Several members of my mum’s family are visiting our house for the day and my parents decide to get fish and chips. One of my aunts has celiac disease and, as such, my mum orders from one place that recently advertised having gluten-free items. My mum calls ahead, as well, to make sure they cook the gluten-free food in separate fryers. My parents go to pick up our relatives while I am sent to pay and pick up the food. I end up arriving a little early.

Me: “Hello, my mother placed an order under [Mother]. Sorry if I’m a little early.”

Server: “No problem. It’s just going to be a while for the gluten-free ones.”

I sit down and wait, playing on my phone. Eventually, he bags up all the other orders and places them under the heat lamp. I watch as he picks out a bag of chips and dumps them into the same fryer he got the other chips from.

Me: “Excuse me… Are those the gluten-free chips?”

Server: “Yes, they are, love.”

Me: “And isn’t that the same fryer as the one you got the other chips from?”

The serve talks slowly as if I’m dumb.

Server: “Don’t worry. I already took all the other chips out.”

Me: “But my mum said you told her over the phone that you use a separate fryer.”

Server: “This is separate. I took the other chips out.”

Me: “But it will still have residue from the regular chips and the oil will be the same!”

Server: *Chuckling* “So what? It’s not gonna do any harm.”

Me: “The person who it is for has celiac and she will get sick from it. So yes, it will cause harm!”

Server: “Look, love. It’s fine. Just don’t tell her. She won’t notice.”

Giving up arguing with him, I end up calling my mum. She just tells me we aren’t leaving my aunt out, so I should just leave. I hear the server yelling as I go. When I get home, my mum starts asking around to figure out what we are going to do about lunch instead. The phone rings and my mum picks it up. I only hear her side of the conversation.

Mum: “Hello.” *Pause* “Yes, my daughter did.” *Pause* “No, I don’t have any plans to pay for it.” *Pause* “You told me that you used a separate fryer for the gluten-free chips.” *Pause* “No, that isn’t good enough. My sister could have gotten really sick if she had eaten them.” *Pause* “Kindly Google celiac disease.” *Pause* “I don’t care if you have to throw it all out. You lied to me about cooking them separately and it is just luckily my daughter noticed.”

After that point, the guy on the other end just descended into screaming loudly and my mum kept trying to cut in until, eventually, she hung up.

We found another chippy that actually did gluten-free properly. The lying chippy kept trying to call us with threats if we didn’t pay for the food I didn’t pick up. Eventually, they gave up as we kept ignoring them. The place is still open, although I noticed they very quickly stopped offering gluten-free options.

Back in 1989, I had just moved to a new area. I was working at a hotel, and after work, a friend and I would frequent a restaurant between work and home. Over the next few weeks, I ended up flirting with one of the workers back and forth. I was young and naive. Turns out, she was a recent new mother but the father was gone as they were separated.

I worked up the courage to ask her out.

Worker: “Okay, but I can’t commit to a time right now.”

I felt that was understandable. A few days later:

Worker: “I’m off tomorrow night if you’re free.”

Me: “Sure. Where would you like to meet, and when?”

Worker: “Wait until I’m off work.”

That had me waiting in the parking lot until closing. As I waited, they closed. There was another car in the parking lot picking up another coworker, but I thought nothing of it. That’s when the police showed up. The worker walked out with the assistant manager and pointed toward me. The police then came over to me.

Police Officer: “Why are you here?”

Me: “I’m supposed to be picking up [Worker] for a date.”

Police Officer: “Her husband is in that car over there to pick her up.”

A day or two later, I went back there with my friend there and saw her.

Me: “Why didn’t you just tell me you were married?”

She didn’t answer me. As we were eating, the assistant manager came out.

Assistant Manager: “You are harassing [Worker] and you need to leave.”

We did leave, and we didn’t go back to that location again.

Fast forward several months. We had moved, and we went to a different location of the same fast food chain. The new manager there was the assistant manager that had kicked us out at the other location. He was all apologetic, offered us some free food, and explained:

Assistant Manager: “She played that same game with a few other guys, it turns out. She was eventually fired for it.”

I am guessing she wanted to get her husband jealous to get attention or something. It was a learning experience for me, and I became a bit more untrusting of people’s motives after that.

At a burgers-and-frozen-custard drive-thru, we order our meals, and I request a mini sundae of their flavor of the day. This is my minor bad — I miss that their menu has “mini” mix-in shakes but only “small” sundaes — but things get strange from there. The order display says “FOD SUNDAE 2”, with what I only realize as we pull away from the speaker is their two-scoop sundae’s price, which explains the notation. We try to clear that up at the payment window.

