Random Restaurant Staff Describe the Worst Customer They've Ever Served (18 items)

• (#1) Soulless Diner Expects a Discount

  "I was working as the duty manager in a steakhouse back in around 1995. We had a packed house and were running around like crazy when one of the waitresses called me over to her table.

  "It was a table of four, old mom and dad and their two adult kids. The old guy was having a heart attack. When I got there, I checked his pulse, which was faint and erratic, so I put him flat on the floor. I kept checking for a pulse and felt it fade away, then stop, so I started CPR and heart massage, while telling the waitress to call an ambulance. Obviously, everyone was looking as people do.

  "I continued trying to revive him and was joined by an off duty paramedic and between us, we gave him chest compressions and blew into his mouth to keep oxygen circulating. It took about 20 minutes for the ambulance to arrive and during this time we were unable to get his heart going. I knew he was dead, but could not bring myself to tell his wife and kids, so I just kept going with the CPR.

  "When the ambulance arrived, they took over and decided to get him onboard and take him to the hospital. His wife and kids got in the ambulance. I was totally shaken up after having this guy literally die in my arms.

  "As I walked to the kitchen to take a time out, a fat b*tch from one of the tables nearby stopped me and started complaining that it put her off her meal and ruined her night out. I was seething as she said we should have had some form of portable walls so diners would not have to watch 'that sort of thing.' I could tell she had just thought it would be a good opportunity to get a discount on her bill.

  "I was livid and nearly punched her when my boss pulled me away and made me sit outside. I think my parting words were something along the lines of, 'Your f*cking night was ruined? Think about that poor family who have just lost a father, you f*cking slag.' That was the day that I realized some people are just f*cked in the head and lack any compassion or empathy.

  "A couple of days later, the daughter came in to tell me her father had passed away and to thank me for my efforts. Damn, I felt so bad for her."
• (#2) Crazy Woman Performs a Baptism

  "I waited on this woman who carried a Bible around with her everywhere and was a general psychopath. She would pee in the booths after drinking literally 15 cups of coffee, scream at waitresses, scream at her reflection in the mirror, scream at the plants - you name it. Everyone would fight over who got stuck waiting on her, and one day, I drew the the short straw and waited on her.

  "I took her order and went to put it in the kitchen. I was getting mocking laughs from co-workers. I said something to the effect of, 'Good Lord, tell me about it.' She overheard this and yelled at me saying that the Lord would not save me. Then, she dumped a pitcher of water over my head and told me I was baptized. I go into the bathroom to ring out my hair, and she follows me in, looks me dead in the eyes, and reaches up her dress to get the bloody pad she was wearing, stuck it to the wall and walked out.

  "I've seen a lot of f*cked up sh*t waitressing, but that was the only time I was left speechless."
• (#3) Racist Customer Makes Waitress Cry

  "We had a waitress run into the kitchen bawling her eyes out. It took us a few minutes to find out what had happened from her. Apparently, a customer kept telling his son what he wanted, and the son would tell this waitress. When pressed by the waitress why he would not speak to her directly, he told his son to tell her, 'I don't talk to n******.'

  "We chased the f*cker out of the place. We wanted to roll him, but he was pretty quick."
• (#4) Unsatisfied Customer Lectures Server and Manager

  "Two older couples came in. For the sake of clarity, I will call the two women Nice Wife and B*tch Wife.

  "I knew the table was going to be difficult when B*tch Wife presented me with a handful of coupons. I explained that I could only take one coupon per ticket, as was printed on the coupons themselves. B*tch Wife threw two coupons at me and said, 'Split our checks, then.' She told Nice Wife they could just pay two separate checks. Whatever, people do that all the time.

  "B*tch Wife proceeded to drink Dewars on the rocks until she was extremely intoxicated. When she ordered her steak, she asked me to have it cooked 'blue.' She flipped out when I told her we didn't do blue steaks, so she instead ordered a very rare steak. Her husband ordered salmon. I was given very specific instructions on how to cook both entrees. Nice Husband and Nice Wife look mortified.

  "B*tch Wife gets her food and promptly flips out because it's not 'blue,' even though she was totally clear on the fact that we didn't do that at the restaurant. My manager, an experienced chef, goes out of his way to make the woman a damn blue steak and serves it to her himself. It is the third steak we have cooked for her. B*tch Wife lectures me for 10 minutes (I am not exaggerating) on what a terrible server I am, how the restaurant is a piece of sh*t, etc. She eats all of her steak and half of her husband's salmon and complains that their food was inedible. She demands that their entrees be taken off their bill.

