Ever been out to eat and noticed some people acting a little ridiculous? Restaurant staff see it all the time and they have plenty of stories about people who still believe in the age-old mantra that “the customer is always right.”

This saying often gives rude diners free license to act however they want.

People working in the hospitality industry don’t just take orders and bring you your food.

Dealing with loud customers or people who refuse to wait in line are just the tip of the iceberg… These stories about servers and chefs having to deal with much worse behavior would make any decent person roll their eyes.

We also spoke to some restaurant industry experts to understand why some people act entitled when dining out. Along the way, we also dive into some challenges and realities of working in restaurants today — and why it’s more complicated than you might think.

#1

Not necessarily the worst crime here, but there a was group of little old ladies that would come in every Sunday after church. All four would get the same thing. Every week. Iced tea and a half grilled asian salad with a senior discount. $4.19. Every time they paid with four dollar bills and two dimes. The tip? Four cents. While this sucked enough on its own, the fact that they were always super sweet to everyone made it burn even more. But on top of all that, on Sunday morning/afternoon, a really busy shift, they would sit there for several hours. So on a busy day when you only had three or four tables, having one of those tables taken for hours with a guaranteed four cent tip really sucked for your income for the day.

Also worked at a fast food restaurant in high school. We closed at 9 on Sunday’s. Almost every Sunday, a group from a local church would roll in at about 8:55 and order full meals, full deserts, and then sit in the dining room until 10:30 or 11. We ended up having to make extra strong “Sunday ammonia” cleaner that we would use on the surrounding tables to get them to leave. As a high schooler, it was infuriating.

© Photo: afoz345

#2

Worked in a popular restaurant for awhile. We usually have quite a long wait (30-40min waits) during dinner service and people are told by the hosts about this. There was this lady that got fed up with the wait after 10mins. She stormed into the restaurant, stood next to a table of 4 people and literally asked them “are you guys done? we’ve been waiting for a long time now and would like to have the table if you guys are just chatting…”. Was completely mindblown how people are able pull something like this in public.

© Photo: daofuu

#3

A customer ordered one of our daily specials and didn’t like it, so instead of complaining to me about the food and letting me offer something else, she complained to my manager about ME. This was May of last year. In August of last year, turns out she was one of my college professors for the semester, teaching A MANAGEMENT course. She recognized me the first day but I played it off like I didn’t know her.

Edit: she did not complain about me to my manager in front of me. I left to go work an event in a different building, and she left a sticky note for me after talking to my boss. I don’t know what the sticky note said since I didn’t bother to read it.

© Photo: ArcanumFish

This sort of behavior is what customer entitlement looks like — people expecting the impossible, getting annoyed over tiny hiccups, or thinking it’s okay to yell at or harass the staff.

But where does this come from?

Bored Panda spoke to some experts to answer that question.

“Entitled behavior often shows up as a disregard for others’ time, space, or feelings,” says Tracy Malone, a relationship coach dealing with entitlement. “Like cutting in line, demanding special treatment, or reacting aggressively to boundaries. It’s marked by an inflated sense of importance and a lack of empathy.”

#4

Our bar was having a private party. A drunk dude walks in and orders a drink. I knew he wasnt with the party based on his attire and that he came in every so often. I told him I couldn’t get him a drink. He lost his mind. Told me to get lost and then wanted to fight me. On his way out he yelled that we should put up signs, as he walked by the signs on the door saying we were closed for a private event.

He came in the next day sober and apologized.

© Photo: Rads324

#5

After a wedding reception ended at our facility we were cleaning and I began the cleaning process on our espresso machine. The party was over almost a half hour already. The process takes 12 minutes. People were still there as the party slowly let out and the father of the bride asks me for an espresso . I told him I could get it to him (as we have a strict policy of always trying to satisfy a guests needs) but the machine was cleaning and it would be done in about 10 minutes. He begins ranting about how much he paid for the wedding and stormed to our banquets manager and told them I refused to make it for him. Manager is a dbag and starts ripping me in front of the guy. I show both of them that the machine is just finishing the cleaning process and it was impossible to make it beforehand. I got suspended for 2 weeks.

© Photo: whomper13

#6

Work in a place that is frequented by local families and youth sports teams. On sundays this one large group of people always come in and they are the worst. The parents drink and ignore their preteens who run around playing games in the entire restaurant, disrupting everyone else. They have tried to walk in a party of 45 during end of year sports party season when we are booked solid, and get mad that there isnt enough space for them. And they modify everything like crazy and leave 0 in a tip. It’s at least once a month the entire group comes in. And weekly for some of the individual families.

