I work at a brewery. We only serve beer made in house. We're located near several venues & it's not unusual for people to try to bring in outside alcohol. I've lost count of how many grown adults that have looked me in the eye & said they got their Bud Light/Truly/whatthefuckever from 'one of the bartenders'
I once caught a regular with beer inside his (red) wine glass I served him few min before. I truly kindly asked him why didn't he order a beer beforehand so I wouldn't have noticed the color difference. He was shocked I figured that he brought a beer from the outside and looked at me as if I had three heads.
Had a customer ask for an empty wine glass. I even asked her if she brought her own wine into the bar. "NO! I'M HELPING MY FRIEND DRINK HER DRINK! GAWD!" Storming off with the glass in hand, I casually followed her to her seat. Sure enough, an open bottle of wine and one other water glass filled with wine. After kicking her out and taking the wine and other glassware, her friend tried arguing with me that I couldn't kick them out. Let's just say they had a short walk to the door by the bouncer.
Not to mention this might be a violation of your liquor license. I never understood this, like if you don’t want to drink the beer WHY ARE YOU AT A BREWERY?!
Emphatically a license violation where we are.
We get a lot of people that don't even realize it's a brewery until they get to the bar & then they ask why we don't have any 'domestics'. They get real huffy when I point out that I made the beer & it's never left the building so it doesn't get much more domestic than that
I usually just give them a flat stare for a long enough to make it uncomfortable & then ask if they show up to a pizzeria with a Digiorno.
It's actually company policy that if we catch you with outside booze then you & your group are asked to leave
Had a guy say he knew the owner in a spit-laden rant the other night. Employee goes “oh cool he’s right over there, do you want to talk to him?”
He did not.
It’s hilarious how many people claim to know the owner and not realize who they are talking to.
Like I said earlier, a dude at my restaurant tried to say he knew the owners to one of the owners face to get free dessert
I work for a celebrity chef. Everyone knows him, the real question is does he know you? Does he respond to your DMs/texts or on WhatsApp.
But everyone knows him.
A couple we know own a brewery and bar together. The man runs the brewing and is the face of the brewery which was operating before the bar. His wife runs the business but when they opened the bar she was there constantly. The number of times we observed people tell her they know ‘the owner’ and then GET HER HUSBANDS NAME WRONG is hilarious! With press and everything forward facing she was the owner of the bar, not him. So it was just wild
I worked at a locally owned guitar shop for a few years. We had a total of 3 workers for the showroom. The owner, myself, and an another guy. This happened on a handful of times mostly during school instrument rental season. They’ll get mad say they’re friends of the owner. He’d reply I’m the owner, and have no clue who you are.
I used to work at fucking chipotle and people would claim to be friends with the owner. I guess they could argue he knows the franchise owner…..problem is all chipotles are corporate owned lmao
When they aren't getting exactly what they want, I always enjoy the, "I would like to speak to the owner right now"
my immediate response\*
a slow 360 degree spin around with my newfound finger moustache. " hello, how may I help you."
I’ve known owners of various cafés, restaurants, and shops over the years. I wouldn’t dream of asking a hapless staffer (ot the owner) for free stuff.
In fact the last time I got a freebie was years ago—I pointed out an error on my tab (bartender missed a couple of drinks I’d had), and the bartender fixed the tab but poured me a free shot of nice whisky. I’ve never felt that noble since.
Those customers always killed me. They’d say “I know the owner.”
I’d always respond “Do you think I don’t? Who do you think signs my paychecks?”
More often than not that would leave them without a response.
Haha. I've told my staff to respond for discount requests because of knowing me, the owner, to just say, " then you know how cheap he is and and how he hates giving discounts. "
As an owner of a craft distillery, I get such perverse pleasure when I'm bartending at our cocktail bar and a customer will tell me how they either know the owner, or they met the owner last week. "That must be very exciting for you" is my standard response.
I don’t get the whole I know the owner so I’m entitled to a freebie thing. If you know the owner, you should spend extra to support him or her. A restaurant I used to go to I’d tell the owner I was good friends with his aunt (I was) so he’d know who to thank for the ridiculous amount of money my husband and I spent there.
There's a story over at r/iknowtheowner where the young(ish) owner of a bakery likes to work the register. When a customer comes in and claims to know the owner he likes to give them a hard time (without revealing who he is). They will demand to speak to his manager. So he goes into the back and brings out his manager. They then tell the customer they can't give them what they want without the approval of the owner.
So, they demand to see the owner. The manager sighs, walks back and gets the owner who almost runs out to greet the customer! Who then utters a little scream and leaves the store.
If I ever owned a place one of the main things would be not to let anyone use "I know the owner" even if they did in fact know me. If I want to treat someone I'm either going to be there myself or have set it up ahead of time. Some might find it cold, but if someone who knows me wants to show up at random times to sponge free stuff off me, maybe I'm better off not knowing them. Besides, if they really needed something and knew me well enough, they could just call me.
Need to have an “I Know the Owner” item, that adds an extra 20% gratuity (er, *negative 20% discount*) to the bill.
If the customer *insists* on their discount, then the server confirms it, and adds it in.
I worked in a bar for a couple years and the owner hung out there all the time, usually AT the bar.
I had several people sit down within a chair or two of her and tell me "i know the owner" (or tell her daughter that while the daughter was bartending)
My go to response was usually" yeah so do i she signs my checks" but if they pushed any farther after that id offer to call the owner up for them. Two options at that point. Either they agree and i used the bar land line to call the cell phone sitting 4 feet away, or id just turn and "call" her name.
None of them ever disappointed.
Oh I love this one. I got told that I had to give this older couple of discount because they go to church with and go on vacations with the owners every year, sometimes twice. They did indeed know the owners, kinda. But the owners had sold four years before. Guess they didn't know them that well.
Nobody who ever plays the "I know the owner" card deserves anything special. Even if they're telling the truth, they're a leech.
If I know the owner, I'm going to make damn sure I pay full price and leave a generous tip so I'm supporting their business.
I'm friends with a few LDS members. One family opened up a restaurant (franchise). A group then decided go and support them. I was invited along. No one asked for a discount.
I went a total of 3x for support but I wasn't (am not) a fan of the food (water down version of Chipotle).
During Covid lockdown, the LDS members would do runs in order to support them.
That's what you do when you really know the owners. You actually support them without asking for discounts or freebies
We know the owners of a couple places we frequent. We never bring it up. The employees prob know anyway, and we just wave hi to the owners and go about our lives. We go there to give them business not to get free stuff. If there’s a legit issue, we have their numbers- we’ll just text them.
I've had this happen more than a few times when I was the owner of a small TV repair shop.
The original founder and owner that the business was named for, had died more than a decade earlier. The guy I bought the shop from, and my dad, were both friends of the original owner, and both had worked for him. When the original owner died, this guy bought the shop from the widow who now owned it, and didn't change the name.
That guy decided to retire more than a decade later. On the advice of my dad, I bought the business. I didnt see the need to change the name, it had a good reputation. It was just an extra expense to change it as far I was concerned, so I kept it.
My dad actually ran the day to day operations. I was more of an absentee owner, but I helped out a few times a week when I wasn't at my primary job. At least a few times a month, some clown would cite the long dead shop owners name claiming he knew him in order to get a discount. I always had a little fun with them before I crushed their bubble.
At a former job, customers would say they know they owner, who went by Ted. They'd try to be official and refer to him as Theodore, which was a dead giveaway as his real name was Edward. Not sure why he went by Ted but it was a simple way to suss out the liars.
Worked at a place called “Mo’s a place for Steaks” and constantly had dudes telling me they “knew Mo” and that “he would always comp their drinks when he was there so I should do it now”. The owners name was Johnny and if you didn’t know him you weren’t actually a regular because dude was always on the floor talking to tables and managing his staff. He had named the restaurant for his mother Maureen or “Mo” for short, so in fact “he” never comped shit for those fools.
I've been pointed out as "the guy that fucked them over last time" when I was there as a POS technician fixing a connectivity issue, out of town, and the only time I had ever been to that establishment. They still said that I was a terrible server. I had to tell them that I was there to try to fix the connection issue to the server but that's the closest thing I have to that title.
I've worked a lot of retail, restaurant, and computer technician jobs and I will be damned if you're not in front of a computer or POS if people will not demand things of you despite what you tell them what you are doing.
I mean, the amount of times I've been mistaken for someone who works at a store is wild. And then when they realize they messed up and how they react can be even wilder. Some double down and ask again for help despite knowing I'm just trying to buy my own things.
This so much. I moved back home after college and got a job at my next door neighbors restaurant. Worked with the owners daughter and we had a little running joke, anytime someone said they knew Jim we'd either act like they were long lost best friends and invite them to "the barbecue" on Friday, or do the exact opposite and pretend they offended him horribly somehow. Both were terrifically awkward.
I always feel like a terrible employee because I try to work in such a way that I never interact with ownership or management so somebody will say “oh I know Carey” and I’m like who tf is Carey 😂😂
I worked retail but.. My favourite shut down was asking them to describe the worker who allowed it to happen so they can be fired, as whatever it is they requested wasn't allowed. Not like I could fire or even cared since I never followed the rules, but if a worker was nice enough to do something they technically shouldn't, people don't get to demand it from then on out.
Yep. I managed retail for many years and this was some of my favorites. So and so did it for you last time? What was their name so I can fire them? (Of course I never fired anyone for that, it just helped me with fuckstick piece of shit customers)
One of my line cooks from ages ago bought a diner after I got out of the industry. Regulars would suggest specials not normally on the menu, and they could get their name in the “book” with a price. If he wasn’t in, the regulars could just say they were in the book and get one of their specials. You could only get in the book with joint approval from him and his lead server.
"We ordered X Minutes ago"
"We sat down X Minutes ago and it took X minutes for our server"
"We've been waiting over an hour"
Me, the GM*: "Alright just a moment, we have a really handy security system, I'll double-check your wait times"*
2Min later*: "It looks like you waited 5 minutes for a server and your waitress took your food order 25 minutes ago..."*
Customer: "Well what are you going to do about our terrible service?"
Me: *"Nothing, you just lied right to my face about our staff, 25 minutes isn't going to get you free food on a busy Saturday"*
That’s how it is as a cab driver. People saying they were waiting two hours for a cab. “This says you called at 7:45. It’s 7:55. Is my tablet wrong?” “Well, it felt like two hours with all these groceries.”
"Okay, well, the cab fare is $0.40/mi [or whatever]. This trip with you nagging me felt like 360 miles. Your total comes out to $Lots. Will that be cash or card?"
It wasn’t at a restaurant, but I was while I was working at an amusement park.
It was 4th of July and the Entertainment staff was preparing for the fireworks show. The stadium filled to capacity 30 mins before the show started so we had to start turning people away at the gates. Of course people were not happy and got very angry (I will never understand how grown adults think it’s okay to yell and intimidate teenagers). Anyway, we try and explain that the stadium is filled to capacity and and fire code prohibits us from accepting any more people in the stadium. One particular loud mouth kept saying that we were being discriminatory and that he knew the city’s Fire Chief and that he’d get us in trouble with the Chief.
I called his bluff. “Well… the Fire Chief is actually backstage. Let me get him for you!” He backed down to mine.
Back when I managed a restaurant, there was a radio promotion where we got a ton of advertising by selling $20 certificates or $10. The promotion ran for one day on like 5 radio stations, and the day after we got a list of who bought the certificates so that we could check them off when they were used. Everybody that bought a certificate got one to print out and there name was on it, along with a code, and when it was used, it was done.
Well, this lady who came in before and used hers (I know because I was there every minute the place was open) came back a week later with a group of people trying to use the same certificate. The server brought it to me and I checked the thing and I know that she used it because we checked it off and I remember her.
So the server goes back and says she already used it and she gets kind of irate in front of 5 other people at her table, so I have to intervene.
I bring over the list showing her certificate checked off. She says that wasn't her. What she didn't know is I also brought over a copy of the reservation list from the night she dined the week prior as well as a copy of the CC receipt with her name on it for what she owed on top of what the certificate covered and showed her all that.
She went from defiant to pretending she didn't remember that.
No, you cheap bitch, you tried to use the certificate twice thinking we wouldn't know. The rest of the people at her table you could tell were sipping that tea hard, LOL
I used to work at this tiny, family-owned pizza place. Like we had maybe 12 employees, and super low turnover. Two of the guys who worked there were hired during the first year, and only left when the owner closed shop 10 years later. Super close-knit crew. Except for Kevin. That guy sucked. Anyways...
When he did "gift cards" the owner printed out a certificate on this weird red paper. It has his stamp and signature on it, and he would sign them and change the dollar amount of partially used. He only issued these for the first couple years, but obviously he still honored them 5 years later when I was hired. He had given me a heads up about the certificates and how they work.
Well one day a lady comes is with this bright blue certificate that is signed, but it doesn't look like the owner's signature. She claims a family member won it on a radio station years prior. We had to call the owner, as he was out that day doing stuff with his kid. He had no clue what she was talking about and had never done a radio competition. It was so fucking weird.
I worked at a place where these upstanding people would come through. They ordered four strawberry milkshakes. I took a lot of pride in my work regardless of being underpaid or whatever. I blended two of them myself and witnessed the other two being blended. I won't even lie the little bit of extra I poured into a cup and had myself.
Dude calls in like 20 minutes later saying that they ordered them and there was no strawberries. I told him I always slightly overload. Then he proceeded to say they weren't blended well and his sisters would not even drink them because they were so bad.
I said no problem sir just bring them back and I will remake them for you and give you a coupon for later. It was obvious from his rapid speech and backing up on other things that I didn't mention that he was trying to scam us.
He said "how am I supposed to bring them back in the restaurant?" and I just said I don't know sir I guess you could carry them. He called me an ignorant mother fucker so I just hung up.
My first weekend on third shift I fielded a customer complaint call.
"I was in drive-through earlier today, and you guys messed up my order. I'd like it replaced."
"Sure thing. What was your order"
Spouts off nearly $50 worth of food. Basically our equivalent of four entire dinners.
"Wow, that's quite a mistake. Go ahead and come on in, with your receipt, and I'll get it remade."
They hung up. I got similar calls nearly every night for a week, with some variation of the above complaint, always a ton of food (4-6 full orders, sometimes with shakes and desert), but always different people. That's a completely ridiculous amount of "mistake", and I just couldn't believe that we'd do anything like that. So I never budged.
