At my fast food restaurant, the drive-thru is timed, and these times reflect on manager and restaurant performance, so we’re pushed to go as fast as possible. Our times are averaged, and our goal is 1:15 at the speaker, 1:30 in line, and 1:15 at the window when we’re not in rush times.

This occurs an hour or so after the dinner rush. I’ve taken the customer’s order: two relatively cheap combo boxes with several modifications, some of which add to the price. One of these modifications is to add two freezes instead of drinks, adding $0.80 per combo. The line is long, so by the time they get to the window, their drinks are done and their food is nearly so.

They hand me their debit card, and I put it in the chip reader and wait a bit. The point of sale system says, ‘Insufficient funds,’ and requests another form of payment for the remaining $1.51. I ask the customer, and they ask for a fountain drink instead of one of their freezes. By now, they’ve received their food, and we’re deep into the two-minute mark at the window, but I do my best to smile, pour the drink, and rerun the card, foolishly assuming that they’ll pay the difference now that I’ve lowered it.

Shockingly, they still only wanted to pay with the card. Their bud next to them is already drinking out of their other freeze, so I can’t swap that one out for a fountain drink; they’re eating their food, so I can’t swap it out, either. My partner’s getting annoyed; we’re well into four minutes and the customers are rifling around for loose change.

After we reach five and a half minutes, I give up. Someone has given me their change as a tip, $2.92. It is the largest tip I’ve ever gotten from a customer, and I was proud of earning it. I wave the car on, put 92 cents in the register, and try very hard not to scream as I look out the window to see the line of cars wrapping around the building. I almost cry. 

I can comprehend not having a ton of cash, but if you’re unable to pay for your food, don’t order extra expensive modifications! I’m disappointed that I had to give up part of my tip, but it just wasn’t practical to keep the customer there anymore, and my managers were getting more and more irked at the holdup. Oh, and our averages were ruined for the next two hours of my shift. I wish I could say this was the only irritating customer that night, but that would be lying.

A customer hands me a $100 bill for her $80 purchase. After the money is in my hand, I feel that there are two bills stuck together and immediately hand her a $100 bill back.

Me: “You had two bills stuck together.”

She looks at me with a look of confusion. I have helped this customer before; she is usually very quiet and serious. I can’t usually get her to smile at all.

Customer: “Can you please call your manager over here?”

I got a little worried that I had done something wrong.

When my manager got there, the customer started gushing over how “honest and sweet” I had been.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was nice to be appreciated for once. She left and smiled at me on the way out.

This story is part of our Feel Good roundup for January 2021!

Read the next Feel Good roundup for January 2021 story!

Read the Feel Good roundup for January 2021!

My husband has been a delivery driver at the local pizza place for over a year. Whenever anyone asks him for his best crazy work story, this is the one he tells.

One night, about two weeks after he starts working there, they get an order for pickup from a guy over the phone. My husband takes the order, hands off the receipt, and then fusses around for a bit doing other things. Then, the phone rings again.

Husband: “[Pizza Place], [Husband] speaking. How can I help?”

This time, it’s a girl on the phone.

Caller: *Sniffling* “D-d-did you guys get an order for [specific pizza] and a drink a little while ago? For [Guy]?” 

Husband: “Y-yeah, yes. Was it your order? It’s not quite ready yet.”

Caller: *Now actually crying* “N-no, my b-boyfriend took our last twenty bucks and took off in our car to pick it up. W-we don’t get paid until Thursday, and our baby girl is almost out of f-f-formula, and the shops are gonna c-close, but he’s g-got my car—”

My husband thinks of me at home with our six-month-old daughter and remembers when she was born and he was unemployed. He glances at the clock. There are ten minutes before the grocery store closes.

Husband: “What’s your address, and what formula does the baby need?”

The caller protests, clearly embarrassed. My husband doesn’t give up; he gets her address and finds out what formula she needs, and he finds out that the baby is only TWO WEEKS OLD, so this poor girl is still in a post-partum haze while her boyfriend is acting like this.

He zips to the shops and grabs two tins of formula and a couple of other essentials, like a pack of newborn nappies, some dummies [pacifiers], and other random things he remembers being stressed about buying for our baby. Then, he races back to the pizza place.

He gets back and the pizza is out of the oven. His boss, having been filled in on what’s happening and being an all-round awesome dude, points out the guy sitting in a chair playing on his phone and nods at my husband. His boss hands off the pizza to my husband.

Husband: “Order for [Guy]?”

The guy swaggers up to the counter, looking every bit your stereotypical white guy gangster wannabe. He hands over a ten-dollar note, a five-dollar, and a BUNCH of coins, mostly silver.

My husband sees red, remembering scrounging for change to buy our daughter the essentials, like this mum clearly had done to find this twenty bucks. He takes the money, sets it on his side of the counter, and then stares the guy down.

By now, his boss and the other pizza maker have come out and are standing right behind him with their arms folded. The young lady chef who makes all the pasta and burgers has been filled in and has joined them and is holding her chef’s knife in one hand.

Husband: “Cheers. Get out.”

Guy: *Confused* “W-what? Where’s my pizza?”

Boss: “Sorry, mate, you’ve been blacklisted. Get out of my store.”

Guy: *Slowly getting mad* “You can’t just take my money! F*** off and give me my f****** pizza!” 

Chef: “If you wanna step outside mate, then let’s go.”

The gangster guy saw the team of Pizza Avengers, all glaring at him with murderous intent, and chose to leave, swearing and knocking over tables on his way. When he saw everyone come around the counter to stop him, he bolted out the door and back to his car.

My husband gathered up the pizza and the baby things and prepared to take them out to the address. The chef shoved a couple of containers of pasta on top — enough to last a hungry mum of a newborn at least a few days until payday — and his boss scribbled a note on the pizza box saying that if she decided she was going the single mum route to come see him about a job, or even just a meal if she was hungry.

When my husband got out to the house, the mum was no longer in tears. She was MAD. Two men — who my husband found out were her dad and brother — were helping her put all of Mr. Gangster’s belongings out onto the verandah.

My husband handed