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Serving fajitas hot is not a walk in the park. It’s rather like walking on eggshells, ‘cause an encounter with a customer can go sour anytime. And forget the mantra “The Customer Is Always Right.” Reality is a teeny tiny bit different.

The truth is, some customers are just too much. From ordering something that’s virtually non-existent and coming up with their own takes on the menu to plain yelling and calling corporate, this is the daily bread of food industry workers.

Thus, fed up with entitled customers, people on Twitter got together for this viral thread and shared their stories of working as food servers. Nobody said that accommodating serial a-holes for a living was meant to be easy, but nobody warned them it’s that damn hard, either.

#2

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WilvanderHeijden
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is it me or has anyone else noticed that common courtesy isn't common anymore?

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Bored Panda reached out to a college student named Palmer, better known by his Twitter handle Decent Pigeon, whose tweet on delivering Grubhub to a problematic customer went viral with 374.2K likes as well as 58.7K retweets and comments. In addition to creating content for Twitter, Palmer has also worked for DoorDash and Grubhub for the past three years and he agreed to share what it was like.

“The funniest part of the industry is that when a customer is mad, they have (a couple of times) tried to degrade me based on my job title, the ‘service industry worker,’” Palmer told us. “It’s almost like I only do it on the side while I study in college to get another job.”

Palmer can’t wrap his head around the customers that degrade the industry they rely so heavily on. “I’ve encountered tons of amazing people in the industry, so why chalk it down to just their job title?” he continued. “Cliche, but people just need to learn to respect one another.”

This viral thread has shown Palmer that he is not alone, “and that I am not cursed with all the psychos of the industry.” He also said that none of the stories truly surprised him because “many customers in the service industry are extremely entitled and rude.”

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Oskar vanZandt
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just nod your head and give them what you were going to give them... no sense talking to some people.

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It’s not the first, and let’s be real—probably not the last time we hear about entitled customers. Just take a look at our previous post on people sharing ridiculous demands from customers from hell or this post on customers acting like total jerks and getting shamed for it online. Such incidents are all too common, but there may be an underlying reason for it.

In fact, American consumer culture focuses a lot on making people feel special and people come to expect it. This article suggests that “They feel like they have a right to act however they want towards others until they’re appeased—which winds up isolating the consumer and shaping their view of the world as 'me against them.'”

This type of rude behavior is related to the entitlement mentality which basically screams “Me!” in most daily-life scenarios. Psychiatrists say it is manifested in an over-exaggerated sense of self-importance, lack of understanding of others, and unwillingness to compromise.

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WilvanderHeijden
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Never argue with stupid. Just humor them and let them pay champagne prizes if they want Sprite in a champagne glass.

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Foxxy (The Original)
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have heard similar variations of this so many times, it is really concerning how many people do not grasp the concept.

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When it comes to the food service industry, bad customer behavior is usually associated with attitude problems and plain rudeness. But this research showed it’s much more sinister than that: “behaviors of entitled customers negatively impacted waitstaff employees.”

Moreover, “the participants in the study have reported 'physiological arousal, negative affect, burnout, and feelings of dehumanization as a result of dealing with these patrons.'” In these cases, sticking to the age-old mantra “the customer is always right” may make matters even worse.

#10

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Glaciaca Report

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Kevin Wayne
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Quote by Albert Einstein: "two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity and i'm not sure about the universe"

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#11

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Pseudo Puppy
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

laughing at stupid customers, while out back, is the ONLY thing that keeps customer-service staff sane. Retail, hospitality, corporate..... we all laugh at stupid customers while out the back. Only way to survive.

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#12

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Mama Panda
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

These are the a******s that make those of us with real food allergies look bad

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#13

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Mama Panda
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Must have been the same dipshit that didn't want cheese on his cheeseburger!

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djinnantonnix Report

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Bill Taylor
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Should have called it a "special order" and charged him triple for the one pound container...

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#17

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queer_hellenic Report

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Tabitha L
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I really really don't understand the cheeseburger, no cheese thing. What do they think a hamburger is? Do they think hamburgers are made of ham?

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#19

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Troux
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

With all the cameras at fast food places, I would think you could catch who this was by their license plate, and yes it's absolutely worth it to press charges against harassment of any sort.

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#20

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Foxxy (The Original)
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can kinda understand this coz cold hot chocolate tastes different to chocolate milk.

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Mama Panda
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually, I have never had them charge my credit card either when checking in. They give me the option at check out to pay with the card, with another card, or with cash. When I am checking in, there shouldn't be a charge at all since I just got to the hotel and haven't even walked into the room yet let alone stay in it.

