This Coffee Shop Employee Found A Genius Way To Deal With Jerk Customers, Asks People If She’s Mean For Doing So
They’re shouting at the top of their voice. Their spit is flying everywhere. Their faces are red like a ripe tomato. And they’re angry beyond belief. Rude customers are the bane of anyone who’s ever worked in the service industry as a waiter, a server, or a cashier. Most of us have our personal favorite ways of dealing with angry people, but sometimes it takes some originality to stop them complaining.
Having decided that she’s had enough of rude customers pushing her around, one high schooler who works weekends at a coffee shop came up with a cunning plan. With her shift manager James’ help, she now pretends to get fired each time a customer loses their temper. The best part is—it works.
However, the high schooler was worried that she may have overstepped some boundaries. So she turned to Reddit’s AITA community to ask them their opinion about the situation.
A coffee shop employee asked Reddit whether how they deal with rude customers is alright
Image credits: throwRA-fhfsveyary
Reactions to the coffee shop employee’s series of pranks were mixed on the AITA subreddit. While some exclaimed that the customers were the jerks for being rude, others said that even though the high schooler’s actions were justified, she and the customers were all jerks.
There were even some Redditors who said the employee was the biggest jerk of all because she was disturbing all the other coffee shop’s customers with her dramatic prank.
Barista Training Academy has some friendly suggestions that can help coffee shop employees and baristas deal with those caffeine-lovers who can’t keep a leash on their temper. For example, if a customer shouts at you, you shouldn’t shout back! Stay calm, cool, and professional. Like from that one awesome song in ‘Mulan’ that everyone remembers, be “tranquil as a forest but on fire within.”
There’s also a chance that rude customers, no matter how impolite they might be, have some criticism for you that’s worth hearing out. After all, you want to be the best barista in the world, so you should take every chance to up your game and improve yourself.
Whatever happens, don’t take it personally. Maybe the person who ordered the triple-syrup, no-foam, quadruple-espresso, decaf cappuccino and yelled at you for not adding any sugar, has had a very bad day and doesn’t know how to deal with their stress. Sometimes, people don’t know how to deal with their problems and lash out at strangers. It’s all a part of being human and maturing as individuals.
Dear Pandas, have any of you worked at a coffee shop or the service industry? How do you deal with rude customers? We can’t wait to hear from you, so drop us a line in the comments!
Here’s how some Redditors reacted to the story
What baffles me is that there are people saying "Having to deal with rude people is part of the job." I hear it when they are talking about almost any job including first responders and it gets me furious. NO, it's not part of the job to accept rudeness, threats and insults when people are trying to help people. I'm lucky that my boss agreed with me when I refused service to rude people. But a lot of workers have to put up with it just because people think that "it's part of their job."
Right?! How about you just don't be rude and not feed into the problem? People look for excuses to be a******s. After working in fast food and retail I do my best to stand up for associates that are getting berated.
Load More Replies...Repeat after me: customer service does not mean that you have to take abuse from clients! The idea that dealing with people taking out their anger and rage on you is false. I'm sorry but we aren't paid therapist for you to unload on. We are people providing a service for you and unless you have an actual complaint like it's the wrong order and still then you need to remember that you are dealing with actual human beings and that respect should be included. People treating customer service employees as garbage are the real a******s here!! Yes, managers are there to mediate issues but again, most things are out of their control. The coffee is not hot enough? The manager can clearly do nothing about it since op said themselves that it comes from a machine. As much as we laugh and hate them, I've been a manager and had some great ones and we all had one thing in common: the notion that the customer isn't always right. I even had a manager with a cane take a super long time to come whenever we had impossible clients because he wanted to p**s them off and he knew that the second they saw his cane none of them would complain about it. And I'm talking about people trying to return worn underwear here!!
Forgot to say this since it was early but most coffee chains actually have a limit for the coffee's heat nowadays because of too many people sueing them because they burned themselves so it would make sense if coffee machines also had a safety feature to avoid coffee being so hot that users receive second or third degree burns
Load More Replies...I'd love to know how the voting correlates with how the voters act themselves: I'll bet most of those saying the OP is the A-hole are the type who want to be able to shout at wait-staff without consequences to themselves >_<
As someone who has self worth and a history of demeaning low level jobs in customer service all the way to management, I can only offer this advice. Have self worth. Have pride in yourself and your work. Never accept hatred or cruelty under the guise of, “Its part of life/your job.”, because you will only teach yourself to accept that treatment from everyone in your life and it will destroy you.
