The Strangest Orders And Customer Requests According To Employees

The Strangest Orders And Customer Requests According To Employees
Photo by Yosuke Ota on Unsplash

Working in the service industry always leads to customer requests.

Most of them are normal. Guests mostly preferred booths, so if one was available, they’d ask to be moved. Some guests had allergies so they’d ask for a dish to be prepared without a specific ingredient.

However, some requests are just plain weird. During my time as a server, a guest asked me for a BLT, but to hold the B, L, and T. I told her that was just two pieces of bread. She looked me right in the eye and said, “I know.” We served it to her, and she paid the price of a BLT, but we never totally understood the order.

The service industry is full of stories like that. If Reddit is to be believed, it happens most often at sandwich shops.


Curious to know more, Redditor LividTangent46 asked:

“People who work at a subway/sandwich place, what is the strangest order you’ve ever had from a customer?”

People had stories, and they did not all come from sandwich places either!

Ummm...So What Was The Point?

"I worked in a pizza place and at one point we had a man walk in and order a personal cheese pizza. Then he specified that he wanted no sauce. Then added that he wanted no cheese. Then decided he’d like to add uncooked cherry tomatoes as a topping. We ended up cooking a slab of dough and throwing some cherry tomatoes on top. He then proceeded to use the pizza crust as a plate for his tomatoes, then threw the crust away after finishing his tomatoes. We had a salad bar with the exact same tomatoes as well."

– Zerro-grayson

"What kind of madman would do this? LOL"

– ZGTI61

Burn Baby Burn

"Worked the night shift for Subway during college. Had a regular come in at 3am usually that would request that we toast the sh*t out of his sandwich. I'm talking the whole thing was basically charcoal."

"First time he came in while i was on shift, I pulled his sandwich out of the toaster and he told me to put it back in...and again... and again. I thought he was a drunk guy f**king with me."

"Apparently he really liked the taste of burnt everything. Grossed me out, but as long as he paid I didn't really care."

– GentlemanGallimaufry

"Damn, this reminds me of an a-hole that would always order 2 footlong flatbread sandwiches right before we officially closed. He demanded that we toast each sandwich separately for eight minutes with all of the veggies on it. If someone tried to toast them together, he refused to accept it and insisted we start over."

"There was never a manager for the closing shift, so this a-hole just liked to bully whoever was working."

"Oh, and then extra regular mayo and Sriracha. I think he wanted to know what a dumpster fire tasted like."

– figure08

​Accept My Apology

"Don't work there any more, but the one order that sticks in my mind above everything else was one time a guy came in on the phone to order two sandwiches and he explained one was for his 7 months pregnant wife so to please make it right, he has a list of exactly what she wants. So I made it exactly how it was written down, then made his and he paid and all was good in the world."

"Then maybe ten minutes later the phone rings and I answer it and there is this woman on the phone just screaming at me telling me I made her sandwich wrong and how she wanted ranch instead of mayo and blah blah and that she would send her husband in to get it remade, ya know full Karen minus the "let me speak to the manager" bit. So the guy comes back in and I immediately recognize him and he's apologizing profusely explaining that his wife is pregnant and hormones and whatnot, and I assured him I've been yelled at for less it's no big deal I'll remake it at no charge, he has the offending sandwich, I remake it right and throw the old one away, and as I'm ringing up the order (even though it was free it still had to be rung up at $0 for bread count accuracy) the phone rings."

"So I hand the man his sandwich and answer the phone and there is this woman on the phone hysterically crying on the other end and so I ask if she's alright and she informs me that she called earlier and she felt horrible about yelling at me because she realized she wrote it down wrong and it wasn't my fault and the whole time I'm just awkwardly telling her that it's okay, no big deal we got it taken care of, you're okay don't worry about it, It's no big deal. And then she, still sobbing, asks me straight up "do you forgive me?" And I said "it's all good no worries" and she said "No. Do you forgive me?" And I said "yeah dont worry about it" and she asked again "but do you forgive me?" And I replied "yes, I forgive you. Have a great night ma'am." After which she hung up."

