Bartender Shares How She Deals With Unpaying Customers, And The Internet Is Congratulating Her On Her Good Problem-Solving Skills
If you’ve ever been a bartender, you know how stressful the job can be. Constantly making drinks as quickly as you can, handling multiple customers at once, having drunk people shout their orders at you and just hoping they are in their right minds enough to leave decent tips. Bartending is certainly not for the faint of heart. And while most of us know how to be kind, respectful and appreciative of our bartenders, sometimes there are customers out there who need to be taught a lesson.
One bartender in Nashville, Tennessee, Jemima June, recently shared a video on TikTok showing how she had to take matters into her own hands after a customer was taking far too long to pay for his drinks. Below, you can read Jemima’s explanation, watch the full video and see some of the replies that viewers have left, and then let us know in the comments how you feel about this situation.
If you have experience bartending, we would love to hear your personal stories of dealing with difficult customers as well. You have to be brave to work in that field, so we thank you for your service. Then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article featuring tales from bartenders, check out this story next.
This Nashville bartender decided to take matters into her own hands after both of a customer’s cards declined while trying to pay for his drinks
Image credits: jemimajune
Jemima caught the whole encounter with the difficult customer on video and later shared it on TikTok
Image credits: jemimajune_
You can see Jemima’s full video right here
@jemimajune_♬ original sound – Jemima June
Being a bartender is stressful enough, trying to serve everyone at once and keep them all satisfied, so the last thing that should be on any of their plates is having to track down a customer to pay for his drinks. Plus, dealing with people who are under the influence is much harder than serving customers at a coffee shop or a café during lunch hours. You can’t always reason with a drunk person the same way you would with a sober person, so if taking their wallet is the only way to ensure they will come back, Jemima did what she needed to do.
Bartenders have to find the perfect balance of being friendly and personable and setting boundaries with their customers. In this situation, Jemima had already warned the customer several times that he needed to pay and that his cards weren’t working. She also noted that if he did not pay for the drinks, she would have to. It is actually illegal for the bar to enforce such a rule, as it is not her responsibility if a customer walks out. She’s not a security guard; she’s a bartender with many other customers.
However, unfortunately, time and time again restaurants and bars require their staff to cover the costs of rude, irresponsible and intoxicated customers who decide not to pay. While it should not be Jemima’s responsibility to make up for that $27, it is understandable for her to do everything in her power to prevent that cost from falling onto her.
We all know how to be decent and polite human beings, so there is no reason for that to fly out the window when in a bar environment. I’m sure you wouldn’t like a drunken person trying to take $27 from you at your desk job, and bartenders don’t appreciate being put in that situation either. We would love to hear your thoughts on this video below: do you think Jemima was justified in taking the man’s wallet, or would you have handled it another way? Let us know what you think, and the next time you head to the bar with your friends, remember to have more than $27 in your bank account… Or better yet, just bring some cash!
While not everyone understands how stressful bartending is, most viewers applauded Jemima for handling the situation this way
Bored Panda has reached out to Jemima June for a comment and will update the story as soon as we hear back.
Dear BP - Again, I'm asking enough with the tiktok content. Please protect your readers from that site. The content is often low-quality and just poorly edited screen shots until you link to the harmful website.
Yes, please! Just stop it. And reddit too, because this is just easy to make content we can VERY easily see elsewhere. We are not on Reddit, Tiktok or twitter. These platforms are easily accessible by themselves, we don't need copy-pasted content from them. I prefer low amount of quality content over this any day.
Load More Replies...My credit card got declined at a gas station. I called the credit card company. They said it was declined for "suspicious activity" because I was buying gas for the second time that day. So I explained to them that I was driving a U-haul truck while moving to another state.
LOL My credit card declined on me when I was buying a plane ticket for the first time. When I called they said the same thing. "It was automatically flagged as suspicious activity because it's an unusual purchase." I had to basically get permission from Visa to book a flight XD.
Load More Replies...JFC now tiktok content???? Come on, we can all just go to that pathetic booty-shaking site if we want. I didn't even bother to read this c*r*a*p.
Yet you clicked on it and gave them the money for it, you absolute numpty.
Load More Replies...Not sure why not having cash is odd? Where I live I don't use cash, I use card or my phone. The free cash points now charge and my local bank is now a trendy food bank (was a bistro - sign of the times). That's not to say I never go out with any, but it's rare I use it.
except his two cards were declined, indicating that he couldn't draw cash even if he wanted.
