All aboard the hot mess express! Customer service workers, waiters, and more took to Reddit and spilled the tea on their most insane customers. From rage freak-outs over literal cents to public proposals gone nightmare-vision wrong, these hot mess stories bring the drama.
1. Shattered Dreams
A customer came into my store while in his cups. We refused to sell bottles to him and he flipped out. Ended up throwing him out, so he went down the street to another store. Then as he walked back past our store, he yelled some very mean things at us—and immediately tripped, shattering the bottle he just bought on the sidewalk. Glorious.
2. Their Culture Isn’t Backwards, You Are
I was the hot mess in this story. I was in Montreal for a hockey game and wanted to buy a Canadiens jersey. They're a little pricey at the arena, so I was walking around downtown looking at sports memorabilia shops. I found one, walked in, and bought a Canadiens jersey. It was one of the nice lace-up ones, for almost half retail price. So I put it on to wear out of the shop.
Before we hit the door, I ripped the tags off and my dad noticed that the 'NHL' insignia was backward, and said 'LNH.' I got in the clerk's face and said, rather loudly, "You sell fakes! This is a bootleg! This is supposed to say NHL!" The clerk's English wasn't great but he ensured me, "These are the new ones. LNH is the new logo." I replied "Yeah, ok, the NHL changed their name. I believe that."
He wouldn't do a refund, and finally, I left the store feeling defeated. On the walk back to the hotel, I saw another Montreal jersey with the LNH insignia. And another. I pulled my phone out and googled it. It stands for la Ligue Nationale de Hockey. The new Canadiens jerseys had LNH on them to celebrate their French Canadian heritage. I could feel myself burning with shame.
3. Salad Hound
I have a buddy who has a great Olive Garden story. He was a bartender and he noticed this lady was super obnoxious, so he cut her off. She made a huge fuss about it, and my friend decided to get her a salad at no charge to get some food in her. Well, she asks for red wine vinaigrette dressing for her salad, then chugs the entire decanter. She was then thrown into a taxi and driven home.
4. Argument Derailed
My hot mess moment was in Munich, Germany. I was on a train and a conductor came around to check for tickets. I give him my ticket, and immediately he starts explaining something about how I hadn't paid and he was gonna write me a fine. I was like: "You have the ticket that I bought in your hand! Are you crazy? How can you give me a fine?"
He keeps explaining I didn't pay and so he needs to give me a fine. I keep getting more irate at this obvious idiot. How could he possibly say that? I point to him that the value I paid for the ticket is on the thing! I start mentioning/insinuating is he doing this to all tourists, to scam them.
By this time we've reached the next station and he gestures to me, while getting off the train with my ticket, and sticks it in a machine on the platform that goes "ka-ching." When he gave it back to me, he looked me straight in the eye and said "Now, you've paid." I felt like a complete idiot.
5. The Justice System
I was working the window at Mcdonald’s late at night. This guy orders and pulls up. When I walked up to the window, I didn't see that the jerk had trash in his lap. I open the window to take his card/cash, and he throws the bag of trash at me. I take a step back, bothered that I just got trash thrown at me, and I watch his car speed off.
I'm angry, but there's nothing I can do. A couple seconds later, I hear a small “bang” of metal on metal. I walk to the lobby and look out the windows. The idiot had just slammed into a officer’s cruiser. The guy was about to loop around and use the drive thru himself. Of course, I also went to tell the officer what just happened inside.
6. The Pepsi Challenge
I went out to dinner a few months back with some friends at a pretty typical chain restaurant. Me: "I'll have a diet coke please." Waitress: "Oh, we only have Pepsi, is that ok?" Me: "Sure. A diet Pepsi would be fine." I have my soda and a few refills over the course of dinner and then I start feeling really, really bad.
Right about here is where I should mention that I'm a type 1 diabetic and, since I always just drink diet coke, don't know the difference in taste between diet and regular pepsi. I checked my blood sugar, which had been perfectly on target before the meal, and my meter just read HIGH, meaning that the value was so high that the meter actually couldn't process it.
What I had eaten for dinner couldn't possibly have put me there, so we flagged down the waitress and I asked, "This isn't diet Pepsi, is it?" She responded by telling me that it wasn't, that the diet Pepsi fountain was out of syrup and she didn't think I'd mind, and besides, I'm plenty skinny and don't need to drink the diet stuff.
I lost my mind on her. I started cursing, pulled out my insulin syringes to dose for the 4 full sugar sodas that I drank, and told her exactly what I was doing. I then told the manager what had happened, and that I wasn't planning on paying for the meal but would instead put the money toward the ER bill that I was about to incur. Even as I’m saying it, I know things are getting worse.
Went to the hospital, where the lab determined that my blood sugar was still in the 700s even after I dosed, and I ended up staying overnight because my glucose level stubbornly refused to come back into range. So yes, I was a hot mess. But I was justified.
7. Bagged Meal
I used to work as a hostess at a popular restaurant chain. One time, this guy makes a reservation at the most frequently booked table. It’s by the window, all romantic, etc. It’s also super visible from any other part of the restaurant. He comes in, all dressed up and with a suitcase. Strange, but okay. A few minutes later, his date arrives.
They laugh, flirt, and put on a whole scene. Based on the way it was going, we actually thought it was an anniversary dinner or that he was going to propose or something. Boy, were we wrong. Halfway through the evening, she starts screaming at him. He broke up with her in the middle of dinner. That's where the suitcase comes in.
The bag was full of all her things, which he had packed beforehand. He then paid and left her there sobbing at the table alone. We got her a brownie on the house, because we felt awful for her just watching that.
8. Finger-Lickin' Bad
Let me tell you about this one couple I once observed on a date. They were an elderly couple, probably in their 70s. The guy looked pretty humble, and the lady was completely dressed up. Bedazzled dress and everything. They had been flirting pretty hard with one another during their appetizer and, when their dinner came, that’s when everything got out of control.
The man took his shoes off and was teasing the lady’s legs with his toes. Then, the lady took her shoes off too and, after a good round of footsy, the guy decided to massage her feet with his bare hands while they were both eating finger foods. I’ve never choked so hard in my life as when I first realized what was going on.
I swear I could see him rubbing his fingers right in between her toes. I just can’t imagine how anyone is able to do that whilst simultaneously stomaching their food.
9. When Life Gives You Lemons...
I was buying a used car from a dealer. We agreed on a price over the phone. He offered to have someone come pick me up to test drive it (I was new in the city and had no car). So he and another guy came to pick me up. And of course, he's trying to sell me a new car instead of the one I'm interested in, but I'm not hearing it.
I test drove the car, and it's just what I'm looking for, and the price we agreed on is under book value, so I'm good with everything. Then he draws up the paperwork and my jaw drops. The final cost is nearly two grand more than we agreed on! I'm pretty upset now. We had a clear agreement, and he tried to slip in $2,000 like I wouldn't care.
I say no deal, drop me back off at home. He keeps knocking off a hundred here, a hundred there. Screw that, we had a deal, take me back home. Finally, he says, well if you're not gonna buy the car then you can find your way home. Now I start raising my voice so the other customers hear our conversation.
"YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU DRAGGED ME 40 MINUTES AWAY FROM HOME, TRY TO CHARGE ME AN EXTRA TWO GRAND THEN TELL ME I'M STRANDED OUT HERE IF I DON'T PAY?" He's begging me to be quiet, tries cutting more off the price, but I'm not letting this go. I know I look like a complete lunatic, but I don't even care at this point.
I don't respond well to high-pressure sales tactics and they're starting to realize it. Anyway, after making a big scene and giving the salesman a legitimate panic attack, the manager finally agreed to sell me the car at the agreed-upon price. I then negotiated another $500 off of. He wanted me out of that shop. The car is still running great.
10. Off to a Great Start
I used to be a waiter for large corporate events and weddings, and I had a very typical bridezilla to deal with one weekend. She ended up getting hammered at the reception and slept with a groomsman in the honeymoon suite in the middle of the wedding reception. Word soon spread throughout the venue about what had just happened.
Needless to say, her new husband left her immediately.
11. Someone’s Got Your Back
I spent my last $40 on a car part I needed, but there was something wrong with it and I had to return it. The sales clerk said he can't take it back without a receipt. I paid with a credit card and there's a warranty so I should be in the system. He wouldn't even check and refused to exchange it. That's when I lost it.
I was irate, screaming at him. customers were laughing at how upset I was. He threatened to call the authorities. I told him to go ahead. Then, something amazing happened. Behind this guy’s back, another employee overheard my details, looked up my information, and printed out a copy of my receipt.
Just as this guy is about to tell me for the millionth time that I can't return the part without a receipt, the employee behind him hands it to me, and I handed it back to the manager I was arguing with. I got my new part and was able to make it to work that night. Hope that guy didn't get fired for doing the right thing.
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12. Alarming Situation
I had ordered some food at around 2 AM. My roommate had to work the next day and was sleeping, so I made a note on the delivery saying, "Please call, do not ring the bell. Thanks!" Our doorbell was a loud buzzer, so I didn't want to wake him. About an hour later, I hear a loud buzz. I was so annoyed because I had asked that they not do that.
I go to the door and it's this guy probably around 20 years old and immediately after he hands me my food, he sticks his hand out and goes, "Tip?" I had money in my pocket that I was going to tip him with but I didn't even get a chance to get it out before he did that. I responded with, "Seriously?"
Then I went to tell him that he was not going to get a tip not only because he rang the bell when I asked him not to (it was printed on the receipt under my address so he should have seen it) but also because of how rudely he demanded a tip. He said, "Whatever" and left, so I called the restaurant and told them they had a bad driver.
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13. A Saucy Way to React
I worked at a bar in a hotel for more than five years. I once had a couple come down from their hotel room and sit at one of my pub tables for dinner. From the moment they sat down, you could tell that the wife was furious about something. She was unbelievably pleasant towards me, but did not say a single word to the man at the table.
I got them their drinks and then took their orders. He ordered a steak and she ordered the sauciest pasta dish we had on the menu. About 20 minutes later, the wife still hadn’t said a word to the man since they had sat down. Their food was now ready and my food runner set it on the table for them. That’s when things got interesting...
Right as I was about to walk over to see if they needed anything else, I saw the woman stand up and shout “I hate you, John!” as loud as she possibly could. She then picked up the plate of pasta and dumped it all over his head and down onto his lap. She then very calmly walked out of the bar and back up to her hotel room.
I spent a few minutes helping the man clean up and got my manager to come handle the situation from there, as it was way above my pay grade at that point. Later in the night, the woman came back to the bar without the man and we talked for a while. Turns out, he had admitted to cheating on her right before their dinner reservation. I never saw either of them again.
