Children Of 'Let Me Talk To The Manager' Parents Share Their Embarrassing Experiences
Parents aren’t doing their job if they’re not embarrassing their kids. However, there are different levels of embarrassment.
It’s bad enough when your parents go around telling humiliating stories about your childhood or insist on hanging out with you and your friends. It’s also pretty bad when your parents are overprotective and either won’t let you do anything fun or force you to keep in constant contact.
However, one of the most embarrassing things your parents can do is ask to talk to a manager when they’re not satisfied with their service.
It’s one thing if the experience is actually a bad one, but when your parents or other relatives make a stink about a simple mistake, you tend to wish the ground would open up and swallow you.
I know I did every time my dad yelled at a manager so scarily that they couldn’t form coherent sentences anymore!
Curious about people’s experience with this, Redditor Em367 asked:
“Children of “I want to talk to your manager” parents, what has been your most embarrassing experience?”
Too Much Effort
"Not my parent but grandparent. When I was around 10 years old my grandmother went out and got us (her, my brother, and me) McDonald's. We got home and we didn't have napkins in the bags. No big deal, right? We have paper towels and napkins in the house, also me and my brother are pretty good with not making any messes while we eat."
"Nope. Grandmother got us in the car, drove back to McDonald's, demanded a manager, and screeched about how upset she was that we didn't get any napkins. I wanted to just melt into the floor and disappear. It's just napkins, Nanny...."
– snopal
"She drove all the way back over napkins...."
"I don't even consider driving back if I get someone else's order entirely. I'd rather just be done with going out, and eat. I do not understand the amount of energy she is willing to dedicate to such pettiness."
– throwaway-person
I Need A New Sausage Roll
"One time my Grandad got a sausage roll at a football match during half time, when he got back to his seat he found it was overdone, the pastry was quite burned. The man was irate. He didn't take it back straight away as the second half was about to start, but he spent much of the second half angrily lamenting his savoury snack letdown. So he takes it home, calls the customer service number on the back (I assume he had a few choice words for the poor soul on the other end but I wasn't present for this), and keeps the remainder of the sausage roll in the freezer for the next couple of weeks."
"Skip ahead to the next match day, my Grandad tells me we're heading out early so he can have his sausage roll replaced. The customer service line told him to go to Kiosk 3 at the front of the ground next to the ticket office. When we arrive, however, the shutters are down at the food place. The old man looks around growling and turning red in the face, stamps right over to window number 3 of the ticket office and slams his frozen burned sausage roll down like a flaky gauntlet. At this point I'm trying to convince him the ticket office was a completely different department to the catering concession but my Grandad was having none of it. The lady working the ticket window continually attempted in vein to convince him the same, they sell match tickets not hot snacks, but this just got him angrier and angrier. Across comes a colleague behind the glass, now there's just two people to rage at. Then a head steward comes to attempt to diffuse the situation and my Grandad begins to wave the burnt sausage roll in this man's face, I was actually surprised he didn't whack him with it. At this point I'm mortified by the whole affair, wishing I'd have stayed back at the house until nearer kick off."
"Eventually, after an hour or so, the shutters come up on the food concession. Fella at the counter goes 'You must be Mr. Alaginge' and calmly resolves the situation, dispatching a freshly baked sausage roll with the steady hands of a surgeon. My Grandad is completely satisfied with the result of his hour of insolent rage. As we're walking away he turns to me and says 'that's how you get these things sorted.'"
– alaginge
"EVERYTIME after they get what they want they just look at you smugly and say “and that’s how it’s done” lol. Like they’re so proud and just taught you some amazing life skill"
– Mussatto
No Room For You
"I was 13 when this happened. My mom had made a reservation at a hotel for a trip, but when she got there the lady said there was some error with the reservation and that my mom’s payment didn’t go through, so the lady offered us a double bed room for a discount."
"Rather than just taking the room, thanking the lady, and leaving, my mom decided the best course of action would be to scream, in the middle of a hotel lobby, “NOBODY IS GOING ANYWHERE TIL I GET MY ROOM!” She then proceeded to pester the lady, who clearly couldn’t do anything about it, until eventually she called the police on my mom for public disturbance. Mortifying."
– Deleted User
And Don't Come Back!
"Ugh, my dad. He can be such a prick if you get his order wrong, it could be fast food or a nice sit down restaurant. He often yells at wait staff if they “undercook” his steak. It has to be well done or he claims to have lost his appetite."
"One time we went to Burger King when I was younger and we sat down to eat. He took one bite of his burger, spit it out and immediately started bitching about it being under cooked. He cut in front of everyone in line to yell at the cashier, then he asked who was the cook. when the cook appeared, he launched his burger hitting the poor kid directly in the face with a lidless burger. He’s now banned for life from Burger King"
– cok3noic3
That Poor Driver
"My mom asked me to call her a taxi via an app."
