We are a table of more than ten — half kids, half adults — on the restaurant’s terrace. The table next to us, all relatively young adults, keep smoking (which is allowed) and sending their smoke to us, and especially to the kids (which is not nice, but also not illegal), even after we ask twice of them to be more careful.

They leave before us, after having made a mess of the “how shall we pay” part, according to the faces their waiter is making once they’ve left.

Fifteen minutes later, our waiter comes to us and explains that yes, some coffees are missing from our bill, but it’s because the other table made such a mess that they paid for far too many coffees. And since they had been such a bother to us, the waiters subtracted those coffees from our bill.

It’s ten minutes before closing, and I am busy trying to get our last customer out so I can start cleaning my area, but she has other plans in mind.

Customer: “Do you have any coupons?”

Me: “No, ma’am, we have a huge store-wide sale going on, so there are no coupons online.”

She huffs and rudely replies.

Customer: “Well, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but I don’t trust you.”

She takes out her phone to look for coupons. Once she’s confirmed that I am telling the truth, I finish ringing her up. Her total is around $190, give or take a few. She gapes and throws a fuss, despite getting a load of great deals.

After I patiently go through how the deals work and how much money she’s saved, she calms down a bit. By that time, we should’ve left thirty minutes ago, and I call a manager over.

Customer: *To my manager* “She needs to be fired! Does she even have the legal papers to be working here?!”

We didn’t leave until an hour later, putting away all the items she returned because we weren’t fair. The manager very politely said that they weren’t going to fire me, and if she comes back again, they’ll call enforcement due to her blatant racism. This wasn’t the first time she’d accused our employees of color of dumb stuff and had a rude attitude. I thought that night would never end.

I am taking food orders as a server. My customer is a fifteen-year-old girl.

Customer: “I’d like a two-egg combo.”

Me: “How would you like those eggs cooked?”

Customer: “What do you mean?”

Me: “Like sunny side up, over easy, poached, etc.”

Customer: “There are different types of eggs?”

Her family and I both explained to her that there are different ways to cook eggs and that they don’t just always come scrambled.

She eventually chose over medium, thinking that it would be runny.

I work in a flower shop. I’ve been studying to be a florist for only a month now, and it’s the second day of my internship. So, naturally, we haven’t covered every part of how to take care of flowers and plants. There’s a woman looking at an outside plant.

Customer: “Excuse me, how do I take care of this plant?”

Me: “I’m not sure; I have to check with one of my coworkers.”

She immediately gets mad and actually starts screaming at me!

Customer: “How the f*** can you not know?! You are the one working here!”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am. This is actually just my second day of my internship, and in school, we haven’t covered this part yet.”

Customer: “This is ridiculous! You should know all this! I need your help. Why don’t you know this and help me?”

The customer is still screaming at me and I am more than done.

Me: “Ma’am, I’m sorry that I don’t know, but to be honest, I’m done talking to you if you keep yelling. So, please, go talk to one of my coworkers because I’m not gonna help you anymore.”

My boss comes out to see why there is so much noise.

Boss: “What seems to be the problem?”

The woman is still mad and still yelling.

Customer: “Your coworker doesn’t know anything about this plant and I just want to know how to take care of it!”

Boss: “Ma’am, she’s an intern on her second day. I wouldn’t expect for her to already know all of this.”

Suddenly, the customer calms down.

Customer: “Oh, she never told me that.”

After ten minutes of talking to my boss, she got the information she wanted and bought the plant. My boss told me she is a b**** and one of their least favorite customers.

One year later, my boss hired me to work twice a week until I finish my schooling. Sometimes that woman comes back, but she refuses to be helped by me.

My high school’s band is taking a week-long trip to Ireland, where we’ll have the opportunity to perform music with an Irish school’s band at a party. We decide to bring some American snacks to give to the Irish kids at the party. Since it will be a large group, it takes an entire carry-on suitcase to hold all the snacks. I’ve volunteered to use my carry-on to do it, since I can fit my actual luggage into a suitcase that will be checked.

At the airport, a small group of us, including me, have pre-check, meaning we get to go through a shorter and faster security line. After our carry-ons have gone through the x-ray scanner, a security agent takes mine off the belt to inspect it.

Security Agent: “There’s some food in here, so we just need to look through it real quick.”

Me: “Um…”

Before I could explain, they opened it and saw it completely filled to the brim with boxes of typical American candy and snacks. I instantly went red while they started giggling. I managed to stutter out an explanation and they handed me back my suitcase. Thankfully, they were very understanding and polite, but I can only imagine how strange it must have been to see a suitcase stuffed with food and nothing else.