Edit: I am not a server . I am a cook who happens to take orders, pour beer, run food, clear tables, and do dishes. But primarily I cook.

© Photo: fore_tea_too

A lot of this entitled behavior comes from the feeling that if you can afford it, you can do whatever you want.

Some cultures also put the individual first, where people get used to hearing that they deserve the best and that their needs come first — especially if they’ve got the money.

That’s why when a meal takes a little longer than expected, or a menu item isn’t exactly what they wanted, some diners act out like it’s the end of the world.

“Over the past few years, we undeniably have seen a general shift in normalised public behaviour, with social life becoming pervaded by a kind of Main Character Energy — which is where we’re increasingly incentivised to think about what’s best for us as individuals rather than about what’s good for us as a community,” Kirsty Sedgman, an award-winning cultural studies scholar and professor at University of Bristol, says.

#7

This one guy who basically hated his order so much that he waved me over and told me to put my hand out and proceeded to spit out entirely what was in his mouth into my hand, then tell me to refund him and then make him something else.

Edit: I’d like to point out that I was too shocked to really retaliate to what he did at that moment. I don’t like confrontation so I walked away to the bathroom and cleaned my hands for what felt like hours. My co-worker saw what happened and told my boss who kicked him out and he was no loner allowed back.

© Photo: Loves_me_tacos125

#8

I waited tables for a few years in college and the worst table that I ever had was a Catholic priest and some guy he was trying to hit up for donations. The whole meal he was very condescending and demanding. After everything was done, I left the check at the table. He ended up walking out stiffing me not just on the tip but on the entire check. He even stole the leather check holder thing. I reported this to my manager. A couple weeks later, this same guy comes in with about 20 members of his congregation. My manager told him he wasn’t welcome in our restaurant after walking out on his previous tab in front of his whole party. They all ended up leaving to go elsewhere. Best manager I’ve ever had.

© Photo: penguin7117

#9

This old guy who ask if I was included in the order, I’m 17.

© Photo: Raccoon_17

Restaurants sometimes try to please tantrum-throwing customers with freebies, upgrades, or extra attention — but that can backfire.

Over time, some customers learn that throwing a fit or asking for special treatment gets results.

Even in the middle of a hectic lunch rush, inside a sweltering kitchen and 20 orders piling up, the customer still gets what they want.

For employees, it’s a constant balancing act: trying to keep the customer happy while managing chaos behind the scenes and maintaining their own sanity.

#10

I had a guy that was a germaphobe and had really bad OCD. He came through before and my coworker didnt want to deal with him. So I went to the drive thru window after washing my hands. I cashed out the order that was on screen and he reluctantly handed over his card. I gave him the coffee that I cashed him out for. He started yelling at me saying that it was wrong. Apparently the person that took the order forgot to type it in, unfortunate but it happens. He started yelling at the coworker that didnt want to take his order at the window. So instead of just saying that it was the wrong order, getting refunded and being on his way, he stayed in the driveway for 20 minutes telling my coworker that she was stupid and unprofessional and was unfit to be a supervisor. He kept demanding that we get the phone number of our franchise owner, but apparently the number was wrong and he kept yelling at us. But when we came back to the window after 20 minutes of this, he left. My supervisor went into the back to cry, I felt so bad for her, she’s the sweet person.

Fast forward less than month later, he called the store to apologize and the manager made sure that my coworker never dealt with him again but he could come in as long as he didnt make a scene. He told the manager that his therapist told him he should apologize. He spent a combined total of 3 hours on the phone with the manager, where he apologized and also blamed us for making him late to his appointment that day. And at the end of the phone call, he asked if we were hiring.

© Photo: Autatro

#11

Used to be a bartender at this hybrid restaurant/bar/movie theater. On big movie releases, the bar would get absolutely slammed and on this particular night we had run out of glassware completely (people were allowed to take their drinks into the theater with them). The only glassware I had at the time were regular pint glasses that you would normally serve water in (we only served beer in them in a pinch). This guy and his wife/gf got lucky and caught a seat at the bar and he ordered a Jack Daniels neat. Having no other glassware, I put it in a pint glass and explained that we were running low on rocks glasses, assuming he would understand since it was absolute chaos everywhere you looked. He took it and said “I’m not very happy” in a smarmy way and gave this little grin. I apologized again and said “unfortunately we’re not making any more glasses back here” and him and his wife acted like I reached across the bar and slapped him. I just got my manager and told him to deal with them- he told them the same thing I had told them regarding the lack of glassware and gave them a free drink which they seemed happy with. I would’ve felt bad if there was something else I could have done for them, but there wasn’t.