"She ended up calling me multiple times complaining about how the driver didn’t use the route she thought was best (she never owned a car and doesn’t know how to drive), even though the guy just used the best possible route the navigator suggested."
"She ended up getting out halfway and using subway. The driver proceeded to call me in tears, completely shocked, unsure of what he did so wrong, and apologizing. I felt like total sh*t."
"I never called her a cab again."
– BigDaddy0790
Relationship Ended Before It Began
"I worked at Best Buy. I stopped in with my mom one day because she wanted to buy me the Star Wars DVD box set for my birthday."
"I had a huge, HUGE crush on the girl that was working the customer service counter. Well, the DVD set rang up $10 more than it was priced, and my mom deliberately didn't say anything until after the transaction so she could claim the effing $5 Michigan Scan Law bounty."
"My crush didn't know how to process it and the manager was busy, so my mom tore into her about how it was her job and how she should understand how to do things."
"At my job."
"To a girl I liked."
"My life was misery for a while afterward."
– medullah
Drive-Thru Disaster
"When I was a manager at McDonalds I had a guy do this."
"We had a freak rush on chicken nuggets, like 5 20 pieces in a row. The customer pulls to the window. The cashier let him know it was going to be another 3 minutes for his nuggets and did he want to wait or get something else. He demands to speak with the manager. He says that he has been waiting 5 minutes already and he isn’t going to pay or move until his food is ready. I said that I needed him to pay and pull forward in order to clear the drive thru. He refused and said they’ll have to wait."
"I went to the back window, put a drawer in and we started cashing and giving the food out there."
"20 minutes later, fuming customer at the front window begins pounding on the window."
"I open it and he screams at me to know where his food was. I told him he wasn’t getting any food, he was blocking my drive thru and impeding my business and he needed to leave or I would be calling the police."
"It looked like he would explode with anger, but he just screeched out of there."
"It was the most satisfying interaction with an entitled customer I had while working at McDonald’s."
"Years later, I do slightly regret this. I worry I needlessly angered someone to the point where he could have taken it out on someone else (ie. kids or wife)."
– demonwolf106
Not About To Eat Here
"Not me, but my sister in law. Her step dad and mom took the family out to eat at a Red Lobster. They get there and it is super busy. So the step dad walks up to the host and says "Yes, we have a reservation.""
"The problem is, Red Lobster (or at least that one) doesnt take reservations. The host explains this and says it is going to be 20 min wait for seating. Her step dad FLIPPED out and started screaming that he had called 3 hours before hand and made a reservation. The host politely told him this was not possible as they do not take reservations (again)."
"He continues to scream at the guy, and says he wants to talk to a manager. So the manager comes out and she tells him the same thing. They dont take reservations, so its not possible that he had made one. He continues to cause a scene and people started leaving just to get away from this toxic guy. Finally, the manager says, "Fine, we will put you ahead of everyone else that has been patiently waiting their turn". He says "Thank you". They get seated."
"Once they get to the table and the waitress walks away, he slyly winks and says to my brother and the rest of the family "THAT is how you get things done. I wasn't going to wait 20 min.""
"My brother refused to eat or order for fear of getting food that had been spit on."
– sixstringhook
An Ocean View
"Oh man, two months ago I went to Hawaii with my wife. We had requested a room with a king bed. At the checkout kiosk next to us, while we were giving our attendant our info, this lady started going nuts. She had requested (not reserved) an ocean view room with a queen bed and double bed. The woman was with her daughter. I should probably note that it was for a work conference (a big conference and we were there for it too, but didn’t know her. And the company putting on the conference had handled all of the reservations.)"
"Anyway, they tell her that they didn’t see the request for a two-bed room and she started losing her mind. She was raising her voice and saying that this was a very special trip for her and her daughter (it’s an Oceanside 5 star resort in Maui...it’s a special trip for 99% of the people there). And that she’s not leaving until they find a way to get her an ocean view room with two beds like she had requested. But she was just being a total b*tch."
"The manager pulled out a map of the resort and showed her where they had some 2-bed rooms available in the interior of the hotel, but nothing that would fit what she wanted. It went on for a few minutes before she finally accepted that room. Toward the end of this tirade, we were called up to check in at the next desk over. We give our names and confirmation pages."
"And the clerk tells us thank you for waiting, we do have a garden view king room available in the east wing ( we had just seen that the conference activities were in the west wing and it would save a lot of hassle if we could have a room on that side of the resort) so we asked if there was by chance anything open closer to the conference rooms. She looked for a bit and told us that it’s not a king room, but for no extra charge she could move is to an ocean view room that had two queen beds. We looked at each other and then at the still irate woman a few feet away and had to suppress a smile. We took it and just moved the beds together to make one giant bed."
