(I am working at the drive-thru at our coffee shop.)

Me: “Thank you for choosing [Coffee Shop]. This is [My Name]. How may I help you?”

Customer: *complete silence*

(I can see his car in our camera and he’s not talking.)

Me: “Did you have any questions or anything?”

Customer: “Well, there you are! What kind of smoothies do you have?”

Me: “We have strawberry banana, orange mango banana, and chocolate banana.”

Customer: “I want a strawberry one.”

Me: “Okay, that will be—”

Customer: *drives away from the speaker before I can finish*

(The customer in front of this customer in the drive-thru line has an issue with her order, so we have to wait until it is ready. During this time I make small talk with the customer as we are trained to do. After handing the customer her beverage, the next car pulls up.)

Me: “That will be [price]. Your smoothie is on its way!”

Customer: “I have a concern. You just wasted five minutes of my time having a conversation with that other customer. If I had honked my horn, you would have called me rude, but don’t you think it is rude to have personal conversations on my time? I just can’t believe you would do things like that. My time is valuable and I don’t like my time to be wasted!”

Me: “Well, they had an issue with their order and we had to wait. I thought it would be rude to ask her to stop talking to me. I will go check on your smoothie.”

(I get the smoothie and come back to the window.)

Me: “All right, there you go!”

(I am holding the smoothie out toward the customer. He spends a good two to three minutes talking on the phone while I wait.)

Customer: *turns and finally sees me* “Well, finally, what took so long?”

Me: “I’ve been standing here for two minutes.”

Customer: “Well, I was on the phone. Why didn’t you say something?”

Me: “I didn’t want to be rude.”

(I am in my car, ordering at the drive-thru speaker. The employee waiting on me seems to be in training.)

Me: “Number 11 with a Coke, please.”

Employee: “Okay… uh… 11. Coke… Is that for here or to go?”

Me: “I’m… in my car?”

Employee: “Oh. Drive up to the next window, please.”

(I work at a fast food restaurant that gives customers their meals for free if they have been waiting a long time. This particular day, I’ve been told to void the next couple of cars. One girl in her 20s pulls up while talking on the phone.)

Me: “Hello! I’m sorry for your wait. Your meal is on the house.”

Customer: “Oh, really?! That’s awesome!”

Me: “There’s your meal! Have a great day.”

Customer: *into her phone* “Dude, [Restaurant] just gave me my food for free! Yeah, and it was like a six-dollar meal!” *quietly so we can’t hear* “I might be pregnant, but this just makes up for it!”

(I’m working the drive-thru at a coffee shop.)

Customer: “I’d like a mocha.”

Me: “Certainly, what size on that?”

Customer: *screaming* “MOCHA!”

Me: “All right, go ahead and pull forward…”

(A customer is ordering on drive-thru.)

Me: “Anything else I can get for you today?”

Customer: “Five thousand dollars?”

Me: “I’m sorry, I’m just a cashier, not a genie. Will that be all?”

Customer: *defeated sigh* “Yes…”