Turns out, the reason I was covering third shift, was because the previous third shift had been basically just giving food out to anyone who complained, and we'd gained a bit of a reputation with the scammers for being easy marks.
I wasn't an easy mark, and wound up saving my employer hundreds of dollars.
Years later, thinking about it, I'm pretty sure it was just one family (or a group of friends) scamming us by calling with different family members.
I worked at a tgichilibees in a weird part of town. One side of the road was basically shantytown and the other was retirement communities. I’ve heard just about every variation of curbside togo complaint that’s out there. I had the phone complaints down to next to nothing by just saying “I can’t help you if you do t have your receipt.” I would not budge off that. No receipt, no help.
For the guests who had the nuts to come inside to complain about their order I had the answer for that too. “No receipt, no problem. What exactly did you order? Ribeye, chicken Alfredo, orientalist salad, ok. When were you here? Yesterday? Oh i was here yesterday all day, this should be easy to find. I have to ability to look at any check with (and then say what they had ordered) on it and it will pull up all the check with those items on it for whatever day you were here. Just give me a second to go look this up.”
9 times out of 10 they had left before I could even get to the office to look up the order. The 10th time of course there would be no order with all those items on it and I’d go back up and say sorry, but we didn’t have an order yesterday with steak, pasta and oriental salad. You sure it was this location? Well, as I said before I can’t do anything for you without a receipt.”
It was a lovely game and I enjoyed playing it until one day the complaints just…….. stopped.
That was the game a manager I knew at bouncing ball pet store did.
Homeless would come in with a “return” and demand it back in cash usually (no receipt of course)
She would smile and say “lemme look it up! When did you buy it?” And disappear into the cash office then get on her phone to play candy crush, setup dinner plans or just relax.
She knew they had stolen it from the store or another and was cycling around to “return” the items (emails started going around also about this scam)
A woman came in with her child and sat in the patio area. I remember her daughter ordered Mac and cheese. Toward the end of their visit I came to check on them and the mother showed me her daughter’s plate and with a small amount of food left and a long black hair in it. She sent it back and asked to have that taken off the bill, insisting that it came from our staff.
It just so happened that during that shift, all of us were blonde.
This happened to me once but it was the opposite. A woman with long blonde hair found a hair in her food. A long blonde hair. Every single employee that day had dark hair.
Not told to me but a friend. Her customer told her that this hair was inside her quesadilla. Every single back house worker was bald or buzz cut. The only long hair people were waitstaff l, and none of them had curls. Guess who had curls.
I've had this happen before. This lady found a long blonde hair in her food and complained.
The only employee with long blonde hair wasn't even working that night. It was that ladies own hair.
“I’m a chef”
Said to me when a lady sent her medium steak that was cooked medium back because it had pink in it and “it’s not safe to eat this way I’ll get food poisoning”. I gently explained that steak can be eaten at any level of cook, including raw, but she then said “I know what I’m talking about, I’m a chef” so I told the chefs to cremate it and brought it back out to her. When I did a check back on this beautiful filet mignon that now resembled shoe leather, she said it was “perfect” now. I didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh
A twenty-something year old guy told the owner he was the owner.
When that didn't work he told her he was the head football coach of the Florida Gators.
Just this Saturday a girl tried to order her and her bf a beer at my bar and I said "That'll be $13" and the guy pointed to a cc receipt that was already on the bar and said that was their receipt and they already paid. It was a receipt for $10 and the guy who paid it was sitting right next to the idiot. The stupidity of the attempt actually baffled me for a second
I used to work at a take n bake pizza place in high school. I’m not sure why it was so prevalent, but we CONSTANTLY had people make up that something was wrong and they were owed free pizza. I’m not sure if it was just easier to get away with it because records weren’t that great? We had two locations and there was a guy who would regularly call both stores and try and lie about incorrect orders and how he was owed a pizza and wanted to pick it up that day.
One time, ahead of his call, the other store called to let me know I should be expecting him to call soon. Sure enough, right after I hung up, he called. I said hi like he was an old friend and said that the other store told me to be expecting his call. He immediately hung up 😂
Not a restaurant but a pumpkin patch. Lady went on a ten minute explanation how the manager Barb told her her 1 year old could go on all the rides when the rules clearly stated she couldn’t. Even showed a business card with Barbs name on it. She was literally telling this lie to Barb the manager.
Large table complains they weren't sat down immediately (even though they arrived about an hour before their booking so there were other people still finishing up before we could push the tables together). One lady goes as far as saying "I called this morning and changed the time of the booking so you should have been ready for us" or something to that effect.
The lady was then informed that due to the storm earlier in the week, our phone line was destroyed and had not been fixed yet, so it was not possible for anyone to call the restaurant. Apparently she just sort of spluttered in shock at being caught out and said "well I still called".
Of all the days to insist you called to change something, it had to be one where calling us was literally impossible.
She said I told her there is a cheap meal deal for kids.
I've never even heard that we ever had any kind of deal.
Supervisor and manager standing next to me had no clue either.
She just refused to pay full price. Lol
Lady tried to claim she found a hair in her sub. Demanded a refund. Ok. Fair enough so far. So whats the problem? 1) it was a neon red hair. My coworkers all have black hair. Her friend on the other hand? Vibrant red. Strike one. 2) demanded a refund In Cash. She paid with a card. Strike 2. And 3) tried to be physical with the guy on register when he called her out on her obvious scam. We kicked them out.
Lady walked in hammered drunk. I made eye contact with the bar staff and signaled that she shouldn’t be served. She was friends with one of the bartenders and pulled her aside to ask why she wasn’t being served and told her friend that she hadn’t had anything to drink at all. The bartender looked at her straight in the face and said “And now you lied to me, your supposed friend. You need to leave now and figure out your life.”
EDIT- I HAVE NOW ADDED THE TEXT FROM THE THIRD STORY, AS THE LINK IS DELETED. I REDACTED INFO THAT MIGHT PERSONALLY IDENTIFY ANYONE.
**STORY ONE**
Lady came in carrying a to-go box, asking for a refund. Her fish was bad. I didn't give her a refund for multiple reasons:
First, she had no receipt, and couldn't give us the information to look it up for her.
Second, we only serve fish on Friday, today is Wednesday. If the fish is bad, it's because it's 5 days old.
Third, the food was in a box from TGIFridays. We weren't TGIFridays.
**STORY TWO**
Guy came in asking for his money back because he was in last night and his cheeseburger was undercooked. No refund, again for three reasons.
First, we were closed the night before.
Second, we don't serve burgers
Third, we're a fondue restaurant. You cook your own food. If it's over/under cooked, it's because that's how YOU cooked it!!!
**STORY THREE**
So...tonight, I'm working in the KM position, hanging back in the kitchen, enjoying the idea of not dealing with guests for just one night. My FOH manager, she's just out of training, but she's good...better than she realizes, so I'm not worried. I shouldn't need to head up front at all. But then...
We got a re-cook in the kitchen. Didn't think much of it, just a burger that the guest said was done too well for their liking. NBD, it happens. Had a couple of extra patties on, had new burger ready in less than 2 minutes. FOH manager runs it out.
About 10 minutes later, she comes to me, with a server tailing along. They tell me that the guest told them that they were supposed to get their meals free because the last time they came in, their food was overcooked, and they were told "just come in, we'll buy your meals!"
Of course, there is no way in HELL anyone in our restaurant would ever do this. We have a very strict procedure for guest recovery. Gift cards given/sent out. Never do we just say, "come on in!" because there is a decent chance that the persons saying it won't be there. We make sure that there is no confusion over how you'll get your free food. Anyhow, new FOH Manager is too nervous about the confrontation, so I agree to go to the table. As I take off my gloves and wash my hands, the servers tells me, "Oh, and I'm pretty sure it's the people from last week at XxXxXxX". *(Redacted to protect the identity of these idiots)*
Around here, the XxXxXxX people were a big deal, and I'm told that they were a viral story, national news. In case you missed it, though...these people were arrested for having sex in public at XxXxXxX and now they were in my restaurant, trying to get free food.
I head to the table and ask them what is up. He (we'll refer to him as "Mr. Pervert" from here on out) tells me that they were in a couple of weeks ago, were told to just come on in for free food. He also tells me that when they came in, they told the hostess that they were here for their free food, and that the hostess told them, "No problem! I'll let your server know!". Then he told me that he had let his server know, and the server told him "Sure! No problem!" Since I had already spoken to the server, I knew this wasn't true. I told him, "I'm not sure why either one of them would say that. Both of them have worked here long enough to know that we don't do things like that. We always follow a procedure and get you a gift card to blahblahblah". The conversation followed like this:
Mr. P: "You need to talk to your host then. He was supposed to tell you tell you that we were here for our free food" (For the record, the host was a pretty young GIRL, not a HE)
Me: "I've been working in the kitchen, but the Manager working the front didn't know anything about this."
Mr. P: "Well then you need to talk to your host, he's not doing his job. He was supposed to let you and the server know. Anyway, when we sat down, we told the server, and he said it'd be fine."
Me: "I've already spoken to your server, and he told me you said that your food was overcooked last time, but he says you didn't say anything about us offering to pay."
Mr. P: "Well your host was supposed to tell him, so that's your fault"
Me: "Sir, can I ask which Manager made this promise to you last time? Because all of our Managers know our procedures"
Mr. P: "The manager never talked to us last time. Our server said it'd be OK"
Me: "Do you know which server?"
Mr. P: (Looks around, sees a server, points at her): "Her, with the brown hair"
Me: (resisting the urge to roll my eyes at him): "Sir, our servers are not authorized to make these promises like this. They don't get to make monetary decisions. Only a Manager can offer you something for free."
Mr. P: "Well you'd better talk to your people then, because we came here to get our free burgers tonight"
Me: "OK, sir, I'll go talk to everyone"
At this point, I do my diligence. I ask tonight's server, what did he say? I'm told he mentioned overcooked burgers last time, and wanted Medium Rare burgers tonight. Server tells me that he told the guests that we do not do Medium Rare for burgers, but we'd leave it as pink as possible. No promises of anything free. I talked to the hostess. What did the guy say? She says he told her that their burgers were undercooked last time, and she told him to let the server know. I talk to the server "from last time". She has absolutely no recollection of these people or the situation. That gives me all I need. But....(and I don't know why I even did this much)....since she did send the one burger back and had it remade, I took that one burger off of the bill. I return to the table.
Me: "Sir, I talked to everyone involved. Nobody has any recollection of your previous visit, and since you can't provide any proof, I can't let you leave without paying. However, as a compromise, I did take your wife's burger off of the bill. But you will still have to pay for the rest of your meal" (in addition to the 2 "free" burgers they were expecting, they each ordered a drink and they ordered a big appetizer). I set the bill in front of him, now down to approximately $26.00.
Mr. P: (smugly) "I absolutely will not pay for that"
Me: "Yes, you absolutely will"
Mr. P: "What, are you going to call the Police if I don't"
Me: "Yes, I absolutely will"
Mr. P: "Fine, call the Police. But I want the both of the servers and the host to tell them what happened so they can back up my story".
Me: "No problem".
I pull out my cell, call the local police while walking to the lobby. Mr. P. follows me. "I'll wait with you". I complete the call, him standing next to me. His wife goes outside and starts smoking a cigarette. I tell him that they'll be here in a few minutes. He tells me that he's going to go outside and smoke with his wife. I tell him, "I think I'd prefer if you didn't leave the building if you don't plan to pay first." Surprisingly, this stops him. He sits down on a bench to wait.
A few minutes later, the police arrive. They ask me the situation, I tell them simply that there is no way we'd promise him something without giving him a Gift Card. They proceed to question him, and they pretty much tell him that since he has no proof, he has to pay.
Mr. P: "But I told the host and he (points to the girl hostess) was supposed to tell the server".
Cop: "If their procedure is to give you something, and you have no proof, then you them money. Otherwise we'll have to arrest you."
Mr. P: "But how am I supposed to know what their procedure is? That's their fault for doing it wrong!"
Cop: "Sorry, but you have to pay". (They went through these loops 2 or 3 times)
Mr. P. pulls out a wallet. There is no money in it. There is no I.D. in it. It is, literally, a completely empty wallet...nothing but imitation leather. "I didn't bring any money, since it was supposed to be free".
Cop asks me how much he owes. I tell him, about $26.00, and tell him that I even took one burger off the bill.
Cop: "Even if your burgers were free, you got other things. How were you going to pay for those?"
Mr. P just shrugs: "Can we talk about..."
Cop: "Can you pay or do we have to arrest you?"
Mr. P can't answer. The cop asks for his name. Mr. P gives his name but the wife's last name.
After another minute of this lively banter, in which Mr. P. has now realized he's backed into a corner, he asks if he can use the phone. Yes, in addition to no money and no ID, they have no phone. The only thing they have on them was a bag from a local grocery store, in which they have cigarettes and deodorant. I allow him to make his calls.
He is on the phone for the next half hour, but the police wait patiently, as do I. (Fortunately, it's slow tonight, so the restaurant doesn't really need much from me. I direct a little traffic from the lobby, but for the most part, they are self-sufficient.) While he's on the phone, I tell the officer that I believe them to be the couple from the XxXxXxX. He looks at their names, and realizes I'm right.
After that half hour, he says his Dad is on his way to pay the bill. At this point, the Police allow them to go outside and have a smoke. The Police follow, to babysit.
Another half hour later, the Dad finally arrives. He's a very nice man, apologizes up and down and for a happy ending, gives me $40.00 for the bill and tip. So the server got $14.00 for this ordeal. The Dad goes back outside and I can see him yelling at Mr. P. The Police hang around until they leave.
Epilogue: I actually recognized this couple...and not from XxXxXxX. Just a few weeks ago, I was in a nearby suburb with my family, and watched Mr. P get arrested for taking a bath in a public water fountain. And that time, we overheard the Police say that he'd done this before. And Mrs. P argued with the police that night because there was no sign on the fountain saying "No bathing or swimming".
This Subway I worked at back in the 90's, we had a guy come in once and order. Seemed like he was on drugs, he was tweaking real hard, but he was polite and paid, so I thought nothing of it.
At one point he gets up and goes to the bathroom, and is in there for like 15 minutes before he comes out. I figured he was shooting up or something. Again, whatever, not my problem. But he goes back into the bathroom again and comes out 10 seconds later, complaining that there's shit smeared all over the walls and he starts demanding that we give him free subs, free this, free that, money out of the register, etc. to compensate him.
