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b6xb4z
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Wedding gift😊
|
Theirs this regular couple that comes into the restaurant I serve at every Sunday at 3. Super nice people, always smiling. Not particularly big tippers, but good conversation.
We would often talk about me dating the cashier. And he would ask when I planned to ask her to marry me. Few times, on my short days, I would clock out and just talk to them for a few minutes before heading home. Mid November was the last time I saw them for a minute (later remembered they were farmers, so they probably had to tighten their belt).
I proposed to my girlfriend on Christmas (her mom said she'd like it, but most importantly, it was the best way to get both our families together).
Now it's mid March, and they come back. I was on break when they showed up, so I didn't get to wait on them, but that didn't stop me from talking to them for a good chunk of my break, then for a while when I came back.
They approach me right before they leave and they give me a 50 dollar bill. Thanks to them, I've made more that day than I ever had on a single day before.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/b6xb4z/wedding_gift/
| 70 | 2 | 1,553,866,305 | 6 |
good tipper
|
hot
|
9s1h8h
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Father was not pleased
|
I work at a chain steakhouse in southern Louisiana. Sometimes people notice my voice is different because I'm from the New York / New Jersey area; the difference in dialect isn't huge, but now and then it makes for decent conversation. The people down here love to dine out and our location is extremely busy, though they aren't always great tippers.
Today I got triple-sat almost as soon as I walked in the door. Ended up being about ten minutes late to the third table because the first two were talkers. I walk over and see it's a man and four teenage girls, presumably his daughters (or one daughter and her friends). He chuckles and says "I was beginning to wonder if we would get any service back here" (they're in a booth in a back corner). Okay not great, but I can turn it around. I apologize and explain that I just walked in when they gave me a bunch to do, and let them know I'll make up for it.
So for the rest of the night I'm giving them exceptional service. Refills immediately, prebussing immediately, regular checkups. I got them more bread and the girls start laughing and saying stuff like "oh my god you brought us food, I love you" and "you're literally the best" etc etc. One of them asks where I'm from because I "talk proper," I tell her and they all start giggling. Whatever, I have little sisters, I know how they can be.
But now I notice dad is giving me stone-cold stares when I walk by and is not saying anything to me at all anymore. I have not been flirting with his daughters at all, just answering their questions and giving good service. But he is clearly not happy, and he is the one paying after all. Whoops.
When I bring the ticket I thank them for being patient with me in the beginning and tell them to have a great night. Dad says nothing at all, the girls are laughing and saying "we love you" and "don't leave," I'm trying to pretend I don't notice but it's too late. Got stiffed on a $90 check.
I didn't have the worst night, everyone else tipped fine, so not the worst thing in the world. I may be $15 poorer than I should have been, but that dude is shook that his children are growing up and is probably more upset than me, so whatever.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/9s1h8h/father_was_not_pleased/
| 62 | 6 | 1,540,711,455 | 6 |
good tipper
|
hot
|
9ot5xr
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Customers from hell - my parents Pt. 2
|
So, having been raised by wolves, I didn't know to tip until I was an adult. Just kidding. Although no, I'm not. The 'rents never tipped. We also never ate at very fancy dining places, so learning cutlery use, and some of the insane country clubs (Mom's episode 1, lets start now) membership tests for memberships. So in my previous post, I covered some of my parent's history of being non-tippers. Mom was sort of a special case, grew up in big city, but also got kicked out of her home at 13 (this is in the late 40's), by her very religious mother and closet-drunk father, heavy with child. Cause when is the best time to kick your kids out of the house? When they get preggers. So mom had to raise her first kid working at a major chain as a typist, then worked up to accounting while taking night classes. Raised her kid, paid her bills, even got a WWII-GI-era house almost paid off before she met Dad. So you can expect the usual, not a lot of food, not good food, fast food, but she could at least tell if something is oversalted or overcooked. So me and my sibling at least got to taste meat that wasn't jerky. Ooh, that one night when Dad remarked "This potroast has pepper on it", and we both set our forks down, expecting Dad did the seasoning, and Mom got PISSED. But anyway, back to the story. So Mom was big on learning how to do things country. Never managed sausage gravy and biscuits, a good ham-hock pot of beans, but she had some of the best sweet pickles and ketchup I ever had. Those were always the first jars gone from the shelf. Her waffles would win awards, if it wasn't an iron from the 50's that she never put enough oil on. But she always made the perfect chewy bacon to make up for it. Chewy bacon makes up for all the wrongs. And her cakes were pretty awesome, like the one she made for the county fair, and left both layers on the kitchen table to cool, and my black lab ate 1/4 of one of them before she caught it. She just used chocolate icing to fill in the gap, and got a blue ribbon. I giggled when I thought of the judges, I was a kid. Well, enough anecdotes, on to Mom's Country Club Adventure...
​
So Mom wanted to be the "influential" person just came to small town USA. Joined multiple social groups, including the hat brigade, Eastern Star, but she spent an incredible amount of time in the first couple years, trying to cultivate friends at this country club 38+ miles away, it literally takes over an hour to drive there. We got invited a couple times, me/sibling were always polite (we literally always were, it's public, be polite, no confusion there), but they may not have wanted us to join, we had to peel an orange using a knife and fork. Now, I know that's possible, but I had 1-arm-strength issues from childhood, so I had to make every knife a saw and just go to town. I don't think that was the reason we failed the audition though. And while it was cool they had a pool, 1 hour each way just sucked, I'd rather ride my bike 15 minutes and swim in the creek at the moccasin-hole. As I said in part 1, boomer, if mom ever tipped, it would have to have been Club21, or autograt. Also from pt1, she wasn't a "I want a manager" person, but she'd drink all your tea. All of it. And all your lemons. And not tip. The whole time, talking to you like you were her personal assistant, existing only in her periphery vision until she needed something. For that, I apologize, which I failed to do in the last post.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/9ot5xr/customers_from_hell_my_parents_pt_2/
| 8 | 7 | 1,539,733,919 | 6 |
good tipper
|
hot
|
3tj4x0
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
"She never leaves me anything."
|
I don't even know where to start.
I'm not a server. I subscribe here because I try to be a conscientious diner. I get a lot of good tips here, which you would think is common sense, but my husband and I didn't use to be restaurant diners, only drive-thru, fast-food diners.
Tonight is my mom's birthday. I called out sick from school to go out to a restaurant with my immediate family, and a few extended "relatives".
A few. Two adults and three children. Mind you, these family members are a walking stereotype: they're loud, they move seats, their children are unholy terrors, and they demand things for free. They are the reason I don't eat out with my family. My mom just sort of springs them on me.
Tonight was no different. I asked for seating for twelve. No issue there, as I was alone, half hour before everyone shows. I wait, browsing Reddit. We're sat when my mom arrives.
Ten minutes later, there's about 20 people, including smaller children. They're blocking aisles, and spread over tables, causing a mess, and running our server ragged.
I don't have anxiety, but THEY WERE GIVING ME FRIGGIN' ANXIETY.
I couldn't eat. I was super excited, because I love the food, but by the end, I was holding back embarrassed tears.
I sought out our server. Gave him $40, and apologized for my asshole family, and that they're shitty tippers.
I know you all don't feel it's professional to talk about how much you get from customers in tips, but he said, "The one on the end? She's in here every week and she never leaves me anything."
I left then. Claimed illness and left.
Y'all, I don't even know what to do here. I'm not even a server and their behavior disgusted me. I hate going out with them. I can't talk to my mom because she acts like that part of the family can do no wrong.
I'm going to call tomorrow, I didn't even get my waiter's name, but I wanted to tell management what a good guy he was. Is there some buzzword to use, or some phrase to let management know that I'm not trying to blow smoke up their asses? I know the family might complain, so should I just tell management that they're just trying to get free stuff? I don't want our server in trouble.
They've been there 2.5 hours. FFS, they'll probably be camping another hour.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/3tj4x0/she_never_leaves_me_anything/
| 98 | 8 | 1,447,995,710 | 6 |
good tipper
|
top
|
16jrc7p
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Being complicated isn't cute or funny it's straight up annoying.
|
I had a group of 3 come in. Older black ladies maybe 60s is. I greeted them and asked what they wanted to drink, put in apps and everything seemed to go well. Then I get their food order.
First Lady orders something regular, second asks for a change on the kind of waffle she was having, no problem. The third... she asked me if she could make her own omelet. Her friends were already joking about how she is difficult and she cant even order off fast food menus without changing something. I laughed and told her no, that she had to pick one of the three (cheese, veggie, or seafood) and she could add a breakfast meat or something. She quickly corrected me and said that was the same thing. She proceeded to ask for a veggie no onions, bell pepper, or tomatoes (leaving her with just spinach) and then tells me to add bacon and pico.
I told her pico had tomatoes and onions and asked was she sure. She said she just didn't want it too tomato-y or onion-y and that the pico was fine. I said okay and put it in. She kept making jokes about how she is picky and this is typical of her and she's so quirky.
They proceed to run me around (napkins, a new drink, want to change drink, second person now wants to change drink, salt and pepper before food arrives ect.) And then when I finally get them settled their food comes out. They ask me for a pad of butter, salsa, salt and pepper (yes again, they told me they were done) and some pancake syrup. In the mist of getting all these things 4th person shows up and I asked what she wanted to drink. She tells me her friends need pancake syrup. I said I was already going to get it but I was just trying to help her get something to drink. She gives me her drink order with an attitude.
They then have a FIFTH friend. They asked to put tables together and we said no (sections) but offered a 5 top instead. When the woman gets there they try to pull a chair up even though we already told them they'd have to move. They begrudgingly move and leave their old table in a mess which I go to clean right as the fifth person sits down. As soon as she sits her friend calls me and says she's ready to order. With dishes clearly in my hand I tell her to give me a minute. I come back, ask her what she wants to drink and she said: "No I'm ready to order." I said "well I need to ring in your drink too so will you tell me what you want to drink and then what to want to eat?" She gives in. I go to check on her after she gets her food and say: "Did you get everything? Does it all look right?" She gestures to the food and rolls her eyes.
This entire time they are joking about how they are difficult and picky especially the omelet lady. When it was time to pay the fifth lady paid for everyone and left a 3.00~ tip on 97.00~
Worst part is they caught my manager and asked was I new because they felt like they had to ask for everything. I wanted to scream. The only reason why you had to ask was a. You kept changing your drink and adding people. And b. Because you NEVER LET ME GET A CHANCE TO GRAB IT.
It's NOT cute to go out and be difficult or purposefully picky. I have no issue with accommodation but it truly felt like a game to them and it was so FRUSTRATING.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/16jrc7p/being_complicated_isnt_cute_or_funny_its_straight/
| 2,827 | 318 | 1,694,817,960 | 6 |
no tip
|
relevance
|
8uwatm
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
No, mam you cannot take from our tip jar
|
So I work at a restaurant where all of our tips are pooled in. We have a tip jar at the front of the register for customers to put cash tips in. Our restaurant is a “grab and go” style restaurant that serves bagel sandwiches. So it’s always weird when people order a bunch of food like this is a real restaurant. Anyway I had the pleasure of dealing with an condescending obnoxious gym rat last week.
OGR: I will like x y z and hurry up cause I have a flight to catch.
Me: ok
OGR: what’s the healthiest bagel you have that’s now carb and calories?
Me: umm the wheat has 240 calories.
OGR: omg you don’t have ANYTHING HEALTHIER?? UGH just put in a bowl.
Me: ok your total will be 35.86
OGR: ugh! I only have 35 dollars can you just like take it out your little tip jar.
Me: no mam I cannot, the tips are for the employees.
OGR: ugh fine! I have a flight to catch! *slams 2 twenties down on the table*
If she wasn’t such a bitch I would’ve done it for her. Remember kids you attract more flies with honey than vinegar.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/8uwatm/no_mam_you_cannot_take_from_our_tip_jar/
| 570 | 59 | 1,530,303,353 | 6 |
no tip
|
relevance
|
1gppt6p
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
She's insane!!
|
So I finally get a job close to my house and OH MY GOD! This place is insane! First off- in the month that I've worked therefore has been 2 walk outs and o e person fired less then 2 wks after he was hired! And the one who was fired- hus dad came in to get the GMs # to complain about how manager treated his son(which I did see and was borderline straight ABUSIVE POOR KID Looked like his head was gonna pop off)so not only was the manager rude to the dad right off the bat but when dad realized that talking to the manager was pointless he asked for the GMs # to make a complaint about her - he reached into his pocket pulled out his cell to take the info... she said"911." Then turned and walked to the back leaving dad just twisted!!
I work in the food industry. And much like everything else nowadays people get this idea of entitlement. We have busy times and during those times on occasion we have customers walk out with the pizzas without paying for the order. Of course it doesn't help that the place runs 7 days a wk 10-12 hrs a day on a staff that totals 5! Yes- that's 5 employees total including the manager. Most of the time the theft occurs when there is only one person on shift- which is never when the manager works. I've been there for a month and I work 2-3 days a wk for at least 5 hrs alone. Through lunch rush and dinner rush. But now we're being told that the tip pool is gonna start being docked for the cost of the VOIDED stolen orders. Can she do that? I mean it's bad enough that from what I've seen there's no good reason the place can't be better staffed. It's almost like she goes out of her way to make it hard for us. The ovens 1/2 broken. And training consists of a few 3 min videos and a pop quiz after reading a couple of sentences.
OF. ORSE IM GONNA MAKE A FEW MISTAKES! They getvoided at the end of the night. But who's gonna pay fir the product lost? Apparently us! This while pla e is like profiting g off us as borderline slave labor
****Edit: so last wk was payday. And they didn't have my check. Everyone else at the location had there check in store and on time. Everyone else was tipped out last wk. Thurs I worked a shift with my boss and she says
"So you picked up your check."
My response " No I didn't know they were in. As far as I knew tomorrow is payday?"
Subject dropped cause it was busy.
I opened the store Friday morning asked about my check being in the safe and was messaged "no its not in there. I will get ahold of GM and we'll figure it out."
I worked all day Friday- no word. Sat. I get a series of short messages when I again open the store and nothing regarding my check. So I ask again.
Apparently the GM needed to get ahold of payroll to see if it was even cut.
So my response was "why wouldn't they have cut it? Every one else got paid at this location and unless I'm mistaken the hrs and schedule are computerized so what happened to my check?"
The next message, which started with
"No. Dude. Listen." Followed by the same answer and an added bit about how the important thing is to wait because she can't cut me a check right now. I walked out. Told my coworker I was sick and left. Sunday I was taken off the schedule. Sunday evening u contacted the corporate office about my check. No response. Monday- nothing. Tuesday I get ahold of the GM because she obviously wasn't reaching out to me and she says not only was my check lost- but stolen and cashed! WTF?!?!?
And until this little fraud activity gets cleared up I'm not going to get a check.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1gppt6p/shes_insane/
| 13 | 10 | 1,731,431,648 | 6 |
no tip
|
hot
|
1fu9hzp
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
How would you guys deal with this?
|
Overtime pay
Hello reddit! I work at a pub in the upstate of south Carolina as a busser, with the recent hurricane I put in over 47 hours at least, here's where I am lost on what I should do. The hurricane knocked our power out so the clock in machines didn't work so they had us sign a paper, the end of Thursday morning I had 17.67 hours. Hurricane hit Friday which I was in for work from 11 to 9:25, Saturday I was there from 11 to 9:45, and then I came in on Sunday (my day off) from 10:50 to 9:45. When I was able to see my paystub they only credited 39 hours and I didn't get any tip out (separate issue that I would have gotten about 100 ish for) when I go in next I am going to bring it to attention. The workplace is known for giving employees issues like this and has no employee appreciation.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1fu9hzp/how_would_you_guys_deal_with_this/
| 11 | 9 | 1,727,849,349 | 6 |
no tip
|
hot
|
amnlw8
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Snapped tonight.
|
Okay, I had to come here and vent about this ridiculous shit.
You guys have heard from me a buncha times before, I work at a busy tourist spot in New Orleans. Friday and Saturday nights I work the lounge blahblahblah.
Had a seizure about a week ago and lost my grandmother thursday. They planned the funeral today, and to say the least I was not on my game tonight.
Luckily- in the lounge there is a looser feel because everyone is drunk and it is packed shoulder to shoulder with people listening to the loud-as-fuck band.
I am on my last table after closing the kitchen 30 minutes before that. The band is still playing and there are still plenty of people drinking at the bar. I decide to join the rest of the crew outside for a post-shift cigarette.
I go check on my last two top, a mother and daughter, the mother is pretty drunk; but they smile at me and give me the okay symbol.
I join my friends outside, we smoke a cigarette; and I admittedly take my time because the vibe my table gave was that they were trying to enjoy their drinks while listening to the band. I go back in to check on them-
"We ready for another round ladies?" I yell over the band.
The mom looks pissed "I asked you for the check" She says in an indignant drunk voice, the daughter is looking surprised that she said that.
I scruntch my face at the answer "umm, I dont think you did; but Ill go grab it right quick. Sorry bout that" I finish with a smile
"Yes I did, I did this-" she draws a check mark in the air with her finger. "When people do that it means we were ready for the check."
"Okay, let me get it right quick." I keep my shit eating smile on and very quickly grab the check. I return and the card is sitting on the table, I drop the check on the table and grab the card "Lemme go run this right quick."
"Wait wait wait." She grabs my arm and spends almost a full fucking minute looking over the 34$ check. "Okay go ahead." I force a smile and walk off
I am so fucking over it at this point but hold my tongue.
I drop the sign receipts back at the table. "Y'all have a great night."
The daughter dawns a big smile "Thanks so much" trying to recover this interaction after her mothers obvious shitty attitude.
I walk off- start entering in my tips for the night at the near by POS.
Go back to the table after they left and grab their signed receipt.
-$0- tip and in giant letters at the top
"LAZY ASSHOLE, FIRE HIM"
Oh hell to the fuck no.
I grab the receipt and go outside to find them right outside the front door.
"Excuse me mam." I tap her shoulder; she drunkenly turns with low eyes.
"This shit right here?" I crumple the receipt in her face "This shit doesn't fly around here. I wanted to say, sorry I was a little distracted tonight. But I literally just lost my grandmother."
"So take this back" I throw the reciept ball into her face, it bounces off her forehead "and get out of here, you arent welcome back."
She bends down and grabs the receipt ball "Oh you'll hear about this."
"I AM A FUCKING HUMAN LADY, NOT JUST SOME MACHINE THAT BRINGS YOU FUCKING FOOD." I shout back at her. Everyone outside is looking at this point. I turn around and storm back inside to my manager and tell him I snapped on a customer.
The biggest thing I cant get over. What if I didnt work at such a cool spot. What if I had gotten fired because that lady wrote that on that check. She really thought I deserved to loose my job because I took 10 extra minutes to bring a check.
What the fuck is wrong with people.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/amnlw8/snapped_tonight/
| 2,811 | 274 | 1,549,180,010 | 6 |
big tip
|
relevance
|
u0bgj5
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Big bill, no tip
|
Tonight was like every other weekend night the past few weeks. Idk what is going on, but the kitchen is taking an hour/hour and a half to get food out the window.
I had a table, about 12 people, who ended up with a bill of $377. While the ringleader paid, he loudly explained, with more words unsuitable for younger readers, and a finger in my face, “never in my life have I ever received such terrible service. You should be ashamed.”
Was the wait long? Yes. Was that fair? No. But after everything I did in MY power to make sure the wait wasn’t unpleasant, I don’t think it was fair to be treated that way.
He did not tip, not a dime was left on the table, and I cried for a solid five minutes, because I owed the kitchen $20 at that point.
Do you have an experience like this? What is the largest bill you’ve cashed out and received no/laughably little tip?
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/u0bgj5/big_bill_no_tip/
| 30 | 37 | 1,649,570,723 | 6 |
big tip
|
relevance
|
uyqfm0
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Customer served himself another guest's cake?
|
Today we had a family of eight come in to celebrate their triplets' birthday and sat at 151. Needless to say, the cake they brought was huge. No big deal but the table directly next to them, 141 were being rude all night. They didn't really have much of manners either.
So 151 leaves leaving a generous tip without overstaying their welcome. They also left us servers about half their cake which they left on the table with extra paper plates. Once they left and were out of sight 141 gets up and cuts themselves a little less half of what was left????
Who does that??? Who just serves themselves cake especially when the cake isn't even theirs??? I'm flabbergasted. Utterly speechless. I suppose you see something new everyday in this industry...
Edit: we did not charge a cake cutting fee, we just don't do that at my location
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/uyqfm0/customer_served_himself_another_guests_cake/
| 1,613 | 181 | 1,653,627,112 | 6 |
big tip
|
relevance
|
wtgjbz
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Refused to serve a table for the first (hopefully last) time last night.
|
We have this woman that comes in very frequently, sometimes upwards to five times a day. She is a known SW, which is only relevant because she uses our restaurant to meet men and pick up others.
This is no shame to SW, this is absolutely not the reason why I refused her service.
She comes in with the exact amount of change she needs to buy a glass of wine, sometimes a meal with. After I ring in any one item she has me relay the price back to her.
She wants more, but can’t pay, so she’ll pay her bill in exact change, go out, and come back with more change. The problem? She spends upwards to $50, sometimes $100 a day and never ever EVER tips.
And not only her, but the men she brings as well.
I’d like to note that I am the only person up until last night who would serve her. I gave the same excellent customer service every time, and received nothing. Well, she did let me keep $0.05 once because I couldn’t find the coin in my dirtygirl.
Last night I decided I wasn’t going to continue losing money to her, so I gave her to my manager to deal with. Sure enough, $85 between her and the man she was with, and no tip.
I felt bad in the moment, but I figure now is the time I put my foot down. No one will serve her. I just wish my manager would follow through with banning her.
It may be an unpopular opinion, but if a guest regularly shows up and never tips on big cheques, I think it’s time to tell them not to come back.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/wtgjbz/refused_to_serve_a_table_for_the_first_hopefully/
| 1,034 | 235 | 1,661,026,963 | 6 |
big tip
|
relevance
|
1d1j1gd
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Every Memorial Day weekend the neighborhood I work in gets hijacked by a street festival, and we get invaded by a walking trash spectacle.
|
I work in a nice little family owned joint with excellent food and wine. Most of the l customers we get from the this street fair are nasty, rude, and don't tip for shit. Highlights of my one lunch shift include:
Lady gets up and finds me to bitch that her husband never got the drink he ordered from "the girl in the dress" (the hostess) and it BETTER NOT be on the bill. It wasn't, because this was the first I'd heard about. Host later said she straight up told them that drink orders were not her job today and the server would be right over.
No fewer than three boomers came up behind me at the server station and grabbed my arm to tell me that the downstairs toilet wasn't flushing properly. We know. It's 100+ year old plumbing. We always end up having to close that bathroom on this weekend. You do not need to lay hands on me to convey this information.
Guy announces he is going to the food vendor outside to get french fries for his wife and he'll be right back. No, sorry you can't have outside food in here. He gets Big Mad, pouts and glares and tips like shit.
This couple was mildly rude/weird since they sat down on the patio. Lady ordered a thing and when I put it down, she was like "I thought this was X, not Y". It isn't, this is Y, it's what you ordered, but I can get you X in about five minutes. No, she said, I'll eat it. Then as I'm dropping their credit slip, the husband and I both watch a gay man in a fabulous outfit walk by. I smiled - probably my only genuine smile of the day - because this person looked fantastic and carried himself with beautiful confidence and I was like hell yeah for you, friend. And then I turned and saw the husband's face. It was contorted into the most hateful rage I've ever seen up close. I got the fuck away from that. He tipped $5 on $70.
I'm dead tired and needed the vent. What Memorial Day bullshit are you weathering this weekend?
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1d1j1gd/every_memorial_day_weekend_the_neighborhood_i/
| 55 | 3 | 1,716,782,850 | 6 |
big tip
|
hot
|
1cmqv5b
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Why would she lie?
|
I’m training to serve at a new restaurant and was on my second day of training with a server. We will call her A. She had a good amount of reservations and I was excited to finally see the restaurant busy because the day before it was insanely slow. Anyways, she gets sat with a 6 top and I’m shadowing her then she gets sat with a 2 top and asks if I wanna give it a shot! I don’t know the menu very well but it’s our brunch menu so I go for it. It goes super well and their tab came out to be 40$ and they left me a 15$ tip. great! After, She gets sat with a 6 top, and another 2 top and asks me to take the 2. Sure no problem! It goes super well, their tab was 50$ and they left me a 26$ tip which was a huge confidence boost and I was feeling really good.
Now this is where I get confused. She gets sat with an 11 top of some older ladies and another 5 top and I’m shadowing her and helping her get drinks, then her next reservation of 9 people comes really early. She’s in the weeds and asks if I can greet the 9 top and take their drink order. Sure! So I do that and then she ends up asking if I can just take the whole tables order and she will help with any questions I may have. I oblige and do that, and do it well. I think I forgot to add cheese on one persons eggs. I tell them they’re my 3rd table and thank them for being so patient and they told me I’m doing a really good job, overall they were super sweet. I close them out and they’re on their way. So they end up leaving and I start bussing the table and I peak at the tab. 240$ and they left “me” 60$. Which is a very nice tip and I’m happy about it ( even though I know I’m not getting it because I’m training. I leave it on the table and a couple minutes go by and I notice the tab is gone so I catch A and ask her just out of curiosity, how did I do on that table? Was the tip alright? She looks at me and says, “ yeah you did okay! It was about 35$!”
Why did she lie? I don’t understand. I told my mom and a close friend and they think it’s because she didn’t want to share the money, which I wasn’t expecting but why would she want me to think I did worse than I actually did? It hurt my feelings because I really felt nervous about taking a big table so soon but I wanted to help her out because she has been so sweet and I even considered being friends with her. Does anyone have any clue why she’d lie to me? :( anytime I have trained a server in the past if they took a table and did everything for them I’d atleast give them half of the tip. I’m just at a loss. Now I feel like I can’t trust this person. Any advice or insight would be appreciated!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1cmqv5b/why_would_she_lie/
| 109 | 84 | 1,715,126,762 | 6 |
big tip
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hot
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1bzvk6y
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TalesFromYourServer
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Stolen Reservation
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So I work at a local pub, and we’re currently experiencing some management issues that reflect our scheduling and of course result in us being understaffed.
Yesterday, I was working alone as I usually do on a Monday evening. I was told not to have my on call come in because they weren’t expecting it to be busy… big mistake. It’s a beautiful day out, we just had the total eclipse happen, and many family’s had the day off for the event. So, it was balls to the wall busy from the get go. Usually, I start turning groups away, especially if they do not have a reservation, because there’s only so many people I can serve even if we have enough tables to seat every single person that walks in (it’s a large restaurant).
This man walks in and asks for a table for 8. I asked if he had a reservation as I had one reservation for 5:45pm for 7 people, and he lied and took it. They sat in the spot reserved for another group that actually did call. It created such a mess, and when I confronted the group about it, they shrugged their shoulders and said that they always get in without a reservation—not even ACKNOWLEDGING that they stole the reservation from someone else. I didn’t kick them out because they had their drinks and I know my boss would be upset, but it caused such a mess in my service that was already a mess because I was stressed out and alone.
The table then proceeds to demand that I prioritize their food because they had kids who were hungry… I told them no and that they had to patiently wait like everyone else. They then demanded I do a bunch of modifications for them, such as “have them make my bacon extra crispy” and “no ice in my water”, when I had no time for them and a full restaurant to deal with.
Anyways, they split the bill in two, and they each tipped me $5.00 on their respectful $85.00+ bills and proceeded to chew me out for “being rude” to them… I have never been this angry at a customer before because if anything I did them a massive favour by letting them stay seated when I could’ve kicked them out. They didn’t understand the concept of making a reservation, and nor did they understand that I was completely alone and that their demands were so menial and unnecessary. Moreover, they didn’t take ownership nor understand that taking someone else’s reservation is disrespectful and rude. I wish I could’ve punched them in the face and really gave them a proper piece of my mind, and it really reminds me of how much of a shit job serving can be lol
EDIT: I think people are a bit confused, but I DID in fact ask for the name under the reservation, and the man peered into my book (which unfortunately has big writing) and noticed our one and only reservation for 7 people, thus taking their name. I didn’t seat them without asking for a name, nor give them the details right after they simply said “we have a reservation.” I did everything by the book, these are just major assholes.
MOREOVER, the problem with them still being there after I confronted them is that it added more stress to my service. I would’ve refused them had I known they didn’t have a reservation as I didn’t have room for another group of 8 people. I had to seat the actual reservation out of honour and respect of them making one, thus I now have 15 extra people instead of the original 7, on top of everyone else that was in the restaurant who were groups of 2s, 3s and 4s.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1bzvk6y/stolen_reservation/
| 332 | 63 | 1,712,677,909 | 6 |
big tip
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hot
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1bd7i3m
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TalesFromYourServer
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Rant about new Manager who started the same week I did
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I recently got a job as a hostess at a pretty nice restaurant in a nice part of town. Initially, I was very excited about it, because everyone seemed really cool, and I heard the tips were good (I won’t know until this weekend or the weekend after though, as they don’t give us tips for our 20hours of training shifts.) They ask that we dress up fancy, and the location is big, always packed to the gills, and was a little complicated to learn at first but it’s not my first hostess gig (though definitely the biggest restaurant I’ve ever worked at by far), so no biggie.
They brought on a new manager during my second to last training shift and immediately out the gate. I knew that she was not going to be fitting in with my vibe. She started barking at me to stop leaning on the counter, even though that there is no one around to see me, and no guests were in view… she gets upset if I even bevel a foot, pop my hip, etc. She wants me to stand at complete attention like I’m in the military with my arms folded at all times.
I’ll be honest, it’s genuinely feels like she gets off on correcting my posture.
Before anyone says “well at a nice place that’s unprofessional”…. This place is nice but not THAT nice. It’s like, a step up from an Olive Garden.
I heard her speaking to one of the other managers, and referring to me and the other host as “the little people out there, scurrying like our worker ants”.
During my last training shift, I was told I would be under strict observation the entire time of being watched on video cameras and everything. So you best believe when my time ended I was right there asking the manager if I could please take my professional exam and be done. she condescendingly told me that I should’ve remembered that the day before she told me that I would be asked to stay a little longer and that I shouldn’t be committed to what times I leave.
I would typically normally agree with her…., but she knew for a fact that I wasn’t getting any tips and had acknowledge that I wasn’t making any real money yet and to me this felt really gross and icky because I know that withholding tips is a really big deal and I was only signed on to do 20 hours of untipped, minimum wage hours.
She also speaks to me very condescendingly about my appearance, which isn’t the first time it’s happened at the restaurant. Multiple of the managers have told me not to wear certain pants (fine, no leggings, no jeans, won’t happen again) etc.… But she was especially condescending and literally had me standing in an office in front of a male manager, while she walked through every part of my appearance, like my hair and my nails, and my make up telling me what she thought of all of it, and what she thought was and was not appropriate .