"Great times. Highly recommend the Hyatt Regency in Maui."
– Deleted User
Free Food...But No Free Food
"I grew up in a smaller town right on the cusps of its big growth boom. We knew our town had finally made it when we got an Olive Garden. We used to eat there 2-3 times a month. My mom and I would always split an entree and my dad would get his own. We knew the rule if you’re splitting and entree and you get more than one of the family-style bowls of salad than you’ll get charged an extra $4 for the extra person. Which is fair, 2 entrees come with 2 unlimited salads. Welllll one day my dad decides he wanted more salad. Only he wants the additional salad, but the waitress said if she refills the bowl, that we will be charged the extra $4. Wellll low and behold my parents threw the biggest tantrum because only HE wanted the additional salad."
They demanded to speak to a manager and the manager explained the rule (which we knew) but offered to comp the extra salad just to get my parents to stop yelling....and they did. When our bill came the manager comped my dads entree and the additional salad fee. Well my mom got up. Interrupted the manager while he was talking to other guests and threw the check in his face and asked “what’s this?!?!” She was furious that he comped my dad's meal. He ate the meal therefore we would like to pay for it. She wouldn’t stop raising her voice until she was allowed to pay for the meal (but not the salad). The manager was confused but obliged...when they brought the change the manager slipped a few free appetizer coupons. My mom ripped them up and threw them on the ground as she left. Safe to say I didn’t eat out with them for at least a month and I still refuse to go to Olive Garden with them."
– hidcid
Stubborn Is As Stubborn Does
"Scene: Any fast food drive-thru"
"Worker: Ma'am, can you please drive forward a little bit while your food finishes up?"
"Mom: No. *folds arms*"
– milliondollas
Was It Worth It?
"Grocery store had this sign up that said if an item rang up higher than an advertised price it was free. It was the 80s and stores did stupid sh*t like this that I never see in stores today."
"Mom was buying a box of Little Debbie cakes and they rang up for $2.85 instead of the advertised $2.50. So now mom wants her free cakes. Cashier doesn't know what to do, summons a manager. Manager tells her to ring up the sale otherwise and he'll be right back."
"Comes back and hands my mother 35 cents cheerfully and says "There you go!" My mother points out the sign behind him and he says "Oh, the last manager put that up, it doesn't make any sense. I'm the new manager and I just haven't had the sign removed yet" (it was a printed plastic sign that was screwed into the wall)."
"Mom insists they honor their sign, he says nah. Now, up to this point, I as an adult looking back am totally on board with mom's actions."
"Mom gathers her things, decides against taking the Little Debbies on principle, and we get in the car. Mom wordlessly drives downtown to the main store of this 3-5 store chain, knowing the office is next door. We walk into this perfectly 80's wood paneled office where my mother asks the secretary to speak to the owner of the store and is permitted to do so since this is a family owned business and their "corporate office" is smaller than the row of cubicles my staff occupy at work."
"Here my mother unleashes a tirade about how she has lost faith in his brand and how his word is meaningless since they will not honor the sign etc. This guy stands up, profusely apologizes, validates her anger and then pulls out his wallet and hands her a $5 bill along with a promise that he will speak to the manager and the sign will either be honored or removed."
"We get home and find that the ice cream we bought melted in the trunk because summer and ruined the cereal and the bread."
– TheFire_Eagle
The second-hand embarrassment has never been so bad!
People Break Down The Most Ridiculous Complaints They've Ever Heard In The Service Industry
Some people strongly believe that everyone should be forced to work at least a year in the service industry to teach them patience, self-awareness, and how to properly deal with rude customers.
Think of it like an entitlement-diversion program.
Reddit user ilostmygender_ asked:
"What’s the most ridiculous complaint you’ve ever heard in the service industry?"
Because if there is anything that will ensure we have fewer entitled people being ridiculous, it's making sure everyone gets to deal with those types of people face-to-face.
Check out the ridiculousness Reddit has had to put up with.
Deserve To Party
"Every year, couple of weeks before Christmas, my restaurant closes a couple of hours early (7 instead of 10, and it's usually on a Wednesday, so it's not nearly as busy) so all the employees can get together and have a small holiday party."
"We had a sign up on our door two weeks before the party, letting everyone know we were closing early. As this was the year after covid, and we didn't get to have a party the previous year, we were really excited and ready for it."
"At about 8'oclock, a woman comes to the door, sees it's locked, and goes ballistic. She man-handles the door and starts slamming her fist against it. She ignored all my co-workers who were shaking their heads."