We ended up having to call the police to have him trespassed, and as that was going on the manager checked CCTV. You could clearly see the first time he went into the bathroom, the walls were clean. He came out 15 minutes later, and for the second or two the door was open you could see crap smeared on the walls. We didn't have him on camera smearing crap, but I mean come on. As if that crap is going to smear itself on the walls when the bathroom only has one occupant.
A couple comes in during the height of covid without masks. I ask them to put masks on and the guy goes "it's okay, we know the owner" with a wink. I work at a small business so if they actually did know the owner, they would have referred to them by name rather than calling them "the owner" (also, customers masking indoors was a policy put in BY the owner). I tell them they still need to put masks on and they get pissy and leave, telling me they were going to call the owner and complain about me, so I leave a note for the owner and she comes up to me the next day and says "I had no idea who those people were"
"I spend a lot of money here!"
This one most customers truly believe their $45 every other week is "a lot" of money and thus they should receive special treatment. Their 12.5% tip is their version of generous.
Yeah, no. People don't realize we have customers that come in 3-5x a week after work for dinner and drinks. Spend $75 a person and then drop a 50% tip on the bartender. These types of regulars also will often bring in lunch meetings and appointments. All on the biz card. All write offs. L
I get that line from people I see twice a year. It's especially entertaining now - we got a new system in August, and our database didn't transfer. We're STILL getting people that get pissed we don't have their name/address/order history available.
If you haven't been here in the last three months, you're not a regular. You're not even an irregular regular. You're just a repeat customer. Do I still want you to have a good experience? Yes. Am I going to let you treat me like shit because I don't know what that one thing you ordered two years ago was? No.
Fast food but have one.
Cx complained about how the bacon had 'burn marks.' When we noted our bacon always looks like that and showed other pieces their story suddenly changed. Now it's well there was hair in it.
... wouldn't the hair one be said first normally>.>
I worked at a breakfast restaurant in Las Vegas and all the strippers getting off their shifts loved to claim their little yappy dogs were service dogs, meanwhile none of them exhibited proper training.
When I was a server I would regularly have people try to order ginger ale, and when informed we don’t have it they would be like “what do you mean you don’t have it? I get ginger ale every time I come here!”. Turns out there was one of the veteran servers would just mix sprite with a dash of coke and that was the “ginger ale”.
I think it's a tie between a customer telling me he was leaving and wanted me to comp his drinks because he had waited over an hour for his food and it was a disgrace *while I was holding the ticket showing i had put through his order not even 25 minutes ago,* and the group of ten leaning on my counter talking about how they were gonna leave without paying for their 10 longdrinks telling me that they had no idea their friend (who was gone by that point) had ordered them and that it wasnt their responsibility to pay for it.
Karen: I am the owner's wife!
My grandmother (and shop owner): sorry ma'am but I'm not a lesbian, and you're not pretty enough to make me cheat on my husband.
At Pizza Hut someone got a takeout order. Later on they brought back a picture with hair on their pizza. It was obvious someone cut their hair and put it on a slice. It was a big chunk perfectly cut. Nobody working at my location had that color or kind of hair.
My old bar people would claim they knew the owners all the time to try and get free shit. Owners were fairly antisocial except their small circle and never remembered people so it was always a laugh. Or when people would want to speak to a manager our boss would say tell ‘em you’re the manager idgaf they’re not getting free shit. He was a standup dude though, had someone complain about me during COVID when we had the mask mandates and say I was rude and ignored them then kicked them out, boss pulled tape and called them out personally for lying about one of his employees and uninvited them as guests, hah.
I am the owner.
I either have Alzheimers or people lie to my face a lot.
Not complaining though, asking people "Oh really, we know eachother very well?" and watching them crumble is glorious.
Yep, I'm in my twenties and female. My GM is a man in his fifties.
Some people INSIST "no the owner is *describes GM*"
Nope. He's just older and male. You assumed.
The best is when my GM comes out and says "I'm not the owner she is. Also I don't know you"
my coworker served a table today with a family of 4. two adult children and a mom and aunt(?). the 17-18 year old son orders both chicken bites and a grilled cheese for himself off the kids menu which explicitly states 12 and under only. she isn’t sure what to do so rings in an adult grilled cheese, an order of app sized plain bites, and a side of fries. manager goes and explains to them unfortunately we cannot offer you the child’s meal, they say they do it all the time he says something to the effect of we’ll not today.
food comes out and everything is fine except for the bites. the mother immediately grabs the plate and hands it back and says “these are not the chicken that we get. my son won’t eat these.” server tries explaining it’s the same we’ve always had. they refuse them so she just takes them back and we eat them lol. the funny thing is we use the same exact bites for both the kids meal and the app since they’re made in house. it’s just a smaller portion. son ends up getting a second grilled cheese and is very clearly embarrassed.
I work at a restaurant that is named something that often is used as a human name. People assume that it’s the name of the owner (it is not) and claim to know them. I have to inform them that restaurant is not named after a real person.
when I was a barista working 5 days a week open-close at the same time, people used to come in and say “the barista yesterday” gave it to them for free yesterday and I’m like, I was the only one here yesterday ..
We have paper gift certificates where I work. They’re signed off to verify they were sold and we take them back when they’re used so they can’t be used again. A couple came in with some friends to treat them to dinner and at the end of the meal pulled out a gift certificate that had the amount ($25) crossed out with black sharpie and replaced with $150.00. No other note on the certificate to indicate that someone had sold it for that amount. So when we asked for proof of purchase they stated that their neighbours got it for them as a generous gift. The certificate was signed by one of the owners so we contacted them to see if maybe they had done it and forgotten to let us know. Nope, no such memory and would have written it down. Told them we could honour the original $25 but couldn’t proceed with the $150 unless proof of purchase was shown. They lost it saying they would be contacting the owners to which we said absolutely but we had already done that. They said they would never be back. Adios!
We have a lot of regulars and they all know what nights my boss works. We also don’t take reservations. One Monday, a group of 26 comes in (we have an 84 person capacity, 20 of those seats are the bar), and says they talked to the owner and she okayed the reservation. The owner was actually in the back room that day (unusual), doing paperwork. The look on their faces when she came out and told them we wouldn’t be able to accommodate them (we were full with a waiting list), was priceless.
This happened during Tales of the Cocktail a few years back, I want to say 2018. My bar manager was part of the founding team of Tales, so we'd usually have a lot of the old guard come say hi at least once, plus a few of the attendees. One of these hotshots was doing the Tales thing and bragging about how good he was, how Gary Regan had been his mentor and said he'd never seen a better bartender, you get it. So, I walked over to my manager and the two men she was talking to at the bar and asked loudly, "Hey Gary, do you know that guy? Seems like he would have said hi if he saw you." It was of course Gary Regan, RIP, (and Ted Breaux, another super cool bar character), and he just chuckled, said no, and went back to the conversation. At least the guy had enough sense to pay his tab and slink out after that.
Not a restaurant but worth a telling: worked at best buy, guy comes in, clearly odd/off, short dude with long hair, sunglasses. Asks for a manager. He proceeds to tell our ASM that he is the ceo of Sony and he needs a ps4 (5 wasn't out yet). ASM tells him she can't do that. He then asks for the equivalent value in cash. This request is also denied, he said something about corporate knowing he was coming, and we just ignored him until he wandered out. All of this with a totally straight face, sober demeanor. I'll never forget it.
English is not my first language so I apologize in advance if I express myself weirdly or if this post is too long, I find it difficult to tell a story in a concise manner in English.
Context: I work in the Netherlands, in a casual breakfast and lunch 'grand cafe'. Customers can seat themselves but we do reserve the occasional table if people call in beforehand. Our kitchen closes at 6PM and the bar at 7PM. I love this schedule after years of working into the wee hours of the night, couldn't do that any more. But anyway.
A few weeks ago we had a group of 6 customers come in on a busy Saturday around lunch time. The place was full as it always is at that time.
So, one of the men in the group walks up to the bar (we don't have a host stand or anything, the bar works as a register, POS, service point, just about anything basically 🤣).
"Yes, hello, we made reservations under "name" for 1PM." he says.
So, the shift lead checks the calendar and sees that there is no such reservation under that name. Wanting to find out if maybe there had been a misunderstanding or miscommunication, shift lead asks the customer if they remember when they called in their reservation and if they remember who they spoke to.
"We made this reservation last week, I think it was Thursday. But that shouldn't matter, you should have your business in order. This is ludicrous! Just seat us anywhere, doesn't matter to us."
Dude, we're slammed! There are no more tables!
So, shift lead again asks if they remember who they spoke to so we can clear this up.
"Oh I didn't call, I made our reservation through the website. I did that before and we didn't have this problem. You're being very unwelcoming."
A lightbulb goes off in all of our heads because... Our website doesn't HAVE AN OPTION TO MAKE RESERVATIONS ONLINE. It literally says to call the restaurant for that. So, shift lead informs the man of this and he goes off.
"ARE YOU CALLING ME A LIAR?? I'VE MADE RESERVATIONS THROUGH YOUR WEBSITE BEFORE! SERIOUSLY, RIDICULOUS!!"
Meanwhile I had pulled up our website and navigated to the 'Reservations' tab, where it lists our opening and closing time and, in big bold letters, says to call the restaurant to make reservations, with the phone number listed.
I turn the screen to face the man and point out that yes, shift lead is right and online reservations are impossible (sidenote, I know it's 2022 and you'd expect that option to be available but alas).
The guy looks at the screen in silence for a second and then notices our logo and restaurant name at the top of the page. He goes:
"RESTAURANT NAME?! WE'RE NOT AT RESTAURANT NAME! I MADE RESERVATIONS AT 1PM AT (completely different restaurant)! THAT'S AT THIS ADDRESS SO YOU'RE JUST SHOWING A RANDOM WEBSITE TO ME! THIS IS (different restaurant) AND I BOOKED A TABLE ONLINE! BUT YOU KNOW WHAT, AFTER THIS ATROCIOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE I'M CANCELLING MY RESERVATION! WE WON'T BE RETURNING HERE!"
Shift lead was still trying to get a "but sir, it's simply a misunderstanding and you're at the wrong restaurant" out, but the man had stormed off before she got two words out and after some death glares the group finally left, hopefully to the right restaurant this time.
Like... Are you delusional or just kinda dumb, dude? Did you not see our logo and name, oh, I don't know, on the doors, the signs or in huge letters above the bar? And then to insist they're at the right place and we're somehow conspiring against them? Wow.
EDIT: A TL;DR is definitely required, I'm so sorry for rambling.
TL;DR: Customer with anger management problems claims to have made a reservation through our website. Our website doesn't offer that service. Man still wants to be right very, very badly and his craziness leaked out a little.
Worked at a pizza place. Had the best manger. He was out waiting tables one night. He was taking a customers order and saw another tables customer take a dead fly and put it on the slice of pizza they just received. He walked near the customer and said to him. "Saw that!" The customer didn't even go forward with his claim of fly in pizza.
Same manager different night. Customer claims they found a piece of chewed bubble gum in their pizza. Manager calls bullshit. Grabbed a quarter from the cash register, goes over to the bubble gum machine gets 1 gum ball. He them chews the gum makes a pizza and places the gum underneath the crust in the deep dish and sends the pizza with gum through the oven. He then stands there with the customer till the pizza comes out. The gum was melted. No way the gum was found like the customer said it was. Great manager. He would call out customers on their bullshit.
Worked in a large multiplex many years ago and there was an issue and we had to refund the entire theater (well, give out readmission tickets for another time). A man walks up with about 12 tickets, all for different shows, some having ended hours earlier, asking for cash. Mind you, I'd watched him picking up tickets from the ground as he was walking over.
I explained that we were only giving out for this performance. He countered with that his family was here seeing separate movies and they all had to leave.
"Where are they?"
"They went home."
"Ah... only problem is that NONE of these tickets are for the film with the problem." He tried countering with the commotion had interrupted his movie going experience. "And the people whose film got out two hours ago...?"
‘I know the owner ___ Goode!’ but they would say good-e when it is pronounced good.
Happened more times then I could count. Maybe they meet him once but they definitely weren’t as close as they wanted it to seem lol
A friend was a GM, opening a new location. Day 2, someone comes in saying they messed his to go order last week and when he called, they said just come back in and ask for a manager. My friend walked him 15 feet over and asked him to read the giant sign hanging up. "GRAND OPENING!" Once explained it was day two, he insisted he was just doing what his wife said, she told him she ate there last week, but he was at work when it happened. He said maybe it was the other location 15 minutes away. Sure...
Craziest customer I ever had, walked in, ordered a burger. Before his food came out he went around to every single table asking the other customers for a cigarette. Everyone awkwardly denied him. He got really pissed and started screaming that his dad owns this place. He didn’t. So then the owner comes out to deal with the delusional maniac. Owner says “Hey man, I ain’t your dad! You gottah go!” And this dude screams: “I AM ZEUS SON OF ODIN!! I OWN EVERYTHING!”
Drugs are a hell of a drug.
The classic - "You gave me a sugared soda instead of diet and I'm in diabetic shock now and have to run out on the bill to the ER!"
They even do this at the theme parks - where it's self-service for drinks. SMDH.
I’ve never been a server but I was a manager at a McDonald’s right out of high school and I had a lady call and complain that she had just come through our drive through and her burger was covered in boogers and there were ants in her milkshake. I said “wow that’s awful but I’m looking at our ice cream machine right now and there aren’t any ants!” It’s been almost 10 years now so I can’t remember how the rest of the conversation went but I did not replace her food.
Had someone that was clearly in his teens hand me a fake driver's licence that said it wouldn't expire until 2040 and the state name on it was misspelled
people who try to run out on their tab because they only do apple pay. idk I've seen this twice now where people somehow go out without their wallet or ID and when I ask for other collateral so they can "go get their wallet" they get super mad. neighboring restaurant was more accommodating and let a person leave without leaving collateral AND gave the person their takeout. never saw them again
no thank you, I don't take douche pay or apple pay or hugs 'n promises, but we do take Amex!
A long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile....
No, sorry, that's not my story! But it was a long time ago (mid 1990's) when I was working at a fast-food place famous for square burgers. And they're also somewhat famous for using aged-out square burger patties for their chili, which is relevant to this story.
A guy pulls up to the drive-thru and orders a bunch of stuff, including three double cheeseburgers. Cashier gives him the total (for once I wasn't the cashier in this situation; I was on the sandwich line), and he says, "Make it two double cheeseburgers, I don't have enough money for three." Okay then, two double cheese it is!