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Andris Valdmanis
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is cheese with lactose and there is cheese nearly without lactose - depends on the manufacturing process. You cannot know, you have to read the product analysis if you are lucky enough, that there is one. I know it, because I am lactose intolerant and had to learn it. And then there are people that are lactose-intolerant, and there are people with an milk allergy, also two seperated issues. So it is not allways a dumb question, even if it feels like it for someone who has no idea, because he has not to deal with it.

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Foxxy (The Original)
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Without any other context I am presuming the customer didn’t really speak english, had an intellectual disability, had a stroke or a neurological disorder etc.

jessgunn77 avatar
JessG
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No, it's just that people don't listen and don't care what you're saying. For example, as a server, it's common to say "hi, how are you today?" Then they say " coke" It's just not listening

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Queen Jackson.
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hey unintentionally not listening or understanding beats refuses to listen or understand.

dutchvanzandt avatar
Oskar vanZandt
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I would have made the choice for them... pronto. Follow the path of least resistance.

enea avatar
Enea
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That is really unkind. Customers may be rude but this assuming-always-the-worst attitude is really depressing. My 70-year-old mother is hard-of-hearing. I live in another country than her, and when she visits she has a hard time understanding the local language. So in order to avoid the embarrassment of having to admit she didn't understand, she acts off a script of a probable interaction. Same as this person obviously did. She wouldn't harm a fly, and it breaks my heart that a bunch of unkind people would come together afterwards and ridicule her online.

getsuyoubi avatar
Monday
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've been the idiot customer like this once. Sleep deprived and functioning on auto pilot.

pseudo_puppy avatar
Pseudo Puppy
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

just choose the 3 least favourite options (or the spiciest).... and let them deal...

sandy_14 avatar
Captain Legible
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm deaf. Usually I'm fine, I think, but I occasionally make mistakes like this. Sometimes if you make a mistake early it's just hard to recover in the ensuing short conversation and everything goes downhill. "What three dips would you like with your nachos?" is a nightmare sentence and I'm not keen on places that give you a ton of options by word of mouth.

lee_kerr avatar
Lee Kerr
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’m not hearing impaired but I can have similar problems in noisy places. It’s made worse if I’m in a part of the country where I’m not familiar with the accent or people are speaking very quickly because they’re under pressure to get through as many customers as possible.

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Mama Panda
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exactly what dips are we talking about? The only things I know that can be called a dip that goes on nachos are cheese sauce (I prefer real cheese), sour cream, and guacamole. What comes to mind when I hear dip is ranch (ew!), barbeque, and honey and mustard in which none of those belong on nachos!

lovepsychos avatar
LovePsychos
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In that case, you just show them the dips you have and let them decide what they want.

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Mary Poirrier
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Probably hard of hearing and because of background clatter just had to guess what you were saying. Happens to me all the time. Next time speak a little louder and more clearly.

lee_kerr avatar
Lee Kerr
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And maybe a little slower; “wichthreedipsdouwan” is never going to be clear.

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Yugan Talovich
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I suspect you may have had a customer with limited English ability: probably scared to death.

merlin240371 avatar
Richard Brown
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Pick out 3 mild dips. Safe and you don't have to worry about any repercussions. Anyone asks just say they are the default options

ladymalin avatar
Bei Stenhaug
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What's the issue though... charge her for her nachos and don't give her dip. When she gets the order and wants dip that is then maybe missing if she wanted it that bad, ask her which ones

katej avatar
Kate J
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This literally happens everyday at customer service jobs. We have questions we need customers to answer before the transactions can be processed but they just ignore you and proceed like you're a mind-reading machine. Frustrating as hell.

damonrn avatar
Damon Gates
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Maybe he didn't want any dips. However, he should have specified that.

nbo avatar
TheHerplover
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ok I agree with Foxxy but if that weren't true then... I hope this person realizes that credit machines don't charge you until they are set up

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BluEyedSeoulite
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love to torture my Italian friends with our fake Italian foods! So yummy but so wrong

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Mama Panda
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Because her kid would have had a full blown temper tantrum right there in the restaurant so she tried to make the best of it by ordering what the kid wanted and expected Jay to understand. sheesh!

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Ksenia M
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It seems like Subways work differently here because you can definitely get all the vegetables without paying extra. Is that different in the US, you only get like tomatoes and onions but you pay more for pickles?

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Amanda Sherland
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

God, I have a friend who does this and it drives me bonkers to listen to him talk on the phone, ordering something or getting customer service. He always talks over the person and misses all their questions and then gets mad at them.

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WilvanderHeijden
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Should have rung it up as a cheese pretzel wo cheese. That's one dollar extra...

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Queen Jackson.
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's stealing tell her to get the f**k out. I feel like I'd be fired the first time this happened to me, cause I don't like entertaining b******t.

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