© Photo: rez_at_dorsia

#12

Had a man and his wife come in during a really busy lunch rush. He was rude off the bat, interrupting me, not wanting to listen to me speak, whatever, it happens all the time. He was very adamant that he wanted both chips and salsa and a plate of roasted wings as appetizers. He kept emphasizing that he wanted them together before they ordered their lunch. Even though chips and salsa only take a minute and wings take about 12, I rang them in together because of how he ordered them. (In hindsight, I should have made completely sure, but.) Not THREE minutes later, the man is waving at my coworker across the restaurant, yelling at her about how they’ve been there for thirty minutes and his appetizer is taking too long and he wants it before his wings. I was at a party table so she ran back and grabbed the chips and the wings which were somehow up as well and brought them out. He took one bite of a wing and tossed the plate like a frisbee across the table towards her and started complaining about them being cold. I rush over to see what’s going on and he starts yelling at me, saying his food is awful and this is the worst service he’s ever gotten in his life. I don’t do well with grown men yelling at me so I went to the kitchen and my manager went out and thankfully had my back as much as he could, and made the guy pay for the wings and the chips and then leave. After he left, I started to clean the table where I found the single penny he tipped me with – that my coworker promptly threw in the trash – and got a call from my general manager asking why a man had called me “professionally challenged” on Yelp.

© Photo: nanapeaches

A 2024 survey in the UK found that 76% of hospitality workers reported experiencing mental health challenges at some point in their careers — up from 56% in 2018.

Several studies show that roles like serving, cooking, bartending or front desk are linked with high levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout.

The reasons vary from customer demands, long hours, and emotional labor — basically the effort of maintaining positive service in stressful situations.

#13

I will never forget the time when our customers riot cause we ran out of ketchup. I was there thinking, “is this the peak of my US experience?”.

© Photo: anon

#14

I worked at a Vietnamese restaurant back in high school and I had a Viet family come in to eat. They gave me snobby vibe the entire time especially after I told them I couldn’t speak Vietnamese. They ordered regular pho but asked for no cilantro, so I rang the order in with “no cilantro”. It came out with cilantro in it and I told the kitchen what the family asked. The kitchen told me they couldn’t do anything about it, so I told my manager and they told me to ask the family if they still wanted it. Family said yes so I brought it out and they took out the cilantro and ate the entire thing. At the end of the meal they spoke to the owner and complained how I got their order completely wrong, got the food for free, and got their bill taken out of my pay. The owner told me I should’ve removed the cilantro myself.

EDIT: I was not angry that the customer ordered no cilantro. I was upset at the fact that they asked not to pay for their food when they clearly ate everything. Also, it’s been a few years haha.

© Photo: trynalovepeoplemore

#15

Not me, but I heard about my dad’s former coworker being an absolute jerk to a waitress. He’d only started working in my dad’s department (IT) a few months earlier, and my dad did not like him from the start. This guy accompanied my dad on a business trip to Australia a couple of years back, and they went to a nice restaurant one evening. This guy proceeded to tell the waitress the food was horrible, then just resorted to personally insulting the waitress, which made her cry, on top of refusing to tip her. My dad immediately thought “This guy is a complete jerk.”

That same guy a few weeks later also tried to get my dad fired, so he could get my dad’s position as head of IT. My dad confessed to me that he was thinking of leaving that company anyway, but that guy made him GTFO. Thankfully he’s well known in his industry, he’s the type of guy that could resign a job on Friday afternoon, and start a new one on Monday morning so to speak. So my dad submitted his resignation and immediately got a job elsewhere.

Unfortunately the guy did get my dad’s job, but lots of people in the IT department jumped ship to the company my dad was working at. As a result, the jerk who had taken my dad’s job ironically got fired a year later because nobody wanted to work for him.

EDIT: OK I’m getting a lot of responses about tipping in Australia. My dad was not aware you guys don’t tip. He always tips everywhere he goes. Hope that clears it up!

© Photo: thunderfart_99

“For decades, a customer could be uncivil, angry, yelling or just plain wrong, and employees were expected to deal with it because it was just part of the business,” says Melissa Baker, associate professor and chair of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

But things are getting slightly better now, she notes.

Some companies are changing how things work, making it okay to talk about mental health, and really supporting their staff.