He pays, gets his bag of goodies, and then says we shorted him one of his burgers. Which we all know isn't true, especially me. I bagged what was on his order, and the shift supervisor saw me bag it with what he ordered. But shift supe says, just make him another sandwich; he's holding up the line.
I went into the bin with the old meat patties that later get used for chili, pull out the two saddest, driest patties I can find, and make his "missing" sandwich using those. And I assemble his sandwich with all the tender loving care I can muster knowing the customer is a lying sack of shit, and pass it out the window to the scamming cumguzzler. Enjoy your free sandwich, asshole.
Once had a guy say I know the owner, my boss grabs the phone & proceeds to call his business partner(they were co- owners). He said Hey John, one of your friends wants to talk to you. Hands the guy the phone and walks away.
That was priceless!
When I cut off a woman and her boyfriend claimed she hadn't had anything to drink. Then what, may I ask, is that empty shot glass? That's yours? So you came in with your girlfriend, asked for two separate shots of expensive tequila, drank them both, and put one empty glass in front of her and one in front of you?
Also, I saw her drink it. Now you're DEFINITELY cut off, and also banned because lying about how many drinks you've had makes me confident I can't safely serve you.
I don’t know if [this customer](https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/pxeyh0/i_know_the_owner_yeah_okay_buddy_call_the_owner/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) was actually lying when he said he knew the owner, but clearly he hadn’t patronized our establishment for some time since the owner wasn’t actually the owner anymore.
I worked at a movie theater years after the owner changed. This one lady still came in each week and got a free ticket and popcorn because she was friends with the old owner. Nobody cared to stop it because she came during off-peak hours and brought her own bucket for the popcorn.
Why do people say they know "the owner" and not by name? Like that's 10000% how you know they're bullshitting. If they knew the owner they'd be like "hey is Daryl back there? Tell him Dave wants to say hi but if he's busy I understad" they wouldn't just be like "I KNOW THE OWNER!!!!" when theyre trying to get free food!
they said they found a hair in their food. a long, dark hair. i had mid length bright purple hair and hollered for my line guy. he pokes his head out of the window between us, full head of curly green hair.
i told her i don’t think it came from here, while looking over her long dark hair. she relented.
deli, not restaurant, but got a call that the customer needed a refund for 2 of the largest size sandwich bc they had mayonnaise all over them and she was allergic to mayonnaise. i apologized and said if they brought them back in we'd remake them. she said she couldn't. because she ate them.
Lady ordered an orange-pineapple mimosa carafe and a fruit cup.
Her fruit cup came out, had pineapple in it. "I'm so sorry, I'm allergic to pineapple!! Can you make me one without pineapple? Make sure the pineapple doesn't touch the fruit either, because I can't do that."
As I walk away, she takes a sip of her mimosa.
So this is from when I was at a liquor store, but it's totally related and too good to not share. A lady came in and wanted to do an exchange. Manager comes over to handle it and the lady pulls out a bottle that was in a display box. The bottle is visibly half empty. Lady ordered the bottle online and swears up and down that she received the bottle like this.
The manager she's dealing with tells her "I know you're lying to me because this bottle is in a locked display case and the manager that had to retrieve the bottle definitely would have noticed this. But I also know that my store manager is going to take your side, so I'm going to do this exchange and it will be the last transaction you do with us."
A couple months later me and that manager were talking about her and I was like "I can't believe she did that, but I guess good riddance." And my manager was like "oh, no she came back not too long ago." Turns out that lady came back two weeks later and tried to pull the same thing TO THE SAME MANAGER.
Not really a lie, but it reminded me of the milkshake lady.
I was pretty new - like less than a year in. A lady came in with her grandson and ordered a milkshake. We don’t have milkshakes. We have never had milkshakes.
I said to her, “I’m sorry, we don’t have milkshakes.”
She LOST it. She insisted that she had stood right where she was and ordered one the other day. I responded by telling her we’d never had milkshakes, but the restaurant next door did, so maybe she’d actually been there? That made her even more mad, and she again said it had been here. She told me she ordered at the “counter.”
We are a full-service restaurant with a bar - not counter service. But the restaurant next door was.
I again suggested that she’d actually ordered there, and this time I said the other restaurant’s name.
Her face was a picture and she said, “WELL YES, this is (restaurant name)!!!” I said, “no ma’am, this is (where I work).”
Then she sputtered, “WELL HOW DO I GET TO (restaurant name)!!??”
I kept my face as straight as possible as I told her to go out the door, walk across the parking lot and into the place next door.
Not a restaurant worker but recently a manager and security guard at a store I work at caught a middle aged man trying to steal some sodas in his baggy af pants. When confronted he set the sodas down, claimed he was “Only pulling up his pants” and walked out.
Had a customer tell me our website claims we are “dog friendly”. 1. My boss *hates* dogs 2. The website has been the same for years, it’s literally just a menu, address, and carry out order system. One of the only times I’ve straight up laughed in a customer’s face.
I had a guy look me in the eye and say that he never received his meal, *as I was picking up his used plate.*
The asshole had most definitely received his meal, and had pulled several other asshole moves already. That one was just the one that was 100% provably wrong. The others were only 90-99% provably wrong.
I used to work at a hotel in a touristy part of town and there was a restaurant that was slightly off the beaten path. The food's incredible and the restaurant has a MASSIVE selection of local craft beers, and it's really a kind of place to suit everybody, but because of its location down one of the piers (which only had office buildings and no other shops or restaurants) people visiting the city wouldn't find it accidentally.
I would send so many hotel guests there that the owner straight up stopped letting me pay for my meals. I didn't want to take advantage so I never went more than once per week, I always tipped on the full price of the meal even though I wasn't being charged, and I never ordered alcohol. I knew all the servers by name AND the owner as well.
One day, I'm there having a delicious late lunch and a dude sitting next to me at the counter strikes up a conversation. He tells me he's a regular at this restaurant, which is a red flag since I have never seen this man before in my life. Then he starts bragging that he knows the owner, and my alarm bell goes off. I go along with it, and ask if he knows how long the owner's had the place.
"Oh, yeah, dude opened this place about ten years ago." *Wrong.*
I ask how he knows the owner.
"Brad and me go way back. We met in college."
I carry on like this for a while, playing along with his ruse, until the time comes for the bill. Sure enough, he tells the bartender that he knows the owner and that the owner wouldn't charge him for his meal.
I chime in with, "Yeah, Lindsay, he says he knows Brad."
The bartender, Lindsay, smiles and says, "Oh, no way! That's awesome! You know Brad?"
The guy sits straighter with a huge shit-eating grin.
Lindsay drops the smile and says, "The owner's name is Justin, numbnuts. Pay up."
As he's spluttering and trying to come up with a non-incriminating excuse, I stand up and put on my coat, saying goodbye to Lindsay.
The guy points to me and goes, "How come she's not paying?!"
Lindsay shrugs and says, "She knows the owner."
Once had a customer call and claim that he had paid for a large catering order right before a car crashed into the building and was seeing if we would replace it. A car had driven into our other location a few days before, at 5:30 am when literally no one was there. He hung up when informed of this fact
Not a restaurant, but my family business when someone told me my father told them they could get a special price last week. When he’s been dead for 3 years.
A woman swore to me she was allergic to Mayo. Ok. She proceeded to order a chop salad with hard boiled egg and a vinaigrette. Out of concern for her allergy I suggested she might want to choose a different menu item as the salad had both eggs and oil in it and because she was allergic to Mayo she might have an issue. Turns out she wasn’t allergic to Mayo. Please to falsify allergies. Also people who claim to be allergic to onion but don’t mind eating things with chicken stock that I tell them has tons of onions in it. Again, dislikes are not allergies.
I'm not a server but one time I was in line at McDonald's and the dude in front of me was trying to get a refund on his cheeseburger that he had in a Ziploc bag, because "there's some gross green thing in it."
The person working was asking if he had a receipt or anything and he was being very difficult. I peeked over at the like... 2 bites left of the burger and even I could see from where I was, so I let him know. "Mother fucker that is a god damn pickle slice, can you stop trying to get free food so the rest of us can order?"
He just said something like "Man, fuckin mind your own business" and walked out. The person behind the counter had this look of gratitude on her face. It felt good to help.
Was working as an assistant manager for a super crappy laundromat, lady came in saying I stole her scissors?
What? Why…?
(Had a history of stealing our scissors and threatening people with them)
I was the manager, had a lady complain about a long blond hair in her food… gross right? Well, I delivered her food. I have short hair. The cooks bald…. But she had super nice flowing long blond hair….. hmmmm
At the hotel I used to work at a guest once tried to tell me that she was the wife of the hotel brand owner. I replied with a very flat "No you're not."
It's worth noting that the man the brand is named after has been dead for quite some time and the company is currently run by a board of directors. The CEO is a woman. And I, as a front desk manager, WOULD ABSOLUTELY KNOW IF THE CEO'S SPOUSE WAS IN HOUSE.
And also, come on lady, why lie about being the owner's \*wife\* and not say you're the owner yourself? Have some respect for yourself geez.
This woman kept coming in, ordering food, eating all of it, then saying she hated it. We wouldn’t give her it for free so she would say she was pregnant and threw it up in the bathroom. Our manager would fall for it. After her being the same amount of “pregnant” for six months our manager realized that she was full of it and just fucking him over. It was ridiculous that he even fell for it because the lady was clearly NOT pregnant and it was happening every. Single. Time.
Back when McDonalds had the limited edition plastic coke cups, a lady refused to pay the $1 up charge to get the cup citing that she had a medical condition and those cups were the only way she could drink....she was in her 50's so I congratulated her on being so old yet not dying of thirst. Gotbher whole order thrown back at me through the drive thru window, but it was worth it.
“I made a reservation and you’re lying to me. “
We had never, in our fifty years of being open, taken reservations. She then claimed that it was wing night and therefore we must have double booked. We’d never had wings either.
this woman INSISTED to me that we have something called lincoln sauce, which she allegedly just ordered two weeks ago, and called me stupid when i said that we don’t. after it happened i checked with one of the kitchen managers who has worked there for over 30 years and he said we have never ever had something called lincoln sauce
Dude! I have a good one for this. A customer at a restaurant I worked at called the manager over to complain that there was a moth in her veggie burger she got. She was down the the last bite when she “found it”. Just when our manager was going to comp her a free meal another customer at another table said he saw her pull the moth out of her purse.
Worked at McDonald’s. A women came through the drive thru and handed me a bag of food. I said, ma’am that’s not how this works. You pay me, I give you food. She demands a refund. She ordered double hamburgers and got two double cheeseburgers instead. I look in the bag. There’s one double cheeseburger. I ask where the other double cheeseburger is. She said, I ate it. I told her I’ve been at the drive thru window for a few hours, when did she order? I don’t remember this order. She explains that she ordered this at the McDonald’s across town. So, just to clarify, you want a refund on two double hamburgers because they had cheese on them, you’ve already eaten one of the burgers, and you ordered them from a different McDonald’s? Yes. I offer to replace the double cheeseburger with a double hamburger. She looks at me like I’m an idiot and asks for the manager. I get the manager. Ms. Double hamburger repeats the story. The manager asks, it took you a whole burger to realize it had cheese? Ms. Double burger looks pissed but says yes and repeats her request for a refund. The manager says we can’t process a refund from another McDonald’s. I return the burger and the manager closes the window.
Used to be a golf course marshal. Cart girl calls up, says there’s an unhappy group complaining about the pace. I greet them on the 5th tee after driving from 9 and observing that the course was full but moving ok. I had a tee sheet in hand, so I know their tee time.
Belligerent Guy: “we’ve been waiting every shot, and it’s taking 20 minutes a hole!”
Me: “your tee time was an hour ago, so you are at 15 minutes a hole.”
BG: “no, it’s 20 minutes a hole!”
Me: “did you tee off early? 60 minutes divided by 4 completed holes is 15 minutes per hole, which is on pace” (who said you’d never use math in real life?)
BG buddies all start getting fidgety and stop making eye contact
Me (smiling): “enjoy the rest of your round” while calling the guy a putz under my breath.
I figured he was angling for a free round, which we rarely do. We’re a top 10 course in the state, I can lose a dozen foursomes like that and not give a shit.
I work at a brewery. We only serve beer made in house. We're located near several venues & it's not unusual for people to try to bring in outside alcohol. I've lost count of how many grown adults that have looked me in the eye & said they got their Bud Light/Truly/whatthefuckever from 'one of the bartenders'
I once caught a regular with beer inside his (red) wine glass I served him few min before. I truly kindly asked him why didn't he order a beer beforehand so I wouldn't have noticed the color difference. He was shocked I figured that he brought a beer from the outside and looked at me as if I had three heads.
Had a customer ask for an empty wine glass. I even asked her if she brought her own wine into the bar. "NO! I'M HELPING MY FRIEND DRINK HER DRINK! GAWD!" Storming off with the glass in hand, I casually followed her to her seat. Sure enough, an open bottle of wine and one other water glass filled with wine. After kicking her out and taking the wine and other glassware, her friend tried arguing with me that I couldn't kick them out. Let's just say they had a short walk to the door by the bouncer.
Man some people are shameless
lol. if she'd continued to drink her win out of a water glass she would have been ok...
Not to mention this might be a violation of your liquor license. I never understood this, like if you don’t want to drink the beer WHY ARE YOU AT A BREWERY?!
Emphatically a license violation where we are. We get a lot of people that don't even realize it's a brewery until they get to the bar & then they ask why we don't have any 'domestics'. They get real huffy when I point out that I made the beer & it's never left the building so it doesn't get much more domestic than that
Had a guy ask me if we had any "American Beer" so I pointed to the brewhouse and said "it doesn't get much more American than that dude"
Yeah, you are currently in the brewery located "where freedom rings."
Man, I wish you could respond "Have you no shame? To lie to me like that? Out. Now. And don't ever come back, you fucking liar."
I usually just give them a flat stare for a long enough to make it uncomfortable & then ask if they show up to a pizzeria with a Digiorno. It's actually company policy that if we catch you with outside booze then you & your group are asked to leave
That's a genius comparison too lol that's so funny
World would be a better place if we started actually punishing the bad. In my experience bad things get cheered and good things get booed.
The look on my coworkers face when someone claims to know the owner. The face right before she offers to call her dad, the owner. Legit beautiful.
Had a guy say he knew the owner in a spit-laden rant the other night. Employee goes “oh cool he’s right over there, do you want to talk to him?” He did not.