14. Missing Money
This happened at my bank. I went in to change my rent money from 20s to 100s, so making a money order would be easier to count. I tell the lady behind the desk what I'm doing, and she happily agrees to help me. In 20s, I counted out $1,000 for her, putting the money down and counting out loud. She then takes the cash, gets the hundreds, and counts back $900 to me.
I tell her there's $100 missing, and she claims I only counted $900 to her. She already put the 20s I gave her in her drawer, so there was no way to see what I counted to her. I argued with her for about 10 minutes until she told me they were about to close and to come back tomorrow.
I was so shocked this lady was so stupid that I just told her to quit her job while she's ahead and walked out. Thankfully I had an extra $100 in birthday money. Never went back to that location.
15. Trust, But Don’t Verify!
I once witnessed a very awkward first date in a restaurant. In short, the girl stated that she was allergic to pineapple. The guy basically responded by implying that he didn’t believe her. Later in the evening, when she had left the table to take a phone call, he secretly scraped some pineapple glaze off of his dessert and onto her spoon.
She came back and started eating without noticing too much at first, but then quickly had a severe allergic reaction. The guy freaked out and tried to run away, but he got stopped by a customer from another table who was suspicious of him. The manager administered the girl’s EpiPen and called an ambulance, as well as the authorities. It was an absolute circus.
16. Guest-zilla
When I was 16 years old, my aunt was organizing a wedding buffet and hired me for the night as a waiter and helper. I was attending the back tables when a woman who had too little clothing and too many drinks yelled out, "You should have married me instead! Screw this loser!" She then ran over to try and fight the bride.
She literally pulled her hair, threw a drink at her white dress, and tried to slap her in the face before a bunch of guests pulled her away.
17. Pain in the Butt
When my wife had a C-section after the birth of our child, she was in a severe amount of pain. She had been in labor for about 10 hours before they decided to perform surgery. Afterwards, the nurse kept coming in to check on her pain. My wife responded that she was in absolute agony. Nurse said, "If it was that bad, you'd be in the fetal position in the corner screaming."
Wife responded, "If I could get up and get over there, that's what I'd be doing." They had her set up on a morphine drip with a patient-activated button. My wife kept hitting the button and it didn't help. Fast-forward 14 hours later. Nurse: "OH, your button isn't hooked up to give the requested drip. HAHA!" She almost got choked.
18. Drive-Thru Disaster
So my husband is a drummer and he had just played a gig. Had a full load of drums in his station wagon and couldn't see well out the back. He pulls into McDonald’s for a late-night snack and orders McNuggets. He is told there's a wait and to park in the waiting bay. He had to reverse. He reversed once and hit a bollard. Drove forward and reversed and again hit the bollard.
He was super embarrassed, so he just drove straight out into the car park and for some reason, reversed into a park, completely taking out a rubbish bin. By this time the whole restaurant is looking at him because it looks like he's tearing the place up just because he has to wait for his chicken nuggets.
Next thing the poor drive-thru kid came running outside with a bag of food, apologizing and terrified, threw the bag in the window, and ran back inside. I still giggle when I think about this.
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19. Ambushed
I worked at a fancy restaurant, so I have seen a lot. The worst was when this guy got down on one knee to propose to his girlfriend...just in time for the "other man" to walk in. Yep, right in the middle of his proposal, his girlfriend told him she was leaving him for the other guy. She added that the two of them had been having an affair for six months.
They had invited this poor guy out for dinner, hoping that telling him in public would prevent a nasty confrontation. The two of them then left him at the table, sticking him with a $200 bill. The staff who witnessed this felt awful for him, so we all pitched in to pay it. We even bought him a couple of drinks. I hope that things have gotten better for him.
20. Holey Bread
I’d been working at a popular deli chain restaurant for a few years and was working in the back one day when a new trainee came rushing over, absolutely bawling, so I immediately knew something was seriously wrong. I had her stay in the back to calm down and alerted the head manager so we could deal with the situation.
I went to the register and found a petite Korean lady shouting very loudly and demanding the trainee come back and saying she was trying to cheat her out of her money. She also kept shouting what I can only assume were crude Korean insults. The manager looked at her with a “lol nope” expression and took over the line.
I got the pleasure of dealing with Korean Karen. Somehow, I managed to keep a cool head and told her calmly to explain her problem. She was screaming, yelling, and rambling about how upset she was and said the cashier didn’t give her any change and that the bagels she wanted were too expensive. I redid her transaction.
The entire time I was packing up her bagels, she's still angrily waving her arms around in a fit—until she bumped a customer next to her. He very politely, but also very sternly said, "Excuse me!" She decided to take this opportunity to spit on him. While this was going on, the assistant manager had already made a call to the authorities.
An officer came in while I was finishing slicing this monster-lady's bagels and tried to ask her questions very calmly like what was the problem, what’s her name, things like that. When he asked to see ID, she went ballistic. I couldn't believe my eyes. She shoved him and then spat at him! The whole time he had kept his hands to himself. This, clearly, was the breaking point. The officer grabbed her wrists and started to cuff her.
He was ordering her to put her hands behind her back, and out of nowhere, she let out this howling scream and started trying to fight with the guy. His partner came in and saw the commotion. He immediately jumped in. She went so nuts that he had to tackle her onto the ground. They took her out to their car in cuffs and came back inside to pick up her personal items that were dropped in the fray and asked me if anything else was hers, and I gladly handed them her change and bagels.
21. Stop The Madness
Anyone's who's got a bus will know that when you ring the bell, not only does it make an audible "ding", but a light at the front of the bus next to the driver that says "BUS STOPPING" will illuminate. I rang the bell, got up, and stood right next to the driver by the door so he can also see I'm waiting to get off. The driver just continues past the bus stop. I'm like, "you not stopping for me there?".
He rolls his eyes, scowls, and slams on the brakes in the middle of the road, to the point where everyone standing up nearly fell over and I think I heard someone fall down the stairs. He looks at me and goes "Maybe try ringing the bell next time if you want me to stop," and opens the door in the middle of the road.
I just walked up to the sign that's lit up right in front of him and started sarcastically tapping it like it's on the fritz. "Well, I think your light must be broken or you’re going blind if you can see that mate."
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22. Sweet Guess
As a former Taco Bell worker, here is the one order I will never forget. A sloppy looking lady at the drive-thru ordered a meal, sat for a second, then asked, “How many Cinnabons come in the dollar two pack?” Oh honey.
23. Food Fight
At a chain restaurant one night our waitress was bussing a huge tower of dishes. As she was walking towards me I thought to myself, there is no way she is gonna make it to the kitchen. Sure enough, once I am in splashing range the tower goes down. Half-full glasses of soda hit the floor and send splashes over my sandaled feet, and a full cup of marinara sauce hits the edge of our table and showers me with about a quarter of a cup of marinara sauce in a billion droplets from my hair to my chest. Then the waitress walked away!
The manager comes over. By now the waitress has heard that I am complaining. She comes over and stands behind the manager as the manager and I talk. I explain what happened and that accidents happen and I'm not even mad over the spill, but I'm mad over being treated badly after. The manager is gushing apologies, and our dinner will be free.
Still, I said, this is an area for retraining or something. There needs to be something said to the server, that is not how you treat people. The manager turns around and sees the waitress, and says I'm sure she was coming to apologize right now. Little did she know, things were about to take a nasty turn. The waitress rolls her eyes and says nastily, it was just an accident. No apology.
The manager has a stunned look on her face. The waitress says nothing, gives a smirk, and crosses her arms. I looked between her and the manager, who is now silent and doesn't know what to do with this. It ends in a standoff, of the waitress refusing to simply apologize and me seething. So I thought for a moment and came up with a genius plan.
I said to the manager, so you said our meal tonight will be free? We want to change our order. And we want to keep our same server. No hard feelings, after all, right? So we changed our order for the most expensive entrees we could find, with three appetizers and salads and soup first. Dessert after. Tab was well over a hundred bucks. We lingered for as long as we could stand.
Needless to say, we stiffed that waitress, and I wrote no hard feelings on a napkin covered in marinara sauce at the table. The only time I ever stiffed a server, and it was grand.
24. Do You Know Who I Am?
Worked at Best Buy 10 or so years ago, and this happened on Black Friday. Most of the customers were in bad moods since they'd been waiting hours to come in and stand in more lines. But this one lady was a raging witch. After yelling at everyone in my department about how she NEEDED the laptop that was on sale despite it being sold out, she took it up a notch.
She proceeds to tell us she'll have the store closed down because she "Works with the city and knows the fire marshal and we have too many people in the store." So she calls him, we tell her to leave, and nothing happens to the store. However, we called them as well to report what she'd said, and she got fired from her job for mistreatment of power.
25. Coffee Break-Down
I went into a little vegan place in Soho, London, for a coffee. My girlfriend and I were on our way to a movie and had around 45 minutes to spare. I ordered two cappuccinos. There was no-one else waiting, and there were two hipster-looking types behind the counter. They took my order and then spent, and I’m not kidding, 27 minutes walking back and forth, talking, moving things around, washing stuff, but not making coffee.
In the interim, a small line had formed, and they served a couple of those people first, including with food orders. I asked after 15 minutes, just to check they hadn't forgotten me. They said of course not, and continued to lounge about. In the end, I stood up and started yelling at them, asking what they were doing, and why it was so hard to make two simple coffees.
I demanded my money back, as we didn't have time for the coffee anyway, and had to then have a big argument about this while one of them kept saying "but we're making it!" When I turned around after berating them, my jaw dropped. The actor Forest Whittaker was behind me in the line. I felt bad for losing it in front of Ghost Dog.
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26. Keep Cobb and Salad on
I was a waiter at a pretty high-end hotel restaurant. It was about 3 PM, and I was the only one on the floor, as it was normally very slow at that time. There was only one party seated and it was a middle-aged man and woman. You could tell that they weren’t married. I went over and asked if they wanted anything to drink, and they both got mimosas.
I went back with their drinks and asked if they were also planning on ordering food. They said yes, but that they were in no rush and would let me know when they were ready to order. About 15 minutes later, this man shows up at the front desk, starts looking around, yells “I KNEW IT! YOU DIRTY LIAR!,” and starts walking towards the couple sitting down.
The woman stands up and the guy remains seated. It became clear that the woman was having an affair with another man, and that the husband came in to confront them. He grabbed her hand and walked her out, but not before very loudly telling the man to “Stay away from my wife!” The man remained seated at the table, turned to me, and waved me over. I go over, and he says in a perfectly calm tone, “Cobb salad, please.”
27. In the Dog House
Warehouse worker here. Customers have to show a card to shop, and even though we're not technically a grocery store, we don't allow pets. One dude tried to power walk past the employee at the entrance door holding a big pit bull puppy on a leash. We stopped him and told him he couldn’t bring his dog inside...and he LOST IT.