I asked a co worker and she told me for the first six months they “bullied her and picked on her” about her appearance constantly for her first six months.
I genuinely don’t know what to do. I was really excited about this position and the hours are really great and everyone else there seems amazing but every time she walks in my blood goes cold because I know she’s gonna start snapping at me about not standing up straight or something like that. My back genuinely hurts more on the shifts. I work with her from arching my back so hard because that’s the only way she thinks I’m standing appropriately. It’s not like I’m slouching around and leaning and looking unengaged. I’m smiling at guests, just resting my hand on a table, but I’m looking happy and alert, and she doesn’t say it nice either — she loudly announces I am looking unprofessional and unseemly and unwelcoming. It’s very stressful.
If anyone has any advice, that’s welcome but otherwise, this is just a rant
I wouldn’t have accepted this job if I knew she was working there when they hired me but she literally started on my second to last training shift .
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1bd7i3m/rant_about_new_manager_who_started_the_same_week/
| 39 | 42 | 1,710,274,999 | 6 |
big tip
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hot
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1bc5qg9
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TalesFromYourServer
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Crazy Customer Assaults GM in the Middle of Lunch
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When I first started waiting tables, it was at a Denny’s in Southern Missouri. It was the only Denny’s in like a 50-mile radius, so we had a lot of customers visit from out of the woodwork.
It was lunch time & my shift was nearing an end. I got sat with this couple & from the minute I greeted them, they had an attitude. Just hateful looks & a harsh tone when ordering. I get their drinks & the woman says she ordered DP not Coke. Not a big deal, I change out the drink & go to take their order, where i see that i have a Coke written down for her drink (so she definitely ordered a Coke but whatever).
The man looks at me & says his wife is very particular & she needs her food a certain way or she won’t eat it (why are you at Denny’s then???). She proceeds to order nachos, from Denny’s, & wants all of the toppings in little bowls on the side so she can dress them herself. The man orders some kind of breakfast platter with over medium eggs (this is important). As I walk away, to put in the order, the woman stops me & asks if the nachos are good. I looked at her straight in the face & said ‘Well Ma’am, they’re nachos from Denny’s.’
I get the order in, go back & make sure her nachos are made totally deconstructed, & then I move onto my next new table while checking in on my other tables & giving refills if needed. I hear my name called & go back to get this couples food. Nachos are deconstructed, eggs are over medium, cool stuff lets go. I dropped off their food, get them refills & ask if everything looks right. They say yes & I’m off again.
The restaurant is full at this point & I was actually taking tables in a section that wasn’t mine because one of the newer servers couldn’t handle it. So, I’m over in this other section when I glance across & notice the couple shooting daggers at me & looking visibly upset. I get whatever I’m doing done & make my way over to their table. They had barely touched their food.
‘Is everything tasting alright?’ The look I got in return told me the answer was ‘no’. I ask whats wrong with the food & if there is something else they would rather try. The man starts laying into me about the nachos. Saying they were soggy & inedible (remember, THEY put them together, I brought the chips & the toppings). He then picked up one of the chips & was like ‘here! eat this!’ & tried shoving it in my mouth. I told him I did not want to eat his nachos & that if they really were that bad, I am happy to replace them for another meal. But they are just totally ignoring that offer. Not even acknowledging that I am offering to basically pay for the nachos in order to give her different food. The woman stands up & tells me that a replacement is not the point, the food should be edible when it comes out of the kitchen. I take a step back & tell her that I totally agree, I am sorry this happened, & at this point the only thing I can do is replace or comp the meal.
She was a bigger white lady, probably about 5’10 with box braids & XXL acrylic nails, so when she stood up to me, I backed away & probably looked like a kicked puppy. This lady totally came off as someone that would fight their server over Denny’s nachos. I told her about my only other option beyond a comp or a replacement would have to come directly from my manager. So, I immediately sent my general manager out to talk to them.
She approached the table & before she got 2 words out the man stood up & started yelling in her face about how his eggs were cold (you’ve been here with your food for 30 minutes without touching it. of course, its cold dude). Each time my GM takes a step away from this guy, he takes a step towards her until he has her backed into a corner. Then I notice he has something in his hand. I look a little closer & notice that it’s an EGG, one of his cold, over medium eggs. The man then proceeds to SLAP HER WITH THE EGG. At that point, GM has already told the guy to leave a bunch of times & other customers got involved trying to get him to leave. As soon as he touched her, I was calling 911. When he realized that we had called 911 him & his wife or girlfriend hightailed it out of there. They didn’t tip me, but I had other server's sections sliding me 5’s after it all happened. I assume they felt bad for me, but I felt bad for my GM.
If it had been me, I’d never sleep again due to the embarrassment of being slapped by an old man with an over-medium egg in front of all of Denny’s. This was about 4 years ago & I never saw those people again, but if I did, like at WalMart or something, I would recognize them immediately.
TLDR: Couple was unhappy with what they ordered and it resulted in my GM getting smacked in the face with an over-medium egg.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1bc5qg9/crazy_customer_assaults_gm_in_the_middle_of_lunch/
| 72 | 9 | 1,710,170,597 | 6 |
big tip
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hot
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1aynvp4
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TalesFromYourServer
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2 Servers, 1 Restaurant, Sunday Night.
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So I get to my Sunday night shift and it’s 4:30, I’m right on time, expecting to see the manager at the bar working but the bar has a few patrons, and there’s 3 tables… 2 two tops and one 7 top filled. I see my coworker and she looks sweaty and her hair is a mess.
“Oh thank god you’re here, it’s been nonstop busy all day, I’ve had to run the bar and serve tables all day.”
I look at the bar and non of the bar mats are down, the bread heater is empty and the ice is almost out…. Holy hell.
She is a bartender in training and is also a server. She was thrown to the wolfs. I immediately start restocking and rolling silverware, but that doesn’t last long because a family walks in. I grab their table, get their waters/bread… then another one walks in, 5 top, then another 7 top comes in. I’m like, ok, I can handle three, no big deal, we hit 6pm… the rush hasn’t even started yet. My manager who is also cooking pulls us aside and begins to tell us that she (the bartender) will take the bar area and I’ll take the entire serving floor. 😳
So I breathe a big fat sigh of 💩 and realize hell is about to be here. Soon I have 9 tables at once… the entire bar is filled, tables are messy, there’s a line at the door, tickets are piling up…I’ve just started serving a month before this.
I had a 10 top, I brought their lasagna to… the other 10 top didn’t get their lasagna so the teenage girl is angry. The kitchen forgot to make it, someone didn’t get the right modifications on their order, they’re pissed… the kitchen is all Spanish and doesn’t know English so some things I say don’t get heard. I forgets whole table and the owner has to close them out.
I’m scrambling running around like a chicken without a head greeting every table… bussing as much as I can it’s hell… but suddenly its 9:55… my last table leaves.. I stop for a moment and look at the dining room… it looks like a dinner bomb went off, every table had dirty dishes. I collect my tips, the bartender collects hers and we have to mop, sweep, prep the store for the next day.
In total I made $276 in 5 hours,my coworker made $450. The most anyone’s made at our new restaurant (opened August 2023).
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1aynvp4/2_servers_1_restaurant_sunday_night/
| 27 | 4 | 1,708,756,547 | 6 |
big tip
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hot
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1affpyn
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TalesFromYourServer
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Did I deserve my write up?
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This happened around two years ago when I worked at a shitty corporate Italian spot (not OG, the other one).
During lunch I had a 2 top splitting a meal and they were paying with identical bank cards from the same bank. I remember making sure to keep the books separate because I didn’t want to get confused since the checks were identical as well. I had just finished running the first card at the POS and the check printed. Right then my scummy male manager (I already hated him but thats a longer story) rushes up to the computer and says he needs to comp something. I ask him if he can use another POS because I’m in the middle of a transaction and he says no. Keep in mind lunch was never busy at my location, and there were FOUR other computers he could have used. He finishes, I make sure I’m using the other card and run it on the other half of the IDENTICAL SPLIT checks. The check prints out with a signature line and I bring both checks and cards to the table.
Afterwards when I’m trying to put in the separate tips, I can’t find the other check in the system. My other amazing female manager (who was like a mom to me) searches and it says the second check was never paid. I had accidentally ran the second card on the check that had already been paid for. To this day I don’t know why the card would go through and print a receipt with a tip line if the balance on the bill was $0.
Later that night she calls me into the office and tells me I’m being written up for it. She said she wouldn’t have done it, but our BIG BOSS was there and he told her to. She explained what had happened to and he said at the end of the day it was my table so I was at fault. I was in tears. I had been in the industry for 3 years and never gotten in trouble. Between the identical cards and checks, my awful manager interrupting me, and the check still getting printed despite having no balance, I feel like I could have been offered some more understanding. I was so freaked out when it happened, I thought my career as a part-time waitress was over for good LMAO. At the end of the day I continued working there for a while and left on good terms with my coworkers.
To this day I think my big boss was just being an asshole, I had already experienced a lot of subtle sexism from him at that point. Has anyone else had something similar happen to them? Is this normal?
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1affpyn/did_i_deserve_my_write_up/
| 52 | 9 | 1,706,700,398 | 6 |
big tip
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hot
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17o4n1e
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TalesFromYourServer
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Fired... Would you demand complete back pay?
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So I was fired today from a small pub because of being late often, typically under 10 minutes, but MY FAULT I know, and I own it. I just suck at time management.... However, I know other fellow employees have been late and do call in often as well, so I feel singled out getting fired for this. I work hard when I am there always helping run food take care of my customers very well. Clearing tables, both mine and other severs. I often cover shifts when asked, working doubles occasionally, and am a rock star for that, as management tells me. But apparently, rock start status fades quickly. Because all changed when I fell at work and was injured, my Doc put on a 10lb weight limit of lifting because of it. I was treated much differently after I returned, so I think this is part of it.
My big issue is that I wasn't paid correctly for my time at every closing shift I worked for 6+ months as per Federal Law tip credit wage stops after 30 min of nontipped work and our closing often took 1-2 hrs. As well tip credit can not be used by employers period when cleaning bathrooms, which is part of our closing, i.e., scrubbing toilets, wiping sinks and urinals down, as well as mopping the bathroom floor and restaurant floor. I kinda just sucked it up and never said anything because they put up with my tardiness, but now I feel wronged in so many ways. So wwyd? Should I demand that back pay for all those hours or just let it go?
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/17o4n1e/fired_would_you_demand_complete_back_pay/
| 54 | 24 | 1,699,159,907 | 6 |
big tip
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hot
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17n63cb
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TalesFromYourServer
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Hands to yourself until all drinks are off the tray
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I'm sure many many servers have had to deal with customers who'd just reach for the tray to grab the drinks, most times it's not even their drinks that they grab and start spreading it out on their tables, so we have to take the drinks back and hand over their drinks. After steadying the tray so the drinks don't end up a sticky mess on the floor, than we have the zombie kids who will immediately grab reach for the tray, regardless of if you have a proper hold on it cause they just need more caffeine.
1. They ordered several sodas, 1 alcoholic drinks and 3 waters. As soon as I set the tray down on the small open corner of the table, mom immediately starts grabbing other customers drinks and places it in front of her kids, I stop her and take the drinks back saying kindly "sorry ma'am but that's not your drink this is," while handing her what she ordered. She just rolls her eyes like I slapped her hand away.
2. I'm announcing the drinks and I get cut off with "IS THAT MY DRINK, WHO ORDERED A COKE" and "WHERE'S MY DRINK?" All which I was clearly announcing, so I just place down and than walk away, so I don't blow my lid from the kids screaming and getting a migraine.
3. Dropping off drinks and I see out the corner of my eye, a kid grabs a random drink off the tray and is about to take a sip, I stop him and his dad takes the drink away, handing it back to me and I hand over the kid's drink instead. Kid grumbles "I still could've had that drink," yeah than complain "ugh that's not what I ordered."
4. Happened earlier when we opened, I have several kids drinks 2 lemonade and Sprite, along with 3 waters and a ginger beer for 1 of the 2 adults with them. Kids sees the fancy non alcoholic glass for the ginger beer and immediately screams "I CALL THE BIG CUP," before charging for me and trying all at ones to grab the glass off the tray, I jump into mother bird mode and shield the drinks with my hands saying firmly "NO NO NO." Does the dad do anything to stop them, nope he just stands there laughing the entire time, I just walked away shaking my head
Edit: 5. Had a tray of drinks and several champagne glasses of mimosa, the table were I think 5 people and I had already dropped off their drinks, when the guy grabs the water off the tray just as I was lifting it and the champagne glasses tipped right over spilled onto me before shattering on the floor. I'm covered in mimosa and they are like "OMG I'm sorry, I didn't see you were lifting up the tray," my coworker comes over to sweep up the mess and is calling a porter to mop up the liquor. Before telling me to go dry myself off, not 5 minutes later comes and tells me as soon as I walked away the customers were laughing and mocking me for spilling the drinks on myself, I was pissed and the next time I had to drop off their drinks, I just set them down and let them figure out which drinks were theirs between the Millerlite, Coorslight, and Doxx
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/17n63cb/hands_to_yourself_until_all_drinks_are_off_the/
| 196 | 64 | 1,699,048,257 | 6 |
big tip
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hot
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16i3vh9
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TalesFromYourServer
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Stiffed on tip for "slamming" silverware
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Let me start by saying this is a great sub!
I wanna share one of many stories.
This story happened in 2010 or so, when I was young and worked at a certain house of pancakes.
This particular location was BUSY. It was located in a busy shopping area off two main roads in a large city, near a military base.
One morning, we were nonstop busy. Lines out of the door. I got a table of maybe 15-20 guys, all the college football type. Athletic, well-dressed, SEEMINGLY respectable. All of them were insanely polite, I got them refills, napkins, correct orders.
Of course restaurants roll silverware into a nice bundle in a napkin. We were so busy we ran out of rolled silverware. Before I got the food to theses guys, I had to tell them, "Sorry guys, we are so busy, I have other tables, I don't have time to roll silverware real nice for you." They said it's cool. They didn't care. What I did is get a plate with some napkins, and a fork, knife and spoon for each guy. Precisely counted. I put it in the center of the table. They seemed ok with it, ate the food, all good.
Anyways, when it came time to pay, the hostess told me after they had gone that I didn't get a tip on at least $150 worth of food because I "slammed" silverware at them. Nevermind the refills, correct orders, hard work, respect, THEM BEING SO NICE TO MY FACE, nevermind that. I'm a big ole bully who "slammed" silverware at a table full of dudes who were twice as tall and weighed double what I did.
​
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/16i3vh9/stiffed_on_tip_for_slamming_silverware/
| 157 | 42 | 1,694,651,553 | 6 |
big tip
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hot
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apqbt2
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TalesFromYourServer
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Nightmare table that included an employee
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I'm currently taking a semester off college to make as much money as I can, which means working two jobs (often back to back) 5-7 days a week. Worked a long shift at my retail job then came straight over to wait tables at a Pittsburgh-style restaurant. We close at midnight and 6 girls came in at 11:30 (no big deal, it sucks, but it's part of the job). As soon as they're inside the entire restaurant starts reaking of weed. I smoke myself, but goddamn they must of had a bunch on them for how bad the smell was.
So I seat them and take their drink orders, and they ask about wing night (which ended at 11) I inform them of this which then pisses them off, so the current employee (another waitress) asks to get my manager, my manager says he'll let it slide this one time. Taking their order took literally 15 minutes because they were all so high and kept changing their orders after I wrote them down. I try to strike up light conversation but I'm basically ignored as half of them are face timing friends while ordering.
I bring out their food and 3 of them immediately say that they ordered something different. I check my book and I brought out exactly what they ordered but they obviously had forgotten what they even ordered in the first place. So I proceed to bring out 3 new meals (for free) and apologize about the mix-up. While eating I probably got them about 10-15 refills on strawberry lemonade, which the bartenders have to make. I'm annoyed at this point but the extra tips will be worth it and I planned on tipping out the bar extra.
Nope.
After getting their 6 separate checks, and then a 7th because the employee wanted her discount, they all leave and I go to bus the table to find big fat zeros in the tip portion of every check, including the employee that works there. I could feel my hands shaking from how pissed off I was at that point. As I know had a 6-top to bus and clean dishes for (servers do their own dishes here) before I could even begin to start closing to end this 14 hour work day.
So here I am at 1:30am just now getting home and going to bed to do it all again in the morning. At least my manager said he will be having a long talk with her and the owner about tonight and I can only hope that she loses her job because apparently this is not the first time something like this has happened. Fuck people so much.
Edit: First gold on Reddit! I guess the table was worth it :)
Holy fuck lol, I should complain on the internet more often
Update: She's still employed FML
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/apqbt2/nightmare_table_that_included_an_employee/
| 2,157 | 192 | 1,549,952,649 | 6 |
big tip
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top
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cpc82o
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TalesFromYourServer
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“You need Jesus I’m praying for you”
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It’s after church rush on a Sunday and I get sat these two older women and I can already tell it’s going to be a difficult table. I go over and get their drinks, two coffees, bring them back they need a few more minutes with the menu. Come back a few minutes later and off we go. The AC has made their coffee cold, and I should make a fresh coffee because this one is gross (I literally just made it but two new coffees coming right up) bring them coffees and they start to order, this is where it gets interesting.
First lady’s order is normal, eggs, bacon, pancakes. The second lady gets the same thing, but she wants her eggs over medium BUT the yolk and the egg whites can’t touch, she says it’ll make her sick. I say “okay so you’d like the yolk and the whites separated?” To confirm. Nope not what she wants. “I want my eggs over medium, but the whites and the yolk can’t be touching, but don’t separate them it’ll make me deathly ill if they touch at all.” I give her a confused look “do you know what I mean?” She says. “Truthfully ma’am I’m not really sure what you’re asking for” she then puts on a second pair of glasses (yes a second, she already had one pair on and proceeded to put another set on over them) looks back down at the menu then back at me and repeats back exactly what she’d already said, but yells it this time. Followed up with “if they are touching I will die!” At this point my whole section is staring at us. I said okay and walked away. A table a few away stopped me on my way by and said “I think she means sunny side up” I just smiled and kept walking.
This lady was loud enough that my shift leader had heard it from out back. She told me to put it in as over medium and if there was an issue she’d go talk to her. There was a big table that got their order in before these two so I knew it was going to be a wait but tried to keep up on their coffee the best I could. They flag me down a few minutes later “it’s freezing in here! The AC has made our coffees cold can we get new ones? And can you turn down the AC?” We actually can’t turn it down, the thermostat is locked with a physical key so that only management can adjust it, and there wasn’t a manager in yet. But my shift leader told them she would go “turn it down”
I bring them new coffees and a few more minutes go by they flag me down again and say the AC has made their coffee cold and they will need new cups every five minutes because it’s just going to keep cooling them off. Mind you, our restaurant is pretty chilly if you’re not running around like we are, but these coffees are still warm. I can feel it through the cup every time I pick them up, but new coffees it is.
A few more minutes and I get sat a table behind them. I am taking this tables order when the lady starts yelling again over my other table “how much longer is the food going to be?!” I finish getting the tables order then tell her it shouldn’t be to much longer but I’ll go ask the cooks when they think they’ll have it done. I go back and ask them and they said it’s only be a few more minutes but the lady had been staring at them intensely for several minutes.
Their food comes up and I bring it over, preparing myself to be yelled at about these eggs. A table from another section stops me after I dropped off their food and tells me they’re praying for me they then walk by this lady, stop and tell her she needs Jesus, then leave. A few minutes in I go over to see how things are, I can already see she hasn’t made it to the eggs yet. She says everything is good but “did you know they make this pancake mix where you just have to add water and it’s way better than the pancakes I served her? I should tell the kitchen to start using X brand to make their pancakes” yes ma’am.
They finish their meal I go over to see how everything was and if they want dessert. Everything was fine, she ate the egg and hasn’t keeled over yet. Her only complaints were the pancakes and she said her sausage was to greasy and at home she likes to dab them off with a napkin to get the grease off. She had a napkin, so why she didn’t do that i dont know. Oh and the AC made their food cold seconds after I set it on their table.
She compliments me on my watch and I thank her and tell her I got it at Walmart. I leave and they sit talking for a bit. Another server from the next section over tells me while she was checking her tables she heard them saying I “must be a rich girl with a watch like that” it was $4 Walmart clearance, but whatever.
They finally get up to leave. This lady picks up the whole table and looks under it “did I get everything?” I can hear her saying. She goes to the bathroom and comes out with a pair of rubber gloves on. Whatever, just please leave, and finally they do. No issue with their eggs. They leave a $1 tip, which honestly I wasn’t expecting them to leave anything so at least there’s that.
After they left and I had time to process everything I started thinking that maybe this lady had some mental health issues, as she was older, or maybe not, either way. She got her eggs over medium and didn’t have a problem with them. So if anyone has any idea what she meant by “yolk and egg whites not touching but not separate” please let me know.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/cpc82o/you_need_jesus_im_praying_for_you/
| 1,952 | 196 | 1,565,615,670 | 6 |
big tip
|
top
|
k3azfv
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
harassed by customer - I don’t take it
|
I served among other things at a popular steak house and was on a closing shift. At this point I had been working there for 5+ years and was extremely comfortable in my job and table side manner. It was coming to the end of the night and I was sat with my last table - a 6 top of men in their late 20’s. Sweet! I (24F) at the time knew there was a great chance of making a nice tip. They were there to celebrate a birthday and as expected ordered a few rounds of large drinks a big steaks and ribs.
I get their order in, serve the first round and after the drinks are getting low fifteen minutes later I realize that seat 6 may be drunk already. ( there was no indication they had been drinking and they were initially all very polite and normal). I make a mental note to avoid offering him another drink and continue on. Pretty quickly seat 6 is jokingly berating me about where his Ribs are, while I keep my cool and laugh it off saying they have to cook first. All is fine, I do my job, then seat 6 starts taking my tongue and cheek as flirting. He starts saying a few crude things but was still PG-13, nothing I’m not used to. I’m here for the tips.
Until the guys are all digging in, I’m checking on their food and drinks, and seat 6 very boldly asks “when do you get off work?” Cue the rest of the table looking embarrassed.
“When I’m done.” I say with a smile.
“How about we go F*** in your car when you’re done.” EWWW. I’m mentally screaming.
“I have a boyfriend, no thanks.” I’m trying to be smooth and not super confrontational, just trying to awkwardly get out of this conversation.
“Well I have a wife, it doesn’t matter!” Mic drop. The whole table is shook. I’m shook.
In that moment I really didn’t care. I replied with a “well that’s f’ing disgusting. You should be ashamed!” He tried to play it off but probably wasn’t expecting me to bite back.
The entire table was extremely embarrassed. I carried on with an annoyed smile but acted as if nothing was wrong. They paid quickly, and in their embarrassment EVERY SINGLE GUY started throwing bigger bills at me. I finished out the night with an extra $120 in tips and a delicious feeling of girl power.
TDLR; tipsy man asks to do it after shift, I call him out, other guests tip me excessively. I win.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/k3azfv/harassed_by_customer_i_dont_take_it/
| 1,796 | 71 | 1,606,663,022 | 6 |
big tip
|
top
|
1ds7hkp
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
I ripped a table a new one for not telling me I had lettuce in my teeth
|
First time poster, on mobile, English is my first language so no excuses. This was about 10 years ago.
I was serving at a pub and had a table of regulars that would come in once a week, four men in their 40s - 50s. They were nice enough, only ever ordered beers and tipped decently. I was able to build a rapport with them over time and we'd chat about generic things like how our days were, etc.
I was the only front of house staff on one evening that they were in. It was a slow night so between rounds of checking on my tables I was eating a salad in the back room. I'd check my teeth in the mirror each time before going back out to the floor to make sure all was good.
I get to my table of regulars and ask how everything is going (insert smile here) and they start telling me how I have such a beautiful smile and to smile bigger and smile more and how they just love my great, friendly, smiling service. Feeling good I make sure to smile big for my few other tables.
I finish my round and go back to have some more salad and for some reason checked my teeth before I had any more food and lo and behold, there is a giant piece of lettuce stuck to my teeth, it must have been stuck to my gums and worked its way down onto my teeth.
I see red (or green, I guess) and I go storming back out to the floor and absolutely rip this table a new one about how rude and hurtful it is to encourage someone to smile when they have food in their teeth instead of just telling them they have food in their teeth. I wasn't quiet about it, other tables are looking over, and I go on about childish they are for bullying the person serving them just trying to do their job and I hope they're happy they completely humiliated me.
They all apologized profusely, left soon after and left a tip 3X their bill, which after ripping them a new one I was surprised and happy to get anything at all.
They would still come in every week after this incident and were nothing but gentlemen going forward.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/1ds7hkp/i_ripped_a_table_a_new_one_for_not_telling_me_i/
| 0 | 21 | 1,719,770,687 | 6 |
big tip
|
new
|
rkpp8u
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Grandma Karen doesn't understand what a closed section means, threatens me with corporate, doesn't realize we have a prior history
|
I used to be a manager at a TGIChilibee's far back in the year of our Lord, 2014. I was in charge of FOH, and I *hated* it. Stories like this are why.
Slow weekday evening, and we've got a skeleton crew on hand. We were managing just fine, but given the size of our restaurant along with the low numbers, we had the far back corner section completely closed down. And by that I mean, lights off, chairs up on the tables, shut *down*. The situation would have been obvious to any normal person.
In walks grandma Karen, who I will hereon refer to as GK. I knew this woman from a previous restaurant I worked at. She came in a few times a week with her bridge group, the majority of which were sinfully obnoxious. They were the type to always order the bare minimum from our lunch menu, only drink water, yet demand multiple lemons, sugar, etc., and leave candy wrappers **everywhere**. They demanded constant attention from our servers and were lucky to leave whatever change they got back from paying cash for tip (e.g., $9.78 bill, they're leaving that $0.22 *if* they feel generous).
And, guess what? *Her bridge group wanted to play a night game*. Why, at TGIChilibee's, of all places? At least my last restaurant was in a hotel, so they could have some degree of privacy.
I just happened to be watching the host stand when she came in. She tells me she wants to sit in the back, away from everyone else so they can be as far away from other customers as possible. Lo and behold, she points right at the closed section. Now, as the FOH manager, I could easily have accommodated them back there. But I knew exactly what kind of customers they were going to be, and I wasn't willing to put any of my servers through that bullshit. So I told her, no, that section is closed and I don't have a server back there, but I can put her in the far corner of an open section.
GK: "I don't *want* to be in that section. I want that corner back there."
Me: "Ma'am, I don't have a server back there, and the section is completely closed down. Do you see the chairs back there? We don't even have condiments on the tables, we're doing some deep cleaning with those."
GK: "The customer is always right, and I'm the customer, so we're going to sit back there."
Me: "Ma'am, are you willing to pull those chairs down yourself? Because we can't spare the staff to do it right now."
At this point, she could tell I wasn't going to budge. And my host had came up to the stand, so she mumbles something about just putting her wherever. My server gets a place set for them and that seems to be the end of it.
The rest of the group comes in, eats, plays cards, does their thing. I recognize quite a few of them. Several even stopped and said hi, not realizing I wasn't at my previous restaurant anymore. After they finish and the rest of the group leaves, GK is getting her things together and points her boney ass finger at me to call me over.
GK: "I just want you to know that you were extremely rude. The customer is ALWAYS right, and you needed to let us have that section."
I started trying to explain, again, that I didn't have the staff to man the entire restaurant, but she wasn't having it.
GK: "I will be calling corporate on you. I already have their number. I am going to tell them you wouldn't accommodate a group of senior citizens and we will be taking our business elsewhere. We would have been in here multiple times a week for our meetings, so you just lost yourself a lot of business, *buddy* (I specifically remember thinking it was weird AF for a woman well into her 80's to be calling a twentysomething man "buddy")".
Here's where it gets good. Remember me telling you that I was familiar with her group from my previous restaurant?
Me: "Ma'am, I'm sorry you feel that way. But if you want to continue to hold your bridge games at (insert old restaurant's name here), they have an excellent dinner menu and they are open from 4:30 - 9. They would even be able to put you at your usual table."
[You could see the mental process displaying on her face: confusion, to realization, to fury, to pure resignation.](https://c.tenor.com/DCycRQnBpOYAAAAC/math-hmm.gif)
Once it occurred to her that I not only knew her and her group, but what kind of customers they really were, she literally said nothing else. She walked straight out of the restaurant and out of my life. I never saw her in there again.
Last I heard, the bridge group ended up leaving my old restaurant too. They got upset when the dining room manager finally told them they weren't allowed to bring in outside candy anymore, because they'd managed to wreck two vacuum cleaners due to wrappers getting sucked up into the filters.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/rkpp8u/grandma_karen_doesnt_understand_what_a_closed/
| 2,536 | 136 | 1,640,013,883 | 6 |
generous tip
|
relevance
|
dsop5s
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
100$ tip on a 60$ bill but there’s a catch
|
Edit: I’m 18 years old and a Male.
This was awhile ago and I was serving a couple (i’m assuming they are a couple). They were one of my two last tables so I got to spend more time with them personally and they were nice personable people.
Until in the middle of the meal i’m talking to the gentlemen and he asks me,
Guy “ So she (girl he’s with) wants to know what It would take with you to come home with us tonight?” (he asks this while laughing)”
In my head i’m thinking with the laughing he’s doing he’s just messing with me. I start laughing back kind of and say
Me “Oh man is there a party going on or something? (laughing trying to make it not awkward)”
Guy “Oh nothing really she’s just asking.”
I start laughing back again and she says
Girl “I just like to ask that to get people’s responses and it usually fun”
I keep talking to them and making them laugh and I switch conversations to talking about my dog and how cbd can help with her arthritis. this goes on for a little bit and then she keeps telling me how she likes my nose piercing
Girl “ What do you think would happen if we got our nose piercings stuck together? (Starts laughing)”
I’m trying to laugh after everything to try and not keep it awkward .
Me “ I don’t know we would get stuck I guess? ( More laughing continues)”
It goes on and I make it as least awkward as possible.
At the end of their meal, I cash them out and I go to the table and grab their book and the gentlemen gives me a 40$ tip
Me “ Woah this was very generous of you! thank you”
Guy “ Oh did you want some more?”
He pulls out another 40$ and gives it to me. I get excited but in my head i’m thinking is he trying to buy me to come home with him?
The girl then asks for a box for her desert and I come back and she gives me another 20$. Again i’m excited but i’m still thinking what are they trying to do?
I get out of there as quickly as I can but give them enough excitement and thank you’s to them to be respectful .