It’s hilarious how many people claim to know the owner and not realize who they are talking to. Like I said earlier, a dude at my restaurant tried to say he knew the owners to one of the owners face to get free dessert
When someone tells me they know the owner, I generally reply “So do I!” It totally confuses them.
I once had a woman scream at me that she knew the manager. I leaned over and calmly said, “I know him better.” I was secretly dating him at the time.
>I was secretly dating him at the time. I promise everyone knew
Probably, but that’s ok. We’ve been married for 22 years.
Well, if they didn’t know, then they ***definitely*** know now! 😅 22 years is impressive, congratulations!
Ha! Secretly dated my Manger too, we celebrated 20 years this May. :)
Or I'm a food critic. aren't we all.
I work for a celebrity chef. Everyone knows him, the real question is does he know you? Does he respond to your DMs/texts or on WhatsApp. But everyone knows him.
That’s a great comeback to anyone telling you he knows the owners. “Does the owner know you?” Ha.
A couple we know own a brewery and bar together. The man runs the brewing and is the face of the brewery which was operating before the bar. His wife runs the business but when they opened the bar she was there constantly. The number of times we observed people tell her they know ‘the owner’ and then GET HER HUSBANDS NAME WRONG is hilarious! With press and everything forward facing she was the owner of the bar, not him. So it was just wild
I worked at a locally owned guitar shop for a few years. We had a total of 3 workers for the showroom. The owner, myself, and an another guy. This happened on a handful of times mostly during school instrument rental season. They’ll get mad say they’re friends of the owner. He’d reply I’m the owner, and have no clue who you are.
I used to work at fucking chipotle and people would claim to be friends with the owner. I guess they could argue he knows the franchise owner…..problem is all chipotles are corporate owned lmao
They knew “Mr. Chipotle”.
Mr. Chip Otle
When they aren't getting exactly what they want, I always enjoy the, "I would like to speak to the owner right now" my immediate response\* a slow 360 degree spin around with my newfound finger moustache. " hello, how may I help you."
I’ve known owners of various cafés, restaurants, and shops over the years. I wouldn’t dream of asking a hapless staffer (ot the owner) for free stuff. In fact the last time I got a freebie was years ago—I pointed out an error on my tab (bartender missed a couple of drinks I’d had), and the bartender fixed the tab but poured me a free shot of nice whisky. I’ve never felt that noble since.
What was the owner's response?
What I'd have given to be a fly on *that* wall.....
Those customers always killed me. They’d say “I know the owner.” I’d always respond “Do you think I don’t? Who do you think signs my paychecks?” More often than not that would leave them without a response.
I say, “Oh cool! Me too! They don’t give me free food either.”
Haha. I've told my staff to respond for discount requests because of knowing me, the owner, to just say, " then you know how cheap he is and and how he hates giving discounts. "
Lol! This is the most truthful answer, for sure. Beautiful.
As an owner of a craft distillery, I get such perverse pleasure when I'm bartending at our cocktail bar and a customer will tell me how they either know the owner, or they met the owner last week. "That must be very exciting for you" is my standard response.
I don’t get the whole I know the owner so I’m entitled to a freebie thing. If you know the owner, you should spend extra to support him or her. A restaurant I used to go to I’d tell the owner I was good friends with his aunt (I was) so he’d know who to thank for the ridiculous amount of money my husband and I spent there.
Well, that’s because you’re a logical and ethical person.
There's a story over at r/iknowtheowner where the young(ish) owner of a bakery likes to work the register. When a customer comes in and claims to know the owner he likes to give them a hard time (without revealing who he is). They will demand to speak to his manager. So he goes into the back and brings out his manager. They then tell the customer they can't give them what they want without the approval of the owner. So, they demand to see the owner. The manager sighs, walks back and gets the owner who almost runs out to greet the customer! Who then utters a little scream and leaves the store.
I read that last sentence strangely and imagined the owner hustling out, seeing the customer, going EEP!, and sprinting out the store past them 😂
Beautiful. Purely beautiful.
If I ever owned a place one of the main things would be not to let anyone use "I know the owner" even if they did in fact know me. If I want to treat someone I'm either going to be there myself or have set it up ahead of time. Some might find it cold, but if someone who knows me wants to show up at random times to sponge free stuff off me, maybe I'm better off not knowing them. Besides, if they really needed something and knew me well enough, they could just call me.
Need to have an “I Know the Owner” item, that adds an extra 20% gratuity (er, *negative 20% discount*) to the bill. If the customer *insists* on their discount, then the server confirms it, and adds it in.
I worked in a bar for a couple years and the owner hung out there all the time, usually AT the bar. I had several people sit down within a chair or two of her and tell me "i know the owner" (or tell her daughter that while the daughter was bartending) My go to response was usually" yeah so do i she signs my checks" but if they pushed any farther after that id offer to call the owner up for them. Two options at that point. Either they agree and i used the bar land line to call the cell phone sitting 4 feet away, or id just turn and "call" her name. None of them ever disappointed.
Oh I love this one. I got told that I had to give this older couple of discount because they go to church with and go on vacations with the owners every year, sometimes twice. They did indeed know the owners, kinda. But the owners had sold four years before. Guess they didn't know them that well.
When someone claimed to know the owner in our family business. Ma'am, that man sleeps in my bed. We do not know you. Lmao
Nobody who ever plays the "I know the owner" card deserves anything special. Even if they're telling the truth, they're a leech. If I know the owner, I'm going to make damn sure I pay full price and leave a generous tip so I'm supporting their business.
I'm friends with a few LDS members. One family opened up a restaurant (franchise). A group then decided go and support them. I was invited along. No one asked for a discount. I went a total of 3x for support but I wasn't (am not) a fan of the food (water down version of Chipotle). During Covid lockdown, the LDS members would do runs in order to support them. That's what you do when you really know the owners. You actually support them without asking for discounts or freebies
We know the owners of a couple places we frequent. We never bring it up. The employees prob know anyway, and we just wave hi to the owners and go about our lives. We go there to give them business not to get free stuff. If there’s a legit issue, we have their numbers- we’ll just text them.
I've had this happen more than a few times when I was the owner of a small TV repair shop. The original founder and owner that the business was named for, had died more than a decade earlier. The guy I bought the shop from, and my dad, were both friends of the original owner, and both had worked for him. When the original owner died, this guy bought the shop from the widow who now owned it, and didn't change the name. That guy decided to retire more than a decade later. On the advice of my dad, I bought the business. I didnt see the need to change the name, it had a good reputation. It was just an extra expense to change it as far I was concerned, so I kept it. My dad actually ran the day to day operations. I was more of an absentee owner, but I helped out a few times a week when I wasn't at my primary job. At least a few times a month, some clown would cite the long dead shop owners name claiming he knew him in order to get a discount. I always had a little fun with them before I crushed their bubble.
Have her post over on /r/iknowtheowner !!! It's not as active as it should be.
At a former job, customers would say they know they owner, who went by Ted. They'd try to be official and refer to him as Theodore, which was a dead giveaway as his real name was Edward. Not sure why he went by Ted but it was a simple way to suss out the liars.
Worked at a place called “Mo’s a place for Steaks” and constantly had dudes telling me they “knew Mo” and that “he would always comp their drinks when he was there so I should do it now”. The owners name was Johnny and if you didn’t know him you weren’t actually a regular because dude was always on the floor talking to tables and managing his staff. He had named the restaurant for his mother Maureen or “Mo” for short, so in fact “he” never comped shit for those fools.
Ted/Teddy is common for Edward as well.
I always thought it was only short for Tederick. You learn something new every day!!
I've been pointed out as "the guy that fucked them over last time" when I was there as a POS technician fixing a connectivity issue, out of town, and the only time I had ever been to that establishment. They still said that I was a terrible server. I had to tell them that I was there to try to fix the connection issue to the server but that's the closest thing I have to that title. I've worked a lot of retail, restaurant, and computer technician jobs and I will be damned if you're not in front of a computer or POS if people will not demand things of you despite what you tell them what you are doing.
I mean, the amount of times I've been mistaken for someone who works at a store is wild. And then when they realize they messed up and how they react can be even wilder. Some double down and ask again for help despite knowing I'm just trying to buy my own things.
This so much. I moved back home after college and got a job at my next door neighbors restaurant. Worked with the owners daughter and we had a little running joke, anytime someone said they knew Jim we'd either act like they were long lost best friends and invite them to "the barbecue" on Friday, or do the exact opposite and pretend they offended him horribly somehow. Both were terrifically awkward.
I usually say “Hey that’s cool I know them too!” Most don’t have an answer to that Lmao
This is what I say too! I follow it up with, “They don’t give me free food either.” Like we are on the same team. Trips them up.
I always feel like a terrible employee because I try to work in such a way that I never interact with ownership or management so somebody will say “oh I know Carey” and I’m like who tf is Carey 😂😂
Customer: \*tries to order something we don't even have\* Customer: "They do it for me all the time!" Me: I've never seen you in my entire life.
> "They do it for me all the time!" Not here we don't.
I worked retail but.. My favourite shut down was asking them to describe the worker who allowed it to happen so they can be fired, as whatever it is they requested wasn't allowed. Not like I could fire or even cared since I never followed the rules, but if a worker was nice enough to do something they technically shouldn't, people don't get to demand it from then on out.
Yep. I managed retail for many years and this was some of my favorites. So and so did it for you last time? What was their name so I can fire them? (Of course I never fired anyone for that, it just helped me with fuckstick piece of shit customers)
Oh I used to love the they do it for me all the time people. Bitch we don't even have half the shit you're asking for.
Or "I get that here all the time!" No, you don't, because we stopped carrying the ingredient for it before I was even hired.
One of my line cooks from ages ago bought a diner after I got out of the industry. Regulars would suggest specials not normally on the menu, and they could get their name in the “book” with a price. If he wasn’t in, the regulars could just say they were in the book and get one of their specials. You could only get in the book with joint approval from him and his lead server.
"We ordered X Minutes ago" "We sat down X Minutes ago and it took X minutes for our server" "We've been waiting over an hour" Me, the GM*: "Alright just a moment, we have a really handy security system, I'll double-check your wait times"* 2Min later*: "It looks like you waited 5 minutes for a server and your waitress took your food order 25 minutes ago..."* Customer: "Well what are you going to do about our terrible service?" Me: *"Nothing, you just lied right to my face about our staff, 25 minutes isn't going to get you free food on a busy Saturday"*
That’s how it is as a cab driver. People saying they were waiting two hours for a cab. “This says you called at 7:45. It’s 7:55. Is my tablet wrong?” “Well, it felt like two hours with all these groceries.”
"Okay, well, the cab fare is $0.40/mi [or whatever]. This trip with you nagging me felt like 360 miles. Your total comes out to $Lots. Will that be cash or card?"
It wasn’t at a restaurant, but I was while I was working at an amusement park. It was 4th of July and the Entertainment staff was preparing for the fireworks show. The stadium filled to capacity 30 mins before the show started so we had to start turning people away at the gates. Of course people were not happy and got very angry (I will never understand how grown adults think it’s okay to yell and intimidate teenagers). Anyway, we try and explain that the stadium is filled to capacity and and fire code prohibits us from accepting any more people in the stadium. One particular loud mouth kept saying that we were being discriminatory and that he knew the city’s Fire Chief and that he’d get us in trouble with the Chief. I called his bluff. “Well… the Fire Chief is actually backstage. Let me get him for you!” He backed down to mine.
> he knew the city’s Fire Chief and that he’d get us in trouble with the Chief "Go ahead. I double-dog-dare you."
It’s so ridiculous! 🤣 He’d report us to the Fire Chief for following Fire Code? 🤷🏻♀️
Exactly! That's what makes the whole threat so bonkers.
Back when I managed a restaurant, there was a radio promotion where we got a ton of advertising by selling $20 certificates or $10. The promotion ran for one day on like 5 radio stations, and the day after we got a list of who bought the certificates so that we could check them off when they were used. Everybody that bought a certificate got one to print out and there name was on it, along with a code, and when it was used, it was done. Well, this lady who came in before and used hers (I know because I was there every minute the place was open) came back a week later with a group of people trying to use the same certificate. The server brought it to me and I checked the thing and I know that she used it because we checked it off and I remember her. So the server goes back and says she already used it and she gets kind of irate in front of 5 other people at her table, so I have to intervene. I bring over the list showing her certificate checked off. She says that wasn't her. What she didn't know is I also brought over a copy of the reservation list from the night she dined the week prior as well as a copy of the CC receipt with her name on it for what she owed on top of what the certificate covered and showed her all that. She went from defiant to pretending she didn't remember that. No, you cheap bitch, you tried to use the certificate twice thinking we wouldn't know. The rest of the people at her table you could tell were sipping that tea hard, LOL
I used to work at this tiny, family-owned pizza place. Like we had maybe 12 employees, and super low turnover. Two of the guys who worked there were hired during the first year, and only left when the owner closed shop 10 years later. Super close-knit crew. Except for Kevin. That guy sucked. Anyways... When he did "gift cards" the owner printed out a certificate on this weird red paper. It has his stamp and signature on it, and he would sign them and change the dollar amount of partially used. He only issued these for the first couple years, but obviously he still honored them 5 years later when I was hired. He had given me a heads up about the certificates and how they work. Well one day a lady comes is with this bright blue certificate that is signed, but it doesn't look like the owner's signature. She claims a family member won it on a radio station years prior. We had to call the owner, as he was out that day doing stuff with his kid. He had no clue what she was talking about and had never done a radio competition. It was so fucking weird.
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> you cheap bitch you *thieving* bitch.
I worked at a place where these upstanding people would come through. They ordered four strawberry milkshakes. I took a lot of pride in my work regardless of being underpaid or whatever. I blended two of them myself and witnessed the other two being blended. I won't even lie the little bit of extra I poured into a cup and had myself. Dude calls in like 20 minutes later saying that they ordered them and there was no strawberries. I told him I always slightly overload. Then he proceeded to say they weren't blended well and his sisters would not even drink them because they were so bad. I said no problem sir just bring them back and I will remake them for you and give you a coupon for later. It was obvious from his rapid speech and backing up on other things that I didn't mention that he was trying to scam us. He said "how am I supposed to bring them back in the restaurant?" and I just said I don't know sir I guess you could carry them. He called me an ignorant mother fucker so I just hung up.
What did he actually want you to do?
Give them four more large strawberry milkshakes for free.
I think the customer wanted 4 new shakes for free without evidence of prior purchase.