“We want to take care of the customer — that’s super important, but if a customer is being uncivil, rude and aggressive, you also really need to make sure that you have the employee’s back,” Baker adds.

#16

I worked at a bakery for 2 years, and I had to deal with honestly the most HEINOUS and rude customers ever. I’ve worked in the food service industry my whole life, AND lived in Toronto up until 3 years ago, and I have never dealt with such entitlement. Anyways, one day one of our staff members quit by text message 5 minutes before her shift, and 30 minutes before we were set to open at 8am on a Saturday. We were hard pressed finding someone to cover, so I was alone until a front of house person was able to come in, about an hour later. I had one of the kitchen staff helping me, and all they could do was grab things and bag them as they weren’t trained on cash or coffee. So here I am running around trying to help customers, make coffees, ring people through, and clearly stressed. This man was clearly annoyed that he had to wait, huffing and puffing, and eventually loudly exclaimed ‘I’m not waiting for this stuff’ and proceeded to throw his bagged muffin at my head and storm out. I legit almost chased him down, I was livid.

© Photo: LilRed2112

#17

Oh where to start. I worked in a cafe for a few years and while there were some bad one-offs, the WORST people were difficult regulars.

There was one who would order the most popular thing on the menu but with a list of modifications a mile long, right down to what fruit to include with the side of fruit and how many inches tall to pile the turkey on the sandwich. She would always get it to go and then would about 50% of the time, call the restaurant from home saying that the order wasn’t correct and that she wanted a refund.

However my least favorite was this woman who would come in about an hour before closing and then stay until past closing – bugging you for little things piecemeal all the while. I get that at sit down restaurants, customers can generally come in whenever they want as long as the doors aren’t locked yet, and then stay as long as they want. However, we were a small cafe, and I would kick everyone out when I locked the doors. She just wouldn’t leave. Once she was on the phone when it was time for her to leave lol. I ended up just shouting at her, loud enough for whoever was on the other line to hear, “IT IS TIME TO LEAVE THE CAFE NOW.”

People not wanting to leave was relatively common (although most people would leave right away when you asked). Once a woman just wanted to “finish up one more thing” on her computer. One more thing turned into one more thing, which turned into one more thing. She was sitting by the open window, and there was no air conditioning in the cafe. So, finally I just went and closed the window. She gave me the dirtiest look, but she got out lol.

The first customer I described was my coworker’s worst nightmare and he always made me deal with her since, while she was super annoying, I didn’t mind as much. The people who wouldn’t leave at the end of the day pissed me off so badly though.

© Photo: anon

#18

Worked fast food in high school. I’ve got a few:

1. Man orders double cheeseburger with extra cheese and receives one with 4 slices instead of the usual 2. Two minutes later, he is absolutely red in the face and screaming at the poor cashier. He’s demanding to talk to who made his sandwich and asking if we think this is some kind of joke. Apparently, when he ordered extra cheese he wanted one extra slice, not two.

2. Some guy comes to the drive thru and orders 4 fish sandwiches. We only had 2 pieces of fish cooked and they were really close to their hold expiration time. Since we had to cook more anyway, my manager said to waste those 2 since they were old and make all fresh ones for the customer. Guy comes up to the window and they ask him to pull forward because it’ll be a couple minutes. Meanwhile, we keep serving other cars. After a couple orders go out, this dude is in the lobby and asking for a manager. He is irate that we made him wait on his food while serving other people. The manager apologizes and explains the situation. Most people would be thrilled we didn’t serve them old food, but for some reason that just made this guy angrier. He starts yelling louder, and then threatens my manager with physical violence over it. She asks him to leave and threatens to call the police. Dude storms out, slamming the door so hard he broke the latch, and squeals his tires as he leaves the parking lot…without his order. Never came back for it, either.

3. We had this regular who came in every Sunday morning and ordered the same thing: a side salad, super size fries, and a happy meal for her grandkid. One day, the person who bagged her order put the salad and the fries in the same bag as we were trained to do. If you’ve never seen a super size fry container, they’re tall…and the side salad is in one of those little rectangular plastic things, so as you can imagine the fries fell over. For a normal person this is no big deal…but not for this lady. She needed new fries and a new salad, in separate bags this time. Of course the fries we had already made that came up 1 minute ago were not good enough, and she refused to leave or accept the new ones until we made a fresh basket.

© Photo: Davran

When restaurants set clear rules and actually back up their staff, it makes a huge difference in helping those who struggle with stress or mental health problems.

