde, wearing high heels, very made up, and dressed to the nines. She was probably in her late 30s or early 40s. She came storming up to customer service, ‘There are NO parking spots. This is ridiculous. I’m going to request to corporate that you expand your parking lot since you don’t seem to have the initiative to request that yourself.’ Off to a great start, lady. She came storming back up about 45 minutes later. ‘I am in a HUGE hurry, and every line has someone in it. I need to check out here.’ We had three lines open, and each one had ONE single customer. ONE.
I said, ‘No problem, but I’ll have to get you at a checkout. You have too many items to get here.’
She had a HUGE hissy fit, ‘I don’t have time for this. Let’s GO!’
As I was checking her out, there was constant whining. ‘You only have one brand of makeup? That is ridiculous. I only wear MAC, but I was going to settle for Revlon, but you don’t even have that. Now I have to make a whole separate trip,’ ‘Please don’t put my bread on top of my eggs, the eggs could roll over and crush the bread,’ ‘Please bag my avocados separately; I need to use those for a face mask tonight. They need to be perfect, I have a photo session tomorrow. I’m in a magazine.’ She was unbelievable. Finally, at the end, I had enough.
As she’s about to pay, I said, ‘Don’t forget today is senior discount day! You get five percent off!’
She stared at me, ‘What?’
I smiled broadly, ‘Every Wednesday, senior citizens get five percent off their bill. I’ll go ahead and take it off. You are 55 years old, right?’ She was just staring at me, debit card in hand, cheeks getting red. I lost my smile slowly and said, ‘Oh, you don’t qualify? Sorry about that. Maybe next year! Thanks for your honesty.’
I haven’t seen her in the store since.”
When You Work With A Jerk, You Sometimes Have To Stoop To Their Level
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“I was waiting tables in an Italian restaurant that was originally opened by a man and his wife, but after their divorce, the restaurant was bought by their daughter. She was an ok boss; not fantastic, but not terrible. Her father, who had opened the restaurant, still worked as a cook and was a piece of crap. He called the waitresses names behind their backs and made a bunch of off-color comments while flirting with his favorite, older ladies. He would scream at the younger women, bully cooks on the line, and there was a story about a ‘mishap’ with some fryer oil and a fry cook a few years back.
He didn’t give me a lot of crap because I was usually on my game; I had the times down for how long most of the food took, and adjusted for the load of the kitchen so I was always present in the window when it was ready to go out. I always heard his snide little comments, muttered some of my own at him a few times, but I always waited for the perfect time to get him and get him good for being such an insufferable jerk.
Finally, I got my chance. I had two plates up in the window when I walked into the kitchen. I was waiting for a third, and a side of meatballs. He accosted me as soon as I walked up there and said something along the lines of, ‘Why don’t you get this effing food out of my window?’
I calmly looked at him and replied, ‘The next time you say something like that to me, this food is not going out. This food is going on the effing floor.’
This guy was easily six feet tall. I’m barely five foot. He just kind of smirked and said, ‘I’d like to see you try that.’
I picked up one plate of spaghetti and meat sauce (probably takes less than a minute to plate, anyway) and just flipped it over in the window. ‘And I need my order of lasagna and the side of meatballs, too.’
The expo guy had a look of admiration and shock on his face at what I had done. He didn’t even seem mad at having to re-plate the meal. I’m not sure, though, I was blind with rage and marched out of the kitchen and out onto the floor. We really weren’t that busy; I think they had a bus kid clean it up. I wasn’t spoken to about the incident except in passing when the daughter admitted her dad could get a little intense, and her sister (who also worked there) explained that her sister (the owner) often got into it with their father, and it wasn’t that big of a deal.
He was always polite to me after that, and never hassled me again. I nearly crapped myself when I realized what I had done, though.”
If Only They’d Been A Little Nicer To The Waitress…
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“My wife and I were on the receiving end of someone’s ‘justice’.
We’d gone out to a local sports bar/restaurant for dinner on a Saturday night. Unfortunately, the local football team had just started playing and the place was packed.
While we were waiting in line, we heard the conversation between the folks in front of us with the hostess.
Hostess: ‘How many?’
Guest: ‘Eight.’
Hostess: ‘Alright, we have you down. We’re not quoting wait times right now as the game has just started and we have no idea how long many of the diners will be staying.’
Guest: ‘So you’re telling me you won’t seat us!?’
It went back and forth for a few minutes with the guest getting more and more indignant and the hostess trying to explain that they’d seat them as soon as possible, they just didn’t know when that would be. And with a large party, the limited number of ‘big top’ tables would make it worse, plus the group was unwilling to split up into two groups. The guest finally moved and it was our turn. We said there’s just the two of us and the hostess started in on the ‘we can’t quote times’ spiel.
My wife said, ‘Don’t worry, we heard what you said to the last person, we’re not in any hurry, and we know how busy you are right now.’
We got our blinky alert box and found a spot to wait. We were expecting to wait at least 45 minutes. Literally two minutes later, our box started buzzing. We’d been bumped to the front and were being seated.
The best part was that when we got to our table, there was another empty table right next to it. The two tables could have sat the group of eight, but the hostess and waitresses made sure to not seat them.
Oh, and the wings were delicious.”
You Never Know Just Who’s Listening In
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“Just the other day, I was at a Chinese buffet and the three people in the booth next to me were questioning the waitress (she appeared to be Asian-Hispanic) about voting for the president and who she planned to vote for. She had trouble understanding them and communicating that she could not vote. They immediately began taunting her that she shouldn’t be here if she couldn’t vote, that she didn’t even know who the President of the United States was, and then took a picture and said they would post it on Facebook. I later found out the waitress was on a school visa and couldn’t vote, but was unable to convey that to them.
After the waitress walked off, one of the girls at the table (the one who took the pic) looked up and asked me where I worked because I looked familiar. When I replied the local university in the social work department, she commented that she had recently been in my office to apply to our program, to which I replied, ‘Yes, I remember you, and I’m also on the admissions committee,’ followed with a wink. The color drained from her face and she knew she was ruined. Karma’s a witch.”