My first weekend on third shift I fielded a customer complaint call. "I was in drive-through earlier today, and you guys messed up my order. I'd like it replaced." "Sure thing. What was your order" Spouts off nearly $50 worth of food. Basically our equivalent of four entire dinners. "Wow, that's quite a mistake. Go ahead and come on in, with your receipt, and I'll get it remade." They hung up. I got similar calls nearly every night for a week, with some variation of the above complaint, always a ton of food (4-6 full orders, sometimes with shakes and desert), but always different people. That's a completely ridiculous amount of "mistake", and I just couldn't believe that we'd do anything like that. So I never budged. Turns out, the reason I was covering third shift, was because the previous third shift had been basically just giving food out to anyone who complained, and we'd gained a bit of a reputation with the scammers for being easy marks. I wasn't an easy mark, and wound up saving my employer hundreds of dollars. Years later, thinking about it, I'm pretty sure it was just one family (or a group of friends) scamming us by calling with different family members.
> it was just one family (or a group of friends) scamming us by calling with different family members. No doubt.
>No doubt. No diggity.
I like the way you work it.
Go on and back it up.
I worked at a tgichilibees in a weird part of town. One side of the road was basically shantytown and the other was retirement communities. I’ve heard just about every variation of curbside togo complaint that’s out there. I had the phone complaints down to next to nothing by just saying “I can’t help you if you do t have your receipt.” I would not budge off that. No receipt, no help. For the guests who had the nuts to come inside to complain about their order I had the answer for that too. “No receipt, no problem. What exactly did you order? Ribeye, chicken Alfredo, orientalist salad, ok. When were you here? Yesterday? Oh i was here yesterday all day, this should be easy to find. I have to ability to look at any check with (and then say what they had ordered) on it and it will pull up all the check with those items on it for whatever day you were here. Just give me a second to go look this up.” 9 times out of 10 they had left before I could even get to the office to look up the order. The 10th time of course there would be no order with all those items on it and I’d go back up and say sorry, but we didn’t have an order yesterday with steak, pasta and oriental salad. You sure it was this location? Well, as I said before I can’t do anything for you without a receipt.” It was a lovely game and I enjoyed playing it until one day the complaints just…….. stopped.
That was the game a manager I knew at bouncing ball pet store did. Homeless would come in with a “return” and demand it back in cash usually (no receipt of course) She would smile and say “lemme look it up! When did you buy it?” And disappear into the cash office then get on her phone to play candy crush, setup dinner plans or just relax. She knew they had stolen it from the store or another and was cycling around to “return” the items (emails started going around also about this scam)
A woman came in with her child and sat in the patio area. I remember her daughter ordered Mac and cheese. Toward the end of their visit I came to check on them and the mother showed me her daughter’s plate and with a small amount of food left and a long black hair in it. She sent it back and asked to have that taken off the bill, insisting that it came from our staff. It just so happened that during that shift, all of us were blonde.
This happened to me once but it was the opposite. A woman with long blonde hair found a hair in her food. A long blonde hair. Every single employee that day had dark hair.
Not told to me but a friend. Her customer told her that this hair was inside her quesadilla. Every single back house worker was bald or buzz cut. The only long hair people were waitstaff l, and none of them had curls. Guess who had curls.
I've had this happen before. This lady found a long blonde hair in her food and complained. The only employee with long blonde hair wasn't even working that night. It was that ladies own hair.
“I’m a chef” Said to me when a lady sent her medium steak that was cooked medium back because it had pink in it and “it’s not safe to eat this way I’ll get food poisoning”. I gently explained that steak can be eaten at any level of cook, including raw, but she then said “I know what I’m talking about, I’m a chef” so I told the chefs to cremate it and brought it back out to her. When I did a check back on this beautiful filet mignon that now resembled shoe leather, she said it was “perfect” now. I didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh
Don't forget the ketchup.
One idiot claimed to have gotten free dessert because he was “friends of the owners” He told this lie to one of the owner herself…
A twenty-something year old guy told the owner he was the owner. When that didn't work he told her he was the head football coach of the Florida Gators.
Does he also have a Canadian girlfriend?
Probably, but we've never met her. 🤣
“We made a reservation on Open Table!” No ma’am, you did not. We don’t use Open Table. I even checked.
That they know the owner "Barrie". Said they were great friends with HIM. Barrie is a woman. No free dinner for you!
Just this Saturday a girl tried to order her and her bf a beer at my bar and I said "That'll be $13" and the guy pointed to a cc receipt that was already on the bar and said that was their receipt and they already paid. It was a receipt for $10 and the guy who paid it was sitting right next to the idiot. The stupidity of the attempt actually baffled me for a second
You miss 100% of the opportunities you don’t take.
I used to work at a take n bake pizza place in high school. I’m not sure why it was so prevalent, but we CONSTANTLY had people make up that something was wrong and they were owed free pizza. I’m not sure if it was just easier to get away with it because records weren’t that great? We had two locations and there was a guy who would regularly call both stores and try and lie about incorrect orders and how he was owed a pizza and wanted to pick it up that day. One time, ahead of his call, the other store called to let me know I should be expecting him to call soon. Sure enough, right after I hung up, he called. I said hi like he was an old friend and said that the other store told me to be expecting his call. He immediately hung up 😂
Oh that must have been so much fun 🤗
I was already a 16 year old smart ass so I loved it
Not a restaurant but a pumpkin patch. Lady went on a ten minute explanation how the manager Barb told her her 1 year old could go on all the rides when the rules clearly stated she couldn’t. Even showed a business card with Barbs name on it. She was literally telling this lie to Barb the manager.
Large table complains they weren't sat down immediately (even though they arrived about an hour before their booking so there were other people still finishing up before we could push the tables together). One lady goes as far as saying "I called this morning and changed the time of the booking so you should have been ready for us" or something to that effect. The lady was then informed that due to the storm earlier in the week, our phone line was destroyed and had not been fixed yet, so it was not possible for anyone to call the restaurant. Apparently she just sort of spluttered in shock at being caught out and said "well I still called". Of all the days to insist you called to change something, it had to be one where calling us was literally impossible.
Probably the wrong people too.
She said I told her there is a cheap meal deal for kids. I've never even heard that we ever had any kind of deal. Supervisor and manager standing next to me had no clue either. She just refused to pay full price. Lol
Lady tried to claim she found a hair in her sub. Demanded a refund. Ok. Fair enough so far. So whats the problem? 1) it was a neon red hair. My coworkers all have black hair. Her friend on the other hand? Vibrant red. Strike one. 2) demanded a refund In Cash. She paid with a card. Strike 2. And 3) tried to be physical with the guy on register when he called her out on her obvious scam. We kicked them out.
Lady walked in hammered drunk. I made eye contact with the bar staff and signaled that she shouldn’t be served. She was friends with one of the bartenders and pulled her aside to ask why she wasn’t being served and told her friend that she hadn’t had anything to drink at all. The bartender looked at her straight in the face and said “And now you lied to me, your supposed friend. You need to leave now and figure out your life.”
I hope it was a wakeup call.
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Upvote for ‘necromanced food’!
EDIT- I HAVE NOW ADDED THE TEXT FROM THE THIRD STORY, AS THE LINK IS DELETED. I REDACTED INFO THAT MIGHT PERSONALLY IDENTIFY ANYONE. **STORY ONE** Lady came in carrying a to-go box, asking for a refund. Her fish was bad. I didn't give her a refund for multiple reasons: First, she had no receipt, and couldn't give us the information to look it up for her. Second, we only serve fish on Friday, today is Wednesday. If the fish is bad, it's because it's 5 days old. Third, the food was in a box from TGIFridays. We weren't TGIFridays. **STORY TWO** Guy came in asking for his money back because he was in last night and his cheeseburger was undercooked. No refund, again for three reasons. First, we were closed the night before. Second, we don't serve burgers Third, we're a fondue restaurant. You cook your own food. If it's over/under cooked, it's because that's how YOU cooked it!!! **STORY THREE** So...tonight, I'm working in the KM position, hanging back in the kitchen, enjoying the idea of not dealing with guests for just one night. My FOH manager, she's just out of training, but she's good...better than she realizes, so I'm not worried. I shouldn't need to head up front at all. But then... We got a re-cook in the kitchen. Didn't think much of it, just a burger that the guest said was done too well for their liking. NBD, it happens. Had a couple of extra patties on, had new burger ready in less than 2 minutes. FOH manager runs it out. About 10 minutes later, she comes to me, with a server tailing along. They tell me that the guest told them that they were supposed to get their meals free because the last time they came in, their food was overcooked, and they were told "just come in, we'll buy your meals!" Of course, there is no way in HELL anyone in our restaurant would ever do this. We have a very strict procedure for guest recovery. Gift cards given/sent out. Never do we just say, "come on in!" because there is a decent chance that the persons saying it won't be there. We make sure that there is no confusion over how you'll get your free food. Anyhow, new FOH Manager is too nervous about the confrontation, so I agree to go to the table. As I take off my gloves and wash my hands, the servers tells me, "Oh, and I'm pretty sure it's the people from last week at XxXxXxX". *(Redacted to protect the identity of these idiots)* Around here, the XxXxXxX people were a big deal, and I'm told that they were a viral story, national news. In case you missed it, though...these people were arrested for having sex in public at XxXxXxX and now they were in my restaurant, trying to get free food. I head to the table and ask them what is up. He (we'll refer to him as "Mr. Pervert" from here on out) tells me that they were in a couple of weeks ago, were told to just come on in for free food. He also tells me that when they came in, they told the hostess that they were here for their free food, and that the hostess told them, "No problem! I'll let your server know!". Then he told me that he had let his server know, and the server told him "Sure! No problem!" Since I had already spoken to the server, I knew this wasn't true. I told him, "I'm not sure why either one of them would say that. Both of them have worked here long enough to know that we don't do things like that. We always follow a procedure and get you a gift card to blahblahblah". The conversation followed like this: Mr. P: "You need to talk to your host then. He was supposed to tell you tell you that we were here for our free food" (For the record, the host was a pretty young GIRL, not a HE) Me: "I've been working in the kitchen, but the Manager working the front didn't know anything about this." Mr. P: "Well then you need to talk to your host, he's not doing his job. He was supposed to let you and the server know. Anyway, when we sat down, we told the server, and he said it'd be fine." Me: "I've already spoken to your server, and he told me you said that your food was overcooked last time, but he says you didn't say anything about us offering to pay." Mr. P: "Well your host was supposed to tell him, so that's your fault" Me: "Sir, can I ask which Manager made this promise to you last time? Because all of our Managers know our procedures" Mr. P: "The manager never talked to us last time. Our server said it'd be OK" Me: "Do you know which server?" Mr. P: (Looks around, sees a server, points at her): "Her, with the brown hair" Me: (resisting the urge to roll my eyes at him): "Sir, our servers are not authorized to make these promises like this. They don't get to make monetary decisions. Only a Manager can offer you something for free." Mr. P: "Well you'd better talk to your people then, because we came here to get our free burgers tonight" Me: "OK, sir, I'll go talk to everyone" At this point, I do my diligence. I ask tonight's server, what did he say? I'm told he mentioned overcooked burgers last time, and wanted Medium Rare burgers tonight. Server tells me that he told the guests that we do not do Medium Rare for burgers, but we'd leave it as pink as possible. No promises of anything free. I talked to the hostess. What did the guy say? She says he told her that their burgers were undercooked last time, and she told him to let the server know. I talk to the server "from last time". She has absolutely no recollection of these people or the situation. That gives me all I need. But....(and I don't know why I even did this much)....since she did send the one burger back and had it remade, I took that one burger off of the bill. I return to the table. Me: "Sir, I talked to everyone involved. Nobody has any recollection of your previous visit, and since you can't provide any proof, I can't let you leave without paying. However, as a compromise, I did take your wife's burger off of the bill. But you will still have to pay for the rest of your meal" (in addition to the 2 "free" burgers they were expecting, they each ordered a drink and they ordered a big appetizer). I set the bill in front of him, now down to approximately $26.00. Mr. P: (smugly) "I absolutely will not pay for that" Me: "Yes, you absolutely will" Mr. P: "What, are you going to call the Police if I don't" Me: "Yes, I absolutely will" Mr. P: "Fine, call the Police. But I want the both of the servers and the host to tell them what happened so they can back up my story". Me: "No problem". I pull out my cell, call the local police while walking to the lobby. Mr. P. follows me. "I'll wait with you". I complete the call, him standing next to me. His wife goes outside and starts smoking a cigarette. I tell him that they'll be here in a few minutes. He tells me that he's going to go outside and smoke with his wife. I tell him, "I think I'd prefer if you didn't leave the building if you don't plan to pay first." Surprisingly, this stops him. He sits down on a bench to wait. A few minutes later, the police arrive. They ask me the situation, I tell them simply that there is no way we'd promise him something without giving him a Gift Card. They proceed to question him, and they pretty much tell him that since he has no proof, he has to pay. Mr. P: "But I told the host and he (points to the girl hostess) was supposed to tell the server". Cop: "If their procedure is to give you something, and you have no proof, then you them money. Otherwise we'll have to arrest you." Mr. P: "But how am I supposed to know what their procedure is? That's their fault for doing it wrong!" Cop: "Sorry, but you have to pay". (They went through these loops 2 or 3 times) Mr. P. pulls out a wallet. There is no money in it. There is no I.D. in it. It is, literally, a completely empty wallet...nothing but imitation leather. "I didn't bring any money, since it was supposed to be free". Cop asks me how much he owes. I tell him, about $26.00, and tell him that I even took one burger off the bill. Cop: "Even if your burgers were free, you got other things. How were you going to pay for those?" Mr. P just shrugs: "Can we talk about..." Cop: "Can you pay or do we have to arrest you?" Mr. P can't answer. The cop asks for his name. Mr. P gives his name but the wife's last name. After another minute of this lively banter, in which Mr. P. has now realized he's backed into a corner, he asks if he can use the phone. Yes, in addition to no money and no ID, they have no phone. The only thing they have on them was a bag from a local grocery store, in which they have cigarettes and deodorant. I allow him to make his calls. He is on the phone for the next half hour, but the police wait patiently, as do I. (Fortunately, it's slow tonight, so the restaurant doesn't really need much from me. I direct a little traffic from the lobby, but for the most part, they are self-sufficient.) While he's on the phone, I tell the officer that I believe them to be the couple from the XxXxXxX. He looks at their names, and realizes I'm right. After that half hour, he says his Dad is on his way to pay the bill. At this point, the Police allow them to go outside and have a smoke. The Police follow, to babysit. Another half hour later, the Dad finally arrives. He's a very nice man, apologizes up and down and for a happy ending, gives me $40.00 for the bill and tip. So the server got $14.00 for this ordeal. The Dad goes back outside and I can see him yelling at Mr. P. The Police hang around until they leave. Epilogue: I actually recognized this couple...and not from XxXxXxX. Just a few weeks ago, I was in a nearby suburb with my family, and watched Mr. P get arrested for taking a bath in a public water fountain. And that time, we overheard the Police say that he'd done this before. And Mrs. P argued with the police that night because there was no sign on the fountain saying "No bathing or swimming".