This is not life, this is not part of realityand definitely not PART OF THIS JOB!!!!! I work as a barista and recently we have noticed at my workplace that customers are getting worse and worse. Like, we greet them friendly, with a big smile, and their reply is simply cutting in our words and saying "Coffee". Not greeting back, not even a nod, not even a smile, not even a please, a thankyou, whatever. This, we still can put up with. At paying, throwing their money infront of us? Happens all the time. Yelling at us for not serving them in 5 second? ALL THE TIME. Not to mention the insults happening on a daily basis. Like "where are you from, the shape of your head (!!!!) tells me you're a foreigner." Questions about our family life, love life, our salary. There are only a few guests who are nice to us. The rest handles us as if we were slaves. I have been thinking on changing profession, although I love this job, but the insults and rudeness make my life impossible.
"the shape of your head tells me you're a foreigner" a good come-back to that idiocy would be "and the shape of your head tells me that you are an idiot a*****e" Answer to questions about your family life, love life, salary... those should be answered with a "It is none of your business" Personally, most customers like that get treated with a, sorry I cannot serve you. Customers do not actually have a right to be rude and insulting, you don't have to put up with that abuse, the customer is not always right. Baristas and all customer service have the right to refuse service.
Load More Replies...When I was a kid I worked at Taco Bell. One time, a man and his clearly being domestically abused wife came in. He came in asking for nine special orders, which means we had to make fresh food instead of pulling something from the warmer. He assumed for some reason we'd have them ready and waiting for him but we did not. Then he started to yell at his wife over something ridiculous; then he came at me saying that that this is supposed to be fast food. My response was, "It is fast food, Sir, but it is not instant. As we don't currently employ any oracles, we have to make them from scratch." That didn't go over well. He asked me for my name, which was on my badge. I told him I was not responsible for his lack of time management and he should schedule sobering up between beating his wife. He said he wanted to speak with my boss who was listening the entire time and I went to high school with. She said the order was almost finished because she called the police. He was arrested right after
I worked at a popular coffee shop for about a year. Had a customer come down the very busy drive thru and order a small refill, of a specialized coffee, handed me his cup ordered me to wash it out in my sink, with 14 cars in line behind him and "just fill it up", problem the cup he handed me was disgusting, hadn't been washed in weeks, if ever and it was a double extra large, not a small. So, I did the quickest wash on the cup I could and set the machine to "small" because that is what he ordered, cameras all over the place, so there was no way to "just fill it up" without grief from my manager. Went back to window handed him the cup, he started screeching that it wasn't "full", told that he order a small and received a small, whipped the change to pay at my face, cut my cheek and hit me in the eye. Floored his truck to show off and hit the curb and flipped his truck. Police came charged him with reckless and assault on me. Karma working for me that day!
As an owner of a restaurant, we have a ZERO tolerance policy for rudeness and we have posted a sign on our front door that says "RUDE PEOPLE ARE NOT WELCOME" IF YOU ARE RUDE AND/OR DISRESPECTFUL TO OUR EMPLOYEES OR CUSTOMERS YOU WILL BE ASKED (POLITELY) TO LEAVE." People compliment us on the sign all the time, but every now and then we will see someone read it a turn away, which is fine by us. There is NO need to be rude or disrespectful to anyone, period.
I wish more places of business would do this in the future.
Load More Replies..."The customer is always right" mentality punishes good customers. If you get your way as a customer by being a jerk, you are gaining special advantage over customers who are not jerks. I'm not against being lenient to customers when applicable and hearing valid concerns, (discussed civilly) but it's important these things don't go too far and not punish the good ones.
When I was on vacation, I saw a sign on the wall that pleased me so much I politely asked the clerk for a copy. It was in an 'Information/Junk--er, souveneer shop' and read, "If you are mean or nasty, there will be a $25 surcharge for putting up with you." I put it up at work; we dealt with the public.