That was a weird night.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/dsop5s/100_tip_on_a_60_bill_but_theres_a_catch/
| 2,394 | 100 | 1,573,083,286 | 6 |
generous tip
|
relevance
|
yhxaog
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Snapped at the snapping
|
So I haven’t been a server in over 15 years but this has always been one of my favorite stories. I worked at a very small (10 table) restaurant in Baltimore City. That part of the city was “up and coming” at the time so we had a mixed clientele of hipsters and seniors who had been “coming here for years”.
Early on in the night, I got a four top of two elderly couples who had come down for the crab cakes. From the very beginning, one of the men was very condescending calling me “sweet cheeks”, etc. I took their order and not two minutes later he was SNAPPING HIS FINGERS to get my attention. I finished what I was doing and went over. He asked me to bring him 5 different condiment sauces, a bowl, and a spoon so he could make his “special sauce”, which I did.
He then proceeded to give me a “lesson” on how to make this sauce. (I can’t remember the exact contents but I do remember Mayo, Worcestershire, malt vinegar, and honey Dijon.) Once he was done, he said “it’s a shame you have to live this life. But pretty people never get the brains, ya know? Maybe this sauce can help you get something on the menu.”
At this point I had enough, I walked away. Two minutes later the snapping ensued. I looked at him, looked away, and continued on with my other customers. My tip wasn’t worth it. Then after his ignored snapping attempts, he started clinking his glass with his fork. Which I also ignored. When their food came out, I took it to their table. He was enraged.
He asked me why I’d been ignoring him and I told him that I don’t respond to snapping and clinking and that if he’d like to get my attention in the future he could “use his manners” and say “excuse me” like a dignified human being. I then asked what I could help him with and he said he just wanted me to try his sauce. I declined.
When their meal was finished, he let me know not to expect a tip because I was so ungrateful of him. That he was just trying to help me get “some prospects”. That’s when I let him know I was in my final year of graduate school and at the top of my class. That my prospects were just fine and that his behavior was completely unacceptable. I told him he was rude, condescending, and ignorant. And that I hope his prospects in life improved with a bit of training in basic human manners. He stormed out and said he would be contacting the owner (who gave me her blessing in this— thankfully.)
Five minutes later, his wife came in and discreetly hand me $50. She thanked me for teaching him a lesson. I’m not sure of her reasoning on this part, but after that they came in once a month and always requested my section. He always said “excuse me” and they always left a $50 tip. When I graduated and left the city, they got me a card and a very generous gift.
Good times.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/yhxaog/snapped_at_the_snapping/
| 1,519 | 66 | 1,667,180,500 | 6 |
generous tip
|
relevance
|
ahj82x
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
customer faked me out at closing time
|
so i worked, until last month, at a restaurant whose vibe was that tips were accepted but not expected. basically, if you got one, it was just a bonus, and very few people did.
one night, we had a group of 4 come in, and it was about two hours before closing. alright, no problem. everything’s going smoothly, they get their food, no complaints.
and now it’s an hour before closing, and they’re still just chatting. no longer eating, just enjoying each other’s company. unfortunately, i’m getting a little antsy, because they were the only people left in the dining room and the owner liked to close up to a half hour early if we didn’t have anyone currently seated.
so i start up on my side work, looking over every now and then to see if they’re almost ready to leave. and then, about a half hour before official closing time, one of the ladies sees me looking at the table and pulls out a $20. now let me be clear, this twenty was NOT there at any time prior. she made no mention of it to anyone at the table, just let it sit on the edge of the table.
for a tip like that, when the most we usually get is $10, i would kill for a customer, and money for me was REALLY tight. so i was no longer antsy to get them to leave, even though their leaving meant i would get to go home, bc that $20 would be 2 hours worth of my pay.
so eventually i finished my side work, wiped down the tables that hadn’t been wiped down, and everything is spotless, i’m just waiting for them. now it’s past closing time, by about ten minutes, but honestly i’m still not that upset. i just keep my eye on that tip, and remind myself that it’s totally worth it. i keep the most polite and happy attitude, because i’m genuinely grateful. and then, they finally get up to leave. i give them a very cheerful goodbye as everybody starts shuffling to go, and i go to clear off their table so i can go home.
only to realize that there was no longer a twenty on the table. that “tip” that the lady had pulled out and kept on the edge, all the way up until they left, had went directly back into her purse when she left.
my heart deflated. i almost cried. i think she wanted me to feel that it would be worth it to let them stay after closing (not that i could say anything anyway), and wanted me to keep being pleasant, but it really upset me that this lady saw me looking, pulled out a hefty “tip,” and then put it right back as she was leaving.
it was a deliberate move, and really upsetting, and being on this sub reminded me of it.
EDIT: thank you SO MUCH to the redditor who kindly messaged me and donated $100 to my family’s gofundme page to help lessen some of our financial worries, i nearly cried and it was so unnecessarily but amazingly generous
EDIT 2: i nearly cried once more when i received reddit gold.. i swear i’m not pregnant, just very emotional ❤️
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/ahj82x/customer_faked_me_out_at_closing_time/
| 1,804 | 101 | 1,547,875,525 | 6 |
generous tip
|
relevance
|
aaduzt
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Generous Christmas Tip
|
So yesterday I worked a double which I normally don't do because of school and all that.
I had one table who had never been here before so I go into spiel about who we are, how the menu is designed blah blah blah. They seem interested but not overly excited so just a normal table.
Everything's good and dandy and their bill was something like $55 total (including tax). It was a two top so that's pretty normal. I go to pick up the check once they leave and and they left cash, awesome! I take out the cash and start counting all the ones. Count the last one and low and behold a $20 behind it!!! Merry Christmas to me!
Going through the rest of my double I started thinking she meant to leave a $5 as that would be an $11 tip which would be proportional to the bill but I'll take it!
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/aaduzt/generous_christmas_tip/
| 16 | 1 | 1,546,028,063 | 6 |
generous tip
|
relevance
|
7qkhsh
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
"Whenever this bottle of wine is empty, we need you to bring us a new one."
|
I work for an agency that sends staff to different events. Yesterday I was working at a show during the day (10am-5:30pm). I had one table with a group of women in their 60s. They seemed lovely. They ordered their first bottle of white wine at 10am and asked me to bring them a new one whenever they put the empty bottle next to the wine cooler. We make some jokes, I was thinking I am gonna get a great tip from them by the end of the day. Day goes by, I bring them bottle after bottle, accompanied by a few other drinks and water. By the end of the event, they had a tab of 89.80. No food, just drinks.
They didn't believe me. One of them got their phone out and had me put in all the drinks they had into a calculator.
After they finally believed me they gave me (hold on to your seats) 90. For a full day of service, always immediately bringing them a new bottles of wine and constant checking in with them I got a 0.20 tip.
Thankfully the other tables were much more generous, but still. How can you be this cheap??
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/7qkhsh/whenever_this_bottle_of_wine_is_empty_we_need_you/
| 737 | 82 | 1,516,031,429 | 6 |
generous tip
|
relevance
|
aa8tji
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
“We’re ready to order whenever you are!”
|
Said the middle aged gentleman accompanied by 6 others.
“Of course! What can I get for you sir?” I replied while eyeing the stampede of guests surrounding my bar on this busy night.
“Ok ! Uhhhhhh...(he looks behind him) Honey!what do you want ?”
I fake smile from disappointment as he continues,
“So I have a question. What does the passion fruit lager taste like?”
“It’s a light, fruity, PASSION FRUIT flavor.” I said while looking at the many more guest plowing in.
“Ok, Ill have a corona.”
I inform him that we are a brewery and make ONLY our own beers, I then skip over to the drafts and pour him a couple samples of the closest brews we have that would be in the family of his preferred corona. I bring them over and describe each one. He tastes them while chatting with his group and I make my way to the other guests and get a good flow going again. In the middle of a another guest telling me their order he puts his fucking arm in between my face and the face of the guest and says “Hello! My corona?!?”.
I give my current guest a sorryletmedealwiththisdude look and
I pour him a light lager and I tell him again we only brew our OWN beer but this is closest to a corona that we have..he’s happy. He orders 2 more and some old fashioned’s and espresso martinis (ugh the espresso machine located far away in the kitchen) and everything is smooth until I give him his bill.
He wanted a discount since we didn’t have corona and he had to “settle” for our beer.
I asked him how much of discount? At this point I’m sweaty ,I’m weeded and I’m annoyed, “So, you want all the beers you drank AND ordered more of for free?”
He looks blankly at me and I head over to my computer , take off 1 beer, print the tab and thank him and his friends.
I get his cash and give him his change, he thanks me and gives me $4. His bill was $70.
15 minutes he comes back and orders 3 more lagers, “ Do you want these discounted too?” I say in my exaggerated friendly tone, I’m not usually this cunty but it felt right. He paid in cash again and this time didn’t tip. Whatever.
At the end of the night his wife comes up to me and shakes my hand with money in it and says “I know my husband is an idiot, you handled him wonderfully and did great tonight.”
After I thanked her I went in the kitchen to look at what she gave me and son of a bitch she thought $5 was generous. Granted, it’s the thought that counts but .... really ?
I don’t mean to come off a ungrateful I just wanted to vent
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/aa8tji/were_ready_to_order_whenever_you_are/
| 461 | 64 | 1,545,988,878 | 6 |
generous tip
|
relevance
|
q8p0ua
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
Sanity check question.
|
For background, I worked my way through college tending bar and have always tipped and tipped generously.
I went to pick up takeout last night at a bar/restaurant that serves Mexican food. When I got there I told the bartender my name and that I was there to pick up take out. He had my order all bagged and ready to go behind the bar. He gave me the check. It was $38. I looked at it and put it back on the bar with my CC. There was one customer sitting at the bar and three two tops with customers (two inside and one outside), and one server working. It was not at all busy.
He brings the customer at the bar a bowl of chips and shoots the breeze with her for about five minutes, ignoring my card. I catch his eye and look down at the card, so he comes over, takes the card and sticks it in the card reader, then leaves the bar. He starts helping the server put together an order for one of the tables, then takes it to the outside table. This takes another four or five minutes.
Finally, he comes back to the bar and realizes that he still hasn't run my card and given me my order, and that I looked pretty annoyed about the wait. He ran the card and gave me the slip to sign and says "sorry sir". At this point, I've wasted 10 minutes waiting for my order, which was ready when I got there, so I stiffed him. I normally would have left a $6-$8 tip for a take out order that size. I think that was the first time I haven't tipped someone, ever.
Was I out of line for not tipping him at all?
TIA
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/q8p0ua/sanity_check_question/
| 297 | 48 | 1,634,306,358 | 6 |
generous tip
|
relevance
|
160jgk6
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
The Pit of Despair
|
About three months into my first service job, I was feeling quite confident after learning the ropes. I was definitely out of my element after a decade of grunt work at an airport. 2009, and the economy was in the crapper big time. When looking for jobs, I mentioned to my wife that I was thinking about applying at the same restaurant as she, but at the other location in our city, as it was in walking distance. She laughed and told me I could never handle it, so of course my ego spurned, I had to prove her wrong. Turned out next day talking to a good friend, his cousin was the GM. So about 10 days later, I was in. After the 5 day training, my first night solo, turned out to be their busiest night ever, thus far.
I came home with 170 bucks, and asked her how much she made, "80," she says, to which I whip out that fat wad and uttered the timely, "shi*s weak." She frowned in deafening silence, I relished in her disdain, as I made it rain,on the kitchen table. So, the Pit. The Pit is where they put the real servers, long booths that comfortably will sit 8 people, and we would get 4 or 5, close to the bar, the kitchen and 3 pos machines. After being relegated to the furthest outermost sections for months, it was a relief... Little did I know, my first night, turned out to be my worst night of serving, everrrrrrr. You know the ol' 5 cup hand grab? Sure ya do, well, I have pretty large hands, and although it was looked down upon by mgmt it was a gray area, and everyone was doin it. I had, as usual on a Friday night, my whole section filled at once, and after flaming evil eyes at the host I was in the zone. One table was a group of burley construction dudes, neck Tats, Raiders hats and not a smile to be seen. And a mix at the other booths in between, a family of 5 kids bookending my gangsters furthest from the BOH. These kids are between 3-8 years old, and hyped up on sugary drinks, crawling all over the place, good times. I managed getting their drinks out timely. Being a bit more generous in tipping the bartenders every night, worked great as they would run drinks from their end while I grabbed the soft drinks in the back. So the construction dudes, being sat last, I was headed for the booth with 4 sodas and a water. As I set the drinks down at the head of the table to disperse individually, as I had done so many times before, this time, I messed up in a major way the two drinks on the backside, came down on my pinkys when they met the wood. And two mountain dews flooded the whole table spilling on all of their laps, especially the guys in the middle. "WTF??!!" Thats what I heard, as well as every other patron in the entire restaurant, and they all scattered around trying to escape the syrupy mess. I cringed inside fully expecting a well deserved backhand and said, "be right back." As I head for the nearest sani bucket to attempt a quick wipedown. Well that particular sani was affixed to the backside of the the fam with tons of kids, and as I ran like the wind, serendipitous timing ensued with a toddler, that popped out, crawling from under their table, right into my path. And wouldn't you know, I trip as my 230 lb body in full sprint, met with this kids underbelly and face plant right on that red tile. And the kid let's out a wail that the previous WTF was pail in comparison and that being only 5 seconds ago, I had still at that moment,all eyes still upon me. This wail soon after accompanied by a groan, in unison of about 200 people. A cacophony of unfortunate sounds that will haunt me forever. I popped up and my brain just froze, I limp a couple steps towards the family and the dad was scooping the injured toddler up into his lap, and by that time he was in full on devastatingly loud hiccup bawling. I apologize and they were all ignoring me as they assess the full situation. I imagine this was the first real pain this kid has experienced in his short life having the wind knocked out of him by a former defensive lineman. And at that moment, I wanted to die man. My managers were on top of the drink spill situation, one with a pile of dry towels and the other with sani towels, and I backed into the kitchen exactly like that Homer meme into the bushes. You could have fried an egg on my face by the time I got back to hide from 400 eyeballs. A couple cooks immediately asking if I was alright, because my entire head was beet red and I was hyperventilating. My favorite manager, pops in and grabs my arms and just says, "duuuuuude wtf????" And is laughing herself silly. "That is the most effed up thing I have ever seen, you poor thing." Later on after I mustered the courage to show myself again, and checked on the construction dudes, they said they were not one bit mad after seeing that whole scene go down they felt really bad for me. And the family surprisingly were very cool about it, and said their kids learned a good lesson that night of behavioral consequences for being out of hand and crawling about. Both tables ended up tipping exorbitantly, and a handful of patrons that weren't in my section patted me on the back and gave kudos for not just walking out of a fire exit and never looking back. Oh, one final thing, the 5 drink hand hold, it was banned for my tenure, across the board....
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/160jgk6/the_pit_of_despair/
| 17 | 3 | 1,692,923,168 | 6 |
generous tip
|
hot
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klelm4
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TalesFromYourServer
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Well, there goes the holiday spirit.
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Y’all I’m feeling so burned out today.
Yesterday morning my boss brought in a box full of pastries in lieu of a Christmas bonus, which is fine, I wasn’t really expecting a bonus, but it would have been cool considering our business has done surprisingly well throughout the pandemic, even though we’ve only been offering takeout the entire time, but I had really hoped that with reduced staff and without the expense of a big Christmas party the higher ups might feel a little generous.
I don’t want to complain, I’m so happy that I have a job right now, but damn, I’m hurting right now, I’m supporting myself and my boyfriend, and have been since March.
Today at least 3/4 of people that have come in to place an order have completely stiffed me on a tip, and the ones that have been tipping are mostly doing a dollar. I know it’ll even out eventually, but damn this is frustrating and stressful. Hope others out there are having better days today!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/klelm4/well_there_goes_the_holiday_spirit/
| 43 | 12 | 1,609,113,527 | 6 |
generous tip
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hot
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cj9xz4
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TalesFromYourServer
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My ex's favorite customers.
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Back in high school my girlfriend was saving up for a months-long trip to France by working at the local mid-priced sit-down.
Nice place, decent clientele, and good tips. Five week-night hours in the smallest section would net her at least $40, which was fucking fantastic considering minimum wage was $3.35 at the time.
She came up short on the saving bit though. When her Dad saw she was actually earning money, she was expected to pay a third of the car insurance. And her own band costs. And the rental on her instrument. And her school fees. And $300/month in 'savings' to go towards college.
The month before the trip she was still short.
I tried giving or loaning her money. She refused.
I tried buying a meal and tipping heavily. I found the tip in my locker the next morning, in loose dimes dumped through a vent.
I tried getting one of her friends to loan her my money, and she saw through it.
So I cheated. I ate at her restaurant a lot, well, because, and I became familiar with the other regulars. One couple in particular was always chatty with her, and always generous, so I approached them.
>Me: Hey! I don't know you folks, but I'm your waitresses' boyfriend. She's saving for a trip to France, and well, I'd like to help, but she won't let me. Would it be okay if I gave you a tip to give to her?
>Woman: That sounds lovely! She's told me about the trip!
>Me: Just don't tell her I gave you the money, okay?
>Man: We won't mention you at all.
>Woman: Oh, no! You're fine, dear.
I handed over a few hundred bucks (earned at minimum wage!) and they did their thing while I watched.
The money was enough. She went to France and had a fantastic time.
Last month I got an email from her, bitching me out. She moved in a few houses down from the couple last year, and they came clean.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/cj9xz4/my_exs_favorite_customers/
| 296 | 21 | 1,564,399,442 | 6 |
generous tip
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top
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3qyd1v
|
TalesFromYourServer
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I like it when the owner comes in
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I manage the front of house at our medium size AA rosette/Michelin guide country pub restaurant, and during a shift I normally look after tables or tend bar; so I'm a manager who serves. We split tips equally between everyone who works, which is common for non-chains/franchises in the UK.
And I like it when the owner & directors of his larger company come in. There's 3 of them. Owner flew them all down in his favourite helicopter, whilst his pilot for the trip home caught a 2 hour taxi to come meet him later.
As an aperitif, these guys start with 2 bottles of Batard-Montrachet, £185 per bottle, and hand me a generous glass, and they pour a bit for the bartender too. They down it and have a 2nd bottle. The evening is a tasting menu only, 8 courses with matches of wine, which they happily consumed. Additionally they take two bottles of Opus One (£350) which they also share with myself and their waitress. They also consume copious mixer drinks afterwards with top shelf spirits, and grab a 1er cru Burgundy and an ABC Chardonnay for the helicopter ride back. The big cheese pays the bill (works out better for him tax-wise than taking it out of business revenue), which is near £2000, and sticks a £400 tip on it; he then goes into the kitchen and shoves £200 cash in the head chef's hand for the kitchen and tells everyone to have a drink.
And then he helps polish glasses, which we are short of for the tasting evening. He knows everyone's name, including the kitchen porters and the housekeepers.
tl;dr loaded owner, big tip, helped out, nice guy
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/3qyd1v/i_like_it_when_the_owner_comes_in/
| 255 | 20 | 1,446,289,797 | 6 |
generous tip
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top
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1p6euj
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TalesFromRetail
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Best parent that I've seen in a long time
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Closer to the end of my shift today, a family came into the store. It was a mom, dad, and two daughters, probably around 8 and 6. They browsed for a bit, and every once in a while I would listen in. The mom kept asking the daughters if they had enough money for what they were buying and the girls would think it over and answer.
When they picked out the items they wanted to buy (two Disney Infinity characters and a game) and my coworker told them their total, the mom turned to the oldest daughter.
"You're paying for these with your birthday money. Do you remember how much money you have?" When the daughter shook her head, the mom pulled out her money and slowly counted it with her daughter, letting the daughter add up the 20 dollar bills. When the girl had decided she had $80, my coworker reminded her that she owed $65. The mom asked her if she had enough money to pay for her new toys. The daughter replied yes really hesitantly, and her mom encouraged her to be confident in her answer. So the daughter handed the money to my coworker, who rang up the transaction, gave her the change and helped her count it out.
The daughter thanked us and began to leave, carrying the bag, but the mom stayed behind to thank us. She was trying to help her daughter understand the concept of money and its value, and at other places, cashiers would get impatient with how long it took the daughter to count her money and decide if it was enough.
It may seem very insignificant, but examples of good parenting coming into my store are few and far between, and I thought I'd share with you all.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1p6euj/best_parent_that_ive_seen_in_a_long_time/
| 1,721 | 205 | 1,382,680,722 | 6 |
tip
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relevance
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7d3b4l
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TalesFromRetail
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Instead of giving free fruit, there should be a shame basket, cos some customers have none.
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Hey guys! I've lurked here a while and I've just finished a big top/all time binge and instead of commenting on all the posts that I can relate to, I've decided to make a couple of posts for you guys to consume.
For context, I work in a very large (possibly the largest, or at least top 3) grocery store chain in my country. I am in service, so registers, cigarette part, guarding the self service machines and putting stock back, are my paid duties. I have some good, most bad as you guys can understand.
I'm going to start with what happened just last night. I was in the smoke section, so, how my store is and by law, there's only one register to sell cigarettes from, and thats at the front of the store, meaning you dont have to come in to buy cigarettes. So the smoke/returns and refunds is one register, and then we have three more registers on the side of it that serve as 'express lane, X items or less' registers. Here is what the layout is Like, if you can't imagine it (note, not the store I personally work in, nor the company I work for) https://imgur.com/a/FOQ0h .
I was in that section, serving customers in the express lane, when a woman walked out of the store holding some items and went straight to the ciggarette/returns & refunds section and I assumed she wanted to pay for them there, as some customers do, like if they want smokes with their purchase or some smart asses that think they're too good to line up and assume they'll get served quicker because they're the only one waiting (this doesn't work,ppl)
Anyway, I finish up with my customer and step to this lady. She lays the items ( big pack of expensive womens razors, couple of pairs of those ballet shoe socks, hair removal kit and a tube of mascara) on the counter and this is the conversation that follows
M = me
L = lady
>M 'Hi! How can I help you?'
> L 'hi, yes, I'd like a refund on these items, please'
>M 'uh sure, can I see your receipt please'
>L 'I don't have one'
*Fml. of course you dont, you just grabbed them off the shelf.*
>M 'ok, when did you buy them?'
> L 'oh, um, oh gosh, it was... A while ago,months ago... I know i dont have a receipt but you can look up the purchase on my card?
>M ' oh, good, you used your rewards card? I could find the purchase like that'
>L ' no, I mean my credit card'
.... *bruh*
>M 'we don't store any credit or debit card information.... Look, let me get my supervisor over.
She's starting to get agitated and nervous, because why can't we hand over money from the till, damn it? How hard is it to open the till and give away $50 odd dollars? Am I right. Anyway.
I pull supervisor aside and tell her what happened, how she walked out of the shop holding the products in her hands ect,
>S 'hi, what would you like to do with the items?'
>L 'refund. I just want my money'
>S 'im sorry, my coworker told me you dont have a receipt and also the products were bought a long while ago you stated so that in itself is a reason we can't really refund today'
>L ' no no I bought these a few days ago! I didnt say months she's lying!!
*busted, my boss never said months, she said a while*
>L ' look just give me my money please , have your products back, I don't fucking want them, I want my money!!!'
I walked out the back to grab the drink trolley to start restocking the fridge, and when I came back the lady was gone. I asked what happened and my supervisor said she asked her if she walked out of our store and she told her no, she came from her car? So my boss told her we can check the cameras, and the lady pushed the items towards my boss and told her to fuck off.
We checked the cameras, and sure enough, she took the stuff off the shelves and brazenly walked past me holding them and placed them on the counter.
I'm starting to not be surprised but things like this make me wonder how dumb people think we are?
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/7d3b4l/instead_of_giving_free_fruit_there_should_be_a/
| 2,414 | 96 | 1,510,742,751 | 6 |
tip
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relevance
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qlujut
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TalesFromRetail
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A customer called me aggressive years ago and I’m still pressed about it!
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So I used to work at a shop that sold macarons. My town is a huge tourist destination in Florida and we had these chocolate tours, basically a guide will take you on a tour of the city and you go around and sample sweets from all the different sweet stores. I apologize in advance as I’m bad at paraphrasing so this will probably be long.
One day one of the tour guides comes in with an elderly couple. We had just opened and I had yet to see my boss that day. She told me that we had been added to the chocolate tour and my boss said her guests could have two macarons and two pieces of chocolate on the house. I hadn’t been told about this so I was a little confused.
I wanna preface the next part by saying: I have worked in customer service jobs since I was a young kid. I don’t want to sound cocky especially as I’m not confident about a lot of things in my life, but I do know for an absolute fact that I’m fantastic with customers and I treat every one of them like we’ve known each other for years. I have never broken my retail persona and have always maintained a calm, friendly composure. Every boss I’ve had has loved me for this.
So, I tell her “I will be happy to do that for you, but I haven’t heard anything about this so would you mind if I called my boss real quick to confirm there wasn’t any miscommunication?” And she’s seemingly totally fine with this, both her and her guests said they totally understood, it was no problem at all, they didn’t want me to get in trouble, etc. So I call and get the go ahead. I apologize multiple times for the confusion and there doesn’t seem to be any problem. Because of the confusion I make an extra effort for them, I pull out the cute silk bags we reserve for events and tied their sweets up real cute with a little bow, just basically made it a little extra special while having a nice chat with the guide and her guests. She’s all smiles, they’re all smiles, I think we’re all good.
They go to sit down and eat. I can hear their whole conversation (this is important later) and they’re just having a nice chat about the town, the guide is asking if they enjoyed their tour as this was the last stop, nothing about me whatsoever. The guide gets up and says goodbye to them and leaves for her next tour, and the couple likes the chocolates so much that they come up and ordered a few more and throw a few bucks in the tip jar. Nothing seemed off whatsoever and I forget about the whole thing and go about my day.
Later I hear my phone go off with a text from my boss, but I don’t get to read it because we get hit with a small rush. Towards the tail end of the rush my boss comes in and asks me if I saw her text. I say no and she tells me to go read it, so I do and it’s a screenshot of an email from the guide. It basically said something along the lines of:
Your employee was very rude and aggressive. My guests and I spoke as we were sitting to eat and they said he made them very uncomfortable and they felt unwelcome. They said they wanted to order more but didn’t want to talk to him again so they didn’t. It was very unprofessional that he didn’t know about the chocolate tour and he gave us attitude about it.
I walk over to my boss after reading the text and just say “aggressive? what?” And she pops OFF. She loved me because I was one of the few working there who actually worked instead of spending my whole shift on my phone. She’s going off, like “How dare she say that! You’re my best employee I know you would never be aggressive to ANYONE! This is so ridiculous! I watched the cameras and you were SO nice to them! It’s not your fault that I forgot to tell you about the tour!” The cameras have audio so she could hear every word I said and every word the guide and her guests said. They didn’t say a single word about me, they were very happy with their sweets, and like I said earlier they DID order more stuff after the guide left and we had a very nice interaction. So basically, at no point did they have the chance to talk about me to where I could hear them as the tour guide and them parted ways while they stayed in the store. She straight up lied about multiple things.
The only possible reason I could think of for the bad review she sent my boss (luckily she didn’t leave a public review anywhere) is that she was embarrassed because there was the small hiccup in the tour with me being confused when she first walked in and I was the easiest person to take it out on. The doors to the macaron cooler do make a kind of loud sound when you close them, and I tend to be a little heavy handed anyway, so maybe she interpreted the smack of the doors as me slamming things around in anger? My boss and I were both confused as hell. I’m lucky that I had the cameras to back me up as well as my boss’s trust, I know a lot of bosses will stand by the customer no matter how ridiculous the complaint is. She ended up cancelling all future tours because she didn’t want their business after that. But man! I work so hard and exert so much emotional labor in order to give people the best experience possible so I feel very…… indignant about the whole thing.
If you got all the way to the end, thanks for reading! TL;DR: Tour guide got made over a lack of communication between my boss and I and calls me aggressive for making her look bad in front of her tour.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/qlujut/a_customer_called_me_aggressive_years_ago_and_im/
| 829 | 56 | 1,635,946,383 | 6 |
tip
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hot
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lrzmxo
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TalesFromRetail
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Crazy Clarinet Lady
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I work at a local nameless music store in my town. Idk if it's a gift or a 6th sense or something, but I usually get a gut feeling when dealing with a customer is gonna go south. She gave me this feeling. She walked in with her son and I think a friend?
She's about middle aged. Not joking, Karen haircut, and she looks like twice my weight. At first, she was polite and pretty normal. She was picking up her son's clarinet that she had dropped off to be cleaned and checked over. Grabbed the case for it, set it on the counter and began to ring her up. We have these checklists that are marked with everything the tech did to the instrument, and I'm supposed to read it to them and then let them keep the copy. So I say that we Cleaned & Wiped down, etc. Everything's going fine, but just before she's about to pay, she asks me to get a q-tip. I don't really think twice about it, and run and get her a q-tip.
I'm just about to close it up when she digs the q-tip into one of the holes of the clarinet and pulls it up and goes "Does that look clean to you?"
Me: Well I guess not, lemme see, looks like you only got it cleaned and wiped down. Did you want it to be disassembled? (disassembled & deep cleaned)
CCL: Well, I wanted it cleaned!
Me: We had it cleaned and wiped down, says right here.
CCL: Well, you didn't clean the whole thing!
Me: We didn't disassemble it looks like. I can put it back in the shop and have the tech give it the extra treatment.
CCL: I don't want that, that'll take too long blah blah blah, just don't charge me for the cleaning!
Me: lemme talk to my co-worker, see what I can do.
Talk to my co worker, we decide to call the owner. Basically the next like fucking hour of my life was hell. It blended all together of me trying to stay calm and polite, calling my boss back and forth, and trying to tell the lady the same fucking thing over and over again. Some highlights:
My boss told me to stone wall, so there were about 10 minutes where we were just standing there. I interrupted this silence eventually by reminding her that we were closing in 30 minutes.
She kept telling me these random sob stories out of nowhere, something about a broken down SUV, hospital bills, whatever. At this point, I fucking hated her guts and hoped that she wasn't lying and it was just karma.
I handed the store phone to her so she could speak directly to the owner. They argued for about 5 minutes, but the owner's been doing this a while so he had her figured out. She threatened to walk out of the store WITH the clarinet, WITHOUT paying. Boss immediately hung up, she slammed the phone into the counter, boss calls the store again, I answer, he tells me that she can't leave the store with the clarinet if she doesn't pay, and that I NEED TO HAVE TO BEHIND THE COUNTER NOW. \*Phew\* ok I know what to do.
The clarinet case is sitting right there in front of her meat hooks. I take the repair checklist, and show it to her. "Now if you look here, we did clean it." and I grab the case by the handle. Fuck, not quick enough, she realizes she's been duped and grabs the case with her grubby little claws. Fuck, it's on now. I'm trying to control my anger, and not overpower her in any way, I don't want to give her any ammunition. She threatens to call the police, I reply that we will as well, she FUCKING FINALLY throws down her card onto the counter and I fucking run her bill.