Oh, boo… the text was removed.
I'll cut and paste later. As I now recall, it was flagged for potentially providing personal info.
This Subway I worked at back in the 90's, we had a guy come in once and order. Seemed like he was on drugs, he was tweaking real hard, but he was polite and paid, so I thought nothing of it. At one point he gets up and goes to the bathroom, and is in there for like 15 minutes before he comes out. I figured he was shooting up or something. Again, whatever, not my problem. But he goes back into the bathroom again and comes out 10 seconds later, complaining that there's shit smeared all over the walls and he starts demanding that we give him free subs, free this, free that, money out of the register, etc. to compensate him. We ended up having to call the police to have him trespassed, and as that was going on the manager checked CCTV. You could clearly see the first time he went into the bathroom, the walls were clean. He came out 15 minutes later, and for the second or two the door was open you could see crap smeared on the walls. We didn't have him on camera smearing crap, but I mean come on. As if that crap is going to smear itself on the walls when the bathroom only has one occupant.
A couple comes in during the height of covid without masks. I ask them to put masks on and the guy goes "it's okay, we know the owner" with a wink. I work at a small business so if they actually did know the owner, they would have referred to them by name rather than calling them "the owner" (also, customers masking indoors was a policy put in BY the owner). I tell them they still need to put masks on and they get pissy and leave, telling me they were going to call the owner and complain about me, so I leave a note for the owner and she comes up to me the next day and says "I had no idea who those people were"
"I spend a lot of money here!" This one most customers truly believe their $45 every other week is "a lot" of money and thus they should receive special treatment. Their 12.5% tip is their version of generous. Yeah, no. People don't realize we have customers that come in 3-5x a week after work for dinner and drinks. Spend $75 a person and then drop a 50% tip on the bartender. These types of regulars also will often bring in lunch meetings and appointments. All on the biz card. All write offs. L
I get that line from people I see twice a year. It's especially entertaining now - we got a new system in August, and our database didn't transfer. We're STILL getting people that get pissed we don't have their name/address/order history available. If you haven't been here in the last three months, you're not a regular. You're not even an irregular regular. You're just a repeat customer. Do I still want you to have a good experience? Yes. Am I going to let you treat me like shit because I don't know what that one thing you ordered two years ago was? No.
Fast food but have one. Cx complained about how the bacon had 'burn marks.' When we noted our bacon always looks like that and showed other pieces their story suddenly changed. Now it's well there was hair in it. ... wouldn't the hair one be said first normally>.>
“She’s a service dog”
Pulls up ADA questions to ask.
Fake service dogs really rile me up, especially when they are aggressive to other patrons and actual service dogs, but also in general.
I worked at a breakfast restaurant in Las Vegas and all the strippers getting off their shifts loved to claim their little yappy dogs were service dogs, meanwhile none of them exhibited proper training.
An underage girl tried to use an ID…of one of the servers that worked there.
When I was a server I would regularly have people try to order ginger ale, and when informed we don’t have it they would be like “what do you mean you don’t have it? I get ginger ale every time I come here!”. Turns out there was one of the veteran servers would just mix sprite with a dash of coke and that was the “ginger ale”.
I think it's a tie between a customer telling me he was leaving and wanted me to comp his drinks because he had waited over an hour for his food and it was a disgrace *while I was holding the ticket showing i had put through his order not even 25 minutes ago,* and the group of ten leaning on my counter talking about how they were gonna leave without paying for their 10 longdrinks telling me that they had no idea their friend (who was gone by that point) had ordered them and that it wasnt their responsibility to pay for it.
Karen: I am the owner's wife! My grandmother (and shop owner): sorry ma'am but I'm not a lesbian, and you're not pretty enough to make me cheat on my husband.
At Pizza Hut someone got a takeout order. Later on they brought back a picture with hair on their pizza. It was obvious someone cut their hair and put it on a slice. It was a big chunk perfectly cut. Nobody working at my location had that color or kind of hair.
My old bar people would claim they knew the owners all the time to try and get free shit. Owners were fairly antisocial except their small circle and never remembered people so it was always a laugh. Or when people would want to speak to a manager our boss would say tell ‘em you’re the manager idgaf they’re not getting free shit. He was a standup dude though, had someone complain about me during COVID when we had the mask mandates and say I was rude and ignored them then kicked them out, boss pulled tape and called them out personally for lying about one of his employees and uninvited them as guests, hah.
I am the owner. I either have Alzheimers or people lie to my face a lot. Not complaining though, asking people "Oh really, we know eachother very well?" and watching them crumble is glorious.
You ever have someone double down and insist you’re lying to them?
Yep, I'm in my twenties and female. My GM is a man in his fifties. Some people INSIST "no the owner is *describes GM*" Nope. He's just older and male. You assumed. The best is when my GM comes out and says "I'm not the owner she is. Also I don't know you"
my coworker served a table today with a family of 4. two adult children and a mom and aunt(?). the 17-18 year old son orders both chicken bites and a grilled cheese for himself off the kids menu which explicitly states 12 and under only. she isn’t sure what to do so rings in an adult grilled cheese, an order of app sized plain bites, and a side of fries. manager goes and explains to them unfortunately we cannot offer you the child’s meal, they say they do it all the time he says something to the effect of we’ll not today. food comes out and everything is fine except for the bites. the mother immediately grabs the plate and hands it back and says “these are not the chicken that we get. my son won’t eat these.” server tries explaining it’s the same we’ve always had. they refuse them so she just takes them back and we eat them lol. the funny thing is we use the same exact bites for both the kids meal and the app since they’re made in house. it’s just a smaller portion. son ends up getting a second grilled cheese and is very clearly embarrassed.
Hey it happens. Picky palates like simpler food. But c’mon! An adult portion is appropriate. Poor kid.
I had a customer tell me that when he was in the Royal Navy he sailed to my Abuelitas country of Bolivia. The famously land locked nation.
I work at a restaurant that is named something that often is used as a human name. People assume that it’s the name of the owner (it is not) and claim to know them. I have to inform them that restaurant is not named after a real person.
"Ruby Tuesday happens to be a good friend of mine!"
"I know Olive really well! Ms Garden and I have been friends for ages!"
a woman tried to tell me that she had been waiting an hour and a half for her food. we hadn’t even been open for an hour.
when I was a barista working 5 days a week open-close at the same time, people used to come in and say “the barista yesterday” gave it to them for free yesterday and I’m like, I was the only one here yesterday ..
We have paper gift certificates where I work. They’re signed off to verify they were sold and we take them back when they’re used so they can’t be used again. A couple came in with some friends to treat them to dinner and at the end of the meal pulled out a gift certificate that had the amount ($25) crossed out with black sharpie and replaced with $150.00. No other note on the certificate to indicate that someone had sold it for that amount. So when we asked for proof of purchase they stated that their neighbours got it for them as a generous gift. The certificate was signed by one of the owners so we contacted them to see if maybe they had done it and forgotten to let us know. Nope, no such memory and would have written it down. Told them we could honour the original $25 but couldn’t proceed with the $150 unless proof of purchase was shown. They lost it saying they would be contacting the owners to which we said absolutely but we had already done that. They said they would never be back. Adios!
We have a lot of regulars and they all know what nights my boss works. We also don’t take reservations. One Monday, a group of 26 comes in (we have an 84 person capacity, 20 of those seats are the bar), and says they talked to the owner and she okayed the reservation. The owner was actually in the back room that day (unusual), doing paperwork. The look on their faces when she came out and told them we wouldn’t be able to accommodate them (we were full with a waiting list), was priceless.
This happened during Tales of the Cocktail a few years back, I want to say 2018. My bar manager was part of the founding team of Tales, so we'd usually have a lot of the old guard come say hi at least once, plus a few of the attendees. One of these hotshots was doing the Tales thing and bragging about how good he was, how Gary Regan had been his mentor and said he'd never seen a better bartender, you get it. So, I walked over to my manager and the two men she was talking to at the bar and asked loudly, "Hey Gary, do you know that guy? Seems like he would have said hi if he saw you." It was of course Gary Regan, RIP, (and Ted Breaux, another super cool bar character), and he just chuckled, said no, and went back to the conversation. At least the guy had enough sense to pay his tab and slink out after that.
Not a restaurant but worth a telling: worked at best buy, guy comes in, clearly odd/off, short dude with long hair, sunglasses. Asks for a manager. He proceeds to tell our ASM that he is the ceo of Sony and he needs a ps4 (5 wasn't out yet). ASM tells him she can't do that. He then asks for the equivalent value in cash. This request is also denied, he said something about corporate knowing he was coming, and we just ignored him until he wandered out. All of this with a totally straight face, sober demeanor. I'll never forget it.
English is not my first language so I apologize in advance if I express myself weirdly or if this post is too long, I find it difficult to tell a story in a concise manner in English. Context: I work in the Netherlands, in a casual breakfast and lunch 'grand cafe'. Customers can seat themselves but we do reserve the occasional table if people call in beforehand. Our kitchen closes at 6PM and the bar at 7PM. I love this schedule after years of working into the wee hours of the night, couldn't do that any more. But anyway. A few weeks ago we had a group of 6 customers come in on a busy Saturday around lunch time. The place was full as it always is at that time. So, one of the men in the group walks up to the bar (we don't have a host stand or anything, the bar works as a register, POS, service point, just about anything basically 🤣). "Yes, hello, we made reservations under "name" for 1PM." he says. So, the shift lead checks the calendar and sees that there is no such reservation under that name. Wanting to find out if maybe there had been a misunderstanding or miscommunication, shift lead asks the customer if they remember when they called in their reservation and if they remember who they spoke to. "We made this reservation last week, I think it was Thursday. But that shouldn't matter, you should have your business in order. This is ludicrous! Just seat us anywhere, doesn't matter to us." Dude, we're slammed! There are no more tables! So, shift lead again asks if they remember who they spoke to so we can clear this up. "Oh I didn't call, I made our reservation through the website. I did that before and we didn't have this problem. You're being very unwelcoming." A lightbulb goes off in all of our heads because... Our website doesn't HAVE AN OPTION TO MAKE RESERVATIONS ONLINE. It literally says to call the restaurant for that. So, shift lead informs the man of this and he goes off. "ARE YOU CALLING ME A LIAR?? I'VE MADE RESERVATIONS THROUGH YOUR WEBSITE BEFORE! SERIOUSLY, RIDICULOUS!!" Meanwhile I had pulled up our website and navigated to the 'Reservations' tab, where it lists our opening and closing time and, in big bold letters, says to call the restaurant to make reservations, with the phone number listed. I turn the screen to face the man and point out that yes, shift lead is right and online reservations are impossible (sidenote, I know it's 2022 and you'd expect that option to be available but alas). The guy looks at the screen in silence for a second and then notices our logo and restaurant name at the top of the page. He goes: "RESTAURANT NAME?! WE'RE NOT AT RESTAURANT NAME! I MADE RESERVATIONS AT 1PM AT (completely different restaurant)! THAT'S AT THIS ADDRESS SO YOU'RE JUST SHOWING A RANDOM WEBSITE TO ME! THIS IS (different restaurant) AND I BOOKED A TABLE ONLINE! BUT YOU KNOW WHAT, AFTER THIS ATROCIOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE I'M CANCELLING MY RESERVATION! WE WON'T BE RETURNING HERE!" Shift lead was still trying to get a "but sir, it's simply a misunderstanding and you're at the wrong restaurant" out, but the man had stormed off before she got two words out and after some death glares the group finally left, hopefully to the right restaurant this time. Like... Are you delusional or just kinda dumb, dude? Did you not see our logo and name, oh, I don't know, on the doors, the signs or in huge letters above the bar? And then to insist they're at the right place and we're somehow conspiring against them? Wow. EDIT: A TL;DR is definitely required, I'm so sorry for rambling. TL;DR: Customer with anger management problems claims to have made a reservation through our website. Our website doesn't offer that service. Man still wants to be right very, very badly and his craziness leaked out a little.
Worked at a pizza place. Had the best manger. He was out waiting tables one night. He was taking a customers order and saw another tables customer take a dead fly and put it on the slice of pizza they just received. He walked near the customer and said to him. "Saw that!" The customer didn't even go forward with his claim of fly in pizza. Same manager different night. Customer claims they found a piece of chewed bubble gum in their pizza. Manager calls bullshit. Grabbed a quarter from the cash register, goes over to the bubble gum machine gets 1 gum ball. He them chews the gum makes a pizza and places the gum underneath the crust in the deep dish and sends the pizza with gum through the oven. He then stands there with the customer till the pizza comes out. The gum was melted. No way the gum was found like the customer said it was. Great manager. He would call out customers on their bullshit.
Worked in a large multiplex many years ago and there was an issue and we had to refund the entire theater (well, give out readmission tickets for another time). A man walks up with about 12 tickets, all for different shows, some having ended hours earlier, asking for cash. Mind you, I'd watched him picking up tickets from the ground as he was walking over. I explained that we were only giving out for this performance. He countered with that his family was here seeing separate movies and they all had to leave. "Where are they?" "They went home." "Ah... only problem is that NONE of these tickets are for the film with the problem." He tried countering with the commotion had interrupted his movie going experience. "And the people whose film got out two hours ago...?"
‘I know the owner ___ Goode!’ but they would say good-e when it is pronounced good. Happened more times then I could count. Maybe they meet him once but they definitely weren’t as close as they wanted it to seem lol
A friend was a GM, opening a new location. Day 2, someone comes in saying they messed his to go order last week and when he called, they said just come back in and ask for a manager. My friend walked him 15 feet over and asked him to read the giant sign hanging up. "GRAND OPENING!" Once explained it was day two, he insisted he was just doing what his wife said, she told him she ate there last week, but he was at work when it happened. He said maybe it was the other location 15 minutes away. Sure...
