When all's said and done, the customer is always right. But that doesn't mean these food workers don't have a grudge or two against these customers' stupid complaints.
(Content has been edited for clarity.)
Refusing To Admit Defeat
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“My first job was as a cashier at a fast food place called Chicken Treat in the town I grew up in.
I had a lady order 2 of the same burger, but one without tomato, for her two kids. She came back and complained that the kid who didn’t want tomatoes got it, and the kid that did want tomatoes didn’t. She sat there leaning over the counter glaring down at me while I tried as delicately as I knew how to explain that she had given the wrong burger to the wrong kid.
When she realized about 15 seconds later that she had completely derped and that a 16-year-old had to explain to her how she and her genius offspring had confused themselves, she got mad at me and complained to the manager that I was rude to her because she didn’t want to admit the order was correct and apologize.”
She Had Some Unrealistic Expectations On The Timing For This Order
“I was working at a pizza delivery chain that opened at 10 a.m., and we got a call from a woman wanting us to deliver food to her two elementary school daughters for lunch. She insisted we HAD to be there promptly at 10 a.m. because that was when the younger girl’s lunch period began.
My manager caved, and I skipped all of my morning prep to get the food there on time, and I was able to get the front office at 9:58.
The lady called back at around 4 p.m., demanding free food AND a refund because the office didn’t give the older daughter her food until her lunch period at 10:45, AND HER FOOD WAS COLD.”
Some People Have Book Smarts, Just Not Street Smarts
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“I had a customer yesterday order take-out from my restaurant. It was busy, and we missed putting in $13.50 worth of food in his $60 order.
He called back cursing and yelling, demanding a full refund. I got him on the phone and apologized while taking in his verbal abuse. I offered to refund the food he paid for but didn’t get, plus a $15 credit at our restaurant.
His reason for the full refund: he had to throw his food out because he could not eat in front of his children because the part we missed was for his kids.
I looked him up today. He’s a gynecologist at my state’s best university hospital.”
When Going Above And Beyond Backfires
“I own a bakery. I love it and have built up a great reputation for myself and handle large parties/events with a posted $150 minimum per order. I have catered for the Academy Awards and have a solid customer base.
Stupid Complaint/Situation:
Customer: ‘Hey, is this Ravetti’s Bakery? Yeah, I wanted to place an order for a birthday party and need two dozen chocolate cupcakes next Saturday.’
Me: ‘I am sorry, I normally have a $150 minimum and request at least two-weeks notice, but since you’re requesting chocolate and I am doing a large order for that Saturday in chocolate, then I am happy to get you what you need!’
Customer: ‘Okay, thanks! What is the price on those? I am right down the street. Can you deliver?’
Me: ‘$36 plus tax. You’re not too far away, but I can deliver to you free of charge.’
Customer: ‘That is a ridiculous price, I am not paying that. I can get cupcakes at the grocery store for cheaper.’
Me: ‘I am sorry. If you change your mind, be sure to let me know. Hope your friend has an awesome birthday.’
Customer: ‘Well, the bakery down the street charges less.’
Me: ‘Okay, that is fine. Enjoy your night!'”
This Sugar-Free Pie Didn’t Taste So Sweet To Her
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“I work for a large food manufacturer that makes all sorts of items. One item we make is a ‘sugar-free’ fruit pie. The secret to ‘sugar-free’ is that we use this artificial sweetener. As long as you have a reasonable portion, you’re fine. However, if you eat too much of this particular sweetener, it can have a laxative effect. We once had a woman call in and demand that we replace the carpet in her house because she had ‘an accident that ruined the carpet from her living room all the way down the hall and into the bathroom.'”
This Server Was Done With This Diner’s Definition Of “Well Done”
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“‘Excuse me, this steak is overcooked.’
‘Well, yes. Yes, It is. You ordered your steak ‘extra well done.”
‘Yah, but, it doesn’t have any juices coming out of it.’
‘Yes, that is what happens when you overcook a steak.’
‘No it’s not, it should be cooked and juicy!’
‘Regardless, you ate most of the steak. There is only a small amount left.’
‘Yah, I want one to go. For free.’
‘How would you like that one cooked?’
‘Extra well done. Don’t you listen?’
Sigh.”
All They Could Do Was Stare As This Man Said His Crazy Order
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“The first job I had as a teenager was making hot dogs. A guy once came in and asked for ‘one with everything,’ which could have meant two things: ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, the northern style; OR the local southern ‘everything’ which included mustard, chili and onions, and sometimes coleslaw. Nothing more. Sometimes people wanted mayonnaise on their hotdogs.