She said she would contest the charge, she never did. Haven't seen her again. I ordered a sandwich just before she showed up and I still hadn't got around to eating it. I hope she turned around and went down a new path, The path of not being a total fucking karen... tbh i hope she stubs her toe every day and her son grows up to hate her fucking guts.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/lrzmxo/crazy_clarinet_lady/
| 89 | 20 | 1,614,232,790 | 6 |
tip
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hot
|
e234hi
|
TalesFromRetail
|
“I don’t have to talk to you”
|
I’m a manager at a beauty supply store that offers certain salon services as well. I was closing the store the other night and the only guest we had left was an older lady who had just gotten her hair done. It’s a few minutes past close, so the door is already locked and I’m already shutting down registers. The lady comes up to check out, so I call my cashier over to help her while I finish closing the register I’m on.
Because of some irrelevant company stuff, my cashier had to ask for the customer’s ID. The lady is very upset about it and asks why we need it, so I explain the recent policy changes and apologize for the inconvenience. She is still very upset.
“I only asked because this has not been asked of me before, and I’m WELL within my LEGAL rights to ASK”
I explained again that it was a recent development. The cashier then asks how much she’d like to tip the stylist that did her hair. The lady becomes LIVID again, saying that it was a personal thing and she shouldn’t have to tell us. I explained that if she wanted to give her a cash tip personally then we wouldn’t have to know, but if she wanted to put it on her transaction we’d have to know so we could key it in. She said “IVE DONE THAT BEFORE” and refused to say how much she wants to tip, opting to WRITE IT DOWN AND HAND IT TO THE CASHIER.
She then complains that it’s the first time she’s ever come in here and had a bad experience. I apologize and ask what we could do to improve it for her and all she said is “I don’t have to talk to you”
She then asks my cashier for her name, and writes it down. Then she asks the cashier for My name even though I’m still standing right there. My poor cashier, who’s been WILDLY uncomfortable through this whole experience stumbled saying my name and said I was her manager, so I told the lady loud and clear what my name was and told her to have a wonderful night.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/e234hi/i_dont_have_to_talk_to_you/
| 170 | 19 | 1,574,796,911 | 6 |
tip
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hot
|
9sljcc
|
TalesFromRetail
|
Cartboy Changes a Tire (sorta)
|
I am a shopping cart retrieval tactician at a chain grocery store. I was five hours into an 8.5 hour shift. I had spent the vast majority of my shift gathering carts. The weather was nice, so it didn't bother me any. I was out taking care of business when I noticed a Kia Soul with a flat tire. The owner was inside the store, so I figured I would wait around until they came out.
​
About 10-15 minutes later, I run into the owner. She immediately got to work on the flat. At first, I minded my own business, as she seemed to know what she was doing. I walked back by a few minutes later. She was sitting on the pavement, her Kia was still on the ground on a flat tire. I really felt bad standing there watching, so I finally asked if she needed help. As it turns out, she had no idea what she was doing. She had a jack (albeit the crappy one that came with the car), a lug wrench, everything but a spare. She told me the story:
​
It's her sister's car. Sis stopped at the store on her way to work and came back to a flat. So she called this woman, who took her to work. Her story checked out, she had the keys and everything. Thankfully, she also had her fully-operating car.
​
So showed her how to jack the car up (she was using the jack wrong, hence the car still being on the ground), and got started getting the lug nuts off using the crappy lug wrench that came with the car. All the nuts came off (one was missing), aside from two that were stuck. Hard. As if God was looking down upon us, she went over to her car and came back with a real lug wrench. The last two lugs came off without a hitch. With a little difficulty, I pulled the wheel off the axle and asked where her spare was. The spare was gone, but she had her car and could take the tire to a shop to get patched.
​
She thanked me up and down and tried repeatedly to tip me, but since I'm not allowed to accept tips, I declined. I told her I'd probably still be out to help her get the tire back on after getting it repaired. I went inside to clean up and was approached by the boss, who asked why I was all dirty. I told my story and then washed up. The story was passed around the management office. I was thanked by multiple members of management. I will be appearing in a company-wide online blog. I didn't do it for the recognition, but because I really did feel bad for the lady. It felt damn good to help out someone in need.
​
Six o' clock rolled around. Quittin' time. But the lady had never returned. Her Kia was still sitting in the parking lot, propped up on the jack and missing a wheel. I forgot to tell her what time I was getting off. It felt great to help her, but now I feel bad for leaving her hanging. I hope she got everything put back together and remembered the star pattern.
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/9sljcc/cartboy_changes_a_tire_sorta/
| 343 | 18 | 1,540,882,695 | 6 |
tip
|
hot
|
2p5j1l
|
TalesFromRetail
|
The $80 tip as a Courtesy Clerk.
|
LTL, FTP, whatever. Apologies for any typo's.
So I work at a local grocery chain. The location I work at is in a mostly rich area. This is a tale from when I was a Courtesy Clerk (fancy name for a bagger).
On this particular day I had been working at the store for about 2 months. It was around 7 at night and I was just going about my bagging and chatting up my coworkers during the lulls. I was bagging for my favorite cashier at the time so I was in a good mood as it was.
This lady comes up to the register and the transaction proceeds normally. I'm chatting with her as I would with any customer that seems friendly and the topic is her recent relief from work. She works at a local amusement park. She will be referred to as APL (Amusement Park lady).
>APL Yeah it was a long day. I came here after work to pick up a few things for dinner.
>Me: Oh, where do you work?
>APL: At the local amusement park.
>Me: Oh I haven't been there in ages. Do you think you could score me a free ticket?
This was said sarcastically, I didn't expect any follow up on it.
>APL: Oh I'll see. They give us either one or two free tickets every year and I'm sure you could use them better than I could!
>Me: You really don't have to, but I wouldn't deny them if you gave me some, (laugh).
>APL: Give me your name. And when do you work next? I'll try to remember to bring them in!
So I give her my name (even though it was on my name tag) and tell her I'll be working two days from when we spoke.
The next day I get a text from someone asking me if I'd like to take their shift (this was a common occurrence for me as I liked to pick up hours). I say sure, why not. I've got nothing else going on, why not make some more money? So I go in and things are slow. Dreadfully slow. We have 3 cashiers and 2 baggers, and we're all just standing around and talking. I'm mid conversation with a cashier when I hear another coworker say: >Right over there.
It's the same lady I had spoken to the day before.
She walks up to me with a smile on her face and pulls an envelope out of her purse.
>APL: Two tickets just for you and a friend to go.
>Me: T-th-thank you! Really, I didn't expect you to come back!
>APL: It's no big deal, really. They give these to us and for me they're just a waste. I'm there daily, I don't really want to be there on my days off, too!
I get her name and she tells me what store she works in at the park (it was one selling toys and souvenirs). I thanked her profusely and she went to gather her groceries. I saw her maybe one time after that, and I sadly haven't seen her since.
The tickets she gave me would cost about $80 together. It was the best tip I ever received, and more than I've gotten accumulative in cash from helping customers out to their cars. And this was just for talking to the lady and jokingly requesting free tickets! Needless to say it made my night. While the time my friends and I went sucked as it started to rain and was cold, the thought of that lady still brings a smile to my face. I never did find her in her store that day, sadly.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/2p5j1l/the_80_tip_as_a_courtesy_clerk/
| 165 | 5 | 1,418,451,440 | 6 |
tipping
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relevance
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kflleg
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TalesFromRetail
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Man annoyed I won’t give him money I don’t have
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(Obligatory apology for formatting)
At my store we have a cashback limit of $200, and this one man comes in once a week and always gets $200 back. He asked if the limit was still $200, and then selected 200 on the keypad. It ended up going a little bit like this:
Characters: Me: me CM: Cashback man
Me: How would you like your cashback sir?
CM: Twenties please. (In thick Italian accent)
Me: Sir I only have two twenties is it alright if I give you big bills instead?
CM: Sure (he looks around angrily and begins to sigh repeatedly)
Me, handing him two hundreds: Two hundred dollars have a great day sir.
CM: What is this, can I get twenties? I want twenties. I asked for twenties.
Me: Sir I only have two twenties I’m sorry
CM: Oh, can you break these into twenties?
Me: Sir, I do not have enough twenties to break those
CM: Can you get someone who can break these? I need twenties.
Me: Sir you can go over to customer service and they can break them for you there
He goes over to customer service, which is approximately 15 feet from the register I was at, so I can hear him talking about the “stupid cashier who couldn’t count twenties”.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/kflleg/man_annoyed_i_wont_give_him_money_i_dont_have/
| 1,354 | 249 | 1,608,299,982 | 6 |
service charge
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relevance
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a7poqv
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TalesFromRetail
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Finally leaving my service job, so I thought I'd share my favorite story.
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I’ve worked front end service at a grocery store for the last 2 and a half years. This happened early this year, while it was still pretty cold out (relevant later).
It was a slow weekday evening, and I was on a checkstand. Two customers showed up in my line, the first was a younger guy, probably early 20’s. He was buying three packs of ramen, a 10 pack of tortillas, some deli meat and cheese. The poor guy looked like hell; frazzled hair, deep rings around his eyes, slumped shoulders, etc. He barely returned my hello, and I knew just by the look on his face that this was more than the result of a bad day. He was not in a good mental state at all. His total came to about $15, but his card was declined, so he asked me to take off everything but the ramen and started digging around for some change. He got about a dollar scrounged up and I told him to not worry about it. A few cents out of my till wasn’t worth this guy going completely hungry. I wanted to pay for his food for him, but company policy is *very* strict about that and I wasn’t about to lose the job, even though I honestly hated it. He thanked me and shambled out of the store. I felt sick, I wished I could have done more for him. God knows he needed some help.
The second customer was an older woman and her adult daughter, just in the store for some late night snacks. The mom noticed the food he left behind and asked why he didn’t take it, so I told her he couldn’t pay for it. She immediately perked up and asked her daughter to go check for him outside, and told me to hold on to it so she could find him and buy it for him. She left the store after finishing her order, and I held onto the food for about twenty minutes before she came back. Her daughter had found him across the street at a bus stop, eating dry ramen in 40 degree weather with no coat. She bought his food and got twenty in cash. I didn’t even need to ask; I knew she got the money for him. I thanked her and told her how generous she was, and that I wish I could have done it for him myself.
I never saw any of them again, but I hope he felt loved after that and used the money to get to someone who could take care of him. I never liked my job, but there were a few moments like this that made is somewhat worth it.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/a7poqv/finally_leaving_my_service_job_so_i_thought_id/
| 3,521 | 124 | 1,545,247,968 | 6 |
service charge
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relevance
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17ne8a0
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TalesFromRetail
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Why do customers destroy every thing and want to return it?
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I used to work at one of the big electronic store. I used to wear blue shirts if that helps.
We have two entrances and we were using one for the entrance and one for the exit. I was one of the managers. I was dealing with the front of the store. Transactions and customer questions while they were purchasing things. Oh and I don’t know if I told you it was Black Friday. So I have a customer come through the exit and storm up the desk. He plopped his 50 inch tv that looked like a shotgun was shot at it multiple times. He throws the receipt at me and says he wants a refund. In the process of looking at the television, I inspect the receipt that was 5 years old. Like 5 years to the month. After arguing and expecting us to return it and then threatening my 18F Customer Service Associate I had to call the cops. They came in and I explained the situation and then they explained the situation saying that they won’t move out of the store without a refund. In the end the started getting aggressive now and slamming his fist on the already broken television. He caught a piece in his hand and it started bleeding. I asked if he wanted first aid. He called the ambulance and they treated him on sight. After they treated him my Customer Service Associate decided to press charges that she didn’t feel safe around the guy. Not only did he get arrested for trespassing because he still didn’t leave. He got a restraining order.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/17ne8a0/why_do_customers_destroy_every_thing_and_want_to/
| 637 | 111 | 1,699,073,380 | 6 |
service charge
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relevance
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3uffo7
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TalesFromRetail
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"I spend thousands of dollars here and you're going to charge me for a BAG to put it in?"
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So, like much of the US, my county has recently started charging for bags, and one of my jobs just instituted a bag charge policy (the other prefers to eat the cost of the bag in favour of customer service). I frequently forget to ask until way too late in the transaction, so a lot of people get free bags, but since this is technically shoplifting, it's not something I try to do.
One busy day in November (aka yesterday) a mom and her daughter come up to my register with a shopper basket overflowing with merchandise. I start ringing her up and it's goig to be a HUGE transaction, well past $1000. As I'm wrapping things in tissue, I ask, "Will you be needing a bag for $.10 today?" which is one of the preferred ways our company wants us to ask.
Her eyes widen, and she shrieks, "Bags are TEN CENTS? I buy thousands of dollars here and you're going to CHARGE me for a BAG to put it in?" I'm used to people being upset by the policy at this point and so I cheerily explain about the state law and that our county has decided upon a .10 charge and some counties are much more expensive, look our bags are so cute! but she is not having any of it.
"Most *decent* retailers pay the fine themselves! This is RIDICULOUS!" she eventually pulls a reusable shopper from her purse--it is TINY and will in no way fit the $1500 worth of sweaters, books, and gifts she and her daughter are purchasing. She continues to rail at me as I continue wrapping things up and start trying to fit them in her shopper. I ask her a few times if I can call her an MOD, who can pass her comments on to corporate. She declines each time--she would prefer to yell at me.
We get about half the items in the shopper and her daughter mutters, "you have another bag in your purse, mom!" "We need that for the grocery store! It's ridiculous we have to pay for bags here!" "Ten cents isn't that much mom!"
Eventually my MOD came over to check on the transaction and caught the tail end of her whining. She backed me up and reinforced that there were no free bags to be had, thankfully. When I totalled her out, she said, "So 1500 and you can't give me a bag?" At that point, I wouldn't have given her a glass of water if we were in the desert. I just smiled and said, "I'm so sorry ma'am!"
tl;dr: your standard bag charge complaint, woman buys $1500 at my store, has three reusable bags on her person and refuses to use them, but *I'm* the bad guy here.
EDIT: 1)OKAY. Apparently charging for bags is not as widespread as I thought it was. I apologise, I know the UK and the West Coast does so I made an assumption. Charging for bags is to remind people to bring reusable ones and reduce waste. It works really well in most places that have instituted the policy, so don't knock it till you've tried it!
2) Why didn't I just give her the bag? Our bags are inventoried. I'm not just giving her free merchandise because she spent a lot, that's how you get fired. Maybe if I were a manager, but as you can see, my manager even backed me up that it was the right call.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/3uffo7/i_spend_thousands_of_dollars_here_and_youre_going/
| 1,064 | 286 | 1,448,598,851 | 6 |
service charge
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relevance
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7krl4t
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TalesFromRetail
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Do you take REAL cash?
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Obligatory Long-Time Lurker, First Time Poster. Posting this on my phone so I apologise for any formatting errors.
So I’ve been working at a gas station part-time for the past two years and have had my fair share of *interesting* customers, but I just had an interaction a few minutes ago which left me chuckling for a good while after it was over.
L=Lady
Me= Me
Me: Hey welcome to *gas station* what can I do for you today?
L: Hi I just wanted to buy these *puts a variety of snack foods and drinks on the counter*
Me: No problem, that comes to *total*. Will you be paying by card or cash?
L: Do you guys take real cash?
Me: Pardon me?
L: Do you accept REAL cash over here?
Me: I’m sorry I don’t quite follow, yes we do accept cash payment for these items...
L: No no I mean do you guys accept American dollars. Y’know, REAL cash.
Me: .......Ma’am we are in *my country which is not America* and so we only accept *country’s currency*...do you perhaps have a card you could use instead?
L: No but this is all REAL cash see? *pulls out some American $20 bills and holds them up to my face,* so you can accept it here right?
Me: Ma’am as I said before these notes cannot be used for any purchases here, if you want to buy something in this country then you need to use our currency. If you have a credit card on you then we can use that for payment, but otherwise you’ll need to go to the nearest currency converter and change some of those notes.
L: Oh I see, i thought this country was advanced enough to recognise real money when it sees it. I guess I was wrong. Alright then *holds out a credit card which magically appeared out of her purse*
Me: Well we’re advanced enough to understand that most countries have their own currencies and convert our own before visiting, so i’d say we score some points there. *finished processing the transaction and hands back her goods with my best customer service smile on.* Enjoy the rest of your stay, I hope our little backwater country doesnt inconvenience you too much.
AL: *takes her bags and leaves wordlessly*
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/7krl4t/do_you_take_real_cash/
| 956 | 211 | 1,513,666,119 | 6 |
service charge
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relevance
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dvtyfw
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TalesFromRetail
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The time a customer argued with me about taxes to the point I cried
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I've dealt with a lot of rude and verbally abusive customers before, but recently I became a manger and this happened on the night that just me and two other coworkers were closing. So, being the only manager there at the time, this situation was on me to handle and the man wouldn't take anything I said as an acceptable answer.
Me- me
HM- horrible man
P- the high school kid who was working on HMs boat, aka his pawn
I work at a boating supply store with an extremely lenient return policy. Basically as long as you can show proof of purchase we will take back absolutely anything, even if what you're telling us is a bold face lie. We sell an extended warranty on electronics, and if something goes wrong with them you can bring them back in and get the new ones immediately. But of course this story isn't going to be as simple as that.
So P walks in with two subwoofers that have rusted and tells me he's working for HM and shows me the warranty for them. These are about $200 a piece, remember that for later.
P- "I have a warranty for these and need to get two new ones."
Me- "Okay perfect let me go see if we have them in stock."
So I look up the sku's and of course it is now a discontinued model. This is where it gets fun.
There's a lot of different sections in the store, and marine electronics is not my strong suit. So I explain this to P and he helps me look at the specs of the new version of the subwoofers and we decide that the new model, which is about $350, would be the right replacements. At this point P is on the phone with HM explaining the situation and while I can't hear the entire conversation, I am able to pick up that HM wants these new ones to be honored at the $200 price so that he wouldn't have to pay anything extra.
So, me and my coworkers go on the hunt for the newer subwoofer and we have one. At this point the money is on a gift card (the full amount, taxes included).
P makes it clear that HM is insistent that we have the other subwoofer at our store asap. I tell him the other smaller store about 30 minutes away has one, but since they close earlier than we do I can't call to make sure the system is right in saying they have one in stock. So P talks to HM on the phone some more and they decide that P will just have to drive up to the other store tomorrow to get the other one.
We now begin to checkout. I honor the $200 price for the $350 subwoofer, but we quickly realize that there will not be enough money on the gift card to cover the taxes of having both of them at this reduced price. Upon P telling HM this, P hands the phone to me.
HM- "I already have to send my guy and pay him more money for tomorrow to go get the other one, why isn't this an even swap?"
Me- " It is an even swap on our part, the taxes must've gone up and I don't have the power to change or take off taxes owed."
Now this is where HM starts to set up his vague dominance over me to try and make me do whatever he wants.
HM- "I'm so tired of this s\*\*\*, I've had to call corporate so many times and most recently they gave me 1000 points for my trouble, and here we are again having trouble."
1,000 points in our system equates to $40 in cash certificates to the store. We are sitting here arguing over $6 in taxes. It also tells me that this guy is quick to call corporate and complain about anything in order to get rewards.
Me- "I'm sorry but there really is no way for me to change the amount of tax it's charging, you would have to either call back or have P come back in tomorrow when the store manager is here and maybe he could do something about it."
HM- "So what you're telling me is that this is gonna cost me more money. I know there's numbers you can call, this is a multimillion dollar company and you're telling me there's nothing you can do?? You guys aren't honoring the warranty this is unacceptable."
At this point we're taking a $300 loss to make this guy happy, but of course "we aren't holding up our end of the deal."
Me- "Okay, let me go give my store manager a call."
Of course my manager doesn't pick up, and neither do any of my other managers. So I go back and tell him there's nothing I can do for him tonight at this point.
Me- "Okay sir I wasn't able to reach anyone so there's nothing I can do about the taxes tonight. I'm sorry but you'll have to come in tomorrow when store manager is back to see if he can do anything then."
HM- "I'M PAYING P A LOT OF MONEY TO FIX MY BOAT AND I DON'T WANT TO SEND HIM BACK THERE TOMORROW. AM I SUPPOSED TO ASK MY DAUGHTER TO TAKE TIME OUT OF HER DAY TO GO BACK TOMMOROW?? SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THIS IS GONNA COST ME MONEY EITHER WAY???"
Now the way he set this question up was so that I was going to be the bad guy either way. If I said yes, I sound like an ass and he will call corporate because clearly he is quick to do that. And I can't say no because there is legit no way for me to fix this problem as of tonight. So I try to deescalate the situation but we always end back up at "SO THIS IS GONNA COST ME MONEY?? YES OR NO??"
He finally gives me this line- "THIS IS A MILLION DOLLAR COMPANY THERE MUST BE SOMEONE WHO YOU CAN CALL. GO CALL THEM."
At this point we've been doing this for an hour in total, and I am mentally exhausted from trying to help this man. As I hand the phone back to P I start to tear up, and P sees this. I hurry to the back to go call the customer service number, who I know can't waive taxes but I'm feeling out of options at this point.
I tearfully get on the phone with them and they say while they can't give me a gift card to cover the tax or anything, they suggest using (and essentially abusing) the discount button to take yet another $6 off the transaction.
Once I recollect myself I head back up I explain that I'm going to try and take more money off and this appeases HM. The system lets me abuse the button and at this point my mind is fried. I had drawers to close and customers who needed help and this had gone on for too long.
Basically it came out to having .40 cents left on the gift card. P left and that's the last I've heard from them.
My coworker who went to high school with HM's daughter told me that the girl is still in high school, and I can't get over the fact that this man was acting like his high school daughter's time was indispensable.
I also later found out that we aren't really supposed to price match the new model to the discontinued one, so this guy got off saving so much money yet he still had to break a 19F down to tears. I think it's funny that HM thought it was okay to make me cry, but if it was his daughter, who isn't so far off in age to me, he probably would've been outraged.
P was extremely apologetic and clearly embarrassed that his boss acted like that. He even said that if it still didn't come out as even he would just pay the small tax and not tell HM about it.
And that was the most emotionally exhausting night of my life at work. Thanks for listening.
Edit- thank you kind stranger for my first gold 🥺❤️
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/dvtyfw/the_time_a_customer_argued_with_me_about_taxes_to/
| 1,517 | 100 | 1,573,661,523 | 6 |
service charge
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relevance
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lfe0ai
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TalesFromRetail
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Woman gets annoyed because she misunderstood coupons, apparently knows famous hairstylist
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I work for a big name department store. I recently served a customer that left me completely baffled.
​
She came in buying regular grocery items, but towards the end of her purchase she had two hair products from a famous company along with two free up to $15 dollar coupons. After I check those through she asks, "Did that $30 come off?" I explain to her that the coupons weren't $15 each, but free up to $15. She tells me I'm wrong because she just got off the phone with the company's namesake and they told her that we had to take $30 off, no matter what we say. I tell her we can't do this, which displeases her, so I call my supervisor over to explain the situation, which she still doesn't accept, still claiming the celebrity hairstylist told her we had to do it for her. After minutes of trying to reason with her, she demands we give her the coupons back, which we do, but then she complains that we charged her for the hair products (we never, it still shows up as a voided item). I explain this to her, which she seems to understand because she finally pays for her purchase. As she walks away, she says to me, "thank you for being so nice", I say, without any hesitance, "no problem", she replies with, "I'm just kidding, you weren't nice!" Later, I found out she went to customer service to complain that the voided transaction was still listed on her bill.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/lfe0ai/woman_gets_annoyed_because_she_misunderstood/
| 1,449 | 81 | 1,612,797,669 | 6 |
service charge
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relevance
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19grei
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TalesFromRetail
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How do people think this behavior is okay?
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So I work at food chain, I know not exactly retail but I felt you all would understand my feelings here.
I was working the drive thru yesterday and we were swamped with people and low on staff. I answer the drive thru and this man answers with "lkjasdufoaskn". I had no idea what he said so I said "I'm sorry sir, could you repeat that?" Again I get garbled response. I look to my coworkers who are also wearing headsets and hear his response. Everyone was very confused. I asked one more time as politely as possible. And he screams his order which makes it much more difficult to hear but I believe he orders two sandwiches and a coffee.
When he gets up to the window, I charge him for his order and pass out the order. He immediately starts cussing at me. His face is a violent shade of red and is just screaming about how I can't do my damn job right and how he only ordered one sandwich. My manager is standing next to me and offers to take over. The man then throws the extra sandwich at my manager and demands a refund. Manager gives him his refund and then tells him he must leave and if he ever treats his staff like that again, he will be banned from this store. He screams a few more cusses at manager to which his response is "And have a nice day." and waves good bye.
The car immediately behind him apologizes for what I have to put up with and tips me $10. How do people get to the point where they think that behavior is okay? The killer part is once it goes out the window, I am not allowed to take it back so if he would have just said, I only ordered one sandwich, he would have received two sandwiches for the price of one. This was a situation that could have been easily fixed. How does freaking out and getting mad help them out at all?
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/19grei/how_do_people_think_this_behavior_is_okay/
| 575 | 272 | 1,362,151,132 | 6 |
service charge
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relevance
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jr1uxv
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TalesFromRetail
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Guy gets really mad at former coworker over $2 and threatens to call the cops on her
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This wasn't a story that happened to me, but I was there to witness it happening. So I work in a boutique shop that sells basically everything. Holiday stuff, home fashion, furniture, food, pet stuff, kitchen, bathroom, candles, toiletries, you name it. This story happened a little over year ago so some dialogue may not be completely accurate.
I was working register that day and this woman comes up to me with her receipt saying that something came up wrong and was kinda rude about it saying how she came in the other day and it was supposed to come up at a different price.
At the time, registers couldn't do refunds, only customer service did.
So I called up someone and they told me they had to do customer service but they'll see what they can do. As we were waiting, my walkie went off and I hear my coworker's voice come out from the other end. She said a line that makes you beyond curious upon hearing it.
"Can I have a manager at register 8?"
(Note, I was on register 2 which is closest to the door).
As I hear that, a customer walks passed my register towards the door and looked at me and my customer and he responds with, "someone call the police! We have an ahole over here!" and continued to walk out the door. As soon as that customer said that, all of our attention went towards my coworker.
There was an older man beginning to scream at her and from where I was at, it was a bit hard to hear because of his screaming, but I did hear something like "YOU STOLE MY MONEY! YOU'RE ROBBING ME AND I'M GOING TO CALL THE COPS!"
This guy was screaming so loud, that everyone who was either within checkout or front of the store radius was paying attention to what was happening with this guy and my coworker. There were several people telling him that he needed to calm down, but he always responded back with "MIND YOUR OWN F***ING BUISNESS!"
People around my register were starting to say how we needed to call for security or the police. Even the woman who complained about her receipt was saying how this guy was out of control.. I honestly agreed with them, but the problem was, we didn't have any security and we couldn't exactly call the police either.
Eventually, two of my managers came up (both women), one dealing with my customer, and the other dealing with this customer. At this point, I started taking my next customer apologizing to her for the wait and continued on with my business. The guy did walk passed my register to get to customer service but I avoided eye contact.
A little later when we didn't have any customers, I did proceed to ask my coworker if she was ok, and she said she was. She didn't even look phased by what happened. I asked her what even happened since I missed the beginning of this.
She told me that this customer was buying stuff and included roasting sticks that was a dollar. This is a rough translation of the incident. Guy will refer to as Crazy Guy (CG)
Coworker: ok sir here is your change *proceeds to hand him a little over two dollars in change*
CG: I'm not touching that! You overcharged me! *proceeds to show her his receipt to show she accidentally charged him for 2 roasting sticks*
Coworker: oh I did...I'm sorry sir that was my mistake. Mistakes happen.
CG: well I don't make mistakes!
Coworker: ok sir well you can go to customer service and get your money back
CG: no! I want my $10 back now!
Coworker: sorry sir I can't do that *proceeds to close the register drawer with the change still in hand*
And that's when all hell broke lose for this guy. But the thing is, this crazy guy didn't even spend $10 according to my coworker. He was just really upset over getting overcharged a dollar.
I do have to say that my coworker was a freakin legend because of how well she handled this situation. My guess is that she's older and has dealt with customers like this before. I overheard her say she was glad it happened to her instead of one of the younger employees. I probably would have cried if this was me since I'm terrible with confrontations and people yelling and screaming at me.
My manager did say later on that she came out from the back of the store and heard the screaming, so that should give you an insight of how loud this guy was yelling.
I still work at the boutique place, but out of the almost 2 years, I have worked there, that is the craziest situation I've witnessed so far.
Thank you so much for reading this and I have plenty of retail stories I was involved in if anyone is interested in hearing them!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/jr1uxv/guy_gets_really_mad_at_former_coworker_over_2_and/
| 50 | 6 | 1,604,942,622 | 6 |
service charge
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hot
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hgahy1
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TalesFromRetail
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Threatened For A Customer's Mistake
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This happened years ago when I was in college. I worked as a gas station attendant at a popular roadside convenience store. This particular location was located right up the street from a theme park. Because of its location near the theme park, it would get extremely busy. Not just at the gas pumps, but also inside the store where you can order pretty decent food, sandwiches, and coffee.
Where I am, it's all full service gasoline. You can pump diesel yourself, because it's not explosive. I know a lot of people in self service places don't understand this law. Long story short, the gas company gets an insurance break because they have trained employees working the pumps.
That being said, I don't enforce the pumping rule. I'm particular about my personal vehicles and hate it when the attendants just rip the nozzle out and drip gas on the car. So I don't hassle customers who want to do it themselves.
On this particular day it was super busy as the theme park was just opening. I'm literally running back and forth between the pumps. It's really hard to keep track of who got to what pump first. I used to just go up and down the islands, helping the customers as I went. So a customer with out of state plates pulls up at the opposite end of where I was currently helping a customer. He shouts over to me "yo, you gonna pump my gas?" And I call back "I'll be right there sir, I'm just finishing off this customer, then I'll come right over."
After I quickly finish the current customer I go to the man who called out to me seconds earlier. I see he's already pumping his own gas. Fine. I understand it's busy. I ask him "You got it?" And he says back "yeah, I'm just getting $20 cash." I tell him sure thing, and head off to help another customer.