Load More Replies...Can't imagine why anyone would think she's in the wrong. It would've been one thing if he didn't drink the shots already but he did, so now they have to be paid for and if he didn't give her his wallet, he'd have no reason to come back and pay.
Why would you hand drinks over to a customer before they had paid for them? Good job she had her phone filming her while she was at work, if she worked for me she'd be looking for another job today. You're there to earn a wage, not likes on social media!
Have you ever been to a bar or restaurant? You always get your food/drink, and then you pay. She also said that SHE had to pay for his drinks if he didn't. I had to pay for the drinks of an attorney once because he forgot to pay before leaving. This has nothing to do with social media. It had to do with bosses forcing their employees to pay when the customer doesn't. If you'd fire a girl because she didn't want to pay for some stranger's drinks, then YTA.
Load More Replies...Best thing about the whole article was the comment about having two cards declined for $27 and he thinks there's something in his wallet to steal. I got to that after many bored panda sighs and nearly died laughing, well I did bang my knee. Bless the dear souls of comment sections that swoop in and save me. Good on ya.
People usually keep their ID in their wallet. Sure it's not very valuable but a real PITA to replace and you have the guy's contact information to get the money one way or another
Load More Replies...At one of my bartending jobs in my mid-20s, a group of people came in on a very busy Saturday night. Most of them I recognized vaguely from HS so I knew they were over 21 but my managers didn't nor did the security cameras. The first guy ordered and I asked for his ID. He didn't have it on him so I refused his order. He seemed annoyed but told me that it was in the car and he'd go get it. In the meantime, I carded and served his friends and checked on the rest of my patrons. He comes back in a minute or so later and presents me with a photocopy of his ID. Not even a clear copy, it was dark and blotchy and this is unacceptably illegal. I asked if he was kidding. He was not. He did not get served that night and had to wait while his friends finished their drinks. At that point his annoyance turned into a sulking fury. And that's probably the mildest bartending story I have.
She says he was "super drunk"... As a bartender, if your customer is visibly super drunk, you don't serve him. Period. This is a sad story about a girl who had to dress like a prostitute to not do her job well
Why judge her on her looks? This is how female bar staff usually dress and there's nothing wrong with how she's dressing.
Load More Replies...What is happening to this site? BP is paying people to farm uninteresting content from questionable sources? Meanwhile, BP readers are authoring more and better original content than paid BP staff? Get your s**t together, BP.
Just because it doesn't interest you doesn't mean it's uninteresting. If this doesn't interest you DON'T CLICK IT!!!!
Load More Replies...Dear Bored Panda, Your content quality is garbage. Do you pay 14 y/o to scour TikTok for relevancy now?
by the way: Question to the Americans here. How many shots would have gotten approx. with $27?
depends on the city, and the kind of liquor. I typically drink whiskey, the kind I get is $6-$8 per shot where I live, but would easily be about $14-$18 in a larger city.
Load More Replies...So, in the end she got her payment. Ok. Relying on bank cards is so anxiety inducing. Never know when the bank does something to your account out of the blue.
why would a bank "do" something to your acocunt???
Load More Replies...You can now lock your cards, so even if there is money available it will decline the purchase.
Who locks their card before going out and buying drinks?
Load More Replies...You do realize that she would have done the exact same thing had the patron been a woman, right? This was, by no means, a deliberate effort to make a man look bad. You make it sound like she used her infantile dirtbag magic to FORCE both of his cards to decline just so she could gain the upper hand that she already had. This is a fairly common scenario for bartenders so she's offering others a solution. GET COLLATERAL UNTIL THE TAB IS SETTLED.
Load More Replies...Oh look, a woman hating c**t who probably pulls this s**t constantly. What's the matter? Mad that you aren't as tough, you sad little boy? F**k off.
Load More Replies...Dear BP - Again, I'm asking enough with the tiktok content. Please protect your readers from that site. The content is often low-quality and just poorly edited screen shots until you link to the harmful website.
Yes, please! Just stop it. And reddit too, because this is just easy to make content we can VERY easily see elsewhere. We are not on Reddit, Tiktok or twitter. These platforms are easily accessible by themselves, we don't need copy-pasted content from them. I prefer low amount of quality content over this any day.
Load More Replies...My credit card got declined at a gas station. I called the credit card company. They said it was declined for "suspicious activity" because I was buying gas for the second time that day. So I explained to them that I was driving a U-haul truck while moving to another state.