"I still remember that even seven years later because it was the only time I've ever had a customer call back not only to apologize, but crying about it as well. Ironically for the question I don't actually remember what the specific sandwich was, I wanna say it was an oven roasted chicken breast but I truly am just taking a shot in the dark."

– Crazehness

Hide Behind The Puppet

"Not an order but my boyfriend had a customer come in with a Kermit the frog puppet. The customer spoke through the puppet, had my boyfriend hand the change to the puppet, and also slide the sandwich to the puppet"

– CashC4rtier

"I guess whatever you can do to cope with the world..?"

– chrisndc

Blech!

"Worked at a “pizza place” for like 5 min during uni."

"Guy used to come in and order a calzone stuffed with just ketchup. No cheese, no actual tomato sauce..."

– billbapapa

"I’d assume this is why you quit"

– Hansonius

Five Tomato,  Six Tomato, Seven Tomato, More!

"Worked at a Subway and a guy ordered a meatball sub, no sauce, but with copious amounts of vinegar."

"Also worked at Sonic and had multiple times where a lady ordered tomato sandwiches. Just tomatoes and a bun."

– HuntyrS14

""Gimme a BLT, hold the B&L.""

– elee0228

Oh, God!

"Not a sandwich story, but in high school I worked at the movie theater. This dude asked for extra butter on his popcorn. So I squirted his butter on while giving him the nod, but it wasn’t enough. He kept asking for more and I was a little a-hole, so I just kept going. After the movie, dude walked out and had a massive butter stain on his pants. I was very proud of myself. Another time this dude wanted butter in his crunch bits chocolate box. So I put butter in and watched him drink the butter-chocolate mix."

– deadlinft

"Nope. Don't understand why out of everything this was the one to make me gag."

– xladylovelacex

That Tracks

"Wasn't working there, but was a fellow customer. Pearson stared at the menu for 2 minutes, then asked the subway sandwich artist what the difference between the chicken and turkey was. The person responded very dryly "will, one is chicken and one is turkey." The customer nodded, and said "hmm, I'll have the turkey then.""

"I had to walk out of the store I was laughing so hard"

– kittenmittens3013

Two Pepperoni

"I’ve never worked at subway or a sandwich place, but I was that customer once."

"When I was a kid, I had a problem with pronouncing words and was delayed when it came to reading. My family thought they could fix this by making me speak pretty much 24/7, which included ordering on my own."

"We went to Subway one time and I wanted a 6 inch, Spicy Italian with white bread and toasted. I didn’t know the name of this sandwich when I was younger, but I knew it had pepperoni and salami on it. The problem was, I couldn’t pronounce salami and my family wouldn’t help me order, so I ended up asking for a 6 inch sandwich with white bread, those ‘two types of pepperonis’, and heated."

"The guy at the counter stopped what he was doing and stared at me with a blank expression for what felt like forever. He looked so confused and that was probably the moment when he questioned why he was working at Subway to begin with. After that awkward pause, he then made my order."

"After my family paid and I got my sandwich, it only had ‘two pepperonis’ on toasted bread. The guy at the counter legit thought that I only wanted two pepperonis on my sandwich. I remember asking them why they let this happen and they pretty much told me that I made my bed, so I had to lie in it now."

"I ate two pepperonis and toasted bread for dinner that day, while the worker probably contemplated why he should continue working at Subway."

– TraumatizedChild100

"I worked at a Burger King my junior year of high school. I was on specialty board (chicken and fish mainly). This order came through for an original chicken with "HHHH mayo". "H" in the training stood for heavy or extra. I asked my manager if it was a typo and they said no this guy comes in once a week for that sandwich. I swear, by the time my manager said the sandwich was "proper", the mayo was thicker than the chicken patty itself. I felt like I needed to bathe afterwards."

– Jean_Keys

"I feel your username adds to this story quite a bit"

– Deleted User

Kids, Man

"I worked at Subway in college and hated it so much when people forced their kids to order. It's like "yeah, it's lunch rush and the people behind us are impatiently waiting their turn, but its ok son, just keep saying 'ummmmm' and smushing your face into the display case.""

– Beth_Squidginty

Ick. I’m literally shuddering!

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