"Finally I go over and unlock the door to talk to her. She just starts screaming about how we're not supposed to be closed, etc, etc and I'm just shaking my head pointing at the sign."
"She finishes with 'you people don't even deserve to have a party'. And with that I just smiled and said 'well now we're definitely not helping you, goodnight.' And closed the door."
"2 days later I get a call from the owner of the restaurant, saying she actually filed a real complaint about it. We had a great laugh"
- Hellvillain
Resturant Manager Or Traffic Officer
"I worked with a manager at a fast food place that got a complaint filed against him with corporate. Lady said she was second in line in the drive thru, the car in front of her gets their food, and goes to drive away, but accidentally put his car in reverse. He stops quickly, goes into the correct gear and leaves."
"Lady comes up and complains that the other customer ALMOST hit her car. Then she later complains that the manager was 'very unhelpful.' Still have no idea what either she or corporate expected him to do."
"Then, we had a customer drive his car up over a curb onto the grass, drive for another 6-8 feet, and hit a large rock in the grass, breaking his radiator."
"Dude wasnt under the influence, absolutely no clue how he didnt see a 3 foot tall rock in front of him, or why he was suddenly compelled to do some offroading in a Lincoln Towncar."
"He immediately comes in and starts yelling about how he's gonna sue the company for damages to his car. Despite the fact that he drove straight into it, over a curb, in broad daylight."
"Like, his car went to that rock like a soldier returning from war runs to the arms of his lover. Without missing a beat, my shift lead tells him that corporate will have much better lawyers than he does, and they'll 'counter sue you for damages to our rock'."
- DisabledBiscuit
"damages to our rock lol"
- rdummy_soup
"Your manager should have offered to ALMOST give her some money to compensate for him ALMOST hitting her car."
- magpac
traffic GIFGiphyDidn't Ask The Exact Question
"I was serving a couple their meal. I had stopped by after their first few bites and asked them how they were doing. They said great and I moved on to the next table. At the end of the meal, they asked for the manager and complained about my service, that I didn’t check in. When I told my manager that I had checked in on them, she said they said 'Well, they came and asked how WE were doing, but not how the food was. WE were doing fine, but we didn’t like the food…'."
- Matchmaker4180
"Seems a little petty. To be honest, I've only had waiters ask me some variant of "so how are you enjoying your food? Good?" And then I tell them it's good and they move on to the next table."
"If you don't like the food...you can just tell the waiter. You don't need a prompt."
- geico_fire
Hand-ing Some Drinks
"I was using my hands to hand people their drinks"
"I quit that same day"
- goldenbrushes
"Your bad man. You’re supposed to use your feet like that alien pod racer guy in Star Wars the phantom menace"
- nhbd
"Not even using your mind powers, how lazy smh"
- Yab0iFiddlesticks
"I would get mittens, spill half of every drink, charge full price and then tell any angry manager...I just fulfill customers' wishes...."
"Some people should get LITERALY what they wanted....after a short time, they would be cured of their entitlement...."
- applesandoranges990
Changed The Building Layout
"A woman swore up and down that we had an upstairs (we didn't) and then, after twenty minutes of searching, accused us of hiding it from her."
"A whole second story."
- PickanickBasket
"We actually had a similar moment!"
"Customer paid for their washing machine in the till, and was told to go around the corner (of the wall, still in the same building, pointed with the whole hand) to pickup the machine."
"Customer came back 10 minutes later fuming that they couldn't find the second floor to pick up said washing machine."
"Entire building is on ground level. Opening from the tills to the room where they were supposed to pick up the product is as big as the broadside of an elephant. But it's our fault and we scammed him off his money because we didn't want to give him that washing machine."
- Brevlada-00
Severely Allergic
"Someone came back with a breakfast sandwich I made for them saying they wanted to get whoever made it fired because it has bacon instead of sausage."
"They said they're severely allergic to bacon and would end up in the hospital and that the person who made it (me) shouldn't work here if they can't read screens (for what the order says). A trainee was on speaker and punched in a BELT (which is made with bacon) instead of the sausage version which admittedly isn't an easy thing to punch in for a new person on our POS system. So I read the screen correctly."
"HOW can someone be severely allergic to bacon and not sausage which is the same animal and everything ?!? We also use the same tongs for bacon and sausage too, there is definitely tons of cross contamination between them anyways"
"My manager spoke to me privately about it and I said I was prepared for her to fake fire me to humor him lol"
- koopkop
"Reminds me when I worked in a Chinese place and people would be deathly allergic to MSG. When I explained it came in the fried rice we'd make in advance they'd reply 'oh a little won't hurt'."