LOL My credit card declined on me when I was buying a plane ticket for the first time. When I called they said the same thing. "It was automatically flagged as suspicious activity because it's an unusual purchase." I had to basically get permission from Visa to book a flight XD.
Load More Replies...JFC now tiktok content???? Come on, we can all just go to that pathetic booty-shaking site if we want. I didn't even bother to read this c*r*a*p.
Yet you clicked on it and gave them the money for it, you absolute numpty.
Load More Replies...Not sure why not having cash is odd? Where I live I don't use cash, I use card or my phone. The free cash points now charge and my local bank is now a trendy food bank (was a bistro - sign of the times). That's not to say I never go out with any, but it's rare I use it.
except his two cards were declined, indicating that he couldn't draw cash even if he wanted.
Load More Replies...Can't imagine why anyone would think she's in the wrong. It would've been one thing if he didn't drink the shots already but he did, so now they have to be paid for and if he didn't give her his wallet, he'd have no reason to come back and pay.
Why would you hand drinks over to a customer before they had paid for them? Good job she had her phone filming her while she was at work, if she worked for me she'd be looking for another job today. You're there to earn a wage, not likes on social media!
Have you ever been to a bar or restaurant? You always get your food/drink, and then you pay. She also said that SHE had to pay for his drinks if he didn't. I had to pay for the drinks of an attorney once because he forgot to pay before leaving. This has nothing to do with social media. It had to do with bosses forcing their employees to pay when the customer doesn't. If you'd fire a girl because she didn't want to pay for some stranger's drinks, then YTA.
Load More Replies...Best thing about the whole article was the comment about having two cards declined for $27 and he thinks there's something in his wallet to steal. I got to that after many bored panda sighs and nearly died laughing, well I did bang my knee. Bless the dear souls of comment sections that swoop in and save me. Good on ya.
People usually keep their ID in their wallet. Sure it's not very valuable but a real PITA to replace and you have the guy's contact information to get the money one way or another
Load More Replies...At one of my bartending jobs in my mid-20s, a group of people came in on a very busy Saturday night. Most of them I recognized vaguely from HS so I knew they were over 21 but my managers didn't nor did the security cameras. The first guy ordered and I asked for his ID. He didn't have it on him so I refused his order. He seemed annoyed but told me that it was in the car and he'd go get it. In the meantime, I carded and served his friends and checked on the rest of my patrons. He comes back in a minute or so later and presents me with a photocopy of his ID. Not even a clear copy, it was dark and blotchy and this is unacceptably illegal. I asked if he was kidding. He was not. He did not get served that night and had to wait while his friends finished their drinks. At that point his annoyance turned into a sulking fury. And that's probably the mildest bartending story I have.
She says he was "super drunk"... As a bartender, if your customer is visibly super drunk, you don't serve him. Period. This is a sad story about a girl who had to dress like a prostitute to not do her job well
Why judge her on her looks? This is how female bar staff usually dress and there's nothing wrong with how she's dressing.
Load More Replies...What is happening to this site? BP is paying people to farm uninteresting content from questionable sources? Meanwhile, BP readers are authoring more and better original content than paid BP staff? Get your s**t together, BP.
Just because it doesn't interest you doesn't mean it's uninteresting. If this doesn't interest you DON'T CLICK IT!!!!
Load More Replies...Dear Bored Panda, Your content quality is garbage. Do you pay 14 y/o to scour TikTok for relevancy now?
by the way: Question to the Americans here. How many shots would have gotten approx. with $27?
depends on the city, and the kind of liquor. I typically drink whiskey, the kind I get is $6-$8 per shot where I live, but would easily be about $14-$18 in a larger city.
Load More Replies...So, in the end she got her payment. Ok. Relying on bank cards is so anxiety inducing. Never know when the bank does something to your account out of the blue.
why would a bank "do" something to your acocunt???
Load More Replies...You can now lock your cards, so even if there is money available it will decline the purchase.
Who locks their card before going out and buying drinks?
Load More Replies...You do realize that she would have done the exact same thing had the patron been a woman, right? This was, by no means, a deliberate effort to make a man look bad. You make it sound like she used her infantile dirtbag magic to FORCE both of his cards to decline just so she could gain the upper hand that she already had. This is a fairly common scenario for bartenders so she's offering others a solution. GET COLLATERAL UNTIL THE TAB IS SETTLED.
Load More Replies...Oh look, a woman hating c**t who probably pulls this s**t constantly. What's the matter? Mad that you aren't as tough, you sad little boy? F**k off.
Load More Replies...
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