Load More Replies...I work in the motor industry. We have a customer that has always been rude to everyone in the dealership. She was even rude to the salesman who sold her the car. The one day she phones and starts with her diatribe from get go. during her rant i said to her: "Excuse me, but who do you think you are talking to? How dare you speak to me like that?" I went and told my manager about what had just happened. The said customer has been very nice to ever since. Some people just need to be put in their place.
Manager didn't go that far but once a customer was being rude and demanding my name to report me when I was enforcing company policy so I knew I was in the right, but he yanked me into the office and then was like "Yeah, you're right so don't worry, but I'm pretending to chew you out right now so put on a really sad face when we walk back out there." lmao
I am NOT DEAF, would You like Decaf instead of real coffee?? calm down, fool.
NTA Just about everyone that's worked retail or with the public has had somebody be a jerk for no reason (at least that we know of). To walk in to an establishment with an already poor attitude, then take it out on a Barista? As someone said, they need to learn that this petty little tantrum has consequences. If the person works in retail, that makes it twice as bad.
I so wish this could be done in health care! So many times people complain because you didn't pull their socks off the right way or put their shoes under the bed the
In this day and age, people are stressed out, wound up, sleep deprived, on too much social media, and wired on too many energy drinks and caffeine. The slightest little thing will tip some people over the edge. Too many angry folks out there. Don't you be one of them. Keep calm and carry on.
About twice a year at our business we will end up firing a customer. I usually just tell them that just like some marriages, our relationship is unlikely to work out and it's best that we sever ties before anyone gets hurt. What's funny is that we operate in a small industry, so when talking to friends I'll usually hear how someone else is now putting up with them.
I worked as a Barista for almost 5 years, and while I can agree that sometimes there might be a reason why a jerk is acting like one, that still doesn't change two things about the job: 1 - Okay, sure... you (the customer) might be having a bad day. That doesn't mean you have the right to take it out on us (the employees). Basic human decency is a thing, and just because someone is in a service field doesn't mean they're not human. 2 - Do people realize how EXHAUSTING it is to have to be in that great a deal of control of your emotional state all the time? Especially over the course of a typical given workweek (6+ hours per day/five+ days per week)? You might think that "Oh, surely it doesn't take that much to deal with one angry customer"... but it's rarely ever just one. Try about 6, and that's usually on a decent day. All because some people can't wait another minute or two while the line is long and there are only 2 people behind the counter, and they can only work so fast.
Once at an amusement park, long ago, when I was a teen, a friend called me forward to stand with her in line. I turned to the woman behind her and asked permission to join my friend "cut into line". She turned her nose up and turned her back to me. I didn't know what that meant, but as teens we just sorta shrugged and stood there. Had she said anything at all, I would have left the line. But she didn't. Then a park employee passed and she told him to throw us BOTH out of the park for cutting! I was like " but we asked you for permission" but she just put her hand in my face and got really nasty. The park employee pulled us out of line and walked us away. away... INTO the control room for the roller coaster! He gave us a tour, told us that woman seemed really rude, then after she was off the ride, he put us right up at the front of the line! SOOOO COOL of him and it totally satisfied that woman too! Although she never backpedeled or felt bad about turning us in or anything.
They should teach customers how to be customers. I'm always polite and friendly to barristas. It doesn't cost anything to smile and say please and thank you.
i dont know what to think here one part of me thinks she should just suck it up and move on with her life.............. but i gotta be honest that was so gosh darn funny!!!!lol
I love this idea. Adults really should be able to manage simple shopping interactions without losing their grip. If they insist on going overboard for every little thing, why not give it back to them? It provides some light relief for the poor staff who are subjected to nonsense every day.
Lets just stop a moment and remember this is a coffee shop...I am not friendly b4 coffee. My husband sits it next to me and backs out of the room slowly, so i completely understand being an a$$hole. But NTA. Love it Love it LOVE IT!!!
14 years of retail here. I am just numb to the rudeness. Its everyday. Society is just going down the drain.
I feel like that this is just perfect pleas encourage people to do this
I wouldn't say this person is an a*****e, however doing that prank over and over is not the best idea... you don't want people to actually think you can get fired for that because some of them -like- the idea that they can get you fired over something small, and will do it deliberately to get their way. The sort of people who think "they" can have "you" written up for not taking their abuse. (and I mean some real abuse) It's a bad attitude to encourage in our customers.