  "I am fuming at this point, but the manager still comps their meals. I take the check to the table for Nice Wife and Nice Husband to pay. I am lectured again about what terrible service I offered. After another 10 minutes of being scolded, I calmly told her that I understood she was upset, but that I didn't prepare her food and had served her exactly what she ordered. B*tch Wife demands to see the manager who cooked her food. She also lectured him, saying that she is a professional chef and is appalled at our inability to prepare a blue steak. The manager offers her a job at the restaurant since we obviously don't know what I'm doing. B*tch Wife flies off the handle and storms out. Her husband followed meekly in her wake.

  "Nice Wife and Nice Husband left me an immense tip. They were so embarrassed by their friend's behavior that they could barely look me in the eye. They leave, and I start cleaning their table. Nice Wife comes back, presses an additional $20 into my hand, and whispers, 'I'm so sorry about the way she acted. If I'd known she would be that way, I would have just fed her at my home, but she's a chef and I don't know how to cook.' She gives me a hug and leaves.

  "A few weeks later, Bitch Wife came back and got super drunk on Dewars on the rocks again. She ended up standing on her tiptoes screaming into the manager's face in the middle of a packed dining room because there wasn't cottage cheese on the salad bar.

  "She was banned from the restaurant."
• (#5) Baby Leaves a Present on Chair

  "I was working at a restaurant, but I wasn't the server in this case. I was just the busser. Well, this family of six or seven came in with little kids. One of them needs to be in a high chair. It's not a big deal since we're a restaurant that is essentially just for serving children.

  "This family ends up being super rude the whole time and extremely loud. The little kid was screaming, but the parents are not doing anything at all. It got really bad. Well, they were sitting outside and all of a sudden, I noticed them take the little kid out of the high chair and push the high chair to the edge of the seating area. I think it's kind of weird, so I went up to them to see what's up.

  "It ended up that their kid literally sh*t in the high chair - one of the biggest, mushiest, darkest, and disgusting things I've ever seen in my life. I almost threw up when I saw it. It smelled terrible. This family then had the audacity to ask for their whole meal comped because their baby sh*t in the high chair.

  "My manager said that they couldn't do it, and they were pretty pissed, but they didn't even bother trying to clean it or anything and left."
• (#6) Mother Throws a Tantrum in Middle of Restaurant

  "I worked at Longhorn a few years back as a server, and we had this one fat b*tch come in with her awful brats every other day. She'd always request my section, as if to punish me for some unknown reason. Every time they came in, she'd first complain about how the booth was too small and how it couldn't seat her oversized 300-pound ass. She always ordered sweet tea, which would never be sweet enough. She'd make ridiculous requests, like wanting me to go lock her car for her, or running to a convenience store next door for her. She'd try and mix meals without having to pay full price for them. She'd always order a steak that was never to her liking.

  "One day, she waddled in with her brats. She sat down, ordered her steak, and ate nearly half of it. I come over to check on her, and as she's chewing a piece of this steak, says to me that her steak is sh*t and she wants a refund. I pull a manager over to her, and she goes off, saying, 'I was the worst waitress she's ever had here, her steak was awful, and I was incompetent.'

  "My manager, knowing better, tells her that he won't comp the meal. This lady gets irate. She takes all the dishes on the table, starts throwing them on the floor, starts pulling down pictures, and taking swings at us. We called the cops, and she was banned.

  "She tried coming back to eat with us on multiple occasions, and she was thrown out every time."
• (#7) Bagel Lady Demands Premium Service

  "I worked at a soup and sandwich cafe for three years while I was in undergrad. Good job, easy money. Anyway, we offered quick breakfast options: bagels with cream cheese, breakfast sandwiches, burritos, and a quick two-egg breakfast with toast, hash browns, or grits. We offered a $1 small cup of coffee because Starbucks was two blocks down, and my manager was like that. We broke even on the coffee, not really hoping to profit. Just trying to get people in the door and serve quick, good food. That kind of place.

  "A super yoga soccer mom started coming in every morning to buy a coffee. She would bring in her own bagel and her own cream cheese. She would purchase the coffee, and then ask us to toast her bagel and put her cream cheese on it for her and expect us to run the food out to her like we did for every other paying customer. While she was purchasing her coffee, she would ask that we put on new gloves while preparing her food. Okay, fine. Not a big deal the first few times because the owner (a working manager) was trying to keep his customers happy all of the time. However, this budding new cafe was starting to increase in business exponentially. This 'Bagel Lady' started coming in every single day. The boss grew a little tired of her request because after all, he isn't seeing the benefit of selling her a $1 cup of coffee and having us prepare her food for her. She didn't tip either. However, because my boss always lived by 'the customer is always right' method, he did this.

