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Twitter Users Are Sharing Stories Of Customer Service Hell, And Here Are 33 Of The Worst Ones
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.
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#2
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Is it me or has anyone else noticed that common courtesy isn't common anymore?
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.”
#5
Oskar vanZandt 4 years ago
Just nod your head and give them what you were going to give them... no sense talking to some people.
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.
#7
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Never argue with stupid. Just humor them and let them pay champagne prizes if they want Sprite in a champagne glass.
#9
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
I have heard similar variations of this so many times, it is really concerning how many people do not grasp the concept.
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
Kevin Wayne 4 years ago
Quote by Albert Einstein: "two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity and i'm not sure about the universe"
#11
Pseudo Puppy 4 years ago
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.
#12
Mama Panda 4 years ago
These are the a******s that make those of us with real food allergies look bad
#13
Mama Panda 4 years ago
Must have been the same dipshit that didn't want cheese on his cheeseburger!
#15
Bill Taylor 4 years ago
Should have called it a "special order" and charged him triple for the one pound container...
#16
#20
Oskar vanZandt 4 years ago
Cut the chocolate cake into a square and tell him it's a fluffy brownie...
#21
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago (edited)
I can kinda understand this coz cold hot chocolate tastes different to chocolate milk.
#22
Mama Panda 4 years ago
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.
#23
Elaine Mattingly 4 years ago
I would HAVE to got the pizza advertizement and handed that to him.
#25
Andris Valdmanis 4 years ago (edited)
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.
#26
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
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.
#27
BluEyedSeoulite 4 years ago
I love to torture my Italian friends with our fake Italian foods! So yummy but so wrong
#29
Mama Panda 4 years ago
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!
#31
Amanda Sherland 4 years ago
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.
#32
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Should have rung it up as a cheese pretzel wo cheese. That's one dollar extra...
#33
Queen Jackson. 4 years ago
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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What do you think ?
B 4 years ago
I worked as a waiter on and off for fifteen years. I saw the absolute worst behaviour in people. Bizzarely though, customers who weren't rich often gave good tips, while those who clearly had big bucks (evident by their orders) consistently left nothing.
Jaelyn 4 years ago
it's because we know what working a sh*tty pay job is like. even with rich people--you know which ones worked for it and which didn't.
Load More Replies...
White Wolf 4 years ago
What is with all those stupid people asking for cheese things without cheese?
Mama Panda 4 years ago
I worked in retail management for 20+ years. I have encountered all kinds of crazy people with stupid requests. It truly amazes me how these people are functioning on their own in society. I am talking about both sides of the coin as represented here on this list. It's not always the customer's fault and the customer is not always right.
B 4 years ago
I worked as a waiter on and off for fifteen years. I saw the absolute worst behaviour in people. Bizzarely though, customers who weren't rich often gave good tips, while those who clearly had big bucks (evident by their orders) consistently left nothing.
Jaelyn 4 years ago
it's because we know what working a sh*tty pay job is like. even with rich people--you know which ones worked for it and which didn't.
Load More Replies... White Wolf 4 years ago
What is with all those stupid people asking for cheese things without cheese?
Mama Panda 4 years ago
I worked in retail management for 20+ years. I have encountered all kinds of crazy people with stupid requests. It truly amazes me how these people are functioning on their own in society. I am talking about both sides of the coin as represented here on this list. It's not always the customer's fault and the customer is not always right.
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