When I see the guy finishing, I go over to collect the cash. I see he pumped $45 dollars of gas into his car. He hands me a $20 bill and just stared at me. I told him "that'll be just $25 dollars more sir." He says back "but I only wanted $20 worth." So I say back to him "Yeah... But you pumped $45." And he again says "yeah, but I only wanted $20 worth." So I tell him "Well, you pumped $45, so I need the whole $45." He gets very angry and says "that's not my fault. I only have $20." I reply "Sir, I didn't pump the gas, you did, and I can't pump the gas out of your tank, so I need $45." He flips out and starts cussing at me. I remain professional and tell him "the manager can make arrangements for you to pay the difference if you don't have the difference on you." And I call the manager on my radio, tell him what's happening, then tell the customer the manager will be right out to talk to him.
At this point, it's not my problem anymore, I'm letting the manager handle it because I have other customers, and I'm not going to stand here fighting with some douchebag about his mistake. As I try to walk away the guy jumps in front of me and shouts "hell no, you're not going anywhere. You're stealing from me now." I look him in the face and can't help but crack a crooked smile and tell him "Sir, I don't get paid enough for this. You can talk to the manager."
I try to slip around his side and once again, he steps in front of me. I try to slip around his other side, and he steps in front of me again and shouts "YOU'RE TRYING TO STEAL FROM ME NOW, I WORK HARD FOR MY MONEY! YOU'RE LITERALLY TRYING TO TAKE FOOD OUT OF MY KIDS MOUFS (mouths). YOU TRY AND TAKE FOOD FROM MY KIDS AND I'LL F\**CKING KILL YOU. I'LL F\**CKING MURDER YOU!"
I literally can't help but laugh, and say again "I don't get paid enough for this." Just as I'm saying that, the manager got there. The manager heard the guy threaten me. I just walked away to help the other customers. I see the guy and the manager talking, and I assume they made some sort of arrangement. Eventually the guy pulls away, and pulls into a parking spot in front of the store. Then the manager comes up to me and says "we called the cops, hopefully they get here soon."
The town the store is in has no local police, so we have to wait for the State Troopers to get there. Eventually, we see the guy leave and head up the street in the direction of the theme park. Shortly after two or three cruisers arrive and ask where the guy is. The manager tells him he left up the street. One of the Troopers jumps back in his cruiser and takes off up the road to pursue the guy.
I get called away from the pumps to talk to the Troopers still on scene, and they have someone cover my pumps for me while I'm gone. The Troopers ask me about what happened. I tell them the story, and they ask if I want to press charges. I just chuckle and say "No, I'm just glad to have that guy out of my face." Then the manager chimes in "the store wants to press charges. We can't have people coming in threatening to murder our employees." So I leave to go back to working.
About a half hour later a Trooper comes back and tells me "We caught the guy up the street and arrested him."
I laughed and thanked them.
So that's my story of working a minimum wage job and getting threatened with murder for a customer making a mistake and attempt to steal gasoline.
Btw, username is pronounced "locomotive breath"
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/hgahy1/threatened_for_a_customers_mistake/
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hot
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f7v4pz
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TalesFromRetail
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Customers Lose Their Minds
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Long time lurker, and first time poster! Finally made an account to share this story. Obligatory on mobile etc, and it’s long!
I run an independent specialty boutique, in a major U.S. city (intentionally being vague), and we can get absolutely slammed on the weekends. This story took place a little over a week ago.
Cast:
Me=Me!
“Bee” = long time employee
“Terry”= crazy customer 1
“Gina” = crazy customer 2
Bee and I are working the whole day/shift together and I have her working on a repair that a customer dropped off over the weekend. Of course the repair was not taken in properly, was undercharged, needed extra materials etc. So I was a little annoyed, Bee calls the customer and informs him that it would be an additional $5 for the extra materials (technically it should have been $10 cause he was undercharged, but I let it slide).
Thankfully, it was a pretty simple job and Bee was finished shortly. Due to the nature of our work, we often do not put the finishing touches on until the customers pick up their items. This saves us having to completely re-do the work and the customer usually has to wait an extra 5-10 minutes while we finish up. Something we always inform them of before coming to pick up their repairs. Anyways onward to the show!
Super slow/quiet day, man enters the shop (we’re going to call him Terry).
Terry: I’m here to pick up my repair.
Me: Oh yes, we had to replace (insert item name here) and it will be an additional $5.
Terry: Why couldn’t you re-use (original item)?
Bee: Because (original item) had some glue stuck in it from (original work) and made it unable to re-use.
Terry seems to accept this, Bee spends a few moments with him making sure the repair will fit. She sits down and continues the finishing touches.
Terry: I also had a custom order made when I was here this past weekend and I need to pick it up.
Me: Oh sure. *(finds order hands it Terry)*
Terry: It was sooooooo busy in here on Sunday, and I don’t understand all these charges. *(Terry slaps receipt, on counter)* Can you explain them to me?
Me: Of course. *(plasters on customer service smile, while inwardly eye-rolling so hard)*
I’m going to paraphrase here, Terry was overcharged something like $2-$3 on his custom, but since he was undercharged on the repair he still owed us a couple bucks.
During this interaction another woman enters the shop (we’re going to call her Gina). Gina walks straight up to the counter while I’m dealing with Terry. I give what I thought was meaningful eye contact and “a we’ll be right with you”. Anyone with ears can tell that Terry is a handful.
Gina wanders around, after few minutes she must’ve noticed Bee in the corner working diligently away in finishing Terry’s repair.
Gina: I just have a quick question.
*Cue Terry Losing-his-SHIT.*
Terry: Does no one in this store have any patience! It was exactly like this last weekend!
Gina: Excuse me! There’s two of them here!
Terry: Yeah! And their both helping ME! You can wait!
Bee stops what she’s doing, gets up and starts helping Gina, but she still has Terry’s repair in her hand! While Bee’s calming Gina down. I have to run around from behind the counter, grab the repair from her, finish it up and hustle Terry the hell out of shop. The whole time their still swiping barbs at one another!
At this point, I can’t even remember what was being said between the two, but Gina kept baiting Terry and provoking him! Like Gina, girl, give it rest you got what you wanted. My staff dropped everything to help you.
I finally have Terry sorted, and he even says to me “you just want me out of your store”.
(*cue customer service smile*)I tell him don’t worry about the few extra dollars and send him on his way. He starts walking towards the door stops, turns around and in the most nastiest voice ever says: “Everyone have a great day, thanks so much for helping ME!” And then proceeds to exit the shop.
This of course, completely sets Gina off again. Bee and I have to reassure her that Terry was obviously crazy etc, soothe that ego. When Gina finally left, I don’t even remember her purchasing anything. The whole spectacle lasted maybe 15 minutes.
*Cue - Bee and I looking at each other, in a now empty shop, like WTF just happened.*
Edit: Typos
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/f7v4pz/customers_lose_their_minds/
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cfhpdc
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TalesFromRetail
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The around $5,000 dollar early termination fee and arrest
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I worked for the cellphone industry for around 12 or 13 years and I have tons of stories. This is one of the craziest ones. it happened almost 15 years ago so I will not get all of the dialog exactly correct but I remember what happened clearly.
The customer came in telling me that the battery on his phone had stopped charging and that he wanted it replaced. I looked at the phone and inside the charging port was extensive corrosion from liquid damage so I took it back to the technician showed it to him to confirm. He took the battery out and put it on the tester and it did not immediately fail as is common in cases like this so I when back out to the customer and told him that the technician is running a test on the battery now. He said why is he testing it when he knows that it does not work. I told him that we have to run a basic test on all batteries before we can proceed with replacement.
The battery passed the test after about 10 minutes so the charging issue was a result of the liquid damage that I found when he handed me the phone. The Technician came out and explained to him that the phone had been exposed to liquid and that was the reason the phone was not turning on. He for some reason would not accept what the technician was saying and started to scream and make a seen demanding to talk to the manager and that we replace the phone and the battery because we have no idea how to do our jobs.
This got the managers attention and he came over to see what was going on. He stood his ground and tried to explain the policy and the situation again. When the customer figured out that he was not going to fight his way into a new phone and/or battery he broke the phone in half (it was a flip phone) and threw one half across the store hitting one of my coworkers in the back. He then said he is canceling his service and headed for the door where it kicked the door open. It was a full glass door with a metal bar in the middle. I am not sure if his foot impacting it broke the glass or if when it hit the other side it broke the glass, but it broke. He then took the other half of the phone that was still in his hand and through it into the parking lot and broke a windshield of a parked car.
He then jumped into his truck and drove off almost getting into an accident on the way out of the parking lot. Needles to say he was arrested and was banned from the store. He also had around 6 restraining orders placed on him for saying verbal threats to the employees of the store.
I have a lot of other stories from this time in my life if you want me to tell more tell me in the comments.
Do any other people in the cellphone industry have crazy stories like this? If so please feel free to share.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/cfhpdc/the_around_5000_dollar_early_termination_fee_and/
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service charge
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hot
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1o2o5m
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TalesFromRetail
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"You Pedophile!!!"
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Hey everybody! Another story coming from my view as a customer while eating in a restaurant. This happened over the weekend, so I thought that I'd share with everybody and hopefully give you all a smile! Enjoy!
**Background:** I'm a 20 year old male, who hadn't shaved in a little while, so I looked near 23 or 24, while my date who I was out with is 19, but she looked to be about 14 or 15 with her makeup and her hair up the way she had it.
We walk into an Italian restaurant that's known for its unlimited breadsticks and salads (God I love this place...) Anyways, we walk in, I give them my name for the reservation, and we're taken back to our table.
Our waiter takes our drink order, and goes off while we talk and are having a great time. We're sitting across from each other, laughing like morons at the stories that we have to tell each other, and just in general having a great time. Our drinks are brought out and we order our food, again, no problems whatsoever. Our waiter is extremely nice and courteous, and even had a story to tell us even on a busy night like Saturday was.
We're about halfway through our meal, when an older lady walks up and this is how our conversation went.
Old Lady (OL): Awww... I think it's adorable that you take your younger sister out to dinner. Aren't you just the sweetest?
Me: Actually, this is Lindsay (name retracted), my date.
OL: Your... date? How old are you?
Me: I'm 20.
OL: That is absolutely DESPICABLE!!
Me: What do you mean, I'm only 20 and she's --
OL: You think that you can take out a girl this young and get away with it? Do you know what we call people like you??? You're a PEDOPHILE! You pedophile! Do you get off on going out to eat with girls 6 years younger than you??
At this time, everybody in our section is just looking at us. Lindsay is bright red, and on the verge of tears.
Me: Listen, I'm on a date, and while I don't mean to sound rude, and it's probably going to come out like that... Leave us the fuck alone. We're on a date.
The old lady walks out with her little cane-gang and our waiter comes over and apologizes for the incident.
Me: It's not a problem. But in case you're wondering, I'm only 20, and she's 19. I'm not a pedophile.
Waiter: I didn't think you were. Again, I'm sorry about that, and if you need anything at all let me know.
He walks out, and I keep getting death stares from other patrons as we continue our meal. Our conversations were a bit more subdued, no more laughing like two 10 year olds hopped up on sugar and soda.
We order some dessert, and I look up, and two cops are walking my way with this old lady at their heels.
Me: Son of a bitch....
Cop: Sir, we received a complaint that you're out to eat with a girl substantially younger than you are and we just want to make sure that nobody is going to get hurt.
Me: You have got to be fucking kidding me... Right? Let me guess... That older lady over there told you that I'm what... 23? 24? Something along those lines at that my date is what.... 15 or 16? I'm 20 freaking years old and she's 19. Now please, let us continue our date without anymore interruptions.
Cop: Son, if you can't be compliant then I'm gonna have to take you downtown to question you.
Me: Do you have any reason to detain me? Have I done anything wrong whatsoever? I'm sitting here, eating my food with my date, and y'all barge in like you own the place. Waiter... Can I get a check and some to go boxes please? I really don't feel like dealing with them tonight.
Cop: Sir... I'm gonna need you to calm down. Or you're going to go downtown.
Me: All you've done since you got here is threaten to take me in without asking for any evidence at all. Let alone asking me for an ID to figure this out quietly and discreetly you come in and make a big scene. I'm a loud guy, I don't get bothered by having everybody's eyes on me or being the center of attention. See my date? See how she's hiding her head? Yeah, she's the quiet shy girl. She doesn't like attention.
Cop: Let me see your ID.
Me: Fine.
I start to reach for my [wallet](http://cache14.indulgy.net/h8/92/t/fossilb0046h8tk6.jpg) which is kept in my front pocket and as I'm reaching for it (no quick or jerky movements mind you), he pulls his taser on me and tells me to stop what I'm doing.
Me: What the fuck!?!? You asked for my wallet, I'm getting it for you!
The cop reaches over and reaches into my pocket and grabs my wallet out for me.
Cop: Ma'am, can I see your ID please?
Lindsay reaches into her purse and grabs her wallet and shows the cop her ID.
Cop: Well... Would you look at that... He was telling the truth. I guess we can go.
OL: What?? You're going to let a pedophile go? This is an outrage!!
Me: Ummm... Officer? Can I get your name and badge number? You pulled your taser on me while I was trying to comply with what you did.
Cop: What are you gonna use it for?
Me: To complain to your superior officer. This was completely out of line. I did nothing to warrant this whatsoever. Your name and your badge number?
I copied down his name and badge number, we got out to-go boxes, I tried to pay the ticket but the waiter said that the manager had comped the ticket because of the trouble that we went through.
I left that waiter a $50 tip, and we went on our way. We went out to go play mini-golf, and once we got to the course, she started to not be so quiet and reserved, and she opened up again.
However, I got a text on Monday saying, "Bravesfan417, I like you, I really do. I just don't want to go through what we went through on Saturday night again. Maybe if I start to look a little older than we can try again. I really am sorry!"
So... I'm not sure whether she was using that as an out to get out of us talking and possibly pursuing a relationship or whether that is a true reason as to why she doesn't want us to go out again and we might try later. I can definitely say that she looked quite sad on Monday in class and she still looked quite downtrodden today in class.
I really don't know what to say to her, but I hope that you all enjoy the story!
**EDIT:** I seem to be getting a lot of two different replies to this thread, so I'll answer them here to avoid having to answer them all seperately.
1. The way that the confrontation went down with the police is NOT why we did not go on a 2nd date. I texted her and asked and she told me that she still likes me, and that while I may not have handled that situation the best, again it is NOT why we're not going out on a 2nd date.
2. If you believe that my stories are not true or genuine, then you don't need to comment. I have no way of proving to all of you here at TFR that my stories are true. If you don't believe they are, you can leave me a downvote, and move on. I gain no comment by posting here. I just like to tell my stories to everybody here at TFR.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1o2o5m/you_pedophile/
| 617 | 254 | 1,381,337,297 | 6 |
restaurant tip
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relevance
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23ievb
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TalesFromRetail
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"I'm writing to my congressman about this!"
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Hey TFR. I hope to cross-post this to r/talesfromyourserver a bit later, but for now I'm submitting to you guys as I'm heading to work shortly. Here's a tale from said work that occurred just the other evening.
I'm a server at a popular 24-hour diner chain. I tend to work odd hours; this particular evening, it was from 11pm to 7am. These tend to be very slow hours at said diner. We can go hours without a single customer. Except for tonight. Lady and her son who looks to be no more than twelve come in for breakfast at midnight. They stay at the restaurant until 3am. Three hours. The worst three hours of my life. This lady behaves almost antithetical to how manners would dictate one should behave in public. She snaps her fingers at me, yells at me, calls me slow even though I'm running back and forth for her a million miles a minute, swears at me, and asks me if I'm pregnant multiple times (I'm a little heavyset, but I don't look THAT bad).
At 3am, I give her the bill. It's almost $100 for the two of them, because she ordered so much. She's flabbergasted.
Witch Lady: "What do you mean $98.79? You seriously think you're getting a tip after this, you little b*tch?"
Me: "That is the bill, maam."
Witch Lady: "I'm outraged! I'm filing a report with the police! I'm writing to my congressman about this!"
Her poor kid.
They both leave and I don't get a tip. In fact, she was a penny short on her bill (I didn't realize until after she paid and left, but whatever).
I really hope things go better today. I've requested that my manager ban her if she ever shows up again, but he didn't give me an answer.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/23ievb/im_writing_to_my_congressman_about_this/
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restaurant tip
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relevance
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17v0vl
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TalesFromRetail
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TFR, What's your hourly rate?
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I'm curious as to how much people are payed depending on their circumstances.
So,
How old are you?
What country do you work in?
What would you classify your job as (waiter, busboy, sales assistant, 'sandwich artist' etc)
Do you get tips?
I'm asking this because I've noticed some people get ridiculous amounts, like, less than $3 per hour.
Also, money in USD (American Dollars) would be good, just so we can compare easily.
Personally, I'm 17 in Australia, in a fast food restaurant, and I get paid a bit over $13 an hour.
How about you?
EDIT: Thanks for the insight into other countries guys! As /u/metaldragen said, the cost of living is a lot higher in Australia, which balances out the higher wages. There are positives and negatives for every country :P
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/17v0vl/tfr_whats_your_hourly_rate/
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restaurant tip
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relevance
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16gqyn
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TalesFromRetail
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"Yeah, I can't afford it."
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I've been in retail/the service industry too long, and I have too many stories. This is just one.
In 2010, I worked at a high-end restaurant in New Orleans (Who Dat!) that was owned by a wonderful family that, to this day, I'm still friends with (even though I don't work there anymore). It was a steady Wednesday evening, filled with the smell of gumbo, fried okra, and the sound of customers sucking the meat from pieces of crawfish (crayfish for those in other parts of the world).
A customer walked in (let's call him Mr. Slick), alone - sharply-dressed, gelled hair - the whole nine yards. He snapped his fingers at our hostess "I want a table in the middle of the restaurant" he said forcefully at her, even though it's a large round table with six-plus seats. But she obliged, and since it was my area, I got Mr. Slick.
I walk up to him as he's looking over the menu, and before I can say my name, he looks up. "Look, kid (I'm 25 at this time, btw, and I have a beard) I don't want no bull. If you give me bull, you will get no tip. Now get me some seltzer water with the ice in a different cup." I bring what he asks for, placing it in front of him.
Before I can get a word in, he talks over me again. "I want a sirloin steak, medium (marked at $18.50) grilled catfish with two sides of mashed potatoes ($10.00), and for dessert I want a banana split with four ice cream scoops ($11.70). Now get to it!" As I'm reading it and handing it to the cooks, the cook comments "For one guy? Are you sure he isn't a dasher?" Of course he couldn't be, look how he's dressed, and we're in the middle of the business district, maybe he's just hungry ...
So as I'm talking with other patrons at their tables, Mr. Slick looks around the restaurant, his eyes shifting between the entrance and the emergency exit. Our manager notices this, but keeps mum. Mr. Slick tore threw all of the food he ordered, but at the end, he stands up and walks to the back of the restaurant, but there are waiters and waitresses making drinks.
As he's walking out the front door, our manager walks in front of him (a short guy, not intimating) and says, "Sir, your bill is $40.20. You wouldn't be dashing us, would you sir?" Mr. Slick starts to push our manager, but then other customers get up to defend our manager while one of the waiters called police. "YOU BETTER LET ME LEAVE, I GOTTA GUN, I'LL SHOOT ALL YA!" Mr. Slick starts screaming. "GET OUTTA MY WAY!" he screams more as the police enter.
Mr. Slick, instead of fighting some more, puts his hands up, says "Well someone finally caught me. Good f***ing job!" As they arrest him, he asks, "What's my bill sir?" The manager tells him, Mr. Slick says, "Yeah, I can't afford it. But I didn't spend that much this time!" He laughs as they put him in the car, driving away.
I never saw Mr. Slick again, but I did found out he had dined and dashed before. The police said that his bills came out to over $500 from New Orleans up to Baton Rouge.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/16gqyn/yeah_i_cant_afford_it/
| 184 | 55 | 1,358,037,433 | 6 |
restaurant tip
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relevance
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17xi2n
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TalesFromRetail
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Paying it forward
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I work at a well-known off brand shoe store. Let's call it Paymore ShoeSource. Yeah, that place.
So I'm going around just doing my thing and there's only one customer,an older gentleman, in the store so every time I go past him I just follow up with a "are you still doing alright, sir?" most of the time he answered with a "just fine." but once in a while he'd ask if I had something in another size or ask about the difference between two styles. After about 30 minutes I noticed that he was on his way out of the store without deciding on anything so I offer a smile and say "thanks for stopping in, come back and see us."
The man stopped, turned to me and said "sir, even though I didn't buy anything you still gave me some of the best customer service I have ever experienced and I just wanted to thank you." I say that it was my pleasure and as he walks out I see him place something on the front counter. I go up and find a $10 bill as a tip.
After I closed the store I decided I was pretty thirsty and since I lived about 30 minutes away I went to the Sonic down the road and ordered a drink and burger the total was around $4.50. I waited for a while until the carhop started to come towards my car. She was a cute girl around my age (19) with curly brown hair and glasses. She came up and did the usual intro thing, introducing herself, reading back the order and repeating the total. She handed me the bag and i handed her the $10 bill and as she reached to get change I said "You know what? I work at a shoe store and you're the most beautiful girl I've seen all day. So you go ahead and keep the change And just have a great night." her cheeks turned a shade of pink in surprise and she started studdering "uh, well, thank you. And um, I there anything else I can help you with tonight." I said no and she started walking back to her restaurant with a huge smile on her face.
Tl;dr: Received a tip, used it to flatter a cute girl.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/17xi2n/paying_it_forward/
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1jfg90
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TalesFromRetail
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Waitressing stories
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BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP- My alarm startles me at 7:00 a.m. I slowly inch one leg out of my cozy bed, then the other, and walk like a zombie in the general direction of the bathroom to brush my teeth, tie my hair up and splash ice-cold water on my face. I run upstairs to the kitchen, inhale my cheerios and then quickly go back to my room to change into my uniform: black crocs, black pants with a black apron and a yellow polo with ‘Sabrina’ stitched on the front corner and ‘The Spot’ stitched on the back. The fresh summer air refreshes me as I open the front door and walk to my car. I drive for twenty minutes, passing Hamptons waterside million dollar homes with Bentley’s parked in front and pull into the driveway of The Spot, the restaurant where I work. I walk through the kitchen, greeting the chefs and fellow employees as I pass, and into the dining room to start prepping for the breakfast rush. I hurry to put fresh coffee on to brew and placing sugar, salt, pepper, coffee mugs and utensils on the tables.
The clocks strikes 8:00 a.m. A swarm of couples and families bustle through the original 1857 Victorian style doors. A family of four walks past the obvious “PLEASE WAIT TO BE SEATED” sign printed in the largest possible font and seat themselves. I’m already preparing myself for these most likely high-maintenance city people, or as us locals like to call them, cidiots. I walk up to table forty-one.
“Good Morning,” I say kindly.
Shrugs from the other end of the table.
“May I get you something to dri ...”
“Bloody Mary with celery and lime on the side” the bald businessman in his Prada suit interrupts.
As I am scribbling his detailed order, my eyes can’t help but stray towards the Mrs. as she opens her Louis Vuitton purse and pulls out a two-pound Chihuahua decked in a Swarovski crystal collar and dressed in a pink tutu. Her surgically plastic face then slowly says, “water with two ice cubes and a screwdriver.” Guess this couple goes by the motto, “It's 5 o’clock somewhere.”
“For you girls?” I say to their young daughters.
“They will have orange juice,” grunts the father, with his Wall Street Journal sprawled out on the table.
The younger daughter has a random tantrum, tugging on her father’s newly ironed suit and screams, “Daddy, I’m hungry!” The father ignores the determined tugs and continues to read the financial section of his paper. The other girl sits quietly, captivated by the moving images on her iPad that came out just yesterday.
I rush to get their drinks and before I return and place them on the tabletop, the father persistently states, “The girls will split the pancakes.”
Not expecting them to order so suddenly, I rummage for my pen and paper and ask, “Pure maple syrup or the generic with the pancakes?”
Baffled he replies, “What’s the difference?”
I am full of frustration with his rudeness, but I say in my sweet voice, “The generic is included and the pure is $2.50 extr...”
“They will have the regular,” he interrupts.
I turn to the bleach blonde mother dressed in Gucci from head to toe, waiting for her to decide on her order. I already know she is going to deconstruct the menu with diet specifications. After taking a gulp of her alcohol and flipping through the menu with her five-pound diamond ring on her finger, she says, “I’ll have Eggs Florentine, but I want the hollandaise sauce on the side and no sweet potatoes or English muffin.” This woman literally just eliminated most of the ingredients in this dish.
As I am still writing the mothers bizarre order down, the father says, “Salmon Platter with a scooped whole wheat bagel”, not looking up as he orders.
“I’m sorry sir, we don’t scoop bagels and we only have plain, poppy or sesame bagels.”
In a raised voice he replies, “It’s not difficult…why can’t they just scoop a bagel?” Heads turn at accompanying tables. He shrinks in his chair and mumbles, “Sesame bagel then.”
I can already hear the chefs screaming after I send the ticket in. “Sabrina! What the f..k is this bulls..t?” “Why don’t these idiots just order a bag of leaves?” Ten minutes pass and the father points at me and signals to come to him.
Busy with other tables, I rush over. “Yes sir?”
“We’ve been here forever…what is taking so long?”
“I’m sorry sir, the kitchen is a little busy as it’s the breakfast rush.”
“Your food should be up shortly.”
“We are leaving if the food isn’t out in five minutes,” he grunts back.
I smile and say, “Of course, let me go check on your food, sir.”
I rush into the kitchen and to discover that their order is almost up. Thank god. I bring their food to the table. “Finally” mutters the husband to his wife. They gobble up their food and hunt me down for the check minutes later. I quickly get the bill, thank them, and wish them a good day. Without a word, they pay and leave. I walk over to clear the dishes on their table, glance at the receipt and see the man was kind enough to tip one whole dollar. At that point, I’m just relieved they are gone.
It is now 10 a.m. An older man and woman are seated. I walk up to their table to take their order and before I could say anything, the man hands me a napkin with scribbles on it and gestures with his hands to read it. Confused, I glance at the crumpled napkin: ‘2 coffees, omelet with spinach and mushrooms, 2 eggs scrambled with bacon.’ I smile and ask what kind of toast they want with their eggs. They grunt meaningless words and stare at me blankly. I think to myself, “Do they speak a different language?” I point to the side of the menu that lists the choices of toast, hoping they understand. The man rummages in his pocket for a spare napkin and scribbles, ‘whole wheat.’ “I will be right back with your coffees,” I say. They both put their fingers to their lips, the sign for “thank you” in sign language. I realize that this couple is mute.
One lonely looking man gets seated for lunch around noon. We greet each other and he starts asking me endless questions about menu options. He would point to an item and ask, “What’s this?” or “What comes with that?” After my extensive verbal descriptions, he finally came to a conclusion to get a simple BLT. I expressed my frustration to the chefs about this man who didn’t want to read the menu. “Maybe he’s illiterate?” says one of the chefs. After I got home from my shift, I Googled illiteracy in the US and discovered that 32 million people are illiterate in America. Growing up in a family where education is of the utmost importance made me assume that everyone could read: apparently not.
I have grown up in Westhampton Beach, the least extravagant of the iconic ‘Hamptons’. In the summer, my town’s population quadruples with tourists and Manhattanites. Although we locals prefer the off-season peace, most of the small businesses survive because of these summer visitors. Waitressing such as variety of individuals has given me insight into how many personalities and types of people are out there. My day can go from serving a high maintenance family to people with deep social and physical needs. Waitressing is a whole new world, and this story is just a snippet of one day.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1jfg90/waitressing_stories/
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26hjgk
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TalesFromRetail
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The time I refused to do something unethical for a customer so he could save $7.
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Hello fellow Redditors,
This is a story from a few years ago. I was working at a popular and busy restaurant one day during a Friday lunch shift. My coworker (let's call her Jamie) and I were serving a party of ~20 people. It was a business lunch. I had the boss at my table, and he told me that he is going to take care of all the meals plus one alcoholic drink per person. If anyone ordered more than 2 drinks, they will have to pay for it themselves. No problem.
As Jamie and I were serving this party, we kept noticing this cute guy sitting at my table. As single girls in our early 20s, we had fun ogling him, but of course, none of us made a move. This guy was in his late 20s or early 30s, and let's call him HotGuy.
We served the party their drinks and their meals. A few people ordered more than one drink. No complains; it was a pretty smooth and successful party. As they were finishing up the boss us for the bills. Since I had the boss at my table, I had the other server transfer her meals and drinks to me and I would put them on one bill. I also printed out all the other bills for the extra drinks. As I handed them out to the boss and other partiers, I also gave one to HotGuy, who had 2 tap beers.
I went to the server station to figure something out, and almost immediately HotGuy comes up to me and asks what this bill was. I said it was his bill for the extra drink, since the boss was only covering one drink per person. I had assumed everyone knew this because it wasn't my business to tell the boss' employees. HotGuy then asked if I could put this drink on the boss' bill, as ''he wouldn't notice it''. Two problems with this: I already handed the boss his bill and second, it would be unethical for me to do this to the boss when he said only one drink. So I told HotGuy, no, it was unethical. I said that if HotGuy asked the boss if he could cover the beer, I had no problem printing off a new bill. Of course, HotGuy doesn't want to say anything to his boss. A bit more of a conversation goes on including HotGuy saying I should do what he says, since he's the customer. After refusing a few times he slams his credit card down, and pays for the $7 beer. No tip, of course, and angrily sits back down at his table.
When the party was leaving, Jamie and I said goodbye to everyone, including the boss who said it was a great meal/service. I said bye to HotGuy, who completely ignored me. I turn to Jamie and told her what just happened and she said she has never had that happen before. I also had several other female staff members mention how cute that guy was. After I would explain the conversation we both had.
We all agreed that after the incident, HotGuy's attractiveness reduced significantly, and I refer to him now as the SleazebagGuy.
Moral of the story: Your attractiveness can decrease by a single sentence.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/26hjgk/the_time_i_refused_to_do_something_unethical_for/
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216fi3
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TalesFromRetail
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Closing woes from this week... apparently "We close at 8" isn't the easiest concept for some of our customers to grasp.
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As I’ve mentioned in previous stories, I work in a somewhat upscale “women’s lifestyle” store. We sell nice clothing, housewares and furniture, books, beauty supplies, etc. The location that I work for is in a somewhat hidden collective of stores similar to ours: some fashion boutiques, an art store, and a few restaurants. I love this--it means that our customers have usually come to shop with us, and we don’t get as many people just passing through and making a mess of the store. But, being right next to a restaurant can make closing a bitch sometimes.
Our company’s closing policy is a little bit frustrating; our closing time is 8. However, if we have any customers in the store at 8, we cannot tell them that we’ve closed. We also cannot lock the doors. This means that if somebody new wanders in at 8:15, we have to let them stay… and so on. Usually we’re able to get locked up by 8:20, but there have been nights where we’ve had people in the store until 9:45 because of this policy. So, when it’s past 8 and new people come in, I get sort of anxious (as do my other co-workers).