  "She came in on a Saturday morning once. Thinking she got special treatment because she was a regular customer, she decided she would skip the line and put her bagel on the counter near the register. She waited in line, purchased her $1 coffee, and noticed her bagel was right where she left it, untouched.

  "'Excuse me, I expected this to be toasted and ready when I purchased my coffee. I come in all of the time, you should know me by now. I am one of your most frequent customers.'

  "'Yes, ma'am, I apologize. I did not see it. Here is your coffee, and I will bring it out to you in a moment.'

  "'I just don't understand you people sometimes, so incompetent and rude to your customers. This is the kind of behavior that leads to disease and sickness in restaurants.'

  "I didn't realize my boss was standing over my shoulder during this encounter. He sort of pushes me out of the way, grabs her bagel (un-gloved hands), takes a bite, goes to hand it to her, drops it, and asks her to leave with a mouthful of bagel. He goes to his office and closes his door still chewing the bagel. He comes out and says, 'Coffee is now $2.'"

  Problem solved."
• (#8) Lady Gets Waiter's Attention by Throwing a Spoon

  "A lady once threw a teaspoon at me because she wanted me to refill her iced tea.

  "However, she didn't notice I had already filled her glass when I walked past her table. She must have been too busy chomping down a veal parmesan the size of a hubcap in front of her.

  "When I walked up and asked her why she felt the need to throw a hard, metal object at me to get my attention, she said, 'I need you to fill my...' (looks down) '...Oh, you must ha-- ... huh... never mind.'

  "As I was walking away, I heard her hiss at her husband, 'No, I'm not going to apologize to a waiter!'"
• (#9) Waitress Takes a Sandwich to Her Face

  "My girlfriend and I worked at the same restaurant in Savannah, GA, while in college. St. Patrick's day is huge here - about 750,000 people come every year and get very, very drunk.

  "One year, an intoxicated customer 'didn't like his Reuben,' and proceeded to grab his waitress (my girlfriend) and literally rub it in her face. A bartender, a bouncer, and I literally tossed him out the front door."
• (#10) Mother Claims Her Sons Deserve Child Discounts

  "I waited tables at a place that had a buffet on Fridays. A lady came in with her twin sons, and they all ate the buffet. When I brought her the check, she flipped out on me because I didn't charge her for two 'child buffets.' I told her that the cut-off age is 10. She said her kids are 10 exactly.

  "I then point out that her kids are wearing high school varsity football jerseys and, I knew they were seniors in high school because they were a grade below me and I had just graduated.

  "She called me a b*tch and then tried to name drop the owner's names, but got them completely wrong. She asked to speak to the manager, so I got the manager from the office, who happened to be the owner's daughter.

  "She pulled the whole 'I am a close family friend of the owners' and botched their names again. The manager just said, 'Well, you're at the wrong restaurant because no one by that name owns this place; I am the owner's daughter, and I've never seen you in my life.'

  "The lady just gave a, 'Well, I never...' and wrote a check...

  "...Which bounced."
• (#11) Friendly Patron Turns Out to Be a Sociopath

  "Seven top. Table gets excellent service. $140 bill or so. Person paying check is friendly and all smiles. Tips $0. Waits at the door to see the sad dejected look on the waitress's face as she looks at the receipt and gives a Hannibal Lector smile.

  "You could just tell he derived pleasure from her pain."
• (#12) Angry Customer Storms Into the Kitchen

  "Some customer came into the f*cking kitchen and starts yelling at the waitress, full-on, no holds barred, yelling in her face. He and his table full of other c*nts have all ordered spiced ribs, chalupa seafood baskets, T-bones, and ribeyes. As a cook, the more advanced the meal, the more I love to cook it. You come into the restaurant and order the fanciest, most gourmet thing on the meal, and I love to do it. That's why I'm there. I like to hone my skills, and I like people to appreciate them.

  "What you don't f*cking do is come into the kitchen mid-peak on a Saturday night because your food is 40 minutes late. There are 85 other people waiting to eat before you. You came out tonight to have a good time and eat - I get that. It's sh*tty seeing other people get their food before you - I get that. They ordered a f*cking cheese dip though, that we heat in the microwave, which costs $6. Sorry that it's easier to make than the high-menu sh*t you're ordering, you p*ss-sucking sack of f*cks. That is no reason to call a perfectly innocent teenage girl a stupid wh*re in the highest angriest voice you can muster.