I actually have to agree with the last person, in part. I know if I were in the cafe and I saw this "firing" going on, I'd dislike the managing staff to the point of not coming back. But show me that same managing staff standing up to an unreasonable customer and I would be more likely to return because I would no it was an a$$hole free zone. Let the little snobs take their business elsewhere..I'd rather hang out in a place with a positive vibe.
Done this myself. More than once. In fact, lots of times. What's the problem? None.
I think it's funny. Are they a******s? Yeah, maybe a little. But it's still funny.
You shouldn't do this, you're just being rude. Misogynists like you shouldn't even be working, they should be in a year-one classroom learning about basic grammar rules and gender equality where they belong.
Load More Replies...They should be shut down. If I read this in the area I would call the cops food inspector the f*****g mayor whatever it took to shut them down. And you support them. You're just as God damn nasty as them. No amount of rudeness justifies making someone consume bacteria and potentially make them sick or worse. You as well as they should all breathe deeply submerged in toilet water until your heart stops.
Load More Replies...Nope, it's pretty easy to get another job like that.
Load More Replies...What baffles me is that there are people saying "Having to deal with rude people is part of the job." I hear it when they are talking about almost any job including first responders and it gets me furious. NO, it's not part of the job to accept rudeness, threats and insults when people are trying to help people. I'm lucky that my boss agreed with me when I refused service to rude people. But a lot of workers have to put up with it just because people think that "it's part of their job."
Right?! How about you just don't be rude and not feed into the problem? People look for excuses to be a******s. After working in fast food and retail I do my best to stand up for associates that are getting berated.
Load More Replies...Repeat after me: customer service does not mean that you have to take abuse from clients! The idea that dealing with people taking out their anger and rage on you is false. I'm sorry but we aren't paid therapist for you to unload on. We are people providing a service for you and unless you have an actual complaint like it's the wrong order and still then you need to remember that you are dealing with actual human beings and that respect should be included. People treating customer service employees as garbage are the real a******s here!! Yes, managers are there to mediate issues but again, most things are out of their control. The coffee is not hot enough? The manager can clearly do nothing about it since op said themselves that it comes from a machine. As much as we laugh and hate them, I've been a manager and had some great ones and we all had one thing in common: the notion that the customer isn't always right. I even had a manager with a cane take a super long time to come whenever we had impossible clients because he wanted to p**s them off and he knew that the second they saw his cane none of them would complain about it. And I'm talking about people trying to return worn underwear here!!
Forgot to say this since it was early but most coffee chains actually have a limit for the coffee's heat nowadays because of too many people sueing them because they burned themselves so it would make sense if coffee machines also had a safety feature to avoid coffee being so hot that users receive second or third degree burns
Load More Replies...I'd love to know how the voting correlates with how the voters act themselves: I'll bet most of those saying the OP is the A-hole are the type who want to be able to shout at wait-staff without consequences to themselves >_<
As someone who has self worth and a history of demeaning low level jobs in customer service all the way to management, I can only offer this advice. Have self worth. Have pride in yourself and your work. Never accept hatred or cruelty under the guise of, “Its part of life/your job.”, because you will only teach yourself to accept that treatment from everyone in your life and it will destroy you.
This is not life, this is not part of realityand definitely not PART OF THIS JOB!!!!! I work as a barista and recently we have noticed at my workplace that customers are getting worse and worse. Like, we greet them friendly, with a big smile, and their reply is simply cutting in our words and saying "Coffee". Not greeting back, not even a nod, not even a smile, not even a please, a thankyou, whatever. This, we still can put up with. At paying, throwing their money infront of us? Happens all the time. Yelling at us for not serving them in 5 second? ALL THE TIME. Not to mention the insults happening on a daily basis. Like "where are you from, the shape of your head (!!!!) tells me you're a foreigner." Questions about our family life, love life, our salary. There are only a few guests who are nice to us. The rest handles us as if we were slaves. I have been thinking on changing profession, although I love this job, but the insults and rudeness make my life impossible.