Experts say if a customer starts being rude or asking for too much, it’s okay to set boundaries — just explain politely what you can and can’t do.

“Stay calm and don’t engage emotionally. Set clear boundaries or disengage entirely if it feels unsafe. Entitled people often seek a reaction, your power lies in not giving it to them,” says Tracy Malone.

Restaurant staff and owners can also keep a detailed record of the rude interactions — such as video recordings from the CCTV cameras — to see which customers cause the most issues and use that information to improve training and rules.

#19

Used to wait tables a while back, breakfast place. Mother’s Day was always the WORST to work in restaurants as I’m sure anyone else can agree with.

So this Mother’s Day is going particularly well, and then towards the end of the brunch rush I get sat with a party of 8. Everyone’s in a good mood. Mom (it’s her day!!!!) orders our breakfast tacos with no onions- she says no onions like three times. Right, no onions.

Drinks are going fine, everyone is doing well. Food comes out, I ask how everything looks. Mom pushes her plate away and loudly and aggressively says “I said NO ONIONS”. I look down at the tacos to see that there are in fact, no onions.

Me: “Ma’am I put your order in with no onions. There are no onions.”

She gets a and goes “Oh YEAH? Well what are these!!?” and points to the green bell peppers on the tacos.

Me: “umm…those are green bell peppers”

She rolls her eyes and goes “SAME THING!” The table is now silent as no one in her party knows what to do, clearly blinded by her stupidity.

My brain short circuits. I think to myself “No, they AREN’T the same thing, they’re not even the same color, you can read, you’re an adult, just say how you want something and stop making a scene.”

Instead I just put on my best customer service smile and said, “right, sorry about that, we’ll get that fixed.” Took it back to the kitchen and told my chef and he just started laughing about it.

$0 tip. Happy Mother’s Day!

© Photo: masstillo

#20

Back in college I was working my first job as a front of house staff for an on campus locally owned burger place. My main job was to call the order numbers out to customers and pass their food off. Easy enough.

Well one night we get absolutely slammed with to go orders at close. I’m the only person out at the front and there were two cooks behind me working on the food. A man ordered two burgers. Cool! Well, we’re so busy I’m obviously not aware of what number goes with what customer off the top of my head, and I call out a number. A customer takes it and heads out.

Turns out the wrong customer grabbed that man’s order. He proceeded to YELL profanities at me, calling me an idiot, demanding his food be free AND that he gets free fries. All in front of other customers. I started crying. It held up everyone else’s food in the process. The manager has to tell him to get lost and remakes his food.

© Photo: anon

#21

I had a customer order the crab-crusted salmon. After about 30 minutes I brought out the food and the customer then decided to tell me that they couldn’t eat it as they were allergic to crab and that they didn’t read what the meal was. Both my manager and the chef were pretty pissed cause the customer then didn’t want to pay for the meal.

© Photo: koledgeguy

Even though restaurant staff play a huge role in making your dining experience enjoyable, many of them, such as waiters and kitchen helpers, get paid very little.

This holds true especially for the US, where tipping is such a big part of their income.

Tipping is also never guaranteed — it can depend on everything from the quality of service to the diner’s mood, or even just a slow night. One miscommunication or a stingy table can mean the difference between a decent paycheck and barely scraping by.

On top of that, a lot of people still see restaurant jobs as just entry-level work, which overlooks the skills required like multitasking, effective communication, food knowledge, etc. — all the while keeping a smile on their face.

#22

Barista here. Had a guy that regularly came in and ordered a complicated drink. He always finished the order by asking for a “finger swirl” in the drink. If you gave him a confused look he would say “well how else am I gonna taste you?”.
He was the worst.

© Photo: VulnerableKimchi

#23

I used to work in a bar that sold very old booze.

A drunk man tried to impress his friends by chugging from a bottle of amaro from the early 60s.

He had to pay for the whole thing since his lips touched it and it was useless. Cost him around $800.

© Photo: Kaygarthedestroyer

#24

Way back in the 80s I worked in a restaurant that was a favorite of a celebrity chef of those days, Jeff Smith (the Frugal Gourmet). Never seen a bigger jerk than that guy. Literally make our servers cry. Nothing was ever right, he was beyond rude and condescending, yet he kept. coming. back.

He had a reputation of being a jerk off camera. Eventually he was disgraced by being outed as a child predator and was quickly forgotten by all.

