Rudeness And Impatience Are A Bad Combo

I worked at a chicken fast food restaurant for about six months as my first job, and this happened toward the end of my stay.

One of our managers was pretty strict with us in order to keep up with time and company policy, but we didn’t mind as he usually worked on the line with us rather than sitting in the office all day. And he did not have patience for rude people.

On one typical military payday Friday (in towns next to military bases, all soldiers come in force on payday), we were slammed, and [Manager] was working the register when a lady ordered one of our twelve-piece buckets, biscuits and all.

Usually, you can save some money by ordering them as a meal, and it gives you drinks, as well. So, as usual, he asked what drink she wanted, intending to make it a meal automatically. She declined the drinks. He tried to explain.

Manager: “Ma’am, if we make it a meal, you’ll—”

Customer: “I don’t care. I don’t need drinks.”

As I said before, he hates rude people, so he immediately shut up and smiled at me.

Manager: “[My Name], can I get a twelve-piece family fill-up? And don’t worry about the drinks.” 

Then, he turned to the customer and proceeded with the order, which took a moment as he couldn’t simply press the combo button anymore; rather he had to ring up all items themselves. He then had to ring up every single item individually, which racked up the price given the number of items. And then, he finished the order, which was well above what the normal price would be.

It initially went off without a hitch, but unfortunately for us, the family behind her ordered another twelve-piece family fill-up, but they ordered the combo.

As [Manager] was finishing up the second family order, the first one stepped aside to check the bags for everything, and then they heard the second family’s price. [Manager] rang the second family for almost half the price of the first family’s, and the woman stormed over.

Customer: “How come theirs is so cheap? We ordered the same thing!”

[Manager] replied, wearing the standard-issue customer service smile.

Manager: “You said you didn’t want a combo, ma’am, so I rang them up individually, ma’am, so you paid for them, not as a combo, but as the order you insisted on me making, ma’am.”

She then asked for the manager, claiming we were scamming her, to which [Manager] responded by walking behind the wall and coming back two seconds later wearing his manager vest.

Manager: “Hello, I heard we had a problem and I came to see what I can help with.”

The woman grabbed her food and left.