He said he's our best customer and he's here five times a week and he owns stock, all that. He demanded to know why we don't allow dogs. We explained how it's a food safety issue, especially with an untrained puppy. At this point, our manager came over and just waved him through because he has no backbone and “the customer’s always right.”
Well, not even 5 minutes later, this dog squats in the middle of the main aisle and pees, followed by a poop. The man turned so red and dragged the dog towards the exit, abandoning his groceries. We stopped him and asked him nicely to please clean up after his pup. "That's the reason we don't allow them, sir."
28. A Sandwich Stealer?
I ordered a sandwich and a drink from a fast food place in a station - the kind of place you grab your food and eat it immediately. I got my drink and was waiting for my sandwich. I'm not in a hurry, so I don't mind the long wait, I assume they're having to make it from scratch or something. Then I notice someone else got the same type of sandwich as I ordered, so they've forgotten me. It happens, I'm not in a hurry, no problem.
No problem that is, until I ask about it. The woman behind the counter says she's given me my order, then turns away before I can speak. When she comes back, I point out that I don't have a sandwich. She tells me I've put it in my bag, and again turns away as I'm trying to explain that I haven't. At this point, I've become a little annoyed, and I'm hungry... so I do something I'm not proud of.
I become the hot mess customer. I empty my bag across the counter and ensure she checks everything I have to ensure I haven't stolen my £2 burger. I was tempted to make her check through the individual pages of my book to try and find this mystery burger, but chickened out of being that much of a jerk. After that, I finally got my sandwich.
29. What’s a Little Vintage Between Friends?
I had a waiter spill a $100 bottle of vintage—first and last time in my life I ever paid that much for a bottle—all over my fancy dinner. He refused to replace it, also. After I didn't tip him, he then literally chased me out of the restaurant and physically threatened me for his tip. He had to be restrained by the manager.
30. Car Calamity
My wife and I are in our early 20s, and so going out and buying our first car from a dealership was a rather big deal. We saved a ton of money and went in knowing our budget. At the third dealership we went to, we immediately saw a car that we both loved. Upon stepping out of our car and being surrounded by the salesmen, we asked to check that car out.
The inside and outside of the car looked great, and they assured us it ran smoothly. I asked for a test drive. They were hesitant about letting us test it out, assuring us that it ran fine. Their hesitance just made me worry more. And it turned out that I was right to be suspicious. It broke down before we left the lot. Twice.
The first time he told us it was some BS issue that they'd fix before we took it. But it sputtered and kept dying. We didn't even take it on the road. You had to slam on the brakes to start slowing down. I lost it. This was going to be my wife's primary car that she has to take on the highway every day, and they want to sell me a car that can barely brake, without letting me test drive it.
I try to be understanding. I work retail, and can usually understand if there's a legitimate issue, or even if an employee is being a bit lazy and just doesn't want to do something. I've been there, and I get it. But these people went too far. They flat out lied and tried to sell us an unsafe car that could put both of our lives at risk.
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31. It’s Not-a Me, Mario
I was standing at the counter of the pizza place I work at. This lady storms in and slams a pizza down on the counter. "This isn't the freaking pizza I ordered, what the heck are you going to do about it?" She asked. I look at the pizza, then over at my buddy Nick, who’s grinning at this point, and turn back to her and say, "Nothing."
She then goes on a long rant, saying how we are going to be fired, how stupid and incompetent we were. She actually told me I must be developmentally delayed, then asked why the heck we weren't going to do anything? I said, "Because that pizza came from the pizza shop across the street." I think she actually managed to shrink in size and slink out.
32. No Chickening Out
I waited 40 minutes at a KFC. I got there when the place was practically empty. They told me the chicken wasn't ready (in a place that exclusively serves chicken), and that I would have to wait. I decided to wait. Ten minutes is okay, 15 is tolerable. But more than half an hour? At first, I was fine because they were serving a family that had been there before me. I figured that where most of the chicken had gone before my arrival.
But then they served several customers that came in after me, which made me angry. I had two small meal orders. I approach the counter and ask what's going on, and that they hadn't called my number. The cashier apologizes and takes my receipt to the food worker (I watched and heard this), and tells her to make my order right away.
I stay there waiting, thinking she's putting my order together, but then she walks past me and serves two more customers! I became livid and shouted, "Are you kidding me?!" The cashier's jaw dropped, he started yapping at her, she sluggishly started heading back to the food station, but I was done at that point and said, "Just give me my refund so I can get out of here!"
Then it takes the cashier more than five minutes attempting to process the refund, then he asks her to do it, all the while everyone is watching, and more are still getting served. It took every bit a restraint I had not to make a total scene or flip things over.
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33. No Common Cents
I was at Wal-Mart. The cashier was taking some time, and we assumed their machine was broken. We were wrong. It suddenly hits us what's going on when we need 21 cents in change. She sees the number and a look of terror goes across her face. I'm about to say "keep the change," but no. I need to see this. She just stands there, fiddles with some coins for a bit then calls her manager over. "Which one's the quarter?"
The manager asks, "Why do you need a quarter for 21 cents?" The clerk replied, "One quarter and one penny." The manager is puzzled and explains, "Quarters aren't 20 cents." The clerk disagreed, saying "Yes, they are." The manager responds, "No, they're 25." The clerk: "How do I make 21 with a quarter?"
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34. Just the Ticket
This guy comes into our store and is being a complete jerk. Not wanting to show ID to buy tall cans even though he looked 20 at the oldest, constantly yelling and swearing. He also had parked in the handicap spot despite not having handicap tags or plates on his car. One of my regular customers, who is a sheriff's deputy, was also in the store. He came up with an ingenious plan.
He saw how the guy was acting. Saw where he was parked. Went out, got his ticket book, and wrote the guy a ticket. Guy realized he wasn't getting his cans, went outside...to find he was getting ticketed. I could not stop laughing.
35. A Guilty Conscience
I didn't freak out, but I was very rude and to this day, I feel guilty and embarrassed about it. I was in line to get food and was attempting to read the menu. I had forgotten my glasses, so it took all my focus to read. Not to mention that it was so loud I could barely hear myself think, and I was hungry. I vaguely heard my friend, who was in front of me order something, but didn't catch what or what the lady behind the counter told her.
So it's my turn, and I say to the lady "Hi, could I have a spring roll?" She rolls her eyes at me so hard I was afraid they were gonna fall out. "Did I not JUST say to her (referring to my friend) that we were out of spring rolls?" I reply, "Oh, I'm sorry, I must have missed that, I'll have the combo then." But she wasn't done. She snorted, "Yeah, sure. All of you just think you can ignore people like me-"
I tried to say I was sorry, but she talked over me, saying "Entitled brats thinking we don't matter at all, but try saying that out loud...No one shows any respect these days" and just going on and on until I lost it. I saw red and screamed, "Oh my God, just give me my food!" She nearly dropped my plate but didn't, and I went to eat but I felt so bad about my reaction.
36. Surprises Comes in Twos
I'm not a waiter or a retail worker, but trust me, being a lawyer who deals with wills is the most high stakes customer service job. My old co-worker told me about his messiest case. A guy who had two families, neither of which knew about the other until it was time to read the will. This wasn't like a love child/mistress type scenario, both were nuclear multi-kid families.
I don't really know how he pulled it off, other than that he was away on "business" frequently. Both families showed up for what had to be one of the most awkward will readings in history and both "wives" proceeded to completely lose it.
37. From Bad to Worse
During my travels, I ended up waitressing in an Italian restaurant in Mexico for a few months. I was once given a table where a customer was planning on proposing to his lady. Thirty minutes into the dinner, I noticed that the lady was a bit tipsy. The guy asks me to bring out a special drink, which we had agreed earlier would be the sign for when he was ready to pop the question.
He had hidden a ring inside the bottle for her to discover as a surprise. I brought the bottle out and he smiled. Sadly, this was to be the last smile on his face for the entire evening. The nightmare was about to begin. They made a toast, began drinking, and the lady almost immediately began to choke and turn blue.
That was when it first dawned on me that perhaps hiding a ring inside someone’s drink might not have been the smartest idea in the world…She began coughing. The man performed the Heimlich maneuver to save her. The ring came flying out of her throat, and let’s just say she was not a happy camper. Everything went downhill from there.
From what I could understand of their conversation, they began fighting and screaming in the restaurant. The lady insulted the guy, pointed at the glass, and wondered who put a ring inside. The man attempted to apologize. Still in her tipsy state, she didn't realize it had been his doing and that he was trying to propose to her. So she destroyed him with one sentence.
She blurted out "Whoever put that thing in my glass is probably a better lover than you. Maybe it was [insert name of man she had been having an affair with here]." The guy went totally silent and looked devastated. That was when the woman appeared to realize her mistake. She now attempted to fix things and apologize. It didn't go well.
In the process, she accidentally tripped and pulled the entire table cloth onto the ground as she was falling. All of the plates, cutlery, glasses, and bottles came crashing down. The man walked out of the restaurant at this point and she started chasing after him. I'm now left with a mess of broken and spilled stuff all over the place...and an expensive silver ring with a diamond on it.
The man came back the next day to get his ring back, and he thanked me for keeping it safe. If you are going to cheat anyway, you might as well just break things off with your partner to prevent a disastrous mess like this.
38. A Tiring Ordeal
I took my old car to get some new tires and wound up waiting almost an hour while the clerk was talking to some girl. Not a customer, just his friend. Finally, the dude decides to talk to me and is condescending to me. Begrudgingly I left my car there because I still needed tires. I'm quoted 45 minutes to an hour. I finally got a call to pick up my car nearly three hours later.
I show up and you could smell my clutch melting from 20 paces, and they somehow managed to completely snap my shifter in half right above the pivot point. These guys took my car out and hot-rodded it. It was undrivable, I had to tow it home. They didn't pay one red cent towards the repairs. Normally I don't complain, but those yokels got the wrath on that day.
39. Hitting the Target
One time, I was at Target trying to return something, just waiting in the Customer Service line. Ahead at the counter, there was a lady arguing with an employee about some coupon that she was trying to use. Evidently, this had been going on for a while before I had arrived, as I could see that the people in front of me were visibly irritated and antsy.
This lady was clearly not backing down about the coupon business, and neither was the employee. It eventually got to the point where both of the people in front of me gave up in frustration and just left. I wanted to do the same, but I really needed to return this item and didn't want to have to come back later. So I'm now next in line, and can hear what's going on a lot better than I could before.
She is now yelling her head off, telling the employee about how she'll get her fired, and standing inches away from her face. The employee, God bless her, remained cool and calmly told her that the coupon could not be honored. This whole time, I had just assumed that this coupon was for some significant savings, but I'll never forget what I heard next. The customer screams out, "I'm not paying 24 cents extra!"
