Serving staff have taken to Reddit to share stories about the most horrendous customers they’ve ever had to deal with.
From the group of people who didn’t know what gratuity was (and made their server cry as a result), to the elderly man who threw his eggs at a waiter because his breakfast didn’t arrive with a tablespoon, here’s what they had to say.
“There was this huge group of about 20 people. At the end of their meal, they received the bill. Everyone put in money for what they ordered. They sat there for a while doing the math and finally figured it out. They called their waitress over and said: ‘We ain’t order no gratuity. Show me gratuity on this table.’
“They continued to try and argue and made the waitress cry. Manager had to be called in to explain what gratuity was.”
“Someone threatened to get me fired and called me an idiot because the sandwich she ordered on a shift I didn’t work had onions on it.”
“Once, when I was working at this insanely popular breakfast joint, my first table of the morning was a seemingly adorable old couple. After going through our specials, at their request, she ordered the duck hash special and he ordered two boring poached eggs on toast. All good. I bring them their food and the guy starts freaking out. You see, I didn’t bring him a tablespoon for his eggs. Granted, he didn’t ask for one, but according to him, everyone knows that poached eggs are supposed to be served with a tablespoon.
“I’ve been a waitress for nearly a decade, and I’ve served a LOT of poached eggs, and I’ve never heard this rule. Nonetheless, I apologise profusely and tell him I’ll go grab him a spoon. ‘No!’ he yells. ‘My breakfast is ruined now!’ and then this grown-ass adult throws his plate of food at me and storms out.”
“Guest was incredibly drunk, couldn’t even sit properly anymore let alone talk - we refused to get him another drink, he threw a glass at my head.”
“Not the most horrible experience, but memorable. There was some sort of convention near my store location. I live in Ottawa, a short hop, skip and a jump from Quebec. The city is pretty bilingual, but not everyone is. Like me.
“Anyway, this woman is trying to order, but is speaking French. I can get the gist of things if I hear certain words, but she was speaking rather fast. After a couple minutes of back and forth, trying to answer her questions, I turn to a co-worker who is bilingual and ask him to help, as her and I seemed to have a language barrier. As I finish my request to said co-worker, she says in totally PERFECT English with probably as much disdain as she could muster.... and I quote: ‘This is Canada. We speak French AND English.’
“My mouth dropped. Not only because of the comment, but because SHE UNDERSTOOD ME THE WHOLE TIME AND DIDN’T TRY TO HELP. I couldn’t wrap my mind around why someone would do that. Come on. Not EVERYONE is taught French in school. All I could do was stare at her for a few seconds and walk away.”
“When I worked at Subway, a customer threatened to come back and ‘take a bat to my head’ because I laughed at what I genuinely thought was a joke.”
“A family of six dined and dashed on Thanksgiving. It was already a rough thing to be working a family holiday, knowing my tribe was at home enjoying themselves - but to have to miss out on what should have been a good tip; it was just salt in the wound. At the end of the night, I just cried. All of the servers rallied around me and tried to offer me a portion of their tips to make up for a loss. I couldn’t accept it, so they got me drunk and drove me home instead. They are awesome people.”
“Had a tray balanced on my shoulder full of food and I was setting down hot plates to the table. Grandma shook her half empty glass of tea in my face and asked why she couldn’t get any service.”
- silindro
“A lady starting smoking crack at the table, and when confronted about it broke the hostess’ nose.”