- Matookie
Season 8 Nbc GIF by The OfficeGiphyThe People Want Adult Films
"I worked at Blockbuster and some guy got angry at me because we 'no longer' carried adult films. I explained that we had never carried porn but he said 'You have Red Shoes Diaries!' - which isn't porn."
"Then he threw the Rugrats movie on the counter and opened his wallet to get his membership card. After he paid, he shook the Rugrats movie at me and said 'People want PORN! Goddamn you.'"
- BarracudaImpossible4
"I worked at a Blockbuster and we had an older guy throw a tantrum because I wouldn't let him in the 'backroom' to look at the 'adult films' which we 100% didn't have. The manager ended up finding out he was confusing us with Family Video."
- Albino_Wendigo
Stephen Colbert Blockbuster GIF by The Late Show With Stephen ColbertGiphyCold Cuts Too Cold
"I worked at Arbys as a teen. At the time we had a new angus cold cut sandwich. This woman came in and ordered it. It was like a $12 meal."
"Gave her her drink cup, a min later she comes back and throws the cup at me because we didnt have any drinks she liked. We had like 10 different sodas, coffee, iced tea, lemonade, water, fruit punch, etc. Not sure what exactly she wanted."
"Anyways, I give her her sandwich and fries, she takes them to the table, takes one bite, comes back and slams the tray on the counter complaining that the sandwich was cold. I informed her that its supposed to be made that way. "Where? Where does it say that its a cold sandwich?" I pointed to the menu and said "in the name. COLD CUT sandwich""
"I ask her if she wants me to heat up her sandwich for her. No she doesnt. Does she want me to make her another one that is hot? No. Does she want something else to eat? Nope. Does she wanted a refund then? No! She just walks out! She spent $12 to take 1 bite of a sandwich and didnt even take the refund."
- stitchmidda2
"Sounds like she got buyer’s remorse and expressed it in the most childish way possible. Many such cases"
- akaTim
No Plastic, No Logic
"I worked at a Target at a town in CA that independently enacted a plastic bag ban a year or so before it was a statewide thing, so I got the joy of explaining that new rule to everyone. No plastic bags, paper bags are 10 cents, you can bring your own reusables or buy them for a buck."
"I could sometimes turn the mood by suggesting that they save the dime and carry out their stuff in whatever laundry hamper/bucket/storage tub they also happened to be buying."
"So a lady comes through and buys a cat litter box and a bunch of grocery items, gets in a snit about the bag thing, and when I point to the litter box (basically just a plastic bin) and say she can just take her stuff out in that, she gives me the most DISGUSTED look and declares 'I will NOT put my FOOD in a LITTERBOX'."
"Then she stomped off carrying a wobbly loose pile of groceries in one arm and the box that has never yet seen a cat dangling in her other hand. Good luck in life, girl"
- WankSpanksoff
"Oh god I worked at Macy's in Seattle for two holidays in a row, and Seattle had the plastic bag ban before the rest of the state, so I completely understand what you went through with people just being b**ch about the bag tax. Ours was 5 cents, though. And it has already been a thing for a while before my first season working there, and obviously by the second season working there... I excused the few customers who weren't from the state - in a few cases, they weren't even from the country - from being stupid, but SHEESH."
"Also to be honest when it got busy I'd just give people bags for free. Not worth explaining the whole thing and people going "Well that's OUTRAGEOUS" to me like I have any control over bag-related mandates."
"It was especially stupid when people would be OUTRAGED over the bag thing when they had already come from another store in the mall. Like, okay, even if they didn't charge you for the bag THERE the fact is that you have a bag with you right now from that store that you can just put your purchase in."
- OneGoodRib
Should Smile more
"I was a server at a local Italian/pizza place. I was a waitress and this was a busy Saturday. One table (that seemingly had no issues) asked to talk to my manager. I ask if anything was wrong, they say no, they just want to talk to him. After they leave, i ask what was going on with them. He said they complained that I wasnt friendly enough/smiled enough."
"He asked if the service was poor. No, they said I was very attentive and always had full drinks and everything they needed."
"Was their order messed up? Nope. Food was amazing!"
"What was wrong? She didnt seem happy/friendly/didnt smile"
"Manager tells them that my dad had just died a week ago. Guests suggest that maybe I should take time off of work if I cant smile for customers."
"What. The. F*ck!? Cause like, server dont get paid time off, i HAD to work or I would have lost my apartment etc"
- yosarianmarx
Sarcastic Yeah Right GIF by BounceGiphyWe're betting pretty much every one of those people is, at the very least, a polite dining guest and solid tipper when they're at restaurants, not going to tell people they don't deserve celebrations, and doesn't tell servers they shouldn't be allowed to work if they can't smile and be chipper right after their dad died.