I asked him to specify what he considered ‘everything.’ He gave me a hard look and repeated, ‘Everything!’
So I started listing: ‘Ketchup?’
‘Oh no, not ketchup.’
‘Mustard?’
‘No, no, I’m allergic to mustard. Everything else.’
I stared at him. Allergic?
He yelled at me, calling me an idiot, and told me just to make him a hot dog.
I did, but I wanted to throw it in his face. Maybe he wanted to sue the store if he got sick because WE didn’t specify our toppings to him, I don’t know.”
Orange You Glad This Customer Wanted “Pineapples?”
“I worked at an Italian restaurant as a waitress for a short time as the customers sucked. This lady ordered a Hawaiian pizza and pitched a fit saying how we got her order wrong. I asked her what was wrong with it and she said it wasn’t a Hawaiian Pizza and the toppings were wrong. I looked at it, and it had diced tomatoes, pineapples, and ham, which was what the menu stated. Upon showing her this, she said, ‘What are you talking about? These are yellow! Pineapples are orange!’
Confused, I got my manager, and he tried explaining that pineapples were yellow and not orange. But if she didn’t like it, she could order something else free of charge.
She got mad and said no and that she wanted the Hawaiian pizza with the right pineapples. She started explaining what they looked like, which sounded a lot like oranges. I said ‘Wait, do you mean ORANGES?’ as she completely described oranges. She said ‘NO, PINEAPPLES!’ At this point, I took out my phone, Googled oranges and pineapples, and showed her. She pointed at the oranges and yelled at the top of her lungs, ‘YES, THOSE I want those.’ My manager told her that we did not have those and she could either pick something else or eat her pizza. She left.”
“Freaky Fast Can’t Keep Up With A Freaking Idiot”
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“I was working at Jimmy John’s. A lady kept calling us about her order not being there. It was there, but our driver and her receptionist couldn’t get a hold of her. The line was busy since she wouldn’t stop calling. Failing to admit that the delay was on her, she stiffed the driver on the tip. Freaky fast can’t compete with a freaking idiot.”
They Didn’t Even Have To Work Hard To Make The Perfect Drink
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“I used to work at Starbucks. A lady ordered a mocha, and I forgot to add the mocha syrup. It was a dumb mistake, so I fixed it. She put it back on the bar a couple of minutes later and said, ‘It doesn’t taste right, I want a new one.’
Okay. I don’t know what else I could do, but I said I would make a new one. I got started on it, and the customer went to the restroom.
She got back from the restroom before I was finished making it but, saw her old drink on the bar that I hadn’t taken back yet and thought it was her new one. She looked at it and said, ‘Ah, it looks better already!’ She took a big drink and said, ‘Now see, that’s perfect.’ She left before I could tell her that I didn’t finish her new drink.”
Ridiculous Conversations At The Adjacent Table
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“I was having dinner one evening at a place with patio seating when a couple sat at the table next to mine. It was a bit late, around 9 PM, so it was fairly dark outside. As I’m looking over the menu, I hear the server greet the couple and the man asks, ‘Could you do anything about these lights?’ I didn’t look up to see what he pointed at, but I assumed there was a lamp from inside of the restaurant that was shining directly in his face, or something like that. I hear the server say to him, ‘Nothing. Those are street lamps, sir.’
He Had To Remind The Customer Who Was The Real Expert
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“I work in a nice restaurant where most of the customers are upper-middle-class, middle-aged white people who think they know everything about fine dining. I had a gentleman order a Manhattan filet. I brought it out to him, and a few minutes later, I asked him how everything was tasting. He said it was fine, so I left him to finish his meal.
Later, when I brought him his check, he said, ‘I didn’t like that filet. The texture was weird, and there was no bacon around it.’ I launched into the explanation of what a Manhattan filet was: a New York strip with the fat cut off of it. It is NOT a filet mignon, and will therefore not have bacon wrapped around it. I apologized for the menu being unclear about what kind of cut the meat was. He claimed that saying it was a filet was false advertising and that our chef just made up the Manhattan filet to try to lowball customers.”
She Wanted To Make Sure She Was Getting Her Fair Amount Of Strawberries
“I was 15 when I got my first job at a big-name frozen yogurt shop. On my first day, I trained for a couple of hours, and then my manager let me take on a customer by myself.
Being a chipper high school student, I greeted the customer with a big smile and friendly voice.
She asked for strawberries and other toppings on her yogurt and demanded that I ‘count the strawberry pieces’ because she thought I wasn’t giving her enough. I stared at her and said, ‘Uh, we don’t do that. I ensure you I gave you the right amount.’ She adjusted her belly fat and huffed and screamed in my face, ‘COUNT THE STRAWBERRY PIECES.’ This went on for a few minutes until I just snapped and said some words that I shouldn’t have. My manager was right there, and I was fired on the spot. On my first day.”