"the shape of your head tells me you're a foreigner" a good come-back to that idiocy would be "and the shape of your head tells me that you are an idiot a*****e" Answer to questions about your family life, love life, salary... those should be answered with a "It is none of your business" Personally, most customers like that get treated with a, sorry I cannot serve you. Customers do not actually have a right to be rude and insulting, you don't have to put up with that abuse, the customer is not always right. Baristas and all customer service have the right to refuse service.
Load More Replies...When I was a kid I worked at Taco Bell. One time, a man and his clearly being domestically abused wife came in. He came in asking for nine special orders, which means we had to make fresh food instead of pulling something from the warmer. He assumed for some reason we'd have them ready and waiting for him but we did not. Then he started to yell at his wife over something ridiculous; then he came at me saying that that this is supposed to be fast food. My response was, "It is fast food, Sir, but it is not instant. As we don't currently employ any oracles, we have to make them from scratch." That didn't go over well. He asked me for my name, which was on my badge. I told him I was not responsible for his lack of time management and he should schedule sobering up between beating his wife. He said he wanted to speak with my boss who was listening the entire time and I went to high school with. She said the order was almost finished because she called the police. He was arrested right after
I worked at a popular coffee shop for about a year. Had a customer come down the very busy drive thru and order a small refill, of a specialized coffee, handed me his cup ordered me to wash it out in my sink, with 14 cars in line behind him and "just fill it up", problem the cup he handed me was disgusting, hadn't been washed in weeks, if ever and it was a double extra large, not a small. So, I did the quickest wash on the cup I could and set the machine to "small" because that is what he ordered, cameras all over the place, so there was no way to "just fill it up" without grief from my manager. Went back to window handed him the cup, he started screeching that it wasn't "full", told that he order a small and received a small, whipped the change to pay at my face, cut my cheek and hit me in the eye. Floored his truck to show off and hit the curb and flipped his truck. Police came charged him with reckless and assault on me. Karma working for me that day!
As an owner of a restaurant, we have a ZERO tolerance policy for rudeness and we have posted a sign on our front door that says "RUDE PEOPLE ARE NOT WELCOME" IF YOU ARE RUDE AND/OR DISRESPECTFUL TO OUR EMPLOYEES OR CUSTOMERS YOU WILL BE ASKED (POLITELY) TO LEAVE." People compliment us on the sign all the time, but every now and then we will see someone read it a turn away, which is fine by us. There is NO need to be rude or disrespectful to anyone, period.
I wish more places of business would do this in the future.
Load More Replies..."The customer is always right" mentality punishes good customers. If you get your way as a customer by being a jerk, you are gaining special advantage over customers who are not jerks. I'm not against being lenient to customers when applicable and hearing valid concerns, (discussed civilly) but it's important these things don't go too far and not punish the good ones.
When I was on vacation, I saw a sign on the wall that pleased me so much I politely asked the clerk for a copy. It was in an 'Information/Junk--er, souveneer shop' and read, "If you are mean or nasty, there will be a $25 surcharge for putting up with you." I put it up at work; we dealt with the public.
Load More Replies...I work in the motor industry. We have a customer that has always been rude to everyone in the dealership. She was even rude to the salesman who sold her the car. The one day she phones and starts with her diatribe from get go. during her rant i said to her: "Excuse me, but who do you think you are talking to? How dare you speak to me like that?" I went and told my manager about what had just happened. The said customer has been very nice to ever since. Some people just need to be put in their place.
Manager didn't go that far but once a customer was being rude and demanding my name to report me when I was enforcing company policy so I knew I was in the right, but he yanked me into the office and then was like "Yeah, you're right so don't worry, but I'm pretending to chew you out right now so put on a really sad face when we walk back out there." lmao
I am NOT DEAF, would You like Decaf instead of real coffee?? calm down, fool.
NTA Just about everyone that's worked retail or with the public has had somebody be a jerk for no reason (at least that we know of). To walk in to an establishment with an already poor attitude, then take it out on a Barista? As someone said, they need to learn that this petty little tantrum has consequences. If the person works in retail, that makes it twice as bad.
I so wish this could be done in health care! So many times people complain because you didn't pull their socks off the right way or put their shoes under the bed the
In this day and age, people are stressed out, wound up, sleep deprived, on too much social media, and wired on too many energy drinks and caffeine. The slightest little thing will tip some people over the edge. Too many angry folks out there. Don't you be one of them. Keep calm and carry on.