People Break Down The Rare Things People Complain About As Though They Happen Every Day
People easily complain about the things that bother them, but when they're asked to explain what they're talking about, they can't elaborate.
Sound familiar? That may be because they've become conditioned or socialized to believe in how certain things are in real life.
Curious to explore this strange phenomenon about delusions, Redditor CoverYourself-inOil asked:
"What do people complain about like it's everywhere constantly but is actually rather rare?"
What goes on in the neighborhood is likely nothing at all.
Wrestling Alligators
"Being from Florida, the amount of people that think I have to fight off gators daily. Lol"
– kaybee666
Danger Down Under
"The frequency of dangerous australian animals. Like yes they are there but not really at the same time."
– RainbowPoopicorn
Trick Or Treat
"People giving out edible pot for Halloween. Can guarantee that no stoner is gonna give those away for free."
– painfully--average
Violent Neighborhood
"According to my suburban Nextdoor feed, apparently there are gun shots going off all day every day 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄"
– slykido999
Caution While Traveling
"The danger of the Bermuda Triangle. I honestly thought it would be a regular threat in my adult life when they kept talking about it while I was young."
– InvisibleMe21
These are questionable behavior, and the jury is still out as to what's actually happening.
Witching Hour
"Satanist out sacrificing."
– finding_harmony
What Everyone Is Not Talking About
"People complaining about people complaining about something, but it's just one guy on Twitter. Or someone they entirely made up...."
– crap_whats_not_taken
Tormented In School
"I was bullied relentlessly in elementary school. But it took me longer to realize it than it should have, because no one ever demanded my lunch money."
– MFWicantusername
Not everything we learn comes in handy.
Cartoon Disasters
"I have not had a single anvil, piano, or sandbag dropped on my head."
"Pretty upset about it, tbh."
– garden_and_grump_
Cute Bait
"A van giving away puppies to snatch you."
– Complete-Fudge-2888
Snuffing Out The Flames
"10 years old me thinking we'd need to know how to 'stop drop and roll' a lot more in life."
– YeahILiftBro
Many of these mentioned were either from urban legends or seen depicted in the movies.
Some of them could even be examples of the Mandela effect, where false memories are shared by multiple people.
Regardless of where these thoughts and beliefs stem from, there's not much to say other than acknowledging how extraordinary the human mind is.
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Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Years ago I worked in a restaurant that served some very popular ribs and steaks.
Ribs and steaks were what this restaurant did best. Honestly, it should have never gone anywhere near fish, but it did, and it served it anyway. (Sorry about that.)
The number of customers who were disappointed in the fish? Quite high. But then again... you might want to stick to the steaks if you're going to a steakhouse.
Servers shared their experiences with us after Redditor qrvjhb asked the online community:
"Waiters and waitresses of Reddit, which dish gets the most complaints at your restaurant?"
"When I was living in Atlanta, the worst menu item was the shrimp and grits, a common and pretty straightforward Southern dish. Ours added crawfish tails and a weird Parmesan sauce. It sounded good but it just wasn’t."
"Whenever people ordered it I would try to talk them out of it haha. Then they would send it back! And they would always say, “You were right.” I know!!!"
dinosaursarealwaysright
In this case, the waiter is always right!
"They had it on the menu for years..."
"Shrimp ceviche tacos."
"They had it on the menu for years. People ordering it didn't know what ceviche was so they would always complain that the shrimp was cold. What's even worse is that the recipe for the ceviche mix sucked. So even the people who liked ceviche would send it back. Any edits suggested to menu items would fall on deaf ears."
PhreedomPfighter
I pray that the restaurant never had to heat up the ceviche.
"One major thing I learned..."
"Ex waiter/diner employee. One major thing I learned is there is no EXACT standard on styles of eggs. Once a day someone would send eggs back."
"Most commonly, sunny side up eggs would get complaints for being under cooked, over hard eggs would get complaints about being over cooked, and about half the time we sent eggs out poached, people complained about the yolk being runny."
MeanConnection7818
There are few things as delicious as a perfectly poached egg. Sacrilege!
"I work at a bar..."
"I work at a bar, with wings and ribs, burgers and all that type of jazz. Our bar just came up with now serving sushi…so you can only imagine how many times that crap gets sent back."
Lovesmetacos125
That's on the customer for ordering sushi that sounds like a sports bar.
"When I worked in a restaurant it was always steaks. I get it but I always internally sighed when people ordered steak because there was a 50/50 chance the line wouldn’t cook it right and it would get sent back."
pdunson57
Did you work at Olive Garden, by any chance? This sounds familiar.
"Homemade bread..."
"We had a "bread and butter" for $13. Homemade bread, local honey, homemade jam, homemade butter. People would flip their shit when they saw it though. Tough sell."