24 cents. That was what the coupon was for. This lady had been standing here for literally 45 minutes, willingly embarrassing herself over just 24 cents. I seriously don't understand some people. Shout out to that employee, though. I would need a long shower and a few drinks after that interaction...
40. Tipping His Hand
More than a few decades ago, I worked at a Denny's. I had two male customers who decided to dine and dash. Got their license plate number and reported it to the authorities, and then jokingly mentioned that they didn't even tip! Later that night, they got pulled over for something else, but officers recognized the license plate number from the report.
They brought them both back to the restaurant and forced them to pay the bill. After they were done paying, the officer just stood there and looked at them and said, well? The guy sheepishly handed me my tip.
41. All Because Of A Bathrobe
Oh man, not my proudest moment. My bathrobe was in shambles so the wife said it was time to get a new one. So we end up at Wal-Mart at midnight. First mistake. I found one on the clearance shelf with a clearance sticker that reads the cheaper price on it. Take it upfront and of course, only self-checkout is open. I scan and the kiosk says to wait for assistance. Great.
An employee comes and scans her card and removes the discount. I said, "Ma'am you removed the discount." She said she didn't remove anything. I said, "Yes you did, it was just on the screen and this is supposed to be 10 dollars." To prove it, I scan it and she does the same thing! But she just says, “See, it's the same price.” I replied, “No ma'am, you just removed it again.” So I asked her to call the manager.
I waited for 30 minutes and then asked her again and all she says is "Well, I called him, if you want to just buy it, then you can." For some reason, this was the last straw. I don’t know why after all of this that is what set me off. So I said no don't worry about it I'm leaving. The employee said to me, “Well are you going to put the robe back where you got it?” So I threw it on top of a battery kiosk and let it fall to the bottom of it while making eye contact and told her she could do it since she can't do her actual job correctly.
Felt like a jerk and my wife was less than impressed, but it was infuriating at the time. My wife reminds me of that often when she wants to embarrass me
42. Room Service
I worked the front desk at a hotel a few years ago. One time, a guest checked in at around 10 PM. He asked if he could get a room with two beds, even though he'd already booked one with one bed. I told him that we were sold out of rooms with two beds. Before I could offer him anything else, he went berserk. He took the bowl of apples that we had on the desk and threw it against the wall.
Then, he took out his own laptop, threw it on the ground, and started kicking it around the lobby. Our security team promptly came running out and told him that he needed to leave immediately. This obviously angered the guy and prompted even more screaming and kicking. Needless to say, he didn't stay at the hotel that night.
43. I Asked For Tires
I took my car to a dealer to have some new tires. I come back two hours later and my car is sitting in the front lot and a salesman is standing there with another guy sitting in the driver seat. As I'm walking up to it I can hear the guy revving it. I quicken my pace and walk up asking him what he thinks he's doing, and what that has to do with tires.
The salesman jumps in and says "Please don't disrespect my customer." At that point, I lost it. What followed was legitimately the angriest I have ever been in my life. I'm screaming what does he mean, a customer, and why is there melted rubber in my wheel well and why is there someone not affiliated with the dealer sitting in my car let alone revving it?
The salesman walks to the manager’s office with me still shouting at him through the showroom as the manager comes out. The manager heard my side after I calmed down and apologized profusely. He said there was a mistake and that my black Mustang was parked next to the same style and trim as one they had for sale. I asked him why the salesman even had the keys in the first place and he couldn't answer.
After about a half-hour of me blowing up and cooling off as new details emerged, the GM says he's covering the cost of my tires and throwing in six oil changes and tire rotations. I got back to my car and they didn't even put the right tires on. I turned right back around and the service manager saw me coming and said he already heard what happened and that he had made the mistake with the tires, so he took it in right away and fixed it, gave me my refund and old tires as well as the new ones.
44. Bathroom Break
I once caught a couple getting intimate in the washroom stall at a restaurant where I used to work. I politely asked them to stop, but had to stand there and wait for them to finish. Once they finished, they sat back down at the dinner table. But it didn't end there. 15 minutes later, I heard the woman scream something about STDs. The man angrily got up and stormed off, leaving the woman behind to pay for her own meal.
45. A Hairy Situation
I was eating at a nice restaurant, the food was quite expensive but apparently, it was worth it. It was only lunch so we decided to get something light, I ordered a ham and cheese panini and some chips. When it arrived I noticed a clump of blonde hair on the panini. I'm not fussy. If there's a hair, I'll usually just remove it, but this was too much. It was disgusting. It was a full clump of hair that had been cooked into the panini.
When the waiter walked by I pointed it out to him, he insisted it was just cheese. I politely asked him to make a new one. A few minutes later he came back with a new sandwich and apologized for the inconvenience. But here's the thing: It wasn't new at all. They had just flipped the panini over so the hair was hidden. I then became what I hate the most, the guy that asks to speak to the manager.
The manager came over and I explained the situation, she said she would make me a fresh one, but I requested a new meal so I know they wouldn't just try to hide it again. The waiter then came over with my new meal which was a chicken sandwich, I cut it open to see pure pink meat. This whole time my friend was struggling to eat her meal because of how burnt it was. At this point, we've both just left the food on the table and walked out. The waiter tried to stop us, but the manager just let us go.
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46. Getting Through To You
I was a shift manager at a McDonald’s in the middle of a mall. A guy came up to the counter with several McDonald’s bags of food then said, “My wife came through your drive-thru, and you messed up the order!” I asked, “are you sure she came through our drive-thru?” He went, “Yes! She told me she went to the drive-thru. When she got home, she realized the order was wrong. Y’all need to give us our money back and give us the proper food,” he requested defiantly.
Confused, I looked around the mall and asked, “Did she drive through Sears or JC Penny to get here?” He finally realized he was in a mall, then grabbed his bags, and left.
47. Nothing Can Come Between Us, Except...
I worked at an upscale seafood restaurant for about a year. One particular woman would bring in a different date each week. Every single time she was there, she would start the date by erecting some kind of barrier on the table between herself and her guest. I’m talking salt and pepper shakers, menus, dishes, drinks, etc.
Whatever she could get her hands on at the table, she would use to construct this physical barrier with. She would then carry on with the date and with her conversation as if things were completely normal. The confusion and distress on the faces of the men she would bring in was always my favorite part of Saturday night. Still have no idea what was going on.
48. A Meaty Mess
I was on my way back to school from a class held in a different building across town. One of my favorite burrito places is nearby. I never eat there because it’s across town and crazy expensive. This place is drive-through only and the line is always long. I order a simple bean and cheese burrito. I get to the first stop lite on my way down the street, take a bite, and realize it’s a chicken burrito.
I paid almost 10$ for this and I only eat there like once a year. I want my burrito, so I turn around, wait through the line again, and explain the issue. I am not angry. I have worked in a restaurant for years so I know things can go wrong. I get another burrito and take a bite at the same stop lite. It's Carne guisada. I drive back and wait through the line.
I have messed up an order twice before, and I know it can make you feel bad, so I politely explain what happened again. I have them repeat back to me what I ordered a few times. A few minutes later the manager hands it out "One bean and cheese burrito." he says. I open it right there at the window. Egg, potato, and cheese. I tossed the open burrito at him, and told him to give me my money back.
49. I Scream for Ice Cream
I once saw this innocent-looking little old lady explode with unbridled rage, go absolutely red in the face, and start screaming at a teenage Baskin Robbins employee all because she wanted ten cents off on a $0.99 ice cream cone. The deal was only available on Sundays and it was Thursday. Nevertheless, she was having none of it.
She made us all wait in line behind her while she argued over a literal dime. The cashier couldn't do anything because the register was electronic and wouldn't apply the discount. I was about to pay the lady in loose change to move things along, but someone stepped in from the side to assist us at another cash register. We were in and out in a few minutes, and the irate octogenarian was still raging when I left.
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50. Hanger Hate
I was hungry and already a little stressed, but there's no excuse for how I behaved in this instance. We ordered some food, my wife ordered a salad side, and then twenty minutes later, our food comes out and I notice that my wife got fries instead of what she wanted. I pointed out the mistake to the cashier, who just said, "Yeah, we're out of [whatever]. We’ve been out since lunchtime."
So, here's what ran through my mind. If they already knew they didn't have the item my wife ordered, they should have said as much when she ordered it. If the girl running the register didn't know, then someone should've said to me while I was waiting, "We don't have that item. What would you like instead?"
They didn't do either of those things and, in my hangry, stressed mind, this was inexcusable. I yelled at the girl working the register and stormed back to the table. She tried to calm me down and pointed out that, even if I was right, yelling at the teenager running the register didn't help. I complained that just taking this kind of thing was part of what was wrong with the world, got up, and stormed out to the car, throwing my meal away in the process. However, there was a strange, life-changing bright side to all this.
After we got home, we had a long talk, and that was honestly the final straw that allowed her to convince me to talk to my doctor about my anxiety. I used to let my anxiety build up as stress and then, every six to eight months, I'd blow up about something stupid. I haven't had one of those tantrums since and am much happier than I ever was before.
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51. Can’t Borrow a Bod Like This
We had an open casket wake for my grandfather. The staff at the funeral home had put him in his nicest suit—he even had on his wedding band—but as soon as we got there, we knew something was terribly wrong. The man in the casket was not my grandfather. We were all completely furious, so we confronted the staff—but their unbelievable response only made us angrier.
They put another guy in there because they had misplaced my grandpa's body. Unbelievable. We all just started screaming at the staff and honestly, we didn't regret it either. How do you LOSE A BODY??
52. When Life Gives You Lemonade
I work at Panera. This guy once came in with a woman who I assumed was his girlfriend or wife. I took their order and they sat down. Maybe like three minutes later, another woman walked in. She didn't notice the other couple at first and she ordered. She also brought a bottle of lemonade with her. As soon as she spotted them, she dropped the lemonade and it spilled everywhere.
Turns out she was the wife, and the lady the husband had come in with was his mistress. So, naturally, there were some cross words exchanged and all three were asked to leave. I also had to mop up the lemonade.
53. Standing My Ground
I had a lady who got mad because she’d put her coffee on the roof of her car, and it spilled. So, because she was a regular, she believed she deserved free coffee. We said no. She said she was calling our owner operator. We just got bought by another corporation so we gave her the store number. I pretended to be a secretary. After an, ahem, acrimonious phone call, she went to drive off. This is where the story goes off the rails.
As she's trying to drive out of the parking lot, her car broke down. She couldn’t afford a tow, and for some reason, the store manager absolutely refused to help her out and call anyone. So, she literally ended up living out of her car in our parking lot for the next two weeks until my manager finally made the call. Crazy times.