Earlier this week, we had somebody in our fitting rooms until 8:15, and right as she was walking out, a couple who was trying to kill time until their dinner reservation wandered in. They immediately went to go look at books. The store didn’t make the sales goal that day (by a few thousand dollars), so we needed to get closed and get out of there ASAP… we started doing some pre-closing measures. The guy noticed this going on and asked us what time we closed at, so I replied with “We close at 8” (this is policy--I can’t say “we’re already closed” or anything of that sort). He looked at his girlfriend and said “Oh no, it’s 8:25, they’ve already closed,” apologized for being in late… and then, she took him over to our kitchenware, where they looked at plates for another half hour.
I just don’t get this. If I knew I place was closed, I’d get the fuck out of there. Luckily, nobody new wandered in while they were browsing plates, but we still weren’t able to get out until an hour past our goal/scheduled time for getting out.
Another closing woe from this past week:
The store’s hours are listed incorrectly on Google, which is something we’ve been trying to change for months now… easier said than done. A customer came and started pulling on the locked doors like wild at 8:40. After a few minutes of this, she realized they weren’t going to open, so called the store. I answered, and she angrily told me she was outside and that the doors were locked and “somebody needed to come let her in.” I explained that sadly, we were closed for the night and I could not let her in, but gave her our hours for the next day.
“No, Google says you’re open until 9. You need to let me in, I have 15 minutes.”
I politely explained to her that we have nothing to do with what Google says our hours are, and that we’ve been trying to have that changed for months. Our hours are listed correctly on our website, Facebook page, and the door of our store.
“Well, I drove all the way out here, you NEED to let me shop.”
The registers have all been closed down, even if you found something, you would not be able to make a purchase…
“Re-open one. Make it work.”
I finally got her to stop arguing with me, and somehow restrained myself from screaming at her. I don’t know if she came back the next day, but I’m glad I didn’t have to put up with her…
Does anybody else have a weird policy like this? Any tips for getting through it? Some days, I'd love to just tattoo "WE CLOSE AT 8" on my forehead, but I have a feeling even that wouldn't stop people from coming in whenever they please.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/216fi3/closing_woes_from_this_week_apparently_we_close/
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24og6u
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TalesFromRetail
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"Stop looking at my credit card number!"
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OK, TFR. I have one more tale, another from the [coffee shop](http://redd.it/24m56k). This about wraps up my weird stories from my days retailing. I debated whether to wait a week to post this since I didn't want to seem like I was spamming or whatever. Hopefully, everyone won't mind!
Funny, I just realized all these stories involve crazy middle-aged women!
Anyway, this tale takes place in 2010, shortly after I was hired at the coffee chain. Customer hands me a card, I swipe it, and turn the card around to see what it looked like. This was one of those cards with all the personal information on the back instead of the front, which is neat, and I wanted a quick glance. No, I did not have any plans to steal this lady's information. I explain what I'm doing. I must have glanced at it for about 3 seconds, totally not enough time to memorize a 16-digit credit card number. I feel bad about this in retrospect, but I still think the way she reacted was totally out of line.
> "Stop looking at my credit card number! WHERE IS YOUR MANAGER, YOU LITTLE THIEF! I have a huge credit line and I won't allow thieves to steal from me! I'm rich! You didn't work hard enough to get where I am to deserve the kind of money I make!" etc.
I apologize profusely and explain again why I was looking. Maybe it still seemed a bit shady on her end. I don't really know.
My Shift Supervisor gives me a stern talking to afterward, and I agree that perhaps I shouldn't have glanced at the card as I did. Totally not interesting enough to lose my job over. Not even close.
The lady continues to snap at me for another minute or two, outraged at me "stealing" her credit card details, and demands I be fired and arrested right there. She also takes back the dollar bill she slipped in the tip jar and walks out in a huff, claiming that if any amount is missing from her card she will not only be filing a police report with my name on it, but "suing the restaurant." Yeah, good luck with suing a multi-million dollar chain, ya wacko.
The good news: A gentleman in the shop at the time gave me a 5 as a tip after overhearing everything.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/24og6u/stop_looking_at_my_credit_card_number/
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2rtjim
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TalesFromRetail
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You've insulted my child's honor!! I MUST FACE YOU IN MORTAL COMBAT!!
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Here's a story from a couple weeks ago that I've neglected to post do to procrastination.
I work as a host/cashier for a very popular Mexican restaurant. We also sell various types of sweets and treats with the box to pay for them a little to much the side of the cashier's box making it difficult for anyone in the cashier's box to put money in it. This is relevant because reasons.
It was a slightly busy Friday night and we we're starting to wrap up for the night with me putting in tips electronically at the cashiers box. I should also mention that I was a tad loopy because I had not got much sleep the night before. A family of a 4 with two kids had come up to my station to pay and I exchanged pleasantries with them.
While I was ringing them up, one of the father's sons gave me a dollar to pay for his Ring - pops. I told the little guy where to pay and the kid put in the dollar himself. After that the family left and I proceeded to continue with my duties.
Not two minutes after they left the father, who shall henceforth be referred to as White - knight Dad, came back in extremely pissed and looking for blood and immediately got in my face
KWD: Hey, did you have a fucking problem taking my kid's money?
Me: E-excuse me?
KWD: Did you have a FUCKING PROBLEM taking my kid's money?!
Apparently, during my sleep deprived state I must have accidentally given his kid a disdainful look. At this point my fight or flight had kicked into over drive. I seriously thought that this guy was going to try to kick my ass that I had started reaching for my switch blade to defend myself.
Thankfully, my manager had managed to see what was going on and stepped in between us to ward the guy off. This seemed the cool the him down, but not before grunting and then he stonewalked off.
My manager asked if I was alright and scolded me for not sleeping again. I profusely apologized and she gave me a slight bump on the noggin, leaving me to finish up my duties and retell what happened to my coworkers
TL; DR Your kids are not god's gifts.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/2rtjim/youve_insulted_my_childs_honor_i_must_face_you_in/
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1rvufu
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TalesFromRetail
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"This is not a California burrito" or Dude has an attitude problem
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So, I've mentioned before my parents opened a restaurant recently, and I'm the hostess/waitress, my dad has a manager to help me out, but he keeps me there just to make sure everything runs smoothly. It's tex-mex, btw.
Anyways today has been DEAD, dear Christ it's boring, so I'm just sitting at the front watching tv on my computer, and listening to the manager keep telling me to get off the computer, even though I've said before, we're dead...
So as I'm responding ^like ^a ^smartass a table walks in. I seat them and start taking their drinks. I deliver their drinks and then ask them if they have any questions.
Wife- does the burrito come with cream on-top?
Me- No, but it does come with a beef gravy topped with some cheese.
Husband-...
Anyways they finish ordering and I go ask if their drinks are okay, and bring out their food.
Husband- This isn't what I ordered!
Me- I'm sorry, you ordered a burrito.
Husband- It has CHEESE! I hate cheese!
Me- I did mention it comes with a gravy. Hold on one sec, I'll get my manager.
Manager- Yes?
Husband- This has gravy on top. I don't want it.
Manager- Okay, well our burritos do come with a gravy on-top. If you'd like we'd re-make it for you. I'm sorry about that. It is stuffed with one pound of ground beef, cheese, beans, and a sauce.
Husband- ... whatever...okay.
So the manager goes to the server "station" we have and is like you should apologize, even if you don't want to. I tell her I'm not, and go on my merry way, thank god a table walked in, so I had to help them, and leave my manager with the other table.
So Burrito numero dos comes out.
Husband- This is not the burrito I wanted.
Manager- I'm sorry, what?! I explained the burrito to you and you said it was okay.
Husband- well I'm from California, and I want a California styled burrito.
Manager- I'm sorry but the Chef is from Texas and he only knows Tex-Mex cuisine.
Me- I'm sorry, hi, again. I'll comp your burrito, and bring you some fajitas, but our window does say Tex-Mex, I don't know what the difference is between burritos, we only have the kind that we've brought out, and we have made 2 for you. Here's your check, I'm only charging you for your wife's meal.
So my manager goes to the kitchen with me to order the fajitas.
Manager- You were right, that guy is kind of an asshole.
Me- I told you so.
Anyways we bring out the fajitas, which they ate.
He comes to pay and starts asking questions.
Husband- so who's the owner around here? Is there a way I can get his contact info?
Me- Yeah he's some fat guy, his name is (Generic Mexican name). His number is (xxx-xxx-xxxx).
Husband- Is that how you talk about the owner? I'm telling him about how terrible your service was, and I'm reviewing this on Yelp!
Me- He's out of town, but he'll be in next Saturday and go ahead, and tell him it was his *daughter*, Redditingnoob. I'm sorry that the visit was not as you expected, but we did comp your meal and tried to fix the problem.
Husband- ... ......
So after he left, I checked the transaction, considering we only charged him 14 bucks, he left an 8 dollar tip. Maybe he realized he was being a little over the top.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1rvufu/this_is_not_a_california_burrito_or_dude_has_an/
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1mwkfr
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TalesFromRetail
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"I don't mind paying, but I'm going to have to speak to your manager first."
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I have been working in restaurants for about 4 years now, and thankfully the customers who make me want to punch them in the face are few and far between. But this just took the cake as the worst customer experience I have had.
I have been working at this particular restaurant on & off since they opened in February 2012, I took a couple breaks in between to go home for the summer or, more recently, because I was doing a 6-month internship abroad. But I love the business and the owners and they value me as a loyal employee who cares, so they are always happy to have me back. It's a hotpot and sushi restaurant. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of hotpot/shabu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu-shabu
This story took place a few weeks after returning from my 6 month break, about 2 months ago. There were a lot of new regulars who I didn't know from before I left, and this is involving one of them.
A girl walks in and greets my boss in a friendly manner, so I figure she must be a new regular or a friend of his. She asks him if it's okay if her friend orders something at a take-out place a few doors down and eats it outside on our patio with her while she orders some hotpot from us. I find that a little rude to just bring food from somewhere else, but she's a regular and she will still be paying so my boss says it's okay.
I'm already slightly annoyed just because people eating outside is slightly more inconvenient for me, especially when they're eating the hotpot. I have to bring out the burner and dishes (the tables inside are already set with hotplates and dishes so it just gives me a little more work). But it's a nice day, so it's not an unreasonable request. I bring them their waters, set up the table and then as I'm heading out to see if she has any questions or is ready to order, I see that she is on the phone, so I decide to wait until she is done with her conversation.
10 minutes later she hangs up. I notice she hasn't even touched the menu yet, but since she's a regular she might just already know exactly what she wants. So I head outside to take her order. She says (with an impatient undertone as if she had been waiting for ages) she will have the vegetarian combo with brown rice and our vegetable broth. And could I please put up an umbrella, the sun is in her eyes.
Not a totally unreasonable request either. The sun does get at an inconvenient angle in the evening. But you could tell that it was going to disappear behind the buildings in about 5 minutes. I was a little annoyed that she couldn't just stick it out until then, but whatever, not an unreasonable request, I'll do it.
I bring out the food and everything is going well, except for that slightly bitchy and impatient undertone I keep getting from her. I boss and I inside laugh when both she and her friend start taking selfies. Seriously, for about 10 minutes neither of them were eating, they were just taking selfies. Usually if I see a table taking pictures I will offer to take one with everyone in it, looking back that would have been hilarious (and obviously rude) to put them on the spot like that.
At the end of the meal I bring the check after asking if they want any dessert. When I swing around to pick it up again is when the fun starts to happen.
"I'm sorry miss, but I come here all the time and order the same thing all the time but it's usually only around $14, I don't understand how this got up to 19$."
I have a look at the check to see if maybe I punched in something wrong. Nope, everything is right. The vegetarian combo is on there, theres $1 extra charge for the brown rice, and the broth is on there as well. Plus tax, everything adds up fine, I didn't do anything wrong. I remember getting an email from my boss while I was gone (it was a group email to all of the staff, and I was still on the mailing list), that some of the prices had changed. I point this out to her and ask when the last time was she had come here. Nope, it was already after the price changes so that can't be it. I go in to bring her a menu so she can verify the prices. I point out what she ordered, and where it states the extra charge for brown rice. I explain that what might have happened is that others may have forgotten to punch in the broth or the extra charge for brown rice, and also that our lunch dishes are cheaper (and significantly smaller) than the dinner portions, so this might explain the price difference.
"Okay, I don't have a problem paying for this, I just want to speak to your manager first."
Sigh.... I send out my manager. He again points out the prices, says that her previous servers might have made a mistake when punching in the order, but that the way it is on the bill is the way that it usually is. Because he doesn't want a pissed off customer raging on Yelp, he tells her he will take off the broth for her, so she will only have to pay for the combo and the brown rice.
She finally pays for her fucking meal and leaves without tipping. Which is totally fine, I don't want her money anyway. But man, that was the angriest I have ever been with a customer. And even though this was already 2 months ago it still pisses me off.
Turns out, she never actually paid for her own meals, she usually has her guy friend do that for her. So how would she know how much it costs? And my bosses were annoyed with her already because she always complains about something when she comes there to eat. So they agreed that the next time she comes in, they will bring her the check right after she orders and before her food is brought out, just to make sure everyone is on the same page of how much it is going to cost. She hasn't been back since.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1mwkfr/i_dont_mind_paying_but_im_going_to_have_to_speak/
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1wkhe7
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TalesFromRetail
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You should be the manager, not him!
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This happened many moons ago, when I was just a lowly grunt at a place we'll call Curly's. My boss, who shall be known as Adam, was incompetent as fuck. He would actively avoid doing work and helping customers. This is a story of the time a customer noticed this...
Adam and I were standing up front, shooting the breeze. It had been a relatively slow day, but that wasn't unusual at Curly's. I decided I would head in back to clean something, so I told Adam to let me know if he needed anything. As I turn to leave, I hear the familiar sound of the doors to the restaurant opening.
In my head I'm sighing, Adam won't help this customer that's for sure. So I stop in my tracks and turn around, only to see him quickly walking past me. He gives me some excuse about going off to do this or that, would I mind helping that customer? I head up front, greeting the woman standing in front of the register with a smile. We'll call her Angela.
Angela has a look of disbelief on her face. My angry customer senses tingle, and I make a mental note to be as nice as possible to this woman. I greet her and ask if she has any questions, "Yes... I have one. Are you the manager?" Oh, no. I haven't even started and she's already pissed! I brace myself, ready for a slew of hateful words.
"No, ma'am I'm not. Adam, the guy in the black shirt, is the GM here. (Managers wear black, grunts wear red) Can I help you with something?" She makes a face, "No... There's no way he's the manager. As soon as I walked in, he turned around and walked away! How rude!"
On the inside, I'm dying with laughter. Adam is the owner's son, it's the only reason he has such a title as GM. He is literally the most lazy, passive-aggressive man I have ever met. If he hears the familiar squeak of the doors opening, he's gone. There's always something to check on his computer when customer's are coming. He literally has no idea how to work the registers, it's sad.
I frown, trying to act like this doesn't happen all the time, "I'm real sorry ma'am... He must've had something to do. Maybe he didn't see you? I'd be more than happy to help you!" I flash a big, sweet smile at her to try and make her forget. This time it's her turn to frown, "Oh, no, he saw me. He walked away on purpose, how rude! You really should be the manager, not him."
Little did either of us know, Adam had been listening to this exchange. How do I know? He was red-faced and tight-lipped when he came around the corner. "Is there a problem, ma'am? Did Kahluka make a mistake on your order?" He's trying his best to hide his anger, I can tell. I want to disappear, I'll be made to suffer because of this.
"Why, yes. There is a problem, but it isn't this nice girl." Angela motions to me, and I feel my face starting to turn red, "When I walked in you ignored me, and she's been nothing but helpful! I can't believe you're the manager. She deserves your job more than you, obviously." She finishes with a snort, remaining surprisingly calm for an angry customer. At this point I just want to crawl under a rock. I don't take compliments well, at all.
"Ma'am, I'm the GM and my dad owns this place. I just went off to do something. I didn't even see you!" Adam says, his tone getting more and more angry. Angela can tell, because now *she's* getting pissed. "Well, then, give me the owner's number. I'm sure he'll be happy to know his son is rude. I watched you see me and walk away. I've never been treated like this!"
Adam angrily writes down the number, and Angela snatches it up from him. She turns around and heads for the bathroom, and Adam immediately begins bitching about her, "Did you hear what she said? I didn't walk away from her! Why was she being so nice to *you*, anyway? It's probably because you're a girl. That's it! She's sexist!"
Angela emerges from the bathroom, even more angry than before. "EXCUSE ME! First of all I could hear everything. (Bathrooms are right next to the registers.) Second of all, that bathroom is DISGUSTING! There is no toilet paper, the walls and floors are filthy! You call yourself a manager? This woman showed me better customer service than you! How dare you walk away from a customer and than make her feel bad because of it? The owner will hear about this!"
She leaves, Adam glaring daggers into her back. As soon as the door shuts, he tears into me again, "I'm going to call my dad *right now* and tell him this woman is sexist. Seriously! She treats YOU nicely and ME like shit! I'm the GM, you're just a crew member! What BS. You'll defend me, right?" He looks at me with puppy dog eyes.
I fight an internal battle with myself. On one hand, Adam was in the wrong and not me. On the other, he makes my schedule and pays my bills. If I piss him off, I'm done for. But I want that sweet, sweet justice. So I lie, I agree with him that he wasn't in the wrong. If Owner wants to talk to me, he's welcome to. I'll "set him straight", alright.
Turns out the lady really did complain to Owner. She sung high praises of the little red-headed girl that helped her, and shit all over Adam. She did exaggerate a little bit, saying Adam screamed at her and cussed her out. Owner called me and asked what the "real" story was, as it was a case of he-said she-said.
I explained that Adam walked away, she got pissed and was nice to me. I told him how Adam had said it was "sexist", but had in turn been pretty damn sexist himself. Just because we both have vaginas doesn't mean we're BFF's. Owner was a cool guy, he knew his son was a POS. He decided against giving the lady free food because she made some pretty ridiculous claims, but he did call and apologize to her.
Adam hated me for a while after that. He's a very petty person. He couldn't stand when I got a 13 dollar tip once, he didn't schedule me properly for weeks. He never changed his lazy, shitty ways. He continued to walk away from customers and hide behind his computer screen. I don't miss that place, that's for sure.
TL;DR - Lady praises me for good customer service, gives my boss shit for being awful at his job. We're both women? Obviously she's sexist! Damn man-hating shitlords...
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1wkhe7/you_should_be_the_manager_not_him/
| 106 | 19 | 1,391,101,813 | 6 |
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xs9na
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TalesFromRetail
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Tales of Entitlement & Greed
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Been a while since I worked "retail" (actually it was fast-food, but that still counts right?), but there are many repressed memories that occasionally resurface. Teenage PTSD. I need somewhere to share the pain. My therapist says it's important to release these feelings lest I start mailing bombs and anthrax again.
---
It's amazing how a little piece of recycled paper can make people feel so entitled. Who needs to read when there's a giant $1 OFF above a meaningless paragraph? This scrap of paper means you're king of the world and a very special, important person! Don't take shit from anyone! Never mind the millions of other people who got the same crap in the mail.
I worked at a chicken restaurant that did not have chicken in fried form from the mystical land of Kentucky. We had a shitty chicken sandwich on sale for a limited time. A woman pulls into the drive-thru and says she has a coupon for a dollar off a chicken sandwich. Not a problem mi'lady, please pull up to the window and thou shalt handeth me thine holy scripture that maketh you a goddess amongst plebeians like myself.
She pulls up to the window and hands me the coupon. Uh oh, it says it expired yesterday. Conveniently, a fellow serf commonly known as "burrito lady" notifies me that we don't have the materials necessary to construct such an offering to the goddess being pulled by a horseless carriage with 4 cylinders and a rusted brown accent (or as she put it "no tengo").
"Sorry, ma'am, but this coupon is expired."
"But it says $1 off."
"Yes, but it also says it expired yesterday."
"I want a chicken sandwich and have this coupon for $1 off."
"I'm sorry but your coupon is expired, though."
"Can't you just let me use it anyway?"
"I would [just to get you out of my hair] but we don't have the supplies to make the sandwich."
"Then let me use this coupon for something else."
"But that coupon is for a chicken sandwich."
"And you don't have the chicken sandwich anymore?"
"Correct, it was for a limited time only."
"So that's your fault and I should still be able to use this."
"Well the coupon also says 'until supplies last'."
There was much more back and forth, we were like a broken record. This coupon is for a chicken sandwich, we don't have that anymore, let me use it on something else, that coupon is for a chicken sandwich. She finally asks to speak to a manager, and of course, gets what she wants.
In summary, a customer used an expired coupon (both in date and supplies did not last) for an item that was limited time only and no longer in existence, on something else entirely. It's an endless cycle. Give into the customer's demands and they'll see that it works and have no reason to stop.
---
This next story involves me finding God, repenting for my sins, and embracing Jesus Christ as my savior. At least, that's how the customer would tell it to you.
Customer pulls up to the window, gives me money, I give her food. It's all a very pleasant transaction. Before she leaves, she says, "Here, this is for you." She holds out a little white envelope with a $20 bill peeking out of the top.
"Sorry, I couldn't possibly accept that."
"No it's ok, it's for you."
"I appreciate the thought, but I'm just doing my job."
"Please take it, I want you to have it."
"Really, it's ok. I can't accept that."
"Take it, it's yours."
"No, I can't take that. If you'll excuse me, I have some other customers I need to attend to."
"JUST TAKE IT!"
She screamed at me, threw the envelope in the window at me, and sped off. I pick it up off the floor and the $20 is not a $20 bill at all, but a piece of paper with the top printed to look like cash. The rest of the paper was a massive lecture about how I'm a greedy sinner for accepting the bribe and giving into the Devil's temptation. I must seek their church immediately and be saved. Hell is a terrible place filled with greedy assholes such as myself. Yeah, fuck you, too, bitch.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/xs9na/tales_of_entitlement_greed/
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1re94i
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TalesFromRetail
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I got my 2nd tip today
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I know, you guys are thinking that it is a pretty crappy restaurant or my service is pretty bad if all I have ever got was 2 tips. However, I don't work in an industry that ever gets any tips. I work in a game store selling board games, card games, Gundams, and video games.
A few months ago, I was helping someone start playing magic the gathering, getting them a beginner deck, helping them find some cheap singles to improve the deck, etc. and at the end of our conversation after she has made her purchase, she leaves me $5 and walks out. I am personally surprised.
Today, guy comes in, buys some Xbox360 games, then leaves. He comes back 20 mins later and asks for a refund as the games were 360 and not regular xbox games (I didnt know you could even get those games anymore). I gave him his refund ($10 and change, $3 ish in change) and he deliberately set the change down on the counter for me then walked out.
I get a regular wage, I do not need to supplement my income with tips. However, tips really make my day, thank you nice people who do so.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1re94i/i_got_my_2nd_tip_today/
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hot
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1ipt7w
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TalesFromRetail
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The only customer to ever make me cry
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I used to work as a cashier for a hotel buffet during the breakfast and lunch shifts. Breakfast was mainly for hotel guests, but we had a regular lunch crowd of local business people and retirees.
Mondays were my manager's day off, which made me the de facto decision-maker. I hated Mondays, because I was in no way trained, paid or permitted to deal with crisis management.
So, lunch was wrapping up, the gates were closed, and the last customers were beginning to pay (customers were meant to bring their check to me and pay on the way out). A girl (between 9 to 12 years old - hard to say) came up and delivered the check for her table. This girl's mother had had an attitude from the instant she walked in the door. An I-can't-believe-you-have-the-gull-to-ask-me-how-I-am eye roll, and a yes-I'd-like-a-table-why-else-would-I-be-here sigh. Whatever, didn't really bother me. It's not unusual.
I opened the check I saw a credit card and some ones, so I asked, "Is the cash for the server?" and she nodded. I ran the credit card and gave it and the credit card slip back to her so she could bring it to her mom.
While she walked away I counted the tip and found it was about $20 (the bill had been about $27) so I figured this lady probably wasn't feeling that generous. I went right after the girl and got to the table just as the lady received her credit card slip. She glared at me.
I said, "Excuse me, I think there's been a mistake. Did you want to pay partly in cash and partly on the card?"
"Yeah that's what I wanted to do! You ran my card for $27? How dumb are you?"
"I'm sorry, before counting the cash I thought it was the server's tip. I can void the charge and run it for the right amount. How much do you want to put on the card, and how much in cash?"
I was trying to problem-solve, but she wasn't having any of it. She kept calling me an idiot, expressing her disbelief at having to tolerate such a stupid person. I apologized, asked her how much she wanted on the card, suggested, "I have $20 in cash here, did you want to do $20 in cash and $7 on the card?" so all she'd have to say was a simple yes. I asked her to return her card to me so I could void it and run it for the right amount, but she kept holding it away.
I got the card from her, voided the previous payment, covered part of the check in cash and ran the card for the remainder. I was about to return to her table with her new credit card slip, but she arrived at the register and started cussing me out.
She flipped her lid. She was screaming in a relatively quiet and empty restaurant, and her voice was travelling out into the lobby as she cursed and called me every name in the book in front of her two daughters, and with our last remaining table literally four feet to my left.
"YOU'VE HAD SOMETHING AGAINST US EVER SINCE YOU MADE MY FATHER BUY THAT PIE!"
What?
I was utterly confused. Then I remembered the instance she was referring to.
About two months prior, on another Monday, she came in with her father and sister. I didn't recognize her from that event because she'd been a minor character. It was a hectic day, so I was helping the server out and her table asked for a slice of our caramel apple pie. I brought it to them and they tried it but they didn't like it, so they asked for us to take it back.
I basically didn't have permission to make customers happy beyond a basic transaction. I wasn't in a managerial position where I could smile and decide whose meal to comp when, so I told them that I couldn't remove them from their bill if they'd already eaten part of it. They were understandably upset, but my manager was the stingiest sort and I didn't have authority to cost the restaurant money.
While they were paying (looking at me like I ran over their cat and got away with it), one woman asked where the restroom was and I directed her to it. The father remarked, "Do you have to pay for that, too?" but whatever, I figured that was the last of that. I'm sorry.
My next shift my manager came up to me and said, "A lady says you made her buy a pie?" I explained what happened and as soon as I got to the part about how they'd eaten part of it he exclaimed, "That lying bitch!" and just walked away. So I guess I felt vindicated. Not the best customer service in the world but I'd acted right in my manager's eyes.
So there we were a couple months later and everything about this woman clicked in my mind. Why she came in with such a sour attitude, why she had so little patience for me, etc.
That all kinda took a back seat to the things she was yelling at me, though. I'd been in restaurant work for over two and a half years at this point and I'd dealt with nightmare customers, but I go through life without ruffling feathers so this was literally the first time I'd ever been shouted at like this before.
While she was there I kept a stiff upper lip and said, "Well, I'm going to tell my manager about this and see to it that you aren't allowed back, because cursing at me in the middle of the restaurant is not okay." My manager later told me I shouldn't have said this, but I still feel justified.
While she was cursing at me, the busser was in the back listening to it and fuming at her. He finally had it with watching her shout at me and said, "Excuse me, are we done here? Then you need to leave," and escorted her out.
Now that she was finally gone I started to feel it in my chest. That shaky, rattling feeling. I couldn't breathe right. The more I fought it the more I felt my eyes water. I knew my efforts were transparent as hell. I got self-conscious. I told myself this woman didn't matter, but the fact that she had this effect on me made me even angrier and more upset.
I had one more table (a regular who, as I said, was four feet away from the spectacle) so I tried to keep it together, but I figured he'd be understanding if I went to the bathroom to collect myself.
**Epilogue**
At the end of the day I needed to get change from the front desk. The clerk was on the phone so I waited. Then I noticed the person on the other end of the line was chewing her ear out. Shouting and shouting and not letting the clerk get a word in. I mouthed, "Is she yelling about me?" and she nodded. She'd already seen my red eyes and mouthed, "Did she make you cry?" and I nodded. I figured the phone call would be a while so I went back to the restaurant to sort out the rest of my duties.
When I got home I called my manager and told him everything, so at least I had my side of the story in before she got her version. Her version, by the way: that I hated her because she was black.
TL;DR: If you make a mistake, it means you're racist.
**EDIT:** I remembered the precise exchange that occurred while I was at her table. After I said, "Excuse me, I think there's been a mistake. Did you want to pay partly in cash and partly on the card?"
She said (in a tone you'd use on a child... but a child you hate, like one that just stabbed you in the eye with a fork) "How much is the check?"
"$27, so would you like to pay with the $20 cash--"
"And how much did I give you?"
"$20 cash and a card. If I can take your card back I can void the payment and--"
"So what do you think I was giving you that cash for?"
This is where I got frustrated by her power trip. I said, "Ma'am, you don't have to talk to me like I'm dumb." My manager said this was my second mistake, but it led to this gem here:
"Well you *IS* dumb." Followed by more ranting.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1ipt7w/the_only_customer_to_ever_make_me_cry/
| 66 | 7 | 1,374,356,964 | 6 |
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hot
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1oc2s8
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TalesFromRetail
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Some people should not be allowed in management.
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I was directed to this subreddit after posting my story in a comment on AdviceAnimals, still kinda new to Reddit and all its inner workings. While it causes me a bit of inner rage to relive this story, I do somewhat enjoy sharing it for no reason other than that it's nice to see what other people think about the situation. This was ~4 years ago.
One of my old managers was just about the biggest bitch i've ever met in my life. She used to call the other managers when she was running late and have them clock her in so she wouldn't get in trouble, she'd take tables/deliveries from the servers/delivery people so she could get tips, and if anyone EVER stood up to her... you were fucked. She liked me at first because I was really nice, worked above and beyond expectations, and according to her at the time, I was our best employee.
The first time I realized just how awful she was was on a day where one of my coworkers (I had been there a few days) had food poisoning. It didn't hit until an hour or so into her shift- at which point she spent about 20 minutes straight in the bathroom vomiting and with terrible diarrhea. Rather than waiting for this manager to show up (because who knew when that would happen), the girl went home. The manager showed up an hour late (which was a full hour and a half after the girl went home), found out that she left without permission, and fired her.
The next incident, and first one I was a part of, we had 2 basketball teams come in to our store after their games. It was myself and another server working at the time- we had everything under control, yet she (the manager) kept coming in and talking to people. Just talking, not actually helping serve, take orders, clean, or anything. Then afterwards when the server and I pooled our tips and it ended up being over 150 bucks, she insisted that she had helped with everything and we split the tips with her as well. At the time we knew it wasn't allowed by the company, but none of us were willing to risk losing our jobs- the last person who had complained about her ended up getting their hours cut so severely that they quit.