CaptainRedPants
For thirteen dollars I'd demand the whole loaf!
"Tamales."
"I worked in a very inauthentic Mexican restaurant in a predominantly older white neighborhood. Often times we would get complaints that the tamales were tough, stringy, and difficult to eat only to find out that our guests were not removing the corn husks before eating."
"This was such an issue that we ended up removing the corn husks before serving altogether before the tamales were just sent straight to the shadow realm and dropped from the menu due to the lack of popularity."
SanDiegoIamnot
That fact has to be specified. Just like one has to specify if a dish is very spicy hot, even though half of Mexican food is hot.
"Old people and their soup..."
"Old people and their soup needing to be cooked over the fires of Mount Doom. Literally took a soup back to the kitchen, watched the cook boil it, and it still wasn’t hot enough."
BriefPomegranate845
This description is hilarious and yes... when I worked in a restaurant I dealt with this problem.
"If they sit too long..."
"Certain tacos. If they sit too long, they can get soggy. Plus, sometimes the braised beef and the carnitas can be fatty and watery, it depends on who makes it."
Stevie-Avail
Oh, man, the fat is the best part. These people are haters!
"Every bar or pub..."
"Every bar or pub I worked at always complained about the nachos. Either too few toppings or they forgot to add the extra meat."
killkrazy
You'd think nachos would be super easy to fix, no?
"For those that don't know..."
"Judging by how often I've been asked whether I really want to order it and whether I know what it is, I assume that in most french restaurants, it is Steak Tartare."
"For those that don't know: it is raw beef with raw egg yolk and some other stuff, and it is damn delicious. I really love it and I order it regularly when in France. But quite often when you order it in a more touristy place, the waiters really make sure that you know what you'll order."
RoRo759
You can take my tartare from my cold, dead hands. Those savages!
After reading these, it's safe to say that most people don't know what the hell they're ordering before they sit down. You'd think they'd do some research...
Have some observations of your own? Feel free to share them with us in the comments below!
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Employers Share The Most Insane—But Completely True—Complaints They Ever Got About An Employee
There's nothing funny about having an employee show their true colors after you've already hired them. Upon hiring, they seemed completely normal, pleasant, like they would be a good worker. Then as they get the lay of the land, they show that they actually have a different personality when the manager isn't around to see.
A Redditor wanted to know:
"Employers, what's the most insane complaint you've had about an employee that turned out to be completely true?"
These stories will shock you. The things that these people did were deceitful and, quite frankly, illegal in some cases. How the managers didn't catch them sooner is what makes it so unbelievable.
The hotel party.
"I was the head night auditor at an upscale airport property. Had a youngish night auditor who put a room into out of order status and let his friends in to party and have an orgy that he joined during his lunch break. He got caught because of a noise complaint. Police called, he was fired and blacklisted from being hired back."
"I hope he had a 1hr lunchbreak. If he joined the orgy for 15mins that's kinda disappointing for everyone."
"That is hilarious, I had almost the exact same thing happen at a property I worked at, except:"
"a) It was a tiny 30 room historical property, so it wasn't going to go unnoticed."
"b) He threw his drug fueled party in the "Queen Anne Suite," our most expensive room."
"c) He didn't even have the sense to put the room out of order or even kiiinda clean up afterward, assuming the hotel staff would just not notice or care that a room we didn't rent that night was ABSOLUTELY THRASHED."
"d) He just made keys for his friends that he handed out, and came in through the back or something, rather than just renting the room at a discount or something so it would all be kosher on the books (if you don't have 50 bucks to rent a room at the employee rate then you don't have the money for a party bud)."
"e) He did all this on MY shift rather than his own, thinking I wouldn't catch on that something was fishy on one of our TWENTY FOUR SECURITY CAMERAS."
"f) He really thought he could prevent us from catching him by coming in on my shift, acting like he left something behind on his last shift, then while I wasn't looking, STEALING THE CORDLESS MOUSE TO THE CAMERA MONITOR. IN PLAIN VIEW OF THE FRONT DESK CAMERA. He just. Palms it. Then shifts a guilty lil glance at the camera."
"Surprise surprise, we were able to roll back the security footage and catch all this on tape when we pulled the high tech maneuver of 'Plugging In A Different Mouse.' He was fired so fast. I've never worked with such a dumba** in my life. He really thought he pulled the heist of the year."
"For context, this was not a teenager. He was obviously in his 40's, receding hairline, lanky and always a lil sweaty and dodgy and socially awkward. Not 'quiet and timid' socially awkward, more like... this guy gives me bad vibes, makes inappropriate uncomfortable jokes and laughs too hard, doesn't really get professional workplace boundaries, seems like the sort who would try too hard to impress teenagers because he has a car and can buy them liquor but can't hang onto a friend his own age to save his life. My hiring manager really knew how to pick 'em."