54. Run-Away Customers
My family and I went to a sushi restaurant for my cousin's birthday. The service wasn't really that good. They gave us the wrong drinks and they forgot stuff that we asked for as soon as they walked away, so we gave the waitress like a $2 tip instead of the usual $5. As we're walking in the parking lot back to our car, the waitress runs after us and tells us that we didn't tip 15%!
She's literally chasing after us. My uncle gives us this “ummm” look, but then he pulled the best move ever. He pretends that he is going to follow her back into the restaurant to pay. Then as soon as she goes through the door, my uncle starts sprinting to the car, and we all run and jump inside and drive away. When I looked through the back window, I could see the waitress and her manager running after us, but they couldn't catch up.
55. No Manners, No Problem
This past weekend, I went to a restaurant for dinner with my girlfriend and her friends for her birthday. We had about 10 people and had about five different tabs, which all included an 18% minimum tip. The service was terrible. The server was incredibly rude and would always respond with some kind of sarcasm when we asked questions about the menu.
He took the wrong drink orders twice and blamed us for getting them wrong. Brought all the appetizers and entrees at the same time and got upset when we said we didn’t want the appetizers anymore. To top it all off, my friend paid in cash and when the server brought back the change, there was no receipt in the slightest.
My friend was expecting to see 5 bucks and some change back. When the server came back, there was only 4 bucks and change there. She asked him to see the receipt to see if she had miscalculated. Instead of saying something along the lines of "I’ll go check," the dude got irritated and said that he threw away the receipt.
He then reached for his wallet and said, "How about I just give you a dollar if you want it that badly.” That peeved us all off, so we didn’t leave any extra tip. I wrote down "NOPE!" on my receipt in the additional tip line. But that was just the beginning. When I went to use the men's room before leaving, he tapped my shoulder as I was washing my hands.
He goes, “You think you’re pretty funny with that tip, don’t you? Why don’t we step outside so I can show you how funny I can be?” I’m like, what the heck? Called the manager over and told him her server wanted to fight me because I didn’t tip him. Explained the whole situation to her while the dude was just eyeing me the whole time.
Other servers had to calm him down because he kept trying to interrupt me when I was talking to the manager. I declined all their gift cards. I don’t want to come back to a place where the staff is going to shank me.
56. The State of the Union
I'm from New Hampshire. When I was going to college in Florida, I had a gas station cashier refuse to sell me cigarettes because I showed her my ID and she didn't believe that New Hampshire was a state.
57. Category Is: Entitled Karen
So, I manage a plus size women’s clothing store. We actually get a surprising amount of non-traditional customers. Guys who need a dress for a charity show, cross dressers, gender-fluid people, transgender women, and drag queens aren't unheard of. So, a drag queen comes into the store to pick up some shoes they ordered online.
They must have been either coming from or going to a show because they were still in full makeup. I get their name, and during our conversation another customer walks in. I call out a greeting and say something like, "I'll be right with you." I go to the back room, and it takes a minute to go through all the web orders.
I find the one I need and am on my way back to the counter when the new customer throws her arm out to stop me from passing. She then says, "I am a new customer and I've been here for 20 minutes and no one has spoken to me.” First, I greeted her when she came in, and second, she had only been in the store for 5 minutes at that point.
I resigned myself to groveling, but before I could say anything, the drag queen stomps over, glares at the customer, and says, "Honey, she said hello to you." Complete with sassy finger snaps. The Queen then made a big show of thanking me for getting her package, and gave me a big sparkly kiss on the cheek before she left.
The other customer sheepishly paid for her Spanx and didn't make eye contact when I told her to have a good day.
58. A Numbers Game
I was the hot mess. I thought I had paid with a $100 bill. When I got the "wrong change" back, I flipped out, got the manager involved, made the poor cashier empty her drawer in front of me, and count through every bill. I had paid with a $50 bill. Oh, the shame. There are not enough apologies for what I did to that girl. If you're reading this, I’m so so sorry!
59. Service With A Smirk
I went out to dinner at a diner with two friends and one of their girlfriends one time. The place was pretty busy but there was plenty of wait staff running around. The first warning sign that things wouldn't go well was when they gave our table to a waiter who wasn't even working our section. It took him forever to come to us and take our drink orders, forever to take our meal orders, forever to get our food.
We had to ask the waitress in our section to send him over at least once or twice. At one point I asked for a drink refill and he got nasty and said, "Well, you're just going to have to wait." Now listen, I get that you were busy, but you don't need to be rude. And that wasn't the only time he was nasty to us either. As if it was our fault that he'd been assigned to us, we didn't ask for the guy.
I didn't even say anything, we just waited and waited until my friend's girlfriend finally grabbed our glasses and went to the counter area to get the refills herself. We didn't even blame the guy for being overworked, but he was a jerk. We thought about stiffing him altogether but instead, we came up with an even more devastating idea.
We left him a quarter from each of us. Four shiny quarters on the table. When we were leaving, he managed to rush over to clear the table and collect his tip even though he couldn't rush over any other time while we were there. He yelled very sarcastically across the diner, "Thanks for the generous tip, ladies." I turned around and yelled back, "You’re welcome. Maybe you’d have gotten a real tip if you weren’t such a jerk.”
60. A Lot on Their Plate
At a Swiss Chalet, six of us at a table. Five plates come out. We wait a couple minutes for the sixth plate. We then inform our waitress that we didn't receive our sixth plate. She responds with "Yes, you did." After a bit of a back-and-forth, she accuses us of hiding the last plate somewhere.
61. Drawing The Line
My brother and I were doing quite a big grocery shop which included a lot of bulk buying of things like paper towels, tissues, toilet paper, etc. We get to the counter and are placing our items on the scanner when the cashier rudely cuts off my brother as he's about to greet her. She said, "Tell me how many items you have! No need to put them up like that, just give me one, okay? How many? Huh? How many do you have in the cart?"
I told her we have eight boxes of tissues, but we would like some bags as we needed to carry them. She cut me off here and said, as she snatched the box from my brother's hands, "That wasn't so hard, was it?" She then mutters something horrible under her breath. She went, "Stupid Asians, learn some proper English and stop wasting my time."
It's worth noting that my brother and I are fluent in English (it's actually our first language, despite being born in Korea). I'm not very good with confrontations and I avoid them if possible, but I took a leaf from my mum's book and told her off. Usually, I brush off people making those kinds of comments, but this was just unbelievable and she was so rude to my brother that I had to do something.
62. Change Challenge
I was at Lowe’s one day buying some tools I needed. The total was like $47 and change. Well, I paid with a $50 bill so I should have gotten back $2 and change. Well she gave me just the $2 and no change (the change was close to a dollar). I said she still owed me some change, and that I would like to have it. She said she didn't have it in the drawer.
I said, "Well, are you gonna get it?" I said this because after she originally gave me the wrong change, she shut the drawer and proceeded to play on her phone. She got an attitude and said, "It ain't even one dollar, why are you getting so mad?" Yeah, it's less than a dollar, but it's mine and I want it. I went nuts. I told the manager what happened and he fired her on the spot. It was great. No regrets.
63. A Big McMistake
One night in college we had left the bars and decided to hit up McDonald's for a late-night snack. I was the designated driver and had a couple of friends in the car. We ordered and I pay, and they gave us the food. I hand it over to my friend and tell him to make sure everything is there before pulling away and he tells me my burger isn't there.
So, I knock on the window and tell them they forgot an item. The girl at the window tells me that they checked it before they handed it to me and everything was there. I tell her they must have made a mistake. At this point, my friends start to tell me it isn't a big deal but it's easy for them to say. Their food is in the bag. I babysat my friends and wanted my sandwich.
So, I continue to argue with the girl and the manager comes over, tells me they'll make me a new sandwich, but does it in a way that lets me know he knows I got my sandwich and I'm just looking for free food. That was too far. I went off on this guy. I ranted for a solid two minutes on how maybe he's the kind of guy who would pull that sort of stuff but I have a lot more class than that.
I would have kept going except at that point my friend who I handed the food to said: "Oh, wait. There are two bags here. Yeah your burgers in it". At that point, I just stared straight ahead, said "I apologize", put the car in drive, and left.
64. Routine Mistake
I managed a Del Taco during my teenager years. We had this older man come in once a month and drive straight through the speaker to our window. At said window, he’d look at me until I came over, start ordering Starbucks, then midway through realize that he was at a Del Taco, turn bright red, mutter angrily, and drive off. This happened once a month, every month, for two years.
65. There’s No Such Thing as Bad Pizza…Right?
Maybe ten years back, a new Mountain Mike's Pizzeria opened in my town. Since it's a really small town, my family got excited for a new restaurant, so we went in just a few days after they opened. The four of us sat down and were helped right away. Ordered a large pepperoni pizza and drinks, pretty simple. Our drinks come in a timely fashion. Our pizza did not.
We're generally all pretty patient and understanding, so we waited for an hour before we snagged a server to ask about our pizza. There were very few people in the restaurant, and most of the servers were sort of milling around, sweeping and wiping clean tables and other busy work. The guy apologized for the wait and said he'd go check on it for us.
He came back out and said they were very sorry, but it would be another 30 minutes on the pizza. No explanation, but we figured maybe they'd forgotten to put it in. We gave them the benefit of the doubt since they'd just opened. We waited another 45 minutes and no pizza came. Called a server again. He told us he was very sorry and he would go check on that for us.
He came back out with a black disc that wasn't even recognizable as a pizza. It was a giant charcoal brick. Parts of it were actually smoking. He put it on the table and told us to enjoy our pizza, and that they were sorry again about the wait, but that they forgot it in the oven. The very first time we ordered it. We were all stunned.
So my dad finally had enough and very politely told the guy thanks but no thanks, we wouldn't be eating this pizza and we would probably not be returning unless we heard that their service had improved. We stood up to leave....and the nightmare really began. The guy bolted for the back room. Out came the manager. He asked us what the problem was.
My dad told him that we waited nearly two hours to be served a pizza that had been in the oven for just as long. He showed it to the manager. It was literally inedible. The manager shrugged and said, "I don't see anything wrong here, sir, except that you're trying to leave without paying for your meal." The manager then ordered employees to stand at every exit to ensure that we couldn't leave.
My dad still refused to pay and suggested that the manager let us leave or he would call the authorities. So the manager actually called them, saying there was an indignant customer in the restaurant. The officers showed up and asked what the problem is. After hearing both sides, the officers scoffed at the manager, walked us out of the restaurant, and we've never eaten there since.
Wikimedia Commons, Kevin Payravi
66. Glad To Help
I worked at a local brewery a few years ago. One day, a man came in and put two big growlers down on the counter. I was scanning the bottles, and I made the usual small talk, "How's your night going?" The man took a deep breath, looked me in the eyes, and dropped the mic. He said, in this numb voice, "Well, I just walked in on my 14-year-old son naked and video chatting a middle-aged man.”