He Was Going To Make Sure Everyone Shared In His Misery
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“I was working at Panera Bread, and it was a slow period after breakfast but before lunch. A guy came in and asked if we had Pepsi, and I politely told him we stocked Coke products.
He paced a few times and then suddenly lost it and started demanding to see my manager. Horrified, I got my manager and hid in the back.
About 15 minutes later, he stormed out of the store shouting how he was going to sue the place.
My manager and I tried to figure out his problem. Apparently, the store hosted a speed-dating event the previous evening, and it didn’t go so well for him, and that was somehow our fault.
Yeah, that was a strange day.”
They’d Learn The Art Of Patience Working At This Hectic Jamba Juice
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“Back when I worked at Jamba Juice, we were once understaffed by two call-outs with a line out the door in the middle of summer. While the ideal time to get drinks out was three minutes, under the circumstances, some of the waits were closer to 15. Most of our customers were quite understanding.
One lady, in particular, decided to be especially irate and kept being aggressive towards us. By the time that she got her drink, my coworker saw her take off the lid and intentionally flip the cup over onto the table. Her son politely ran over and said that they had a spill and requested some towels. Not knowing what she had done, I said, ‘Okay, I’ll be right there to clean it up.’
Immediately after, she came up yelling at him, ‘Where are the towels?’ I calmly told her that I would be right there to clean it up after I cleared up some orders.
What did she say to me? ‘I want those towels, NOW!! That drink is about to leak on all the new clothes I just bought!’
One of the great things I learned at that job was how to remain composed under pressure because, in my head, all I could think was, ‘Well, Jesus Christ, lady. Stop being an idiot and move your bags!'”
She Wanted To Let The Manager He Was Wrong, Even When He Was Away
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“I worked at Starbucks. The shift supervisor was showing me how to make drinks. As he was training me, a woman mentioned that her caramel macchiato was incorrect.
My shift manager said, ‘Perfect! We just went over caramel macchiatos. How about you make it so she gets her drink faster and it doesn’t slow down the queue.’
The woman had a fit because ‘I had made the drink incorrectly before,’ and she wanted the store manager to make her drink.
My shift supervisor made the drink for her, after letting her know the store manager was unavailable as he was on his honeymoon with his new wife, and that he was training me to make drinks directly under his supervision, so he knew that I had not made the original incorrect drink.
She called later that day to complain to the store manager. He was still on his honeymoon and wouldn’t be back for a week.”
No Matter The Size, You Have To Pay For It Dude
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“I used to work at an amusement park, and we sold funnel cakes. Someone bought a funnel cake for $13.55. The person ate the entire funnel cake, brought back the plate, and said, ‘The one I got was too small, I want another one.’ So I charged him for another one, and he said, ‘I’m not paying for another one, the first one was too small.’
So my supervisor told the guy, ‘I’ve watched my staff make funnel cakes for months now, they know what they are doing, and they always serve the same portion size to everyone. If you want another one, you will have to purchase it.’ The guy ended up purchasing another one and went on with his day. I was surprised at how serious he was and that he felt he could get another one for free because it didn’t fill him up.”
There Is No Pleasing Some People
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“Once while working at Starbucks, a woman ordered an iced latte and threw it on the floor because it wasn’t slushy. We remade her drink, this time giving her a Frapp (since she wanted the slushy one), which got thrown on the floor because it was ‘too cold.'”
The Customer Was One Who Needed To Cool Down
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“At a restaurant, a customer complained that her coffee was too hot, so I brought her another cup. I don’t know what she thought would be accomplished by that, as it was again too hot. Apparently, she didn’t want to wait for it to cool down like any normal person. I brought her ice.”
He Thought He Was At A Five-Star Restaurant With That Attitude
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“At Mcdonalds, I had a customer who ordered a meal for his family. I began gathering the food and soon I had completed the order. I asked if he needed help carrying the food over to the table, and, offended, he scowled at me and said that he was perfectly capable of carrying a couple of trays. Upon picking up two trays of food and drink, one in each hand, he stumbled and dropped his entire order to the floor. The man demanded that I re-complete his order or refund him because the trays were over-crowded and too heavy. I refused.
The fat jerk then pointed his finger at my face and said, ‘You give me my freakin’ food, or I’ll knock your freakin’ head off.’ When I apologetically refused him again, he called his family to follow him and kicked the door open and stormed out, loudly calling the place a ‘freaking joke.'”