At the bank.
"Working in a bank. Had a teller (about 19 year-old) get pissed about the way a customer (retail store owner) would send in her deposits at the drive up window. The teller complained about the customer on Facebook! Tagged the lady personally, as well as the store! Customer called the bank and told me, furious of course."
"I told the customer we would investigate, I asked the teller. She straight up admitted it, and says "What's the customer or Branch Manager going to do about it? My Grandfather is friends with the bank President." I called HR and Bank President on conference. Girl lost her job in under 15 minutes of me receiving the call from the customer. Breach of customer confidentiality in banking is a MAJOR law violation."
"I love the fact that she thought her grandfather being 'friends' with the bank President was going to do jack for herself. Even if it had been her father being friends with the president she would still be fired. Even if she had been friends with the president she would still be fired. If she was the bank president she would still be fired. The only scenario where she gets out of this untouched is if she had a time machine to slap herself before she tagged the customer."
- Reload86
"This is why it is important to distinguish between nepotism and networking. Networking can look like nepotism but you are actually taking advantage of the fact that you know competent people and thus don't have to play roulette with new hires. The catch is that if you give a bad recommendation it reflects poorly on you and you lose status in the network, and the new hire is not protected at all."
"Though if you break the law even nepotism won't save you most of the time."
Should have run a background check.
"Hired a guy on a trial basis. He was super polite and careful when speaking to me, but several of my female employees told me when I wasn't around he was creepy. After about 5 days, one came to me and said almost verbatim: 'I think he's a rapist.' She just a had a gut feeling about him. So I ran a background check on him... yep, he was a convicted rapist."
"For those of you saying 'This is why you run background checks BEFORE you hire...' this was almost 20 years ago when it was not standard procedure, and I was not in charge of that regardless. HR would make the decision. In this case I requested it specifically because the safety of my employees appeared to be at stake, but not one other time in my career did I feel the need to ask for one."
People Break Down The Creepiest Research Holes They've Ever Fallen Down | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Subway stamp cards scheme.
"I knew a guy who worked at subway back when they gave out stamps. Basically for every six inches of sub you bought you earned a stamp and once you filled a card with 8 stamps you could get a free six inch sub."
"So this guy started only giving stamps to customers who asked for them. If they didn't ask he pocketed their stamps and grew a sizeable stack of complete stamp cards."
"Then over time he started cashing them in. When a customer paid with cash he would ring it in as a freebie, place his own completed stamp card in the till, and pocket the cash. Customer got their sub, subway's till was balanced, and he had an extra five to ten bucks in his pocket - everybody was happy."
"He worked there for a few years and word was he racked up a few thousand dollars running this scheme. No idea if anybody complained, or if he was ever caught, but he did buy a motorbike."
Innocent retail worker gone wrong.
"So I worked retail and we got this guy named something like Gus."
"My boss tells me, 'Hey this guy's got anxiety, go easy on him OK?' And so I was like, okay that's cool I get it I can relate. I do everything I can to help him make sense of the infernal godforsaken hellscape that is retail."
"It starts off with little forgivable things -- forgetting a task here, forgetting things there, accidentally giving the wrong info and things like that. You know, newbie retail stuff like that."
"He quickly devolved in popularity as his complacency grew over time and his helpful attitude shrank. My guy started messing around during his shift, getting caught on his phone while ignoring backup cashier calls and things like that. He would make stabbing motions behind the manager's back to other employees, tell off new employees, and play it all off like he was some innocent dope who didn't know any better."
"None of this got him fired. Day after day was a new complaint from an employee about responsibilities he shirked or a customer about blatantly wrong info like, 'Oh yeah we have another location up on the hill,' and we didn't. No idea whose son he was, because that was apparently all kosher."
"What ACTUALLY got him fired is the one day he brought a dog and a super expensive dog collar into work. He claimed he almost hit the dog on the way to work and it was running around wild, etc. He tried to sell the dog collar to a customer, then tried to 'adopt out' the dog to a coworker."
"This coworker was competent enough to take the dog to a vet whereupon they found a microchip and contacted the actual owners. THAT'S where the fun started."
"It came out that Gus never found the dog at all. He straight up KIDNAPPED this dog from his neighbor and tried to pawn it off, knowing full well what he was doing. The guy lawyered up immediately, tried to sue Gus and threatened to sue the store and the store manager if Gus wasn't fired."
"Suffice to say, Gus was gone the very same evening. Nothing else came of it, but we talked about him for years and years."
These stories are unbelievable but true. How some of these people didn't get arrested is beyond us!
Thank goodness there were employees who caught these people in the act.