Our restaurant was a good place. Another celebrity chef of the time, Graham Kerr (the Galloping Gourmet) was always a pleasure to have visit.

© Photo: TheSquirrelWithin

The next time you eat out, think of yourself as a guest — you wouldn’t throw a temper tantrum if you’re invited to a friend’s house for dinner and have to wait a few extra minutes for your food.

Just because you’re paying for a meal doesn’t give you the right to treat staff poorly.

The employees will do a better job if you acknowledge them, say “please” and “thank you,” and speak to them like human beings instead of robots.

Small gestures go a long way in making someone’s shift feel a lot less stressful.

#25

I worked in Domino’s, I had a guy throw a hand full of pennies at me while laughing, the 30 odd cents was my tip, he was mad when I turned around and walked away without picking any of them up. His exact words were, “Oh, my money not good enough for you? Fine, I’ll never order Domino’s again!”

I’ve never had a customer fire themselves like that before, it was great.

© Photo: sixesand7s

#26

Bartending in a restaurant a few years ago. There was a private party and one of the guests asked me to plug in his iphone to listen to a song. No big deal..I did it and he tipped me $20. He left his phone behind the bar and got wasted. When he was leaving I said, “Sir, don’t forget about your phone!” He threw a beer on me and told me to leave him alone and told me get a real job. Guess who got to keep a nice new iphone?

© Photo: mox44ah

#27

Any table that mentioned the tip at all. “Don’t worry, we tip well” “if you do x, we’ll tip big” “we’ll take care of you”
Holding the tip over my head doesn’t get you better service, you get the same everyone else does. They were always pretentious and rude and never tipped well.

© Photo: anon

#28

Fast food near a high school. The absolute worst were the moms. Had one who came in weekly and screamed about wrong orders or whatever complaint she could dream up so she could get free food for her entire family.

Then you get the loser douches who think harassing employees is funny.

The absolute worst customer was the owner of the franchise. He’d walk in, “test” employees and then fire someone for some issue so minor it was likely just made up.

© Photo: anon

#29

I used to manage a restaurant and hated those couple of times in 5 years of my working there when some entitled customers left without paying because “the waitresses didn’t come to pick up my money” – that’s a nasty move and a poor excuse, when all u need is to grab a waitresses attention by simply talking!

Once it was a family of 4 who left the restaurant during a busy evening and we realized that the bill wasn’t paid after some 10 minutes had passed. I checked the cameras and saw the father taking the bill, putting the money in, sitting there for just 3-4 minutes, looking around and taking the money back and leaving with the whole family! Lucky our owner was a great guy and told me to simply ban him and his family. And to my surprise, he came back with friends on a busy evening in a couple of months! I was very excited watching his face being embarrassed in front of his friends and customers sitting outside when I told him that he is banned and when his wife started to get upset I told them I remembered them and told them the whole story with me checking the cameras and seeing him taking the money back and all!

© Photo: YuriyArlyuss

#30

I worked in a Japanese restaurant and it was a small restsurant, so I was usually working as cashier, waiter, bus boy, and delivery driver. Basically it was me handling everything and the owner would come out from the back and take over if there was a delivery.

Anyway, one day we had a family come in. Mom and dad got sushi rolls for themselves and then got chicken hibachis for the kids. The hibachi came with a side of rice and I watched as these kids started throwing rice at each other. Mom and dad did absolutley nothing to stop them, like not even a, “Cut that out.”

When they left the place all around their table was an absolute mess, and to make things worse the floor was carpeted, so cleaning rice out of it was a huge pain normally, but this was on a whole different level. Didn’t even get a “Sorry about the mess” from them.

© Photo: -eDgAR-

#31

So a few years ago I worked at Pizza Hut. This couple came in and they both looked terrible. They had horrible scars and terrible acne on their faces. They were older so I don’t even know how they had acne but anyway. They came in and I got stuck with them. They stank. Like. They must have not showered in years. I almost gagged every time I had to go near that table. You could literally smell these people two feet from the table it was just horrible. I can’t even describe to you how bad this smell was, and I was forced to act like nothing was wrong. They were both very rude on top of it, always wanting something and just general jerks. They didn’t leave a tip of course and even tried to demand discounts while paying for their food.