He finished, “…so it could be a lot better." I didn't quite know what to say, so I told him, "Oh, that's not good...enjoy your drinks."
67. Too Little, Too Late
I was the hot mess in this situation, but here's why: My wife was very sick and in the hospital. One of those things where you spend days in the hospital just waiting for her to get better. I would stay with her after work until the hospital shooed me out a couple of hours after the end of visiting hours. Then I'd realize I'm tired and famished, and stop to grab a bite at the local burger place, then go home.
Tonight was going to be different though. It was 9:30, and I wanted dinner. Denny's it was! I ordered the chicken fried steak with side veggies from the menu, got a soda, and started reading a book as I waited for my order. The book was really good. 40 minutes later, I realized I didn't have my food. I called the waitress and asked how long it takes the chef to cook dinner, and she went to check.
She returned with my food, a very cold chicken sandwich with fries. What the heck? Okay, apparently it's someone else's dinner. So I complained. She went back to the kitchen. A few minutes later, I see her walking out the door and saying "Goodnight" to the other servers. Another waitress comes to my table and asks me if I'm ready to give my order now.
I've rarely been this mad in a restaurant. I was quietly furious, and asked what the heck happened to my chicken fried steak? The new waitress didn't know, so we got the manager over. Apparently, there had been a shift change. New waitress, new cook. Me left between the cracks. So I told them, "Fine, I'll take my chicken fried steak dinner, on the house."
"I'm sorry sir," said the manager. "It's after 10pm, and we don't serve some dinner items after 10." "It was on the menu!" "Yes, it is on our regular dinner menu, after 10PM we use the ‘late night' menu." "I ordered my chicken fried steak BEFORE 10, so I expect that for dinner!" "I'm sorry sir, but our day chef is gone. Our night chef isn't familiar with that item."
That was it. I made a scene. I blew up and yelled at the manager. Then I left.
68. Orange Berry Blitz-krieg
I was working at Blockbuster during college, taking a full course load at a prestigious university, and working full time. I was exhausted and constantly had my head in two worlds. I would regularly go to a juice bar and get my usual Orange Berry Blitz during a short 15-minute break. They kept me going.
One day, I am in there having a particularly difficult day and the manager hands me my beverage and says, "What's with the frowns all the time? See, you need to be happy like us! When I see you all unhappy in your Blockbuster uniform it makes me not want to go rent a movie there. You make me not want to go in there."
Well...I lost it and did the most rational thing I could think of, and I threw the Orange Berry Blitz square at his smiling face and walked away while his face dripped. The other "smiling" workers were staring wide-eyed, not knowing what to do. Later that evening two of them came to my store, told me how I was a hero, and they brought me an Orange Berry Blitz.
69. Seeing Is Believing
This happened at Wendy's. I once had a woman come through the drive thru and try to order macaroni and cheese. I politely informed her that we didn’t have that. She insisted we did. I told her we definitely did not. She got angry and yelled that yes, we did. I said to her, "Ma'am, I have been working here for three years. We have never had macaroni and cheese. It’s not something we serve. Would you like to order something else?"
She swore and said, "Yes, you do! I can see it on the menu board! It’s right there right in front of me on the menu!" I told her I wasn’t sure what she was looking at but we definitely didn’t have mac and cheese. I told her that if it really did say mac and cheese on our menu board then that meant someone vandalized it. She disagreed and said that it was definitely part of the menu board, and it’s real and, we did have it, and she wasn’t leaving until she got her mac and cheese. It was almost ten minutes of this back and forth.
All the while, she was holding up the drive-thru line. I finally got the manager to come and deal with it. Even with my manager there, this lady absolutely refused to accept that we did not have mac and cheese. She also refused to order anything else and she wouldn’t move her car until we gave her the mac and cheese that we didn’t have. It was such a mess, but it wasn't over yet. Not by a long shot.
We had a line of cars wrapped around the building now, and everyone was annoyed. It’d been half an hour, and the line had not moved. The manager told her that if she didn’t leave, he'd have to call someone. Then she screamed at him, still going on about how she could clearly see mac and cheese on our menu board right in front of her. I decided enough was enough. I exited the building to go see the board.
I walked along the outside to the drive-thru order screen where this woman's car was. I asked her to please show me on the menu where it said the words "macaroni and cheese" anywhere. She pointed and confidently said, "right there," with all the conviction of someone who’s absolutely sure of themselves and being right. I looked to where she was pointing. I saw it. I sighed heavily as a bit more of me lost some hope for humanity.
I composed myself and told her as politely as possible that, “ma’am, that is a picture of the orange slices that come with the kid’s meal. We do not serve mac and cheese. Please drive away." She was confused. Then she looked at the menu board again. The realization finally dawned on her, and she drove off without another word. I went back inside and screamed in the walk-in freezer for ten minutes.
70. Baby On Ice
I was the messy one, but trust me, you would have been too. One time my family and I went to eat at Steak and Shake. Our waiter was clearly high and he spilled an entire glass of ice water ON MY BABY and then laughed about it. I lost it. I understand that it was an accident but the fact that he laughed while my nine-month-old son cried hysterically made me get up and punch him in the face. I still get mad thinking about it.
71. A Smear Campaign
I ordered a double cheeseburger with no onions. I got onions and returned it but I didn't get any kind of an apology, just a sigh of disgust. Several times in the following weeks I ordered the same thing and kept getting the wrong food. I was now disappointed with the service but I liked the burgers so I kept trying. Finally one day I opened my burger and again there were onions inside, and I took it back and got a snotty response from the girl behind the window.
She then said, “The manager said we aren't gonna serve you anymore because you complain too much.” I said, “If you'd give me what I ordered I wouldn't complain.” So the manager calls from back, “Are there onions on the burger?” She looks at it and, like she couldn't admit the truth, it had a normal serving of onions, she pettily said, “It has ONE onion on it.”
I was pretty steamed by that point and her attitude was the last straw. I said, “How many onions did I order?” Well, she had no response for that. She gives me the new burger and I take it out of the bag, open it up, and smear both buns, meat, mustard, etc all over the windows, and then walk off. Oh, but to be fair, no onions. I don't feel that bad about it.
72. We Don’t Provide That Service
This woman, probably in her 50's, came to the front counter. I said my greeting script of, "Welcome to McDonald's, how can I help you?" She straight-faced stared into my soul asked me a question I wish I could forget. Hand to God, she outright asked if I would sleep with her. I was astounded at the confidence and sheer bluntness about her request as well as at how inappropriate it was.
I stammered out something about me being 16 and that's not allowed. She then got all sad and started on about a divorce, and she was having a rough time with it. I managed to chime in with, "How about a tasty burger for some comfort food?" And then she ordered one. I never saw her again after that incident, thankfully.
73. Going the Extra Mile
A while back, my ex got detained after taking my car without permission. My car was impounded, and it was $250 to get it back. Needless to say, the entire situation made me fairly irritated. I arrived at the place to get my car, and as I walked into the building, my ex's mom called to try and find out more about what was going on and see if I needed help.
I was inside, but I had not addressed any staff whatsoever, and it was obvious that the conversation I was having was with the person on the phone, not anyone in the building. On the phone, I was explaining that I had just gotten there, and I wasn't sure if they had my keys or if I needed to go to the jail and have them released to me.
I'm sure I sounded irritated, because I was. Queue the receptionist jumping all over me, telling me that they know how to do their jobs, and that I'm being rude. I look over at her and explain that I'm sure they do, I'm on the phone, and I'm sorry if she thought I was talking to her. She's having none of it, and gets up and starts screaming in my face.
I tell her she's being inappropriate and absurd, and I want to speak to her supervisor. So she screams for him to "Get out here and handle this stupid girl." He comes out and starts screaming at me to get out if I'm going to treat his staff like this. I tried to explain that I hadn't even addressed her until she started screaming at me.
I also said that I needed to get my car out of their impound lot. He wouldn't listen. Long story short, I was 25 at the time and had to have my mother come help me get my car out of impound because the people who worked there were insane. I'd never experienced anything like that. They did have my keys though...my ex was smart enough to give those up, at least.
74. I Didn’t Order A #2
I worked nights at McDonald's and was at the drive thru. I was taking an order for a bunch of wasted girls when I overheard one of the girls say that she seriously needed to poop. Her friends apparently did not care and told her to go outside. So, she stepped out of the car and knelt down in the bushes next to the car.
The bushes were in plain view of the security camera. Everybody inside the place saw her, and it was a full-blown mess. So, I told her through the service window that everyone could see her. The look of sheer horror the girl made through the security feed made everyone burst in laughter including her friends. We've all had messy nights but that...that was a whole other level.
75. The Last Supper
A few weeks ago my family went to a local burger joint for dinner. We order our food and when it arrives (we all got burger sliders) the waitress drops mine off and there's massive hair sticking out of it. I'm not talking just one long hair, I'm talking hair plural. "Woah!" I tell the waitress. I notice that every other table on this patio is staring at me now. "What's that?" The waitress looks at it confused. "Uhh...I dunno." "Ok, I'm not eating this, please put in another." She takes it back.
The manager comes out and says "I have good news! I looked at your food and it wasn't hair, it was some kind of fuzz ball from clothes or something!" I look at her blankly and start laughing "That's not making me feel better!" She chuckles and asks if there's anything else she can do. "No," I said, "just the replacement sliders I asked the waitress for already." She was trying to avoid comping my meal.
"Uh, well before we put that in you want anything else?" She didn't put the order in! At this point, I've had enough, so I say, “If my replacement isn't back by the time my parents finish eating, take it off the bill and don't bother bringing it at all!" The other tables are staring at us now. My dad notices a giant charred piece of something sticking out of his burger and asks the waitress what it was. Again she didn't know and took that for a replacement too.
The table next to us started laughing at us and commenting we were just trying to get a free meal. I looked over and told them "YOU'RE free to eat the hair and charred food they gave us." They shook their heads and stayed quiet. They comped our meal and we never went back.
76. Hear No Evil
I worked at Burger King when I was a teenager. We’re short staffed one day, and the girl on the drive thru was on break, so our manager stepped in to cover her. He was pretty old and didn't have the best hearing, so most customers were pulling around to the window to talk to him as he was struggling to hear the orders.
One guy got to the window and yelled, "I want a large Big Mac meal with a coke please! Is that so hard?!" My manager very calmly said, "My apologies, sir, that won't be difficult." He leaned out the window and then proceeded to give this jerk a taste of his own medicine. He pointed down the road, "There's a McDonald's about three miles in that direction. They'll be able to help you.” He finished with, “Have a nice day, sir." Then he just closed the window and walked around the corner out of sight. I laughed so hard!