And this was my downfall. At this time, I knew what a bad manager/person she was, but still manged to be civil and even nice to her, to avoid ever getting hours cut or in trouble. We still had the buffet at our store. Every day, the buffet stopped at 2:00, which meant unless there were a lot of people actively eating, we stopped making/putting out food for it at around 1:15-1:30. This particular day, the manager felt like pulling the buffet early (which could have gotten her in trouble with corporate had they known, but whatever), so at 1:00 she told me to pull everything. Guy walks in right as I was getting ready to start pulling everything, and asks if we're still doing the buffet. Told him the manager had asked me to start taking it down, but I knew all the food just got thrown away anyway (we weren't even allowed to take it or anything), so I asked him to hold on while I asked the manager if he could just eat some of what was there, thereby gaining us another 10 bucks for stuff that was gonna get tossed. Asked her and she freaked but said fine, as long as he knew that we weren't going to make anything in addition to what was already out, what he saw was what he was getting. Guy was fine with it, got a plate and sat down to eat. As soon as she saw him get his plate, she told me to go clear the buffet. I was like uh, wtf... he just started eating. "I don't care, he got his food, clear the rest." So I went over to him and told him "I'm sorry, but if there's anything else you'd like from the buffet would you possibly be able to get it now? My manager's asking me to clear it off now." I must have looked miserable, because he just gave me the most pitying look and said "Hey sweetheart, I know it's not your fault so don't worry. But do me a favour and send your manager over, will you?" I did, and he thoroughly chewed her out. Afterwards, she came up to me and started yelling at me for "disobeying her" and seating someone for the buffet after she had told me to pull it and how it was now my fault that she had to give this guy a free meal and all this shit. I told her "No. I asked you, because he came in even before I even got to start pulling the food, and I knew it would get us some money." She goes "That guy came in at around 1:15, a full 15 minutes after I told you to pull the buffet. You just weren't doing your job." "No, he came in just after 1. Minutes after you told me to clear off the buffet." She promptly turns to one of the cooks and says "Hey, what time did that guy come in?" "1:15". After that, she kept abusing me, taking tables from me, "demoted me" from server to customer service rep (answering phones), and cutting my hours. Ended up getting pneumonia and my doctor told me not to work since I was coughing up so much shit, it probably wasn't safe to work around food. Missed a week and a half of work, then the day I was supposed to come back, there was an issue where my ex got stuck at work (literally could not leave under any circumstances) and didn't tell me ~15 minutes before my shift. I could have walked, but it would have taken me around half hour to 45 minutes to get there, so I called to let them know i'd be a bit late (I had never been late before). All I hear in the background is the manager yell "TELL HER NOT TO EVEN FUCKING BOTHER SHOWING UP, OR FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK." Walked in anyway and quit.
Now I know that it was my fault for being late, no matter what my excuse. However, no retail/food service company i've ever worked for, or ever known of, takes hours away from someone the first time they show up late. Not only that, but coming from a manager who was late at LEAST once a week, yet had other managers covering for her... the hypocrisy was just more than I could take at that point.
It sucked because it put me in a position where I couldn't find another job for ~7 months (which also was pretty bad), but I needed to quit for my sanity.
Not really sure how to wrap this up, so... thanks for reading!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1oc2s8/some_people_should_not_be_allowed_in_management/
| 53 | 8 | 1,381,637,172 | 6 |
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2k17cn
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TalesFromRetail
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Slow Service? No Problem!
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It was a bright, cool Saturday in early spring, and I had a single employee working the counter for the slow first hour of the opening shift at our ice cream store. I was keeping myself busy making a few batches of ice cream to fill out some flavors we were running low on.
The rhythm of making ice cream involves loading ingredients into the machine, waiting seven to ten minutes for them to freeze, then extruding it into containers and repeating the process for the next flavor. When I have a limited or inexperienced crew working, my routine is to load my ingredients into the machine then, in the handful of minutes I have before the batch is ready, wander out to our serving area to see if there's anything that needs my supervision or assistance.
On this morning, I walked out and immediately noticed a woman standing at the serving counter who appeared a bit peeved, tight lipped, arms folded and impatiently tapping a foot. I walked over to Joe, my lone employee, and asked if I could lend him a hand.
“No, it's just three frappes, I can handle it!” he assured me. (A "frappe" is known as a "milkshake", everywhere but in Massachusetts!)
Now Joe is a good kid – funny, hardworking, pleasant to deal with, but definitely not our fastest server. He's the proverbial tortoise, slow and steady. Mentally weighing the amount of time before my batch was ready to be extracted and the progress that Joe had already made in mixing the drinks, I figured he could handle the order, but decided to give a little reassurance to the impatient customer on my way back to my production room.
“Sorry, he's a little slow, but he's working hard on those, he'll have them for you in just a couple of minutes” I said to the woman on my way back. She gave me a slightly perplexed look, then a nod and a slight smile.
I finished my batch and started the next and I again poked my head out to the serving area. The previously impatient customer was putting away her wallet and gathering up her order to leave, though this time she seemed much happier. “Sorry that took so long, and thanks for coming!” I called out as she picked up her bag and started to walk toward the door. She smiled and waved, then paused, turned back to me and in a bit of a conspiratorial tone, replied “That's ok, it was no problem at all. And thank you so much for giving him a chance!”
“Huh? 'giving him a chance'? What the heck does that mean?” I wondered to myself as I thanked her again as she left, then hustled back to catch my next ready batch.
As I packed the finished batch into containers, my mind wandered back to that oddly confusing exchange I had had with the customer. Then I thought back to the previous conversation with her, and suddenly it clicked.
She was impatient.
I told her “he's a little slow”.
Then she was patient and understanding.
And she thanked me “for giving him a chance”.
Cripes! She thought I was telling her that he was mentally disabled!
I hurried back out to the serving area, but the woman was long gone. I asked Joe “Was that last customer ok?”
“Yep, she was really nice! At first she seemed upset that I was taking so long, but when I gave her the frappes she told me I did a great job and gave me a $5 tip!”
“Joe, she thought you were mentally disabled!”
“Huh?” he replied, not quite grasping what I was saying. I'm ashamed to admit that I had to sink to the lexicon of 16 year old kids, and use the pejorative term that they all understand. “She thought you were mentally retarded!” I told him about the exchange, and he nodded and laughed. “Yeah, I guess I can see that!”
The other kids on the serving crew got a huge kick when they heard about it, and took great delight in playfully teasing Joe about being our “slow kid”. Joe took his new staff celebrity as amusing, and I think it actually motivated him to try to improve his serving speed.
And I now try to be a little more careful of the wordings I use in the reassurances I offer to customers!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/2k17cn/slow_service_no_problem/
| 23 | 2 | 1,414,013,194 | 6 |
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z63bb
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TalesFromRetail
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Thought the service was shitty at MY place-of-employment, then this.
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Before I start I would like to apologize for the wall-o-text. I know this isn't a tale about my job in retail, but this is my absolute favorite sub Reddit and I want the people I know in this Reddit community to see it.
~~~
So I’m with a party of 6 people and we decide to go to the local Irish pub for a small, informal meeting over lunch. We arrive and the dining room wasn’t even half full. There were only 2 parties of more than 4 people and maybe 5 other scattered people. There was 1 server and 1 bar girl. We sit down and 4 of us ordered food and we decided on an appetizer to share before the entrée arrived. So we place our order and we wait and we wait and 40 minutes later 3 of the entrees and the appetizer finally arrive at the same time.
So we just figure it’s not a problem, we didn’t really need the appetizer first anyways. It was at this point that the server told me that the kitchen had messed up my salad and had to remake it. She leaves and it’s only after she walks away that we realize that she forgot to refill our drinks and give us plates to share the appetizer with. We look around to flag her down, but she didn’t come back into the dining room until 10 minutes later. When she did come back she didn’t even look up so see if any tables needed anything, she just handed a check to a table and walked back into the kitchen, despite me waving my arms to get her attention.
5 minutes later she finally comes back over and we tell her we want plates and refills and for one of the guys who hasn’t ordered yet to finally order. It took her 10 more minutes after this for her to get over with a pitcher of water and no plates. It took 5 minutes after that to get the plates, but by this time the appetizer had been eaten.
So far its been around an hour and a half since we sat down and 30 minutes since we got our food and I STILL have yet to receive my salad. My salad was a tossed greens, blue cheese and walnut salad. I have worked in a kitchen before and if a kitchen messes up an order they remake it immediately so it gets to the customer fast. A tossed salad with no meat should take 5 minutes at most to prepare and send out. So the server finally gets back with my salad and the other guys burger and I tell her to take my salad back. I had filled up on the appetizer and wasn’t hungry any more.
Well, she walks off and the guy who ordered a soda STILL has not gotten a refill and his burger that he ordered medium rare came out medium well. At this point the other guy with a burger says his was the same and points out his empty water cup. When she came over to see how we were doing we asked to see the manager. She goes and talks to the bar girl and the bar girl.
I guess the bar girl was a supervisor or manager because she came over to ask what was wrong. We tell her the salad took over an hour from the time I ordered it, the burgers were cooked to death, the appetizer came with no sharing plates and at the same time as the entrees and that the drinks were not refilled. She agrees to comp the salad, the app and one of the burgers and we say that sounds fine.
10 minutes later everyone except one girl gets their checks and pays. We waited for 10 more minutes after we handed her back the checks for her to come back with the last check and the change, but she never did. She didn’t even bother to look over at out table from this point on. We did some math and decided that the change she owed us would cover the last check and a few bucks of tip, so we just left. The whole ordeal took just over 2 hours and we agreed after that we would rather eat a Denny’s next time.
PS. Didn't know where to stick this in the story, but at one point I heard the manager refer to the other party at "the rude table" while talking to the server. I know as employees we sometimes like to gossip, but don't do it where customers can hear you!!
TL;DR: One entrée took an hour, burgers were cooked to death, appetizer came late and with no sharing, drinks were not refilled even after we asked, last check and change never came.
~~~
So to wrap up r/TalesFromRetail, I would like to hear stories from you guys. Ever had an experience that made you think of your workplace in a new light? Or really any story is fine. Reddit makes me feel social.
EDIT FOR FUNKY FORMATTING
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/z63bb/thought_the_service_was_shitty_at_my/
| 8 | 1 | 1,346,467,432 | 6 |
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2qixey
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TalesFromRetail
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"No, ma'am. $3 in quarters isn't going to cover a $15.26 purchase."
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Ah Christmas. The one time of year where I'm willing to work BECAUSE I GET PAID DOUBLE, BITCHES! Occasionally I get some smart ass customer who asks me "why I'm working on Christmas," to which I wish I could reply with either, "it's not Christmas in here," or "what are you doing shopping on Christmas," but this time I had a truly memorable story.
Earlier in the day there was a woman who needed help at the self checkout. No big deal, I just scanned her items and waited for payment, but all she had to give me for payment was a dollar. In quarters. There was nothing in her order that came for $1 or less, so I explained to her that she was short (why do people need math lessons in this day and age). I think she said something to the effect of she'd have to come back so I voided her transaction so I could free up the register for the next customer (we were pretty busy in the morning). Instead of leaving to get more money she kept rummaging through her pockets trying to come up with the total, and tried to hand me $2 more in quarters as if that would pay for it. Clearly she was not all there, clearly she had no idea how money worked and left after the 5th time I explained to her that $3 is not going to cover a $15.26 purchase. It's never Christmas when you work on Christmas.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/2qixey/no_maam_3_in_quarters_isnt_going_to_cover_a_1526/
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65gupg
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TalesFromRetail
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You don't deserve $11 an hour!
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So recently our store started hiring, as we are always understaffed. In order to attract job seekers, they recently posted a hiring sign mentioning that they were hiring starting at $11.00/hr, which is a whopping $1 above state mandated minimum wage. The following encounters have ensued as a result.
1: Lady is perfectly nice, has a normal and very polite interaction. In fact, she's more cheerful and polite than my average customer. As she walks out she sees the sign, turns, and screeches at me
L: "Does that sign say $11 an hour?!"
Me: Yes m'am it does.
L: You don't deserve $11!
2: Woman I'm ringing out has already noticed the signs...
W: When I was your age, minimum wage was so much lower! The job hasn't changed at all, you are so lucky you get paid so much nowadays, when I was your age I made practically no money!
Me: ...
3: Checking out a man, who has been rude and impatient the entire time. Prices have changed recently (at the time of this story)
Man: Why is it so expensive? Usually this costs $x.yz but today it costs $a.bc. You did it wrong.
Me: It seems we had a slight price increase, I'm really sorry sir!
Man: Well I bet if it weren't for stupid kids like you getting paid $11 an hour, they wouldn't have increased! You stupid workers think you deserve $15 for flipping burgers, it's so easy anyone could do it! It's not like you need the money anyway, you should feel ashamed of yourself!
Rant Time!
Please for the love of god, don't be this customer. I live in a state that is the 3rd or 4th highest in terms of cost of living, and while I may be young, I am saving money in order to be able to move out and become financially independent. No one where I work is protesting for $15/hr. No one even really asked for $11/hr. We get paid this much because management has a hard time keeping workers, with many quitting due to the stress of the job. We are often assigned the jobs normally assigned to 2-3 workers in other stores within the franchise. The extra dollar an hour is for doing two people's jobs.
Sometimes it's even worse than the occasional random insults I get, because I work extremely hard and take pride in being able to save money for something important to me. It's just so hard listening to people berate you and say you make too much money and don't work hard when you're constantly busting ass.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/65gupg/you_dont_deserve_11_an_hour/
| 3,162 | 487 | 1,492,223,683 | 6 |
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9h48zb
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TalesFromRetail
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Have you ever seen a customer explode before? It's awesome!
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Long. TL;DR at the bottom.
When I worked at a *insert biggest retail chain in America here*, we had an odd, but easily understandable way to display and sell our TVs. If the TV has ONE price tag on it, that means that was the price for the TV in box and the display was NOT for sale. If the TV had *two*, one would be clearly marked DISPLAY PRICE (as in that exact TV on the wall, because it’s about to be replaced) and the other price tag was for a new in box TV. The display price often reached INSANE discounts. The longer it sat there, the lower our system automatically lowered the price. One time we sold a 2000 dollar TV *brand new in box* for 200 dollars because it was the display. I wanted that TV and was sad that another coworker got to it first.
But my luck turned around. The *almost exact same model* minus a curved screen was up for grabs. Also 2 grand new. They were selling it for 500. A *really really* nice smart TV, 4K, Smart Hub, the fucking works.
A customer saw online we were selling a similar looking TV (different model number and resolution, 1080p) for 200 dollars. THE WEBSITE SAID DISPLAY ONLY PRICE. He came in and demanded the 500 dollar display for 200 dollars. Queue "Its the same size! What's the fucking difference?" 1 billion times.
He began threatening lawsuits for mis-advertisement, threatened to call the cops (what could they do?). Enough to where the store manager was about to cave and take the hit *personally.*
Here’s where I got sneaky. I got tired of waiting for displays that I wanted to come down, as I have been waiting for a year and saving up for a new TV to replace my 10-year-old 32 inch Sanyo (That TV is still used. It’s now in my bedroom as a monitor for me to play games while I sit on my bed).
The customer was outside ranting and raving at someone on the phone. So, during my 15-minute break, I walked up to the store manager (SM).
Me: I will buy that TV right now for 500 bucks.
SM: You sure? That customer is going to explode if he sees you with it.
Me: That’s fine. Ill wheel it out to my car and he can watch me load it into the back.
SM: Alright. Got tired of him anyway. He was being an ass to me and multiple associates. He deserves this. If corporate calls, I’ll show camera footage. That would be enough for us to be in the clear. Corporate won’t complain that I saved 300 bucks from being burned.
I literally walked right by that customer with that TV. I was happy that I got that damn TV. But the icing on the cake? He turned tomato red. Not kidding. Red.
AH: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?
Me: I saw this TV for sale and I bought it. Why?
AH: I WAS ABOUT TO BUY THAT!!!!!!
Me: Oh, I thought you didn’t want it anymore after you left the store. I didn’t realize you left to call someone. (I totally did btw)
AH: YOU GETTING SMART WITH ME? ILL KICK YOUR ASS!
(Here’s where I almost gotten reprimanded and coached. I couldn’t resist. The troll in me couldn’t be stopped)
Me: Sir, tomatoes belong in the vegetable section.
AH: WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY!?!?!
I booked it to my fucking car. Sprinting and holding a 55 inch TV over my head and slapped the back of my car door shut and ran back inside.
They got him out of the store by saying “You left the store. We don’t hold items. It’s our policy.” And, to boot, *corporate backed us up.* I dodged the reprimand because the customer couldn’t prove I made that comment at him.
I got a new TV. Made a customer explode. And, made my managers nearly die from laughing so hard. It was a good day.
TL;DR: Customer was super ultra pissed about pricing cuz can't read. Bought the TV out from under him when he made a phone call. Called him a tomato. Went home with a new TV.
Edit: RIP inbox. AND THANKS FOR THE GOLD. FIRST ONE EVER. HELL YES.
Edit 2: Another gold. Thank you stranger!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/9h48zb/have_you_ever_seen_a_customer_explode_before_its/
| 6,100 | 212 | 1,537,355,689 | 6 |
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k6n62t
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TalesFromRetail
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But I need formula for my baby! Are you sure?
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I've worked in a supermarket for 10 years. You get your share of Karens and the only thing you can do is smile politely.
But what I even hated more after an 8 hour shift and having to close up the supermarket were the customers who came in 5-10 minutes before closing and just do their shopping like no one wants to go home.
There was a time that I was scheduled every Friday closing shift and pretty much every Saturday closing shift. The store closed at 8. We weren't open on Sundays then. Also on Saturday we had to take out all the cash drawers and ( manually) count all the money. We could start doing this when all the customers had left and the front and back doors were locked.
So customers coming in 5 to 10 minutes before closing time and taking their sweet sweet time to shop were hated. Hated with a passion.
My shop had a procedure. We would barricade our entrance and turn our front door on only opening when people wanted to leave the store at about 5 minutes before closing. We would remind customers at a quarter to, 10 to and 5 to closing time that the store was going to close and please go and pay for their groceries.
Normally we had very few incidents.
This one, however, is burned in my memory.
'
C = colleague, FM= formula man.
It was a Saturday. As head of the cashiers for that night I had the honour to make or break the day of our beloved customers. I had to deal with my fair share of Karens, male and female, and I just wanted to go home.
So I follow the procedure, ask one of my fellow money handlers to set the front door and stay there to handle any customer.
At 2 minutes before closing time a man comes running to the door. My colleague asks what he needs and reminds him that the store is going to close and he won't have much time. He says he just needs formula.
Since I was busy with a customer she let him in.
Guy gets a basket and goes into the shop. Since he said he needed formula we thought he would be in an out like Road runner. Nope.
No, because FM didn't need formula.
At 8.05 FM is seen at the cheese section if our store. 8.15 at our wine section. What the heck does he need that for? What kind of baby does he have?
Several of my colleagues have gone to this man to get him to the counter. He scoffs, huffs and says that he's a paying customer.
My fellow money handler was the last one to go to him and that's when he went too far. He yelled at her, cussing at her and making a high school student cry.
Now I'm pissed. So I do what I always do in these situations. I take if my store shirt, put out a neat jacket I keep in case of emergencies and put it on. You see, when you have the store outfit on, you are often seen as a lesser being. But behold! I change my outfit and suddenly I look like management and my word is all powerful. The real manager sees this happening, pops out a huge grin and goes to the back and watch from the security cameras.
So I don the magical outfit and go to FM. I tell him in no uncertain terms that the store has been closed for 15 minutes and he has been asked multiple times to go and pay for his things. He starts to huff and puff himself up like the big bad wolf ( I'm 5'2 woman and people think they can intimidate me.)
I told him that he was only allowed entrance since he said he needed formula. So I gave him a choice. He could go now and pay for the things in his basket or I would take the basket from him, grab the formula he claimed to need so much and he could pay for that.
He could choose not to do either, and in that case security would love to make his acquaintance. Either way, he would leave now.
He tried, oh boy he tried to threaten and intimate me.
He failed.
He left.. with his cheese and wine. And many threats to call corporate.
The next week he came again. This time he encounters me at the door. What did he need? Formula.
So I brought him to our service desk, went inside and brought out a single pack of every kind of formula we had. Asked him which one he needed.
He didn't say a word and left.
Don't mess with our closing times.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/k6n62t/but_i_need_formula_for_my_baby_are_you_sure/
| 2,482 | 195 | 1,607,096,347 | 6 |
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7h6h5d
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TalesFromRetail
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Parents should accompany their kids when ordering food
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First time posting to this sub and know that I know this exists, it will be my home.
One morning at my bulk store while i was helping customers, a kid about 9 comes up with a 20 dollar bill and orders 2 bags of chips that together cost $1.78. He hands me the 20 and as I'm gathering his change, he walks away. I try to call him back but he keeps walking and it seems he doesn't hear me. I see him walk to his mom, who's in line to pay for the other items she got from the rest of the store. They're too far to hear me call after them and I couldn't leave the other people I was serving so I set his change and receipt under the register because I thought "his mom would make him come back and if not I'll catch them before they leave" (my section was right next to the exit). 10 minutes later I was right, he comes back and I give him his change and receipt. 15 minutes after that, my manager pulls me away and tells me that woman complained that I refused to give her son his change and told her son that he doesn't get any change. I explained my side but my managers have to review the security tapes anyway. They see I was telling the truth. Next day the woman comes back threatening to sue but we offer to show her the tapes to prove her son left his change and at that point she drops her accusation and leaves.
Moral of the story: please stay with your child when ordering items.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/7h6h5d/parents_should_accompany_their_kids_when_ordering/
| 3,137 | 251 | 1,512,261,055 | 6 |
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2b0xm7
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TalesFromRetail
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"And THESE people want 15 dollars an hour!"
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I've posted once before about working in the food court in the mall, but since the mall attracts such crazy people, I figured I'd share another crazy story.
So, for some background information, I work at a store that sells lemonade and food on sticks. (Corn dogs if we're gonna get technical.) So since we make the lemonade in store every hour or so, we have a fancy lemon juicer machine and we save the lemon peels because some customers like a lemon peel in their lemonade. Plus we use them as decoration in our lemonade displays. Also, when it comes to our food products, since we have a variety of food items on sticks that all get dipped in corn meal batter and deep fried, once they're cooking it's impossible to tell what kind of meat (or veggie dog or cheese) is on the inside. They all look the same. So in order to tell the types of food apart, we mark the sticks on the ends with different colors. So for beef hot dogs, we mark the sticks with blue dots, for veggie dogs we mark them with green dots, and for the pepperjack cheese we use pink, etc. So when the customer comes to pick up their food, I can quickly tell them how to tell which is which. (Hopefully that made sense!)
On this particular day, I'm working on the cooker making food and my coworker who is working the register is fairly new. So a man and his daughter are next in line. The order goes normally as far as I can tell. I usually listen to the orders so I can put the food in as soon as possible. The man orders some food and I put it into the cooker. Then my coworker is getting his lemonade. He asks her to put a lemon in his lemonade.
Now, there are two interpretations for this. Either the customer could want a lemon peel in the cup for decoration or they could want one lemon's worth of juice added for extra sour flavor. Both are fairly common. So my coworker starts up the fancy juicer and making a lemonade with extra juice. Well clearly that's not what this man meant by "put a lemon in it" because he starts yelling at her. He's asking her "what the hell are you doing over there?"
So I quickly come over to the counter to help solve the situation quickly and efficiently. So I ask him if he meant a lemon peel instead of lemon juice. And he says yes. So I communicate this to my coworker and she fixes the error. I return to my cooker (which is probably four feet away from him. Clearly within ear shot) and he leans over to his daughter and says "and THESE people want $15 an hour." And they both laugh.
At this point I'm fuming at his ridiculously condescending attitude. What right does he have to assume we are less intelligent than he is because we work at the mall? And she never made a real mistake, she only misunderstood what he asked.
But here's the best part. After he was all done at the register, he and his daughter sat down to wait for the food they ordered. So once his food is done, I call out his name and he comes and picks up his order. His order included a beef corndog and a pepperjack cheese on a stick. So I point to the ends of the sticks and I say "here you go, sir. The beef dog has a blue mark on the end of the stick and the pepperjack has a pink mark. Be careful because they're both very hot!"
And he looks at me and says, "Wait..... What?"
So I repeat the color coding system to him, while thinking "are you serious right now?"
I don't understand why he yelled at my coworker for misunderstanding him and then not three minutes later, he misunderstands me! I would love to know why he thinks that "these people" don't deserve $15 an hour when he can't even comprehend simple color-coding. His pretentious attitude really rubbed me the wrong way, but at least it's sort of satisfying knowing he's a giant idiot who can't understand colors. My coworker and I laughed about what kind of job he could possibly have that's worth more than $15 an hour if he can't even understand a simple explanation of beef vs pepperjack.
I don't think I'll ever forget that pretentious man. He is one of the many reasons I think every person should be required to work one year of their life in retail or food service so they won't be so rude to the employees in stores and restaurants.
TL;DR A customer yells at my coworker for misunderstanding his request, makes comment about minimum wage employees not deserving $15/hr, three minutes later misunderstands me in a similar, if not even worse, way.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/2b0xm7/and_these_people_want_15_dollars_an_hour/
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3bvcap
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TalesFromRetail
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"No, it gets rounded down you idiot"
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Started a new job at a convenience store & gas station a few weeks ago, it hasn't been so bad aside from every other person I ask ID for getting upset. I'm pretty sure the law varies from place to place but here you are allowed to pump gas then come inside to pay. Also, we got rid of our penny like three years ago.
Anyway, this morning I was dealing with the rush of people we get and this one guy comes up, slams $15 on my counter, says it's for pump 4 and turns to leave. Thankfully I wasn't busy that very second and was able to see that, no, Pump 4 came up to $15.04.
I yell "Hey, you need five more cents for pump 4" and this guy's face instantly turns to a scowl.
>HIM: What do you mean 5 more cents?
>ME: You pumped fifteen dollars and 4 cents in gas. You got a nickle or something on you?
>HIM: It gets rounded down you idiot!
I live in a pretty small town, most of the people here are rather polite, so this caught me off guard. Also, I totally had some change sitting right there on the till for this exact reason, but he lost that privilege as soon as he called me an idiot.
>ME: No, actually, the 4 cents gets rounded up to 5 cents. That means you owe 15 dollars and five cents. You must have some change somewhere.
>HIM: NO! IT'S FIFTEEN DOLLARS EVEN YOU IDIOT.
At this point I grab the $15, punch it into my POS, and big surprise - it's asking for 5 more cents.
>ME: See, it still needs 5 more cents. Surely you must have it in your car or something.
He storms off muttering something under his breath, I put 5 cents in the till so I can help the next people in line, get a few "What's that guy's problem" from the people behind him, then he storms back in.
>HIM: I don't have your damn change.
>ME: Well, sorry, I actually don't know what to do in this situation. I'm new at the job but my till needs to be even. You could ask somebody else for change-
>HIM: NO. YOU KNOW DAMN WELL IT GETS ROUNDED DOWN. EITHER YOU'RE AN IDIOT OR THIS PLACE IS RIPPING ME OFF.
>ME: Four cents has rounded up to five cents for the last three years. I don't know why you think it gets rounded do-
>HIM: You're a f**king idiot.
He then actually leaves the store and drives off!
When my manager showed up this morning I made sure to tell him about the guy, and he's asking "He actually drove off without paying the full amount?", I tell him yes, he says that's theft and he'll be looking at the security footage.
Hopefully this idiot gets charged or banned over 5 cents.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/3bvcap/no_it_gets_rounded_down_you_idiot/
| 2,280 | 334 | 1,435,843,495 | 6 |
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d8qan0
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TalesFromRetail
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Customer wants to stick his head in the baler
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I work at a big office supply store, usually on the floor doing logistics and stock but this particular day two cashiers called in and I was stuck at the front register for the day. This was on a particularly busy day, I had 4 customers in line, and the person who was my back up was busy helping a customer with a printer. I have two customers left in line when the mail guy comes, I'm about to go to sign off for a couple packages he leaves but he stops me and says "these don't need signing, I can tell you're busy" and walks out.
A few minutes later a middle aged couple walks into the store, looks down at the packages left by the mail man and kicks them... twice....
Me: oh, hi can I help you find something?
Lady: yes, we want boxes like these. For mailing smaller things
Me: of course! Those are in aisle 15!
Lady: oh! You have them for customers? Like just to take?
Me: ... we sell them if that's what you mean, you take them when you pay for them.
Husband: oh, well what about boxes you get things delivered in? Do you not give them to customers when you empty them out? Could you maybe empty these out and we can have the boxes? Or the boxes that you get stock delivered in.
Me: sorry, unfortunately it has to be my manager to open the mail, and he's busy right now. And we don't get stock delivered in cardboard boxes, we get them in plastic bins that we send back and reuse. When we do get cardboard boxes, we put them right in the baler so they dont take up space in our receiving area.
Husband: that's ridiculous, can I go back there and take a look at the baler? In case they haven't crushed them today
Me: ... you want to go in our receiving area?
Husband: yes, I want to see if you have boxes back there!
Me: I'm sorry sir, I cant let you back there for multiple legal reasons, but as I mentioned, we have boxes that size for about two dollars in aisle 15.
Husband: okay fine, we'll go take a look.
They walk away muttering about how little help I am and how "it's a frickin box, why cant they just give it away, why do we have to pay for a box."
About five minutes later the husband come back up front on his own, when he thinks I'm not looking he goes around the register that's furthest from mine and starts looking at a box that we use to hold recyclable ink cartridges.
Me: sir, I can not have you looking around back here and especially not touching ink cartridges that could explode on you.
As I'm saying this this, I look to the back of the store and see that the wife is sticking her head through the doors that lead to the receiving area. It was like telling kids to not do something only to have them go and try to do that exact thing. So at this point I grab my mic and talk loudly into it, enough for the husband and customers in line to hear it:
*I have two customers going into employees only areas, after I already asked them not to. One is up front behind the register and another is in the back, near receiving*
The husband turned bright red and shuffled out from behind the register to collect his wife from the back of the store. They both stormed out of the store, but not before trying to grab boxes that we have at the entrance for customers that come in to recycle old printers and other such things. They gave up when they realized the boxes are glued to eachother, and walked out of the store like scorned puppies.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/d8qan0/customer_wants_to_stick_his_head_in_the_baler/
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t0affl
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TalesFromRetail
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Call the police over milk? Okay.
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Obligatory: on mobile.
Short but sweet story. Took place probably 15 years ago. Some details are at best barely remembered.
I was working the cash register at my place of employ; a pharmacy with corner store attached. Emphasis on corner.
A customer comes up with a gallon of milk. I ring him up and inform him his total is something along the lines of 3 dollars. He goes from "normal human person" to "incensed screaming ape" in the span of a breath.