#32

Once i had a family of 4 come in. I work at a sushi restaurant, so of course there’s the open sushi set. and logically each person gets charged for it. The dad started joking around, trying so hard to make me charge him with two sets instrad of 4. I apologized and said i cant do anything about it.

he got mad, and said bitterly “some respectful staff this company has. i wamt to speak to the manager.” and. i told him there is no manager at this branch. So he laughed like he didnt believe me then he said “gonna ruin your life for his”

two days later, the hr calls me and tells me that a man came in and said that i yelled at him, and that i was very disrespectful towarxs him and his family, I wasn’t helpful or welcoming and i refused to be nice to him.

I stood up for myself and told him what really happened. the hr proceeded to say “i really dont know who i should believe” and hung up.

Two days later, I’m fired.

#33

It’s a take out pizza place, but this is a fun one.

It’s the day before a huge event in my town. Draws in a lot of visitors from around the world. Obviously a pizza delivery place is going to be busy.

Past 8 pm on said day this guy calls, ordering $160 worth of food for delivery. It’s like ten large pizzas and a bunch of wings. Ok. Normal delivery time for anything is an hour. I knew it was a lot more than we can handle in an hour- I asked an older coworker and he told me it would be an hour and a half because the chicken is going to take so long and we can put max 4 large pizzas on the oven at once, and again, we have a lot of other orders. I tell the guy.

“I need it by nine.”

“Sir, we can’t deliver that much food within an hour, especially not tonight. We’re backed up as it is.”

“Its too long of a wait.”

“Well of you pick it up we might be able to have it ready in 45 minutes, but it’s a stretch even then-“

“Fine. I don’t want it.”

So yeah. Someone cancelled a $160 order because we were too busy to get it delivered in under an hour the day before a huge event in our town… Oh and did I mention this was our fire chief?

#34

I worked in a beach town in NJ for awhile, and NY tourists were the worst. It was the act that they were doing everybody a favor by being there. This was a “rich beach town”, not one that relied on tourism at all. In fact, these arrogant tourists probably brought the average income down, and *definitely* brought the average tips down.

And anybody who snapped their fingers. I preferred “hey, you!” to finger snapping.

#35

One time a guy stared at my chest as I explained the specials, and then asked me about the specials. His girlfriend didn’t speak to me for the rest of their meal. He gave me a 10% tip.

#36

I had a customer randomly ask if we spoke English, as I was talking to them in English.

#37

I used to work in Park City where they have Sundance Film Festival. So you have a bunch of high maintenance persnickity people in the film industry in what is otherwise a pretty chill ski town in Utah. Just the absolute gall people have in customizing their order is enough to drive you crazy. I hope every line cook in every restaurant in Los Angeles makes a million dollars. Here are some of the ones I remember:

A latte, half almond milk half cream (mixed), extra hot with a small spurt of honey on the bottom.

A black bean burger but in a spinach tortilla with the tomatoes chopped not sliced.

A breakfast burrito, but make it vegan. (We had vegan options on the menu. The burrito wasn’t one of them.)

I guess nobody from LA eats gluten so I got a bunch of free croissants so it wasn’t a total loss.

#38

I have two from the same restaurant.
First one goes like this. I worked as a bus boy and it was getting near closing time. At this point it was around 9:30 (we closed at 10) and this table who was probably 20-ish feet away from where I was started trying to say to me “that’s a free meal.” I stopped vacuuming because I just didn’t understand what they were asking me. Supposedly they were under the belief that if someone was vacuuming before close then they got a free meal. So eventually the owner comes up to me and asks me how far away I was vacuuming and I said the same thing. She just told me “yeah they’re idiots” and told me to wait a little bit. They ended up leaving past 10:30 and I don’t think they left a tip. They didn’t get their free meal.
Another shorter story was the time that two giant groups of about 16 people each came in a few weeks later at about 9:45. I think I got home at midnight that night.

#39

I used to work at a candy store in a popular area for tourism in my rich, white home town. lots of dumb people, lots of annoying people, i’d say despite this on of the worst “customers” i worked with wasn’t actually a customer. we hadn’t opened yet, and i was outside washing the windows and tables by myself. i was 17. and older man, probably 50-60, walked up behind me while he was walking down the side walk and said “lookin good.”

other than that i had a customer come in once while we were open and i was working my section of our stores counter. i said “HI!!! Welcome to [store]!!!!!!! would you like to try some free samples today?” in my very over enthusiastic customer service voice. it’s some middle aged bozo again with his wife and he turns to her and says “hey honey, would you like an SAMPLES!!!!” clearly mocking me. his wife looked at me while he laughed and i just stared at him like “are you kidding me dude” until he got the hint.