  "My chef, a typical alcoholic Gordon-Ramsay-type, f*cking flips his sh*t and lobs a plate onto the floor, smashing it as ceramic shards and nacho remnants scatter and explode everywhere. He starts taking steps towards the guy. "Who do you think you are?! This is my kitchen, and we are making your food!"

  "This angry d*ckf*ck of a guy has backed down, and the upstairs manager is coming downstairs scared out of his mind because no one wants to f*ck with the chef. He and I are in each other's good books, but he is one scary c*nt. Because I'm a male, and punch-ups beat cooking, I started following behind him as he approaches the other dude. He very quietly sat back down and tipped generously apparently, which is awesome because I'm in Australia, and you aren't even really supposed to tip here."
• (#13) Couple Tries to Scam Buffet

  "While I worked in an all-you-can-eat restaurant, we frequently got customers who would eat three or four plates of food, then go and fill up another five, leave them all full on the table, and claim the food was all disgusting and refuse to pay.

  "There was one time in particular when a couple tried to do this. The managers got involved and were refusing to let the customers leave while they called the police. The woman of the couple tried to push past one of my managers, and he took hold of her arm to stop her leaving. Cue shouts of assault and harassment, and male partner suddenly going ape-sh*t shouting, "Don't you f*cking touch my woman!" etc.

  "Luckily, there was a full restaurant of people who were watching the show, so they couldn't get away with it."
• (#14) Hostess Gets Cursed at by Family Man

  "I was a hostess at a fairly popular restaurant close to a movie theater. This can attract some large families on busy nights, so we strongly suggest reservations in our advertising.

  "It's Friday evening, and we're already on a wait. This family of seven saunters in, and the father asks us for a table. I tell him that there is a 40-minute wait, but if they'd like to wait on the patio and order an appetizer, there is space for them.

  "He frowns, whispers to his wife, then turns back to me. 'Nah, we're going somewhere else. Go f*ck yourself.'

  "I almost didn't believe I had heard it at first. Seriously? I was blown away that this father, husband, adult-f*cking-man felt like it was OK to say that to a 20-year old hostess."
• (#15) Group Takes Advantage of Senior Discount

  "This was my first day on the job at a buffet (not one of those cheap ones), and my first customers were a group of elderly people. They first asked if they could just look at what food the buffet had. I said that was fine, and that I was waiting to seat them if they liked what they saw. (I was the hostess.)

  "Instead of coming back, they just started piling food on plates and then started seating themselves. I was supposed to seat them in specific sections, so they kind of messed up the seating plan. Then they called me over, and one old guy said, "I'm dying soon - I want half off." I had no idea what to say to that, so I said I'd ask the manager.

  "The manager came out and told them they don't do that, but in this case, they would make an exception and only charge for a child's plate. Then, the other old people started complaining and saying they were also dying in a couple years, it wasn't fair, and they all wanted to pay less. Because they were so annoying, the manager relented.

  "They were really loud, messy, and of course, didn't leave any tips, but when I'm old, I'll probably be totally not giving a crap, too, I guess."
• (#16) Woman Complains About Corny Service

  "I used to work at a quaint, family-owned seafood restaurant when I was a teenager. We sold fried corn, three pieces per order. If you wanted more, you better mention it, and it's gonna cost you extra.

  "I had a woman pick up her order and then drive back, screeching how she didn't get all of her corn. I open her bag - there's three pieces. I explain that it's all there, no mistakes at all, and even offer to give her a free drink for her drive home. She proceeds to go batsh*t crazy inside the restaurant, demanding that we give her extra food for free because she thought the order came with more. Being extremely tiny and young, I was terrified.

  "My managers are willing to work with misunderstandings, but they threw that b*tch out.

  "I have more, but on a scale of sheer craziness, she wins."
• (#17) Lady Tries to Get a Free Cheeseburger

  "I once had a family of four come in: a wife, husband, and two kids. The wife ordered a cheeseburger.

  "Everything seemed to be going well. I asked if they like their food and if there was anything I could get for them; they said everything was fine. The wife finished her burger and got my manager. She told her that the burger was absolutely horrible and wanted a refund for the whole meal. My manager almost laughed at her and told her if she hadn't finished the burger and had said something at the beginning, she would have gladly gotten her another burger. However, there was no way she was getting a meal for four for free nor was she getting hers for free because she, at first, told me she liked it."
• (#18) Customer Misunderstands Manager Discount

  "'I'm a Best Buy manager now, so you have to give me the manager discount here.'

  "It took five minutes of reassuring her that manager discounts only apply at places where you work. She thought it was a secret club discount for upper division employees all over the country."

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