77. Toe Be, or Not Toe Be
I work at a small bakery in my town, and I was there when this all went down. It was around two in the afternoon. The day had been normal so far, but then suddenly I saw the retail staff gathered in a huddle by the door. As soon as I had an opportunity, I went to go see what was happening....it did not disappoint.
Apparently, a couple had come in on this summer day, ordered two bowls of soup, and sat down. The waitress took their order, went to the back, and started to prepare their soup for them. She then brought the food back out to them—only to discover that, in the time it took for her to get the soup, the woman had taken off her shoes and placed her leg on the table. Oh, but that wasn't the worst part.
The guy was now sucking on this lady's toes in the middle of the restaurant! The waitress didn't notice until she went to place the soup on the table. She stood there in shock, and the couple was oblivious to her presence. This guy was really going to town, and the lady was starting to moan by the time they realized that their soup was ready. That couple is no longer allowed in.
78. A Happy Ending
A guy once reserved a private room in the very fine dining establishment that I work in. The plan was dinner for two, champagne, and a proposal. He gave us instructions to bring the champagne out when she said "yes." By mistake, I poked my head into the room a little bit early, just to make sure I hadn't missed the big moment.
The guy spotted me holding the champagne bottle in the corner, thought that I had ruined his plans, and had a full-on panic fit. Within a few seconds, he threw up all over the table. Naturally, his girlfriend was very concerned and rushed to his side to see if he was okay. He immediately jumped up and shouted, “Screw it!”
He pulled out the ring, dropped down on one knee, and proposed right then and there, with his fresh vomit still covering his clothes and the table. She burst out laughing, said yes, and kissed him on the head. I got them a new table in a different room and served champagne. Honestly, it was great. I hope I find love like that one day!
79. Drive-thru Meltdown
I went to the drive-thru at McDonald’s and ordered a Happy Meal for my 3-year-old, a large drink, and a soft serve for me. I got to the window and paid and got put in the waiting bay. 20 minutes went by with still no food. I stayed calm and after 30 minutes I went in. I waited patiently for someone to help me. A young girl came and asked if I wanted something.
I told her nicely what was happening she said "Oh, I don't do drive-thru," and walked away. Five minutes went by and no one would help me and I was seeing red. I got started screaming at all the workers telling them how pathetic it is that I have been waiting for 30 minutes. None of them cared, which only made me get even angrier.
After around five minutes of me going crazy they gave me my order but I was too angry and I just launched the soft serve and drink at the window. When I got back in the car and told my husband what had happened I felt like such a jerk and I thank god it wasn’t my local McDonald’s.
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80. Everybody’s Got a Story
Once I went to a place known for its Cuban sandwiches with my family. We were all really excited, because we like food in my family. So we get our drinks and everything seems fine. We were seated immediately and everyone was really nice. Our waitress brings us our drinks and says she'll be back in a bit to take our food orders.
We're conversing and such, so we don't notice immediately how long it’s taking for our waitress to come back. We wait another 20 minutes just in case. The place is pretty empty, so eventually we ask another server if they know what happened to our server. He says he'll go check, but that he'll take our food orders if we're ready to speed up the process.
About 45 minutes later, my dad is about to explode. It doesn't take that long to make four sandwiches. He's about to go complain when, as if on cue, our waitress comes running and screaming out of the kitchen and goes right on out the front door. Everyone goes completely silent and just watches the door for a couple seconds. Then we found out the dark truth.
It turns out she had a nervous breakdown right about when we ordered our food. She had been just pacing around in the kitchen, slowly becoming unhinged. The manager apologized and we got free sandwiches. The moral of the story, though, is that you never know what is going on with your server. Maybe they're doing a bad job, but they might be on the edge of snapping entirely.
81. Not Part of the Plan
I once watched a proposal in the dining room of the hotel where I used to work as a waiter. Everyone was eagerly awaiting the dessert and ring box to be brought out. She saw the box and immediately started shouting “No, no, no, no, no!” before the guy even had a chance to pop the question. She then told her crushed would-be groom that they needed to talk.
People who had initially been clapping just slowed to a silence. She ended up going back to the room, collecting her things, and leaving, while he cried at the table for a few minutes. It was a super depressing scene for all of the staff, guests, and that poor guy. I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone.
82. Be Careful What You Whine for
One day at my call center, this lady lays into me for the amount of her bill, calling me every bad word in the English language. She claims we over-billed her by about $20, and she is demanding that I go through her home entertainment system order point by point. Come to find out we under-billed her by a $1,000 dollars due to a misplaced zero. The silence on the other end of the line was so beautiful.
83. A Horrifying Experience
I used to be a waiter at Olive Garden so you know we had some messy nights. But this one takes the cake. One time, a couple was there on a blind date. At one point, the dude went to the bathroom and didn’t come out. Thirty minutes later, an ambulance shows up. He had apparently taken something in the bathroom, overdosed, and passed. The girl was traumatized. Yeah, we all went home early that day.
84. Plot Twister
It wasn't the customer who was a mess, it was the manager. She was AWFUL. She was rude, intentionally picked out favorites and gave them presents in front of everyone, messed up schedules on purpose for people she didn't like, etc. Worst manager ever. So one day there was a huge storm coming in, and people were really worried about it.
Like, the news was telling people to stay home, other businesses were closing, all that. So it was up to her to either keep our store open or close it. Of course, she kept it open. Because schools closed, only half our scheduled employees showed up, the rest called in—and she called her favorites and told them they didn't have to come in.
Well, as the like 5 of us who showed up were standing there, watching out the front windows, she starts yelling at us, threatening to write us all up, and we are like—no one is here, all the work is done, we are watching the wind BEND TREES OVER and worried about if we are safe or will even be able to get home.
Right about this time, we hear a SUPER LOUD crashing noise. CAHCHUNK - CAHCHUNK - CAHCHUNK - CAHCHUNK - WHAM! As the industrial air conditioner on top of the building got BLOWN OFF. Like it rolled along the roof, then went flying into the parking lot....Right onto her car. It was so perfect it was surreal.
Right in the center, smashed her car flat. Like if she had been in it, she would have been a goner. And it only happened because she parked right up by the building, where we had SPECIFICALLY been told not to park for the storm. All our cars were out in the farthest corner of the lot. We later found out her insurance didn't cover the damage because it was an "act of god."
85. Down by the Riverside
This was probably about four years ago, in a joint called the Esquire Tavern on the Riverwalk. We had a street entrance as well as a river entrance, but from the river you had to walk up a really narrow metal staircase to our balcony. It barely had enough room for five small tables, including one that was tucked away in a corner that made it hard to see from below.
Anyways, it was a slow summer lunch hour, so I was doubling as a hostess. This guy comes up from the river entrance and asks for a spot on the patio, specifically the hidden cramped one. “No problem sir,” I say, and I go get him set up. We chat for a bit. I take his order, bring it out, and go about my business, which was to passively watch him through the window because he was my only table and I wanted to keep an eye on him.
I started to notice him suddenly ducking his head, as if he was trying not to be seen from the river level by someone. I remember pointing it out to another co-worker, who was just as curious as I was. Then, we suddenly heard a woman scream, “There you are, Marco! You piece of trash!” I could hear the staircase shuddering as someone was clearly stomping their way up it.
My coworker astutely dipped out to find the manager. Meanwhile, the lady started laying into this dude, and all I could make out was something about him ditching her. All the while, he was just ignoring her and calmly eating his buffalo burger, which only made her snap completely. She slapped the heck out of this dude, telling him to "acknowledge me right away!"
He then simply got up, walked around her, and came inside to sit at the bar. She then sat down and started eating this man's meal like nothing was wrong. By this point, the manager had arrived. He went outside and started trying to kick this woman off the premises for the disturbance. Meanwhile, I went to go talk to Marco and take his dessert order. Who knows what that was all about...
86. Doing The Right Thing
As a teenager, I went into the local bank branch to cash my paycheck. After receiving the money I moved out of the next customer’s way and stopped at the little table where they have to fill out paperwork to count it. Found that I had an extra $100 bill. Went back to the teller, and waited until she finished with her current customer.
When she was done I very sweetly said: "Excuse me but I think there was a mistake with my money." She looked at me very haughtily and said "I'm sorry?" I repeat that I thought there was a mistake with the money given to me. She looked at me and in the snarkiest tone I have heard to date, told me "I don't make mistakes."
I looked at her for a couple of seconds before saying, "Alrighty then, have a great day!" and turned around and left.
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87. Undercover Boss
I started out in the real estate industry, doing deals here and there until I had enough savings to buy my first restaurant. The restaurant was well-established in the Seattle area and I do still own it along with a couple others now. I try to treat my employees with as much respect as I can and I do try to keep the pay high enough so that employees can actually afford to eat in my restaurants, as they are somewhat expensive and higher-end.
Now, keep in mind that I am a relatively absentee owner now because the restaurants are owned by a corporation that I head, so I have no idea who a lot of the employees are. I know most of the managers, but the turnover rate for the servers is relatively high as most are college students. Needless to say, I don't get to know them very well.
One day, I decided to do some undercover management where I go through and judge the service and the quality of how the servers help the customers and the clientele. I took my wife in to one of the restaurants so we could grab some dinner and observe the employees and management. Well, the service was awful and I was sorely disappointed.
Toward the end of the dinner, I got the bill and paid it, but didn't tip very much, thinking that would get the message across. Instead of the server getting the message, he officially crossed the line. He followed me out to the parking lot. He confronted me, telling me I was a jerk, calling me other names, and saying that the awful owner of the restaurant doesn't pay him much.
Laughing internally, I apologized and asked "How much does he pay you? It must be pretty bad." Wages for a server at this restaurant are roughly 15 dollars an hour plus tips. Again, I try to pay enough so that the servers can actually afford to eat in my restaurants. He told me he was only getting paid minimum wage. His entire story was untrue but I entertained it.
The next day, I called the manager to set up a meeting with the server in question. The manager knew who I was, but wasn't working the night prior when I had dinner there. I showed up to the meeting and walked into the room where he and the manager were assembled. Keep in mind, I told the manager to not tell the server who I was.
I walked into the room and saw the server’s face fill with contempt and anger. The server immediately said, "This guy again?" Then he looked at me and said, "What do you want, to rip me off again? I already know you can't tip." I laughed, and the manager asked the server if he knew who I was. The server said, "Yeah, one of my customers from last night who treated me badly.”
Now, I was a little hard on him the night prior because I wanted to see how he would handle different situations. I laughed at his last response and told him he was fired. He asked me, "Who the heck do you think you are, you can't fire me." I calmly explained that I was actually the owner and what he did was in terrible form and he is not fit to be a server in the restaurant.
I saw the blood drain out of his face after it sank in that I was the owner, and he started tearing up and apologizing, explaining that he was under a lot of stress with his wife and daughter and he was suffering from PTSD from his time in Iraq. Come to find out, these were all total lies too. This jerk didn't even have a daughter.