last story, a pizza place i currently work at. i picked up our phone and a little girl probably like 7 years old was like “hi, i ordered a pizza and i was wondering when it’s gonna be here.” she sounded obviously very nervous to have to call on the phone and talk but i helped her the best i could (i was kinda new) and told her it was gonna be 10-15 as their food was already on the road. less than 5 minutes later i get another call and it’s this woman, and she’s like “hi my daughter called and you guys a while ago she said you guys told her the pizza would be here in a couple minutes and YOU REFUSED TO REFUND THE ORDER WHEN SHE CALLED AND ITS NOT HERE YET YOU LIED TO MY DAUGHTER GIVE US OUR MONEY BACK.” it’s obvious this woman wasn’t expecting the same person who helped her kid to pick up and i was like “ma’am i was on the phone with your daughter five minutes ago. i did not say it was almost there i said it would 15-20 minutes and at no point did your daughter ask for a refund.” shes stops for a sec and she was not expecting me to know she was straight up lying, but the average person who calls on the phone to order pizza (instead of ordering online like a normal person) isn’t very bright to begin with, much less someone who calls on a Saturday night close to christmas and gets angry when the delivery time is over 2-2.5 hours when she wants the pizza in thirty minutes or less (av delivery time for 6 on a saturday obviously isn’t thirty minutes EVER so idk what prescription pills this mom was taking but she had worm brain. anyway.) so she basically spent 10 minutes on the phone screaming at me about how i’m stupid, how my store is gonna be sorry. she’s just insulting me and my place of work and telling me to refund it and trying to get me to give out our drivers PERSONAL cell number. eventually i put her on hold and let one of my poor managers handle it. by the time he got on the phone, her pizza was gonna be there any second and she screamed at my manager and screamed at the driver until they decided to ban her from ordering from the locations in our area.

people are psycho

edit:

to break down the whole thing with phone orders: the way phone orders work at the company i work for is downright dumb. we have an entire store full of things we have to, and usually phone orders are an inconvenience because we either have to listen to the ring while we do something that’s more important or we have to drop what we’re doing so the call can be answered (which isn’t something that can be done most the time) and bc calling on the phone simply isn’t a very efficient way to order food, even if it’s your preferred way to do it. people on the phone tend to be pretty rude too— this is reddit so someone is gonna get mad if i don’t clarify that it’s NoT aLL PhOne oRdERs but yeah. so to clear up what some people are saying in the comments, i wouldn’t literally say it’s “dumb” to order over the phone unless it’s the weekend at dinner time. often times people get on the phone during these rushes, wait for what i assume is at least 10 minutes, and then proceed to get on the phone and yell at us about how the wait on the phone was ridiculous. you don’t have to wait to place an order online, and your order 100% gets put in our system correctly because there’s no communication error that inevitably comes with making another person put in your order. also, i just think it’s weird that someone would rather speak to a stranger than not talk to a stranger, but obv that’s a personality thing lol. final thoughts, just want y’all to IT WAS A JOKE and y’all need to chill.

#40

When I worked at Subway one night we were running out of spinach. A guy dressed like a cowboy came in and ordered a foot long. We get to the spinach and the cowboy says “I want a lot of spinach” (good luck with that) we’re only supposed to put pinches on anyways, but this guy is used to me giving people extra when my manager isnt around because I roll that way, but not today.

“You’re gonna give me more than that” he says in a demanding tone

“We’re running out of spinach today” I say, knowing a boomer tantrum brewing when I see one

“Give me more” I give him pinches, but he wants handfuls. The cowboy demands

“I NEED MORE SPINACH THAN THAT BOY”

“Sir we’re running out of spinach”

“DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I COME HERE AND THEY GIVE ME ALL THE SPINACH I WANT” I only have people extra when they’re nice so get lost dude

“Yeah other customers are gonna want spinach tonight though”

“IVE BEEN COMING HERE FOR YEARS EVEN THOUGH YOUR PROVES KEEP GOING UP”

“Ok”

“WHY DO THE PRICES KEEP GOING UP”

In my head (because this isn’t a restaurant it’s a sandwich factory, and companies in unchecked capitalism are free to maximize profit as opposed to worry about food quality, health, price, or what silly cowboys think)

What I said “I’m a cashier dude, they don’t even let me touch the board”

“YOU JUST TALKED YOURSELF OUT OF A SALE WHATS YOUR MANAGERS NUMBER?”

I give him my number

Cowboy leaves and leaves me a voicemail. I text back one thing

Y E E H A W

Tl;Dr: he asks for too much spinach and yeed his last haw.

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