He screams at me that I am ripping him off. That I must have changed the price. Now, 15 years ago I was a "novice" retail person at best. All I really knew how to do was say "But the register..."
After a moment to get over this person going demonic on me I realized what was going on. "Oh! Sir, I see. The milk is on sale. 2 for $5.00. Or, one for $2.80"
He then thrusts his finger into my face. "That's illegal! You have to sell me the 1 for $2.50!"
"No sir, I'm sorry but the sign clearly says..."
He then screeches like some kind of orangutan and pulls put his cell. "I am calling the police."
Hearing these magic words my manager arrives and escorts the man aside - to await his removal from our store by the very police he called.
Moral of the story: don't call the police over a matter of 30 cents. You will get hauled off.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/t0affl/call_the_police_over_milk_okay/
| 994 | 60 | 1,645,707,464 | 6 |
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hot
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oidyat
|
TalesFromRetail
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Customer is mad about price…
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Hello all, first time poster here!
So I started working for a retail supply store in the recent months. I use to be a server and switched to retail and it’s been pretty good but today is the first day I’ve had a bad customer interaction.
So a lady comes in and is looking for some hair rollers. I show her what we have in stock and go about my day. She found some that she wanted and she asked what the price was. I told her what the tag said, since she said she could not see very well. I told her, based on the tag price, that it was only a few dollars. We immediately go to the register and the rollers ring up about $15 more. The rollers were placed in the incorrect location. I immediately tell her the price difference and she gets super upset. I tell I am sorry but they were placed in the wrong location. She tells me that since I told her they were a cheaper price, that I had to honor that price. I tell her I have to call my manager because I cannot change an items price without my managers approval. This lady is very insistent that I have to honor the price I told her, even though I told her they were placed in the wrong location. So she gets more upset when I can’t get my manager on the phone. The lady then demands my name and my managers name. I give it and I also call my manager again.
My manager answers and I explain what happened in all of the five minutes I interacted with this lady. My manager says we cannot override the price because it was such a big difference and the only thing we can do is give the lady our customer service number. I say okay and inform the lady of what my manager has said.
The lady decides to not buy anything and tells me she will “take care of this tomorrow”. I tell her okay and have a good day. I guess she thinks that I said something else under my breath and gets aggressive and basically says I will be lucky to keep my job after this. I just keep telling her to have a nice day and she eventually leaves. I guess I just don’t understand, being new to retail, why she got so aggressive. Anyway, I guess not the worse interaction but I definitely felt bad afterwards.
TL;DR Lady is rude over price difference and thinks she is going to get me fired.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/oidyat/customer_is_mad_about_price/
| 85 | 45 | 1,626,042,051 | 6 |
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1hucn8f
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TalesFromRetail
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It's *still* a hundred dollar bill, and I *still* can't take that!
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Here's my nomination for dimmest bulb in the chandelier of customers:
Gonzo - who as of yesterday, has me convinced that he has zero idea as to how money actually works.
I've been suspecting this for a long time, because Gonzo is the kind of guy who, upon getting paid, will spend a huge chunk of it on lottery. Gonzo is the kind of guy who will take over the check-out counter with buying scratcher after scratcher, and scratches them right there at the register. He has no concept that other people want to pay for their stuff too, and he would hold up the line for 20 min. if you let him... but I don't let him. Gonzo is that kind of customer, that you have to treat like a naughty child, and tell him: No, it's other people's turn now!
So... yesterday I came into the gas station on mid-shift; starting at 2pm, and Gonzo was already there. He wasn't in line, but on the phone, off to the side. Shift change went as per usual, with my quick count of the minimum balance drawer, and with that happy crap, my work day began.
Within minutes, Gonzo was at my counter asking for cigarettes, which he paid for by card- all well and good.
Next: he requested his first Lotto tickets of the day, which came to: $24-.
He presented me with a crisp hundred dollar bill. Whereupon, He was informed that I couldn’t take that; I didn't have enough change; I'd just opened and he'd just SEEN me do it.
Synapses were almost firing, when he asked the lady behind him for change, but she also didn't have it. So, here's where it gets stupid:
Gonzo gets out of line since he can't pay, and the lady behind him pays for her stuff by card. There was no one else behind her so, he steps up and asks for the SAME tickets as before, brandishing the SAME $100- bill.
WTF - I don't have the change! He's informed kurtly, again.
'Okay-okay' Gonzo says, wanders around the store a bit, then comes back and says he wants $20- worth of gas.
Before I do anything, I must insist, "Show me the money!"
...and he pulls out the hundred dollar bill.
Raising my voice for that rare kind of cooky customer, who's just not getting it otherwise; "I. CAN'T. TAKE. THAT. BILL!!!"
"If you show it to me *again,* I'm kicking you out!"
Fortunately, Gonzo left on his own.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1hucn8f/its_still_a_hundred_dollar_bill_and_i_still_cant/
| 1,783 | 182 | 1,736,099,431 | 6 |
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7djupx
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TalesFromRetail
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"Is it cool if I pay in $5 bills?"
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This happened over a year ago but it'll always be a story I'll remember - nothing too crazy but definitely something out of the ordinary. I work at a fruit stand that sells products that usually cost at or above $1k. I asked this man and his girlfriend what they needed help with that day, and they said they wanted two unlocked fruitPhone seven pluses, which cost after tax, well over $2k. I said sure thing, brought the two phones out, and this is how it turned out:
> Customer (Cx): "is it cool if I pay in five dollar bills?"
> Me, thinking he's joking: "yeah sure thing"
> Cx: "ok cool"
At this point Cx asks his girlfriend to open the backpack she's wearing and pulls out about 20 stacks of $5 bills
> Cx: "Do you guys have like a cash counting machine or something?"
> Me: "technically yeah but for this I have to count everything manually... and I'm gonna need a manager for this, this might take a while"
> Cx: "yeah sure no prob"
Literally ten minutes later me and my manager are done counting, double counting, and triple counting the cash, and then I send the customer and his girlfriend on their way. The entire time I was on closing duties that evening, me and my manager were talking about what he did for a living and how someone could carry literally thousands of dollars in five dollar bills around.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/7djupx/is_it_cool_if_i_pay_in_5_bills/
| 3,645 | 393 | 1,510,912,423 | 6 |
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1mxhg6
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TalesFromRetail
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An open letter to people who confidently whip out a $20 bill for an item that's $19.99+tx
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Did you suddenly forget that sales tax exists? Did you suddenly forget how to read a price tag, which clearly states that the item is plus tax? Here in California, you pay $.08 for every dollar you spend, all day long. You've been paying it your entire life, how did this fact suddenly escape you? And why are you suddenly super offended when I state that your total is $21.59? I'm sorry you have to go back in your wallet and pull out more money, but it's not my fault and you shouldn't act surprised, or give me dirty looks, or mumble passive aggressive stuff under your breath.
Somehow, you always manage to make me feel that sales tax is my fault. Sometimes you even complain that you don't have enough and try to haggle with me. In what universe has haggling with a corporation ever worked?
Just suck it up, pay the $1.59 and move on with your day. You're not being personally persecuted by me. I pay the same tax on everything I buy too.
Sheesh! Just had to get that off my chest. Been a lot of you confident $20 bill holders at my store recently making me feel like the bad guy.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1mxhg6/an_open_letter_to_people_who_confidently_whip_out/
| 161 | 104 | 1,379,899,002 | 6 |
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aerflg
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TalesFromRetail
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Obviously this thin white 30s woman is the large 20 year old hispanic girl on this ID
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This is going to be really long so there’s a tldr at the bottom. Also sorry for formatting I’m on mobile.
So this happened last week. I was doing my thing in flooring when a couple approached me, a rushing man (RM) and a rushing woman (RW). Both appear to be mid-thirties, and both are white (this is relevant later on).
Me: Hello, how can I help you?
RW: Yes we would like everything you have in both of these tiles.
Me: Alright, it appears we have x number of boxes
RW: Okay and how much would that cover
Me: (calculating) That many boxes would cover y amount of square feet. If you need more I can che-
RW: (to RM, interrupting me) Will that work? How big is the space?
RM: (is looking at tile cutters, shrugs absently) I don’t know, I guess. Just take it all.
RW: (to me) Okay and how much would that cost?
Me: (calculating) It would be around $3k
RW: Okay well I want all of it.
Me: (getting a little suspicious) Okay, some of that is in the overhead and we’ll bring it down after you’ve paid (which is standard practice).
RW: (starts moving away from me) Okay well we have other things to get so we’ll be back.
Me: Alrighty! I’ll be here when you’re ready to pay.
The couple practically runs away and I don’t think anything of them until 30 minutes later when I’m called over to the service desk by the head cashier (HC).
HC: Hey, this couple said you have the sku numbers and information about some tile they want?
Me: Yeah I do.
HC: Alrighty give me a second.
I can see that HC is on the computer, and is looking at past orders for a card (it was a store credit card). The customers are waiting behind four big carts of merchandise.
RW: This is taking so long, I’m going to go smoke.
HC: (calls manager) Hey so this card account was opened only a couple of weeks ago and since then they’ve made several purchases all around a thousand dollars a piece.
The manager replies but I can’t hear it, I’m informed later that he told her to check ID.
HC: (to RM) can I see your ID please?
RM: (patting pockets) oh no I seem to have forgotten it
HC: Okay well I’ll need that before you can use this card to pay.
RM: Okay. Let me see if I left it in the car. (Leaves)
While he’s gone HC explains to me that this couple came in with a huge cart loaded with items and tried to return them, only to decide part way through that they wanted to keep the items. This set off alarms in HC’s head.
RM comes back in about five minutes later, without RW. Meanwhile I’ve had time to look over their carts and they’ve got the strangest mix of items. 4 cop cams (body/dash cams), work lights, carpet, 5 bottles of laundry detergent (all different brands), various light fixtures, pieces of plumbing that do not go together, a gazillion car air fresheners, and a multitude of other random items. It looked like they’d gone and picked one item off each shelf they passed.
RM: Yeah uhm my wife is going to get the card and a truck to load all this
He then goes and stands outside, apparently waiting for her to return.
I have to go back to my department now so I don’t hear the rest of the story until later. According to my coworker who was also at the service desk, the lady came back with the ID for the card, but the picture on the ID is for a large hispanic girl who was born in 1998. There is no way this skinny white lady was anywhere near 20 years old, but she did try to claim she’d lost weight since the photo was taken (as if that also changes her race and age). Their total for everything came out to just under $5k. Apparently the manager on duty let them pay but took down as many details as they could about the couple.
Oh, and the best part? Upon hearing the story my department head asked me why I hadn’t pushed for the sale to be done in my name so I’d get credit. As if I want my name anywhere near a fraudulent purchase.
Tl;dr: A couple comes in and tries to buy $5k worth of stuff using a fraudulent credit card, manager lets them do it (but takes down info)
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/aerflg/obviously_this_thin_white_30s_woman_is_the_large/
| 432 | 29 | 1,547,179,168 | 6 |
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6k0h5r
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TalesFromRetail
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"But you're here, that means you're open."
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I work in an electronics repair shop that does all kinds of work, mainly cell phones, and accessory sales for most of the stuff we fix. People just die when they don't have their phones, so customers are either thrilled with the short (usually less than an hour) turn around time, or upset that it takes "so long." Employees get there 20 minutes before the store opens to take care of opening duties, normal for any kind of job. That means that sometimes we have people waiting at the front and only door when we get there.
I noticed someone riding my ass on the way into work one day, a silver SUV. When I got over to turn into the back parking lot, surprise surprise, the SUV turned into the store front lot... And was parked outside of the front door. I don't acknowledge anyone outside like this before open unless they come to me, and if they're just asking if we're open I'll have them wait inside and usually take care of the customer a bit early. Well this lady, L for short, followed me in as I was disarming the security alarm, and tried to put 2 iPads in my hand. This is how it went.
Me: I'm sorry, but we're not open for another 20 minutes, you'll have to wait until then.
L: But I just need to drop these off, I work at 10.
Me: If you'd like to wait inside, that's fine, and as soon as I'm done with opening duties I can check you in. (I haven't even turned the lights on yet)
L: but I'm here now, I can't wait that long.
Me: ma'am it's going to take me about 20 minutes anyway to test your devices and create tickets, and I need to open the store first.
L: But you're here, that means you're open
Me: ma'am the store doesn't open until 10. (I gesture to the open sign)
L: Oh it's close enough, just hurry up, I don't have time for this. (She's getting annoyed)
Me: okay, give me about 10 minutes, I'll go as fast as I can to open up for you. (Because iPad screens are pure profit. Just a lot of glued glass shard peeling that takes a while for labor)
L: what? No, do it now. I need to drop these off.
Me: Ma'am, I'm sorry, but no. If you would like to wait, you can, and it'll be about 10 minutes. Otherwise you will need to come back when the store is open.
L: But you're HERE NOW. YOU ARE OPEN.
Me: (okay. Snarky bitch. Fine.) Ma'am, the store is not open until 10 o'clock. I've offered you a space to wait and said I'd ring you in early. You refused. I can't help you further at this point, please leave.
L: NO. You can't throw me out. You're open.
Me: No, we're not. Please leave.
L: Fine, whatever. (Huff)
Big surprise, she came back later....... Wait for it.... 30 minutes til close with the same 2 iPads. My coworker helped her this time. He took her devices in, offered her a discount for bringing in multiple repairs, and then I hear THIS from up front.
Coworker: alright, the total on pickup is $182.43, they'll be ready for you by early afternoon tomorrow.
L: oh no, I can't come back, I was going to wait for them.
CW: uh... Ma'am these will probably take a couple hours each, we're only open until 7.
L: It's 6:30.
CW: We leave the shop at 7 ma'am.
L: Oh, no, I got here before close. I'll wait, it's okay. (Tone of complete ignorance)
At this point I tell the Man(ager) that it's the lady from this morning, and the Man goes up front.
The Man: ma'am I overheard a bit of the conversation, it's going to take about 4 hours for your repairs, and I'm not making my techs stay until almost midnight. We're leaving at 7 and you will need to leave then, too.
L: (she knew. Immediately entering a customer rage) Your SHOP is a WASTE of my TIME. I'm NEVER COMING HERE AGAIN!!! (Left without her iPads.)
She didn't come back to pick them up for two weeks. She paid in full, didn't make a peep on payment. I feel sorry for her family.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/6k0h5r/but_youre_here_that_means_youre_open/
| 4,906 | 223 | 1,498,655,541 | 6 |
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8n5c2h
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TalesFromRetail
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Customer purposely bought expensive shoes to wear once and then return them
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Last week a young girl came into my store alone. Since I work in luxury retail, typically when I see teeny boppers or even young adults walk in, I know they're usually just going to waste my time or just do a quick walk in and walk out so this is what I was expecting.
Young girl was getting ready to graduate High School and wanted a pair of shoes to wear to walk across the stage. She found a few pairs of heels she liked, had me running back and forth for about 20 minutes because she needed different sizes, wanted different colors, etc. She finally settled on a pair of shoes and spent about half an hour walking around the store in them, making sure she liked the height, could walk properly, etc. She took probably 30 or so pictures of herself in these shoes, then took them off and told me:
>"I need to go get my mom's opinion"
I cleaned up the mess of shoes she made and about 20 minutes later she comes back and decides to buy the heels. She pays with two credit cards, a fist full of cash and asks me about the return policy. I tell her she has 30 days to return them as long as they're completely unused and not worn. That was on Friday night.
Flash forward to Monday. I come back from my lunch break and see one of my managers doing a return for two women for a pair of heels. I go over to investigate and find out that just as I suspected, the girl who I *just* sold these heels too had sent her mother and grandmother back to my store to return them and they were completely worn, as the sole and heel were dirty.
I tell my manager over the walkie to not accept the return because they were worn but the girls mother was putting up a fight and so they were issued a full refund. $400. Four hundred fucking dollars that goes back on me and messes up my sales. Worst part is, now we obviously can't sell the shoes since they were worn and can only damage them out.
Funny thing is, I *knew* she was going to do this. Most likely, she wanted a nice pair of designer shoes so she could show off to her buddies and post pictures of herself wearing them on social media and for graduation photos but couldn't afford to keep them. I was pissed my manager accepted the return, too. Ruined my day.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/8n5c2h/customer_purposely_bought_expensive_shoes_to_wear/
| 3,099 | 253 | 1,527,650,523 | 6 |
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2b467r
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TalesFromRetail
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"Twinkle-Toes"
|
On my cell phone, so please excuse the formatting.
Background: I have been a casino table games dealer for about 7 years at a tribal casino in the northwest. Mostly, I would deal craps, but some nights I would be put on the regular table games rotation (Blackjack, Roulette, Pai-Gow, etc.)
The casino I work at is generally pretty slow on the weekdays, but would get busy on Friday and Saturday nights. This happened to be a Friday night and was fairly busy, but started to die down around midnight. This is where I find myself dealing, and caught in an awkward situation.
I tap on to the table midway through a $350 payout that the current dealer was getting approval on. The guy who won the money was a weekend regular. He was a pretty slobbish-looking redneck logger type. He was known for getting belligerently drunk, but he generally was never rude in any way, just had a dark sense of humor. We will call him logger.
As I tap in, he throws the previous dealer a $25 chip. Not the greatest tip for a win like that, but decent nonetheless. Often times we would get stiffed, so anything was always appreciated. It is also worth noting that we pool out tips together, so he was basically tipping me as well.
So I start dealing, start killing people as usual and the once full table slowly dwindles down to just these two guys. The logger and another weekend regular who I really didn't know too much about, only that he always only played $2 a hand (the table min.) and never tipped. We'll call him Jason. He was kind of irritating, but I didn't mind him too much. We have lost of players just like him (the industry refer to these players as fleas)
I continue dealing to these guys and logger guy keeps betting for the dealers, and winning. I probably made about another $100 on top of the $25 I saw him tip the last dealer. So, not so bad, this guy is generous!
Another 20 minutes go by and I deal logger guy another $350 bonus ( he bet a bonus bet that won 350-1 when the player and dealer both get a blackjack at the same time) and he throws me another $25. Alright, I like this guy!
Right after he receives his payout, the other player at the table, Jason gets all excited and worked up about the guy winning so much money. He is congratulating Logger and he reaches over and says "OMG can I touch you for good luck?!" And touches Logger's arms kind of weirdly.
It was then, at this moment that I realized Jason was kind of on the feminine side. I guess I never noticed before because he was usually somewhat reserved. The Logger guy has the same epiphany as me simultaneously I think. Because he blurts out " yeah as long as you aren't some twinkle-toes"
Cue the awkward silence. Jason's face drops, and everything about him changes. It is blatantly obvious Logger just struck a chord. I hate being in this situation (they happen a lot as a dealer) I had no clue what to do or say. This guy was a good tipper and the other guy wasn't. Not to mention I'm non confrontational by nature. So I decide to do what I do most of the time, I stay out f it and just deal. I always try and change the subject, get the game going and pretend nothing happened. I crack a couple jokes, and am basically trying to prevent any sort of situation that may arise due to this homophobic remark.
They continue playing and Jason is completely silent, an obviously deep in thought. He appears rattled. Logger is drunk and doesn't even notice the vibes coming from Jason.
After about 5 hands Jason builds up the courage to confront Logger. He says " you know, I was his thinking about what you said earlier. When you called me Twinkle-Toes." He is boiling over in anger at this point. " you know what? You should really watch what you say, and who you say it to. I HAPPEN to be gay, and I want you to know that that was really offensive."
I think "fuck, now this is getting awkward, fuck my life, this could escalate"
Logger then shoots back with " I just want you to know, that I don't wanna be touched by no Twinkle-Toes"
This makes Jason irate, I can see him visibly shaking. I'm getting ready to call my supervisor to defuse the situation because, hey, I don't get paid enough for this shit.
Jason then comes back with "And don't fucking flatter yourself, just because I'm gay doesn't mean I'm hitting on you"
Logger just laughs it off and keeps playing. Meanwhile, I was just an innocent bystander who chose to not get involved, and I can see that because of my lack of involvement, Jason is now mad at me also.
We then all proceed to enjoy the most tense 20 minutes of blackjack of all time. It was as if they were both to proud to get up and leave. Like they were both in a standoff of sorts.
Finally my hour twenty in hell is up and my breaker arrives. I get tapped out and tell the next dealer "have fun!"
I'm just happy to be out of there and heading on my 20 minute break. I'm in the clear now, thank god!
Finish my break and head to a different blackjack table with a few golfers. They were all way too drunk to be having any fun, they were all burned out (probably from a long day of drinking and golfing)
Everything is going ok when I see Jason out of the corner of my eye. He approaches my table, and I'm thinking he's going to play. Nope. Just wanted to stand there and stare me down for 15 minutes. Nobody at the table acknowledged him at all. He just stood there pissed off looking, staring at me. I just continued on dealing and ignoring him.
I can only imagine he wanted to give me a piece of his mind and berate me for not standing up for him.
The truth is I decided not to get involved, for obvious reasons, and for the fact that the guy was a good tipper and I wanted to make sure he kept tipping!
I have many more stories from the casino business, this one was just brought up by a friend so I figured I would share it tonight.
TL;DR: redneck logger offends gay gentleman and I get caught in the middle of it
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/2b467r/twinkletoes/
| 42 | 27 | 1,405,751,810 | 6 |
bad tipper
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relevance
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4pbmct
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TalesFromRetail
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The Forgetful Customer
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Hello TFR! I discovered Reddit about a week ago, despite being 30 years old, and have been lurking obsessively and laughing obscenely since. I'd like to share a story about my favorite customer of all time. All names have been changed to protect the adorable.
About five years ago I was working at the service counter of a small but popular Italian Bakery in an upscale area of California. People would come in, point to the baked good of their choice and I would put it in a box and take their money. Simple stuff. Customers also had the option of calling ahead to reserve our more popular items, which would be boxed in back with the customer's name on top. I made a habit of checking the reserved boxes at the beginning of my shift each day so I would know who to expect. Enter Charmaine.
My second day on the job, trailing my manager, and I follow her eyes to see a tall, thin, immaculately dressed older woman making her way unsteadily into our shop. Before she gets within earshot, my manager mutters, "Pay attention- it's the same every time." I tried to follow the subsequent conversation, but as I was also running to grab Charmaine's box from the back and seeing what discounts were keyed in for her, I didn't manage to absorb much of what was said. I just noticed that the well-dressed older lady was very sweet and almost overwhelmingly chatty. After Charmaine left, the retail smile dropped off my manager's face and she looked relieved. "Every other day she's in here. She's nice and all but OH MY GOD."
Two days later and I'm on my own in the front, turning pastries
to their best advantage in the window. The older lady walks in and reminds me that there's an order with her name on it. I scoot into the back to grab her box, and this conversation follows. Charmaine is C and I shall be Me.
>Me: That'll be $3.10 with your senior discount, Ma'am.
>C: Oh! Lovely. Is that with my senior discount? *rummaging in her purse for her pocketbook*
>Me: Yes, Ma'am! *cheerful smile*
>C: It's so beautiful outside today! It's too bad you're stuck inside. You know, my son is a dentist, and he says... Hmm... How much was that again? *rummage rummage*
>Me: Three dollars and ten cents.
>C: *finds pocketbook and pulls it forth triumphantly* Aha! Here we are. Now, you said... five dollars?
>Me: Close! $3.10. Great, out of five? $1.90 is your change, and here's your receipt.
>C: Wonderful! Thank you so much. Please put the dollar in the tip jar.
>Me: Thank you! That's very generous and much appreciated. Here's your receipt and your order, would you like a bag?
>C: Oh no dear, I never need a bag. Now, anyway, how are you today? *puts change and receipt in pocketbook, places pocketbook back in purse*
>Me: I'm very well, thank you for asking. You're right, though, it's too beautiful day to be stuck inside.
>C: It is! I was just thinking that! You know, I just realized, I haven't paid you for these danish yet! How much will it be? *starts to rummage again*
>Me: *starting to realize what Manager was on about...* Don't worry, Ma'am, you've already paid today.
>C: Have I? Lovely! But I can't forget your tip! I always give a dollar, I know how hard you young people work.
>Me: You've very nicely already taken care of the tip also, and thanks again for your generosity.
>C: Well, if you're sure... Can you please make the same order again for day after tomorrow? And how much will that be? Lovely. Now, don't waste all of this beautiful day in here if you can help it! *starts to walk away and turns back* Goodness! I almost forgot your tip!
>Me: No Ma'am, that's been taken care of. Have a wonderful day!
>C: You too, bye bye!
>Me: *slightly befuddled* Actually, Ma'am? You forgot your pastries!
For the year that I worked there, I saw Charmaine every other day and had an almost identical conversation each time. Eventually we worked out a system where I wrote the day and date on top of the receipt before I gave it to her, so that helped cut down on confusion. She was an absolute sweetheart, and when she could remember my name she asked for me by it, and when she couldn't remember my name she'd ask for "the girl with the interesting hair." I'd perk up when I saw her name on the stack of boxes, because I knew if nothing else she'd make me laugh. She laughed at herself, too! On two occasions (both when I was completely swamped with other customers and distracted) she tried so insistently to pay more than once that I had to give her a refund.
I was very fond of her, and her absentmindedness was just adorable. Until one day, in her endless rummaging, she pulled out **a set of car keys**.
>C: Hehe! Wouldn't want to forget these! How would I ever get home?
I don't remember what I responded, but I remember what I was thinking. Oh. My. God. **She drove here.**
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/4pbmct/the_forgetful_customer/
| 293 | 30 | 1,466,613,719 | 6 |
generous tip
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relevance
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1vhj25
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TalesFromRetail
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When I had to deliver Pizza to the Blood Bank of (my old state)
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Don't take this the wrong way, I love what blood banks do and offer; I benefited from their services whe I was involved in a motorcycle accident, but sometimes the branch offices could do with some reminding that there are other service jobs in the world, and many rely on the tips they get.
My gripe:
I came into work (I worked for a national Pizza chain, the biggest in the nation), and I was what they called the prep cook (I would come in at 8 in the morning, getting everything set up, and start making the dough for the Pizzas we make). I THOROUGHLY loved this shift, since the store didn't open till 11 am, and roughly between 8 and 10 am, I'm virtually alone in the store. Its just me, the walk in freezer with our ingredients, the proofers and the dough. I also was the morning the delivery driver (working till 1 pm) should the store need extra drivers (otherwise, I'm the one who filled your orders for lunch)
It was my day off from the day before, and when I got in, I had a note from my night manager , that an order for 20 medium and 10 large pizzas would be needed, proofed and ready to be in the oven at 10:30 am so we could get them out the door an on delivery by 11:30 am. This was all for the Blood Bank that was just on the edge of our delivery area.
20 mediums and 10 larges is 1 batch of dough based on our measurements, so I knew I had to prep 1 extra batch. Not a big detriment, but seeing as the next cook doesn't come in till 10:15 or so, I had to prep the dough (for that day) the extra batch of dough (for the huge order), and then also prep the pizzas as well (but I had my 2nd cook to help me).
Everything moves smoothly. We got the pizzas in, boxed them, got them into our travel warmers (these are bags bigger than the normal pizza delivery bags), got the condiments (piles of cheese and peppers) and their request for 5 x 2 liters of soda (various).
Since I was the first "delivery" driver on duty, we packed my little CRX to the brim with the pizzas and soda, and I was on my way.
I arrive at the Blood Bank 20 minutes later (traffic was a nightmare - they were on located on the same street as our store, but 3 miles down) and walked into the office to say that I have their pizzas and will bring them in, if they could direct me to where they wanted them (yes I was wiling to bring in all 30 pizzas on my own, its not like they were heavy).
I brought in mediums, and 1 worker grabbed the larges, and we made our way to their break room. I unpacked their pizzas, and lined them up accordingly to their type (peps, cheeses, meat lovers, etc) and provided them with their condiments and soda.
I went to collect payment, and what do I get? A check made out to the EXACT AMOUNT for all the pizzas and soda. Not even an acknowledgement for a tip (this was before the mandatory delivery fee they now charge).
I was floored. $330 in pizza and soda, having to fight lunch hour traffic, and carrying in 30 pies and 5 x 2 liter soda, and not a single cent in tip.
I would have been happy with only a normal $2 tip, but nope...not a single cent.
I know its sounds petty, but this was a huge order.
Suffice to say, our delivery areas were redrawn (since another store opened closer to them) so we never had to do another order for the Blood Bank (that location). I feel sorry for the new store that absorbed them.
On another note: Our store did gain a contract with the local hospital that ordered 100 personal pizzas, and even though not required (because they were on contract, and paid a flat amount) the hospital often tipped our delivery drivers for making the deliveries to them, and we did two deliveries each day we were contracted for.
TLDR version: blood bank workers did not tip for huge order
saving grace: hospital contract who orders twice as much pizzas, tipped generously.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/comments/1vhj25/when_i_had_to_deliver_pizza_to_the_blood_bank_of/
| 63 | 26 | 1,390,002,419 | 6 |
generous tip
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relevance
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sb0ead
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TalesFromYourServer
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Do you ever lie to your customers in order to secure a better tip?
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I guess lie would be a strong word, more like pretend to be someone you aren’t. I’ve been guilty of dropping a “God bless” here and there on old people. Mostly because all of my customers are old southern white people.
I can’t be the only one who’s embellished who they are just to establish that connection with a table.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/sb0ead/do_you_ever_lie_to_your_customers_in_order_to/
| 2,682 | 418 | 1,642,962,975 | 5 |
tip
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relevance
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fi1wd3
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TalesFromYourServer
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Hey church people, here's a tip for ya
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Please don't offer to pick me up and take me to your church, I'm 17 and I don't know y'all.
Please don't stiff me when I say I don't go to church, Jesus doesn't pay the bills
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/fi1wd3/hey_church_people_heres_a_tip_for_ya/
| 4,517 | 274 | 1,584,115,273 | 5 |
tip
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relevance
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17exmzm
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TalesFromYourServer
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I asked for a skinny margarita with real lime and the waiter brought everything on the side and said “you make it yourself”😭😭 should I tip?? Lmao (coming from a server)
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/17exmzm/i_asked_for_a_skinny_margarita_with_real_lime_and/
| 635 | 289 | 1,698,101,544 | 5 |
tip
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relevance
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9hfq6e
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TalesFromYourServer
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"Why I Have Not Tipped!!!"
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/9hfq6e/why_i_have_not_tipped/
| 1,652 | 424 | 1,537,453,492 | 5 |
tip
|
relevance
|
4980e9
|
TalesFromYourServer
|
...well at least you know up front you won't get a tip.
| null |
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/4980e9/well_at_least_you_know_up_front_you_wont_get_a_tip/
| 2,134 | 403 | 1,457,282,303 | 5 |
tip
|
relevance
|
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