88. We’ve Got Beef
I had a weird one a few years ago. Me, my wife, and a couple of her brothers went out for coffee one evening. I had just gotten off work and hadn't eaten, so I took a look at the menu and ordered beef frajolaki while my wife ordered a turtle cheesecake with her coffee. About 5-10 minutes after the waitress had taken our orders, another group of people sat down in the booth behind us.
The same waitress came up, chatted with them and grabbed their orders. After about 20 minutes, out comes the cheesecake that my wife ordered. No, wait, it's a cappuccino cheesecake. My wife called the waitress back and told her about it, and the waitress apologized and offered to bring her the proper one out, but my wife liked it well enough. If only there weren't more.
Another 15-20 minutes go by, and I'm still waiting for my meal, getting a little cheesed off by this point, when I spot the waitress coming our way, plates in hand. Wait, plates? I was the only one who ordered! She walks by us and to the booth behind us and distributes the food. Now I'm getting really ticked.
I hear the table behind me discussing their meals, and one of them asks another what he's eating, to which he replies, "I don't know, but it's really good!" Well, I thought, how the heck do you not know what you ordered? Another 10 minutes go by, and I'm about ready to leave, when out comes the waitress, plate in hand.
She sets it in front of me and asks if there's anything else I need. I look at the plate and back to her and say, "Uh, this isn't what I ordered. I ordered a beef frajolaki. This is a beef dip." She looks at the plate, then quickly looks at the booth behind us. Yup, mystery guy who couldn't remember what he ordered? He was chowing down on my food. But that wasn’t even the end of the story.
Mistakes happen, and I'm pretty mellow, but then she said, "Well, can't you just eat this instead?” super indignantly. At that point, I asked for the check and got up and went outside to wait for my wife before I totally lost it. To top it off, she even tried to charge me for the beef dip. Can’t say I ever went back there again.
89. Adults Do the Darndest Things
Couples fight in restaurants a lot. Either that, or maybe they just argue everywhere. I couldn’t say. I worked as a waiter for years and I could not even begin to count the number of wild arguments I saw between couples. But one guy comes to mind above all of them. I still can’t believe I actually witnessed this.
This guy must have been about 50 or 60 years old, and he got angry with his lady during dinner. He actually threw a full-on child-like temper tantrum in the middle of the restaurant. He stomped off away from his table and began wandering around the room, looking back at her and scowling. Even most children aren’t usually this dramatic! It was nauseating to watch.
90. Acting Their Age?
I worked in a fancy hotel that is almost on the beach in SoCal. This area is also somewhat of a “party town,” but still an incredibly rich and nice place to live. That day, I was the hostess for the outside restaurant and had just seated three older guests, one man and two women. They were all in their 70s. The guy had a huge mustache and was wearing bright colors.
He was very obviously trying to show off his gold jewelry. One woman was wearing orange lipstick and a short white skirt. The other was wearing a dress with a huge hat. They were the only table there. It was super slow and I was there almost alone. For the first twenty minutes they were there, everything was pretty normal.
Then, one of the women stood up and asked me where the bathroom was. I told her where to go, then went back to my crossword puzzle. The hostess stand was super close to their table, and I kept hearing quiet giggling behind me. I turn around and see that the guy has half his hand up the other woman's dress and that they’re intensely flirting a few inches away from each other's faces.
I immediately turn around and, soon after, the first woman comes back from the bathroom. After a few minutes, the other woman gets up and goes to use the bathroom. And, again, I start to hear quiet giggling behind me. I turn around and he now has his hand up her skirt and starts flirting super intensely. This freaking old man player!
The other woman comes back and I try to mind my own business. They kept drinking more and more and getting louder and louder. This went on for another five minutes, when they all suddenly became super quiet out of nowhere. I turn around and am met with the skirt lady’s orange lips barreling in toward my face with her arms outstretched toward my head.
I had no time to react. I tried to turn my head as fast as I could, but her orangey kiss landed on the corner of my lips and face, leaving her mark. Seeing my stunned face, she recoiled quickly and said, “Don’t worry, it’s ok! It was just a dare! You have soft skin though!” I was silent. Then, she runs back to her table and her friends start laughing hysterically.
91. Throwing Down
I'm not proud of this one but I was on nine days of going in at 7 AM to work and stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and a bagel since that would be my food intake till like 1. So I go in, order, and wait. Get coffee. Wait. Wait some more. Gonna be late if I keep waiting. So I mentioned it to the person I made the order with and they got snotty with me saying I didn't order a bagel.
I showed her the receipt she gave me and she just made a harrumph sound and started making it. Three more people got their orders before I got my bagel. I mention it again and the lady practically throws it at me. I've never been so furious in my life, so as I turn to leave, I said, "Oh and by the way, someone spilled something!" and toss my venti cold press on the ground. The whole place goes silent and the lady, who was the manager, just looks at me with pure hate in her eyes. I didn’t break my stride leaving.
92. Name Game
I got mad at a fast food place because they called me a rather lewd name over the PA to pick up my order. One minute later, right after I told off the girl for using the name, I realized what was happening...and I was mortified. The reason they used that name is because I had signed up for an account under a rather lewd name from a Simpsons episode, and they automatically read my loyalty card name, not the name I gave them. I had no idea this would happen. That was the day Busty St. Claire blushed hard and tipped well.
93. Looking For Pleasure
I worked in this small-town grocery store. One day, when I was first starting at the store, a stereotypical neck beard walked in the store and asked if we sold toys for adults. I told him that we were a family friendly grocery store and didn't have those items. All he ended up buying was hot pockets and ice cream. Never saw him again.
94. Taxation Without Representation
I used to work at the front desk of a hotel. I once had a woman throw a complete temper tantrum because the state that we were in charged a six percent room tax. She absolutely DEMANDED that I remove the tax from her bill. I told her that we had no control whatsoever over taxes. She still wouldn't accept the reality of taxes, so I printed off the contact information for her state representative and told her to direct her complaints to them.
She did not like that at all. She started screaming at me, so I got my manager. My manager basically repeated what I had already said. The woman grabbed the bowl of mints on our counter, threw it at my head, and stormed out. Oh, but don't worry. We got our revenge. We had her credit card on file and charged her for her full bill, plus the bowl of mints.
95. She's Got it in the Bag
While working in retail, a woman came in demanding to speak to a manager. She was furious that we had not bagged one of the items she had paid for the day before. She claimed to have paid for four sets of boxers, but only found 3 in the bag. We looked up her receipt on our register and saw that we had only charged her for three. We even looked back at the security tape to see that she had only brought three to the register.
After giving her a call back saying that she had only purchased and paid for three, she blew up. Racial slurs, profanities, and threats were made about how we were all scamming her. 20 minutes later, she showed up at the store with her receipt to prove that she had paid for four. We counted together. One, two, and three.
Instead of accepting the obvious facts, she ripped up the receipt and reiterated that she had paid for four. She started knocking down clothes on our racks and then stormed out. The owner asked her not to come back again.
96. If It Clucks Like a Chicken...
I once brought out an order of chicken parmesan to a lady at the restaurant I work at. The lady took one bite, called me over, and asked if there was really chicken in the chicken parmesan. I was like...?? as I told her that of course there was. She immediately broke down into these heaving sobs because she was a vegetarian. Girl, you ok?
97. Blond Boomerang
I worked for a big chain grocery store as bagger and cart wrangler. There was this one overweight blond woman who would come in all time and cause chaos to no end. One example of her ridiculous and unnecessary nonsense included buying a 15-pound turkey and complaining that it tasted bad and wanting to return it.
She presented a platter with an empty carcass except for one piece of meat on one bone. Another time, she bought a $37 plant, did not water it, showed up a year and a half later with the plant dead as a doornail, and demanded a refund. Then she bought a grill, used 10 gallons of gasoline as fuel, caused an understandable fire/explosion, came back with receipt and charred grill, and demanded a refund. I could go on.
This would be a weekly, if not bi-weekly, happening. It got to the point where many cashiers would see her enter the store, turn off their light, and leave. Now, when I say she made a fuss, I'm not talking about your normal "I want to speak to your manager" type deal. Oh no, she went beyond that and went even further.
She would rant and rave, throw herself on the floor, roll around, throw things, call the police, which I witnessed and kept count at 87 times, and pull out her cell phone filming herself being "victimized" to report us to the media. She was eventually banned from the store after years of this. I heard stories that she began terrorizing our neighbor branch 7 blocks down the road.
98. Give It Your 20%
I'm currently living in Washington, DC. I ate at a fairly nice restaurant and left a 20% tip, as I always do. Suddenly, this server chased me out of the restaurant and asked, "Was there anything wrong with the service tonight?" I told him there wasn't, and that's why I left him 20 dollars on the 100 dollar bill. His response shocked me.
He said that most of the people who eat there are Senators, and it's customary to tip 30% at that particular restaurant. I asked him if he'd rather give me back my 20 and he left in a huff, calling me a cheapskate. Screw that guy.
99. In the Garden of Pettiness
I grew up in a smaller town right on the cusp of its big growth boom. We knew our town had finally made it when we got an Olive Garden. We used to eat there 2-3 times a month. My mom and I would always split an entree, and my dad would get his own. We knew the rule: if you’re splitting an entree and you get more than one of the family-style bowls of salad, you’ll get charged an extra $4 for the extra person.
Welllll one day, my dad decides he wanted more salad. Only he wants the additional salad, but the waitress said if she refills the bowl, we'll be charged the extra $4. Lo and behold, my parents' threw the biggest tantrum because only HE wanted the additional salad. They demanded to speak to a manager, and the manager explained the rule (which we knew), but offered to comp the extra salad just to get my parents to stop yelling...and they did.
When our bill came, the manager comped my dad’s entree and the additional salad fee. Well, my mom got up. Interrupted the manager while he was talking to other guests, threw the check in his face, and asked, “What’s this?!?!” She was furious that he comped my dad’s meal. He ate the meal, therefore we would like to pay for it.
She wouldn’t stop raising her voice until she was allowed to pay for the meal (but not the salad). The manager was confused but obliged...when they brought the change, the manager slipped a few free appetizer coupons. My mom ripped them up and threw them on the ground as she left. Safe to say, I didn’t eat out with them for at least a month and I still refuse to go to Olive Garden with them.
100. Sir, I’m Afraid You Are Mistaken!
At our local Red Lobster, someone once grabbed the "manager" to tell him that his shrimp was cold and that he wanted a free beer as compensation. He even went as far as to exclaim that he could get better fish by fishing. This "manager" was actually just my dad, who was there to pick me up from work, but apparently looked like an authority figure since he had a tie on.
My dad replied, "That's cocktail shrimp, you moron!"