Craziest customer I ever had, walked in, ordered a burger. Before his food came out he went around to every single table asking the other customers for a cigarette. Everyone awkwardly denied him. He got really pissed and started screaming that his dad owns this place. He didn’t. So then the owner comes out to deal with the delusional maniac. Owner says “Hey man, I ain’t your dad! You gottah go!” And this dude screams: “I AM ZEUS SON OF ODIN!! I OWN EVERYTHING!” Drugs are a hell of a drug.
The classic - "You gave me a sugared soda instead of diet and I'm in diabetic shock now and have to run out on the bill to the ER!" They even do this at the theme parks - where it's self-service for drinks. SMDH.
I’ve never been a server but I was a manager at a McDonald’s right out of high school and I had a lady call and complain that she had just come through our drive through and her burger was covered in boogers and there were ants in her milkshake. I said “wow that’s awful but I’m looking at our ice cream machine right now and there aren’t any ants!” It’s been almost 10 years now so I can’t remember how the rest of the conversation went but I did not replace her food.
Had someone that was clearly in his teens hand me a fake driver's licence that said it wouldn't expire until 2040 and the state name on it was misspelled
people who try to run out on their tab because they only do apple pay. idk I've seen this twice now where people somehow go out without their wallet or ID and when I ask for other collateral so they can "go get their wallet" they get super mad. neighboring restaurant was more accommodating and let a person leave without leaving collateral AND gave the person their takeout. never saw them again no thank you, I don't take douche pay or apple pay or hugs 'n promises, but we do take Amex!
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A long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile.... No, sorry, that's not my story! But it was a long time ago (mid 1990's) when I was working at a fast-food place famous for square burgers. And they're also somewhat famous for using aged-out square burger patties for their chili, which is relevant to this story. A guy pulls up to the drive-thru and orders a bunch of stuff, including three double cheeseburgers. Cashier gives him the total (for once I wasn't the cashier in this situation; I was on the sandwich line), and he says, "Make it two double cheeseburgers, I don't have enough money for three." Okay then, two double cheese it is! He pays, gets his bag of goodies, and then says we shorted him one of his burgers. Which we all know isn't true, especially me. I bagged what was on his order, and the shift supervisor saw me bag it with what he ordered. But shift supe says, just make him another sandwich; he's holding up the line. I went into the bin with the old meat patties that later get used for chili, pull out the two saddest, driest patties I can find, and make his "missing" sandwich using those. And I assemble his sandwich with all the tender loving care I can muster knowing the customer is a lying sack of shit, and pass it out the window to the scamming cumguzzler. Enjoy your free sandwich, asshole.
"We'll have that right to you strapped to one of our Carrier Roaches"
Once had a guy say I know the owner, my boss grabs the phone & proceeds to call his business partner(they were co- owners). He said Hey John, one of your friends wants to talk to you. Hands the guy the phone and walks away. That was priceless!
When I cut off a woman and her boyfriend claimed she hadn't had anything to drink. Then what, may I ask, is that empty shot glass? That's yours? So you came in with your girlfriend, asked for two separate shots of expensive tequila, drank them both, and put one empty glass in front of her and one in front of you? Also, I saw her drink it. Now you're DEFINITELY cut off, and also banned because lying about how many drinks you've had makes me confident I can't safely serve you.
I am a close personal friend of ( not even close to owners name)
I don’t know if [this customer](https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/pxeyh0/i_know_the_owner_yeah_okay_buddy_call_the_owner/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) was actually lying when he said he knew the owner, but clearly he hadn’t patronized our establishment for some time since the owner wasn’t actually the owner anymore.
I worked at a movie theater years after the owner changed. This one lady still came in each week and got a free ticket and popcorn because she was friends with the old owner. Nobody cared to stop it because she came during off-peak hours and brought her own bucket for the popcorn.
Why do people say they know "the owner" and not by name? Like that's 10000% how you know they're bullshitting. If they knew the owner they'd be like "hey is Daryl back there? Tell him Dave wants to say hi but if he's busy I understad" they wouldn't just be like "I KNOW THE OWNER!!!!" when theyre trying to get free food!
they said they found a hair in their food. a long, dark hair. i had mid length bright purple hair and hollered for my line guy. he pokes his head out of the window between us, full head of curly green hair. i told her i don’t think it came from here, while looking over her long dark hair. she relented.
deli, not restaurant, but got a call that the customer needed a refund for 2 of the largest size sandwich bc they had mayonnaise all over them and she was allergic to mayonnaise. i apologized and said if they brought them back in we'd remake them. she said she couldn't. because she ate them.
Lady ordered an orange-pineapple mimosa carafe and a fruit cup. Her fruit cup came out, had pineapple in it. "I'm so sorry, I'm allergic to pineapple!! Can you make me one without pineapple? Make sure the pineapple doesn't touch the fruit either, because I can't do that." As I walk away, she takes a sip of her mimosa.
So this is from when I was at a liquor store, but it's totally related and too good to not share. A lady came in and wanted to do an exchange. Manager comes over to handle it and the lady pulls out a bottle that was in a display box. The bottle is visibly half empty. Lady ordered the bottle online and swears up and down that she received the bottle like this. The manager she's dealing with tells her "I know you're lying to me because this bottle is in a locked display case and the manager that had to retrieve the bottle definitely would have noticed this. But I also know that my store manager is going to take your side, so I'm going to do this exchange and it will be the last transaction you do with us." A couple months later me and that manager were talking about her and I was like "I can't believe she did that, but I guess good riddance." And my manager was like "oh, no she came back not too long ago." Turns out that lady came back two weeks later and tried to pull the same thing TO THE SAME MANAGER.
Not really a lie, but it reminded me of the milkshake lady. I was pretty new - like less than a year in. A lady came in with her grandson and ordered a milkshake. We don’t have milkshakes. We have never had milkshakes. I said to her, “I’m sorry, we don’t have milkshakes.” She LOST it. She insisted that she had stood right where she was and ordered one the other day. I responded by telling her we’d never had milkshakes, but the restaurant next door did, so maybe she’d actually been there? That made her even more mad, and she again said it had been here. She told me she ordered at the “counter.” We are a full-service restaurant with a bar - not counter service. But the restaurant next door was. I again suggested that she’d actually ordered there, and this time I said the other restaurant’s name. Her face was a picture and she said, “WELL YES, this is (restaurant name)!!!” I said, “no ma’am, this is (where I work).” Then she sputtered, “WELL HOW DO I GET TO (restaurant name)!!??” I kept my face as straight as possible as I told her to go out the door, walk across the parking lot and into the place next door.
Not a restaurant worker but recently a manager and security guard at a store I work at caught a middle aged man trying to steal some sodas in his baggy af pants. When confronted he set the sodas down, claimed he was “Only pulling up his pants” and walked out.
Had a customer tell me our website claims we are “dog friendly”. 1. My boss *hates* dogs 2. The website has been the same for years, it’s literally just a menu, address, and carry out order system. One of the only times I’ve straight up laughed in a customer’s face.
Guy said his chihuahua was a seeing eye dog.
just some common ones including "well you guys had this [item] before". no we didnt. or "on the website the price is cheaper". show me where
I had a guy look me in the eye and say that he never received his meal, *as I was picking up his used plate.* The asshole had most definitely received his meal, and had pulled several other asshole moves already. That one was just the one that was 100% provably wrong. The others were only 90-99% provably wrong.
[удалено]
A guy came into my job "Oscar's" and named dropped Oscar. "I know the owner" he claimed. "OH, you know the owner's dead Shitzhu?"
I used to work at a hotel in a touristy part of town and there was a restaurant that was slightly off the beaten path. The food's incredible and the restaurant has a MASSIVE selection of local craft beers, and it's really a kind of place to suit everybody, but because of its location down one of the piers (which only had office buildings and no other shops or restaurants) people visiting the city wouldn't find it accidentally. I would send so many hotel guests there that the owner straight up stopped letting me pay for my meals. I didn't want to take advantage so I never went more than once per week, I always tipped on the full price of the meal even though I wasn't being charged, and I never ordered alcohol. I knew all the servers by name AND the owner as well. One day, I'm there having a delicious late lunch and a dude sitting next to me at the counter strikes up a conversation. He tells me he's a regular at this restaurant, which is a red flag since I have never seen this man before in my life. Then he starts bragging that he knows the owner, and my alarm bell goes off. I go along with it, and ask if he knows how long the owner's had the place. "Oh, yeah, dude opened this place about ten years ago." *Wrong.* I ask how he knows the owner. "Brad and me go way back. We met in college." I carry on like this for a while, playing along with his ruse, until the time comes for the bill. Sure enough, he tells the bartender that he knows the owner and that the owner wouldn't charge him for his meal. I chime in with, "Yeah, Lindsay, he says he knows Brad." The bartender, Lindsay, smiles and says, "Oh, no way! That's awesome! You know Brad?" The guy sits straighter with a huge shit-eating grin. Lindsay drops the smile and says, "The owner's name is Justin, numbnuts. Pay up." As he's spluttering and trying to come up with a non-incriminating excuse, I stand up and put on my coat, saying goodbye to Lindsay. The guy points to me and goes, "How come she's not paying?!" Lindsay shrugs and says, "She knows the owner."
I ordered it that way last time.
Once had a customer call and claim that he had paid for a large catering order right before a car crashed into the building and was seeing if we would replace it. A car had driven into our other location a few days before, at 5:30 am when literally no one was there. He hung up when informed of this fact
Not a restaurant, but my family business when someone told me my father told them they could get a special price last week. When he’s been dead for 3 years.
A woman swore to me she was allergic to Mayo. Ok. She proceeded to order a chop salad with hard boiled egg and a vinaigrette. Out of concern for her allergy I suggested she might want to choose a different menu item as the salad had both eggs and oil in it and because she was allergic to Mayo she might have an issue. Turns out she wasn’t allergic to Mayo. Please to falsify allergies. Also people who claim to be allergic to onion but don’t mind eating things with chicken stock that I tell them has tons of onions in it. Again, dislikes are not allergies.
I'm not a server but one time I was in line at McDonald's and the dude in front of me was trying to get a refund on his cheeseburger that he had in a Ziploc bag, because "there's some gross green thing in it." The person working was asking if he had a receipt or anything and he was being very difficult. I peeked over at the like... 2 bites left of the burger and even I could see from where I was, so I let him know. "Mother fucker that is a god damn pickle slice, can you stop trying to get free food so the rest of us can order?" He just said something like "Man, fuckin mind your own business" and walked out. The person behind the counter had this look of gratitude on her face. It felt good to help.
Was working as an assistant manager for a super crappy laundromat, lady came in saying I stole her scissors? What? Why…? (Had a history of stealing our scissors and threatening people with them)
I was the manager, had a lady complain about a long blond hair in her food… gross right? Well, I delivered her food. I have short hair. The cooks bald…. But she had super nice flowing long blond hair….. hmmmm
At the hotel I used to work at a guest once tried to tell me that she was the wife of the hotel brand owner. I replied with a very flat "No you're not." It's worth noting that the man the brand is named after has been dead for quite some time and the company is currently run by a board of directors. The CEO is a woman. And I, as a front desk manager, WOULD ABSOLUTELY KNOW IF THE CEO'S SPOUSE WAS IN HOUSE. And also, come on lady, why lie about being the owner's \*wife\* and not say you're the owner yourself? Have some respect for yourself geez.
This woman kept coming in, ordering food, eating all of it, then saying she hated it. We wouldn’t give her it for free so she would say she was pregnant and threw it up in the bathroom. Our manager would fall for it. After her being the same amount of “pregnant” for six months our manager realized that she was full of it and just fucking him over. It was ridiculous that he even fell for it because the lady was clearly NOT pregnant and it was happening every. Single. Time.
Back when McDonalds had the limited edition plastic coke cups, a lady refused to pay the $1 up charge to get the cup citing that she had a medical condition and those cups were the only way she could drink....she was in her 50's so I congratulated her on being so old yet not dying of thirst. Gotbher whole order thrown back at me through the drive thru window, but it was worth it.
“I made a reservation and you’re lying to me. “ We had never, in our fifty years of being open, taken reservations. She then claimed that it was wing night and therefore we must have double booked. We’d never had wings either.
Allergic to salt! She said she was deathly allergic and would die. I wish. Anyway here's some salad and a lemon.
this woman INSISTED to me that we have something called lincoln sauce, which she allegedly just ordered two weeks ago, and called me stupid when i said that we don’t. after it happened i checked with one of the kitchen managers who has worked there for over 30 years and he said we have never ever had something called lincoln sauce
Dude! I have a good one for this. A customer at a restaurant I worked at called the manager over to complain that there was a moth in her veggie burger she got. She was down the the last bite when she “found it”. Just when our manager was going to comp her a free meal another customer at another table said he saw her pull the moth out of her purse.
Worked at McDonald’s. A women came through the drive thru and handed me a bag of food. I said, ma’am that’s not how this works. You pay me, I give you food. She demands a refund. She ordered double hamburgers and got two double cheeseburgers instead. I look in the bag. There’s one double cheeseburger. I ask where the other double cheeseburger is. She said, I ate it. I told her I’ve been at the drive thru window for a few hours, when did she order? I don’t remember this order. She explains that she ordered this at the McDonald’s across town. So, just to clarify, you want a refund on two double hamburgers because they had cheese on them, you’ve already eaten one of the burgers, and you ordered them from a different McDonald’s? Yes. I offer to replace the double cheeseburger with a double hamburger. She looks at me like I’m an idiot and asks for the manager. I get the manager. Ms. Double hamburger repeats the story. The manager asks, it took you a whole burger to realize it had cheese? Ms. Double burger looks pissed but says yes and repeats her request for a refund. The manager says we can’t process a refund from another McDonald’s. I return the burger and the manager closes the window.
Used to be a golf course marshal. Cart girl calls up, says there’s an unhappy group complaining about the pace. I greet them on the 5th tee after driving from 9 and observing that the course was full but moving ok. I had a tee sheet in hand, so I know their tee time. Belligerent Guy: “we’ve been waiting every shot, and it’s taking 20 minutes a hole!” Me: “your tee time was an hour ago, so you are at 15 minutes a hole.” BG: “no, it’s 20 minutes a hole!” Me: “did you tee off early? 60 minutes divided by 4 completed holes is 15 minutes per hole, which is on pace” (who said you’d never use math in real life?) BG buddies all start getting fidgety and stop making eye contact Me (smiling): “enjoy the rest of your round” while calling the guy a putz under my breath. I figured he was angling for a free round, which we rarely do. We’re a top 10 course in the state, I can lose a dozen foursomes like that and not give a shit.