About twice a year at our business we will end up firing a customer. I usually just tell them that just like some marriages, our relationship is unlikely to work out and it's best that we sever ties before anyone gets hurt. What's funny is that we operate in a small industry, so when talking to friends I'll usually hear how someone else is now putting up with them.
I worked as a Barista for almost 5 years, and while I can agree that sometimes there might be a reason why a jerk is acting like one, that still doesn't change two things about the job: 1 - Okay, sure... you (the customer) might be having a bad day. That doesn't mean you have the right to take it out on us (the employees). Basic human decency is a thing, and just because someone is in a service field doesn't mean they're not human. 2 - Do people realize how EXHAUSTING it is to have to be in that great a deal of control of your emotional state all the time? Especially over the course of a typical given workweek (6+ hours per day/five+ days per week)? You might think that "Oh, surely it doesn't take that much to deal with one angry customer"... but it's rarely ever just one. Try about 6, and that's usually on a decent day. All because some people can't wait another minute or two while the line is long and there are only 2 people behind the counter, and they can only work so fast.
Once at an amusement park, long ago, when I was a teen, a friend called me forward to stand with her in line. I turned to the woman behind her and asked permission to join my friend "cut into line". She turned her nose up and turned her back to me. I didn't know what that meant, but as teens we just sorta shrugged and stood there. Had she said anything at all, I would have left the line. But she didn't. Then a park employee passed and she told him to throw us BOTH out of the park for cutting! I was like " but we asked you for permission" but she just put her hand in my face and got really nasty. The park employee pulled us out of line and walked us away. away... INTO the control room for the roller coaster! He gave us a tour, told us that woman seemed really rude, then after she was off the ride, he put us right up at the front of the line! SOOOO COOL of him and it totally satisfied that woman too! Although she never backpedeled or felt bad about turning us in or anything.
They should teach customers how to be customers. I'm always polite and friendly to barristas. It doesn't cost anything to smile and say please and thank you.
i dont know what to think here one part of me thinks she should just suck it up and move on with her life.............. but i gotta be honest that was so gosh darn funny!!!!lol
I love this idea. Adults really should be able to manage simple shopping interactions without losing their grip. If they insist on going overboard for every little thing, why not give it back to them? It provides some light relief for the poor staff who are subjected to nonsense every day.
Lets just stop a moment and remember this is a coffee shop...I am not friendly b4 coffee. My husband sits it next to me and backs out of the room slowly, so i completely understand being an a$$hole. But NTA. Love it Love it LOVE IT!!!
14 years of retail here. I am just numb to the rudeness. Its everyday. Society is just going down the drain.
I feel like that this is just perfect pleas encourage people to do this
I wouldn't say this person is an a*****e, however doing that prank over and over is not the best idea... you don't want people to actually think you can get fired for that because some of them -like- the idea that they can get you fired over something small, and will do it deliberately to get their way. The sort of people who think "they" can have "you" written up for not taking their abuse. (and I mean some real abuse) It's a bad attitude to encourage in our customers.
I actually have to agree with the last person, in part. I know if I were in the cafe and I saw this "firing" going on, I'd dislike the managing staff to the point of not coming back. But show me that same managing staff standing up to an unreasonable customer and I would be more likely to return because I would no it was an a$$hole free zone. Let the little snobs take their business elsewhere..I'd rather hang out in a place with a positive vibe.
Done this myself. More than once. In fact, lots of times. What's the problem? None.
I think it's funny. Are they a******s? Yeah, maybe a little. But it's still funny.
You shouldn't do this, you're just being rude. Misogynists like you shouldn't even be working, they should be in a year-one classroom learning about basic grammar rules and gender equality where they belong.
Load More Replies...They should be shut down. If I read this in the area I would call the cops food inspector the f*****g mayor whatever it took to shut them down. And you support them. You're just as God damn nasty as them. No amount of rudeness justifies making someone consume bacteria and potentially make them sick or worse. You as well as they should all breathe deeply submerged in toilet water until your heart stops.
Load More Replies...Nope, it's pretty easy to get another job like that.
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