Me: “I ordered a mini sundae, but I think the order display may have shown a two-scoop sundae.”

Cashier: “Oh! Sorry. Did you want the mini mix-in, instead?”

Me: “No, a mini sundae, please.”

Cashier: “Oh! Sorry. You want a single scoop of the flavor of the day?”

Me: “Do you have a mini sundae?”

Cashier: “Uh, we have a small sundae.”

I apologize for my sizing confusion and say that the small sundae sounds great. He runs the charge, hands the card back, and asks us to park and wait for our food, and they bring the meals… but no sundae. The receipt shows we were charged for it, so we go back through the drive-thru and are asked to pull to the payment window.

When we arrive, the cashier is holding a small sundae, obviously in the flavor of the day, exactly right.

Cashier: “Here you go. Sorry about that!”

Employee #2: “No, wait! It’s supposed to be the flavor of the day!”

She grabs the sundae from him and runs away. The cashier calls helplessly after [Employee #2].

Cashier: “But that is the flavor of the day!”

The employee soon returned to thrust at the cashier a cup with a single plain scoop of the same custard with no sundae toppings. Then, she rushed off again. The cashier blinked after her and hesitantly offered us the custard. We didn’t have time to try to sort it out further, so we accepted it and left.

I looked up the prices later from the receipt. It looks like it was rung up as a single non-sundae scoop and we thus got what we paid for even if not what we ordered, but it’ll be a while before we consider going to their drive-thru again. At least the eventual custard was good!

I get an order to take out. The restaurant isn’t busy but all the staff members are running around like headless chickens. I finally get my food, but the paper bag is wet at the bottom. I look inside and the container of coleslaw has been placed under the rest of the food and crushed open. Everything that wasn’t sealed is now covered — which would be fine if I actually liked coleslaw! I try to get someone’s attention. 

Me: “Excuse me? Hello?”

No chance; they are all rushing around, back and forth, between the counter and back.

Me: “Excuse me?”

Worker: “Yes?”

Me: “My food, look at how it was packed. The coleslaw is all over the bag. I have my receipt.”

Worker: “I might be able to replace the coleslaw for you. Let me call a manager.”

Me: “Sorry, but that’s not really enough. The chips are covered in it. I’d like them replaced, too.”

Worker: “I think they look fine.”

Me: “With all due respect, they are not. I’d like them replaced. I haven’t even left the counter; this was how they were packed.”

Worker: *Sighs* “Sir, all of our employees are well trained in this. We can’t be held responsible once you receive your food.”

Me: “I have already explained that this was how I received it. Look, even the counter is wet. Are you calling me a liar?”

It’s a very awkward silence as the manager turns up.

Manager: “So, what’s the problem?”

Worker: “He dropped his food and now wants it all for free.”

Me: “That’s not what I said at all. One of your employees put the coleslaw under all the rest of the food. You can see the packet has completely split from the weight; it’s everywhere.”

Manager: *To the worker* “You saw him come back in?”

Worker: “Yeah.”

Me: “Did you? Because that security camera will show otherwise.”

Worker: “I don’t know, maybe… Yeah, probably. I was busy.”

Manager: “I am sorry, sir. Let me get everything made fresh.”

Me: “Great, thank you.”

Manager: “Check his food before he gets it, please.”

Eventually, my food was ready and was set on a shelf. The worker made a big deal out of looking busy and avoiding the counter — I’m sure just so that I had to wait longer. I had to get the same manager to give me my food before it got cold.

I ended up making a complaint. They checked the cameras and confirmed that the events happened as I said they did, and they sent me a voucher.

I took my little brother out to a chain chicken wing restaurant for his birthday. I ordered a ten-piece wing platter. When I got it and started eating, I noticed I only had eight wings. Now, I don’t typically complain about food, but I wanted what I paid for. I waved the server over.

Me: “I’m not trying to be difficult, but I ordered a ten-piece platter and only got eight wings. I’d like to either change my order to an eight-piece or get two more wings, please.”

Server: “I don’t know how to change the order, but I’ll get you more wings.”

She goes to the kitchen and comes back about fifteen minutes later with another ten wings!

Me: “Why did you bring me ten more?!”

Server: “They’re on the house because you handled our mistake so calmly!”

It just shows that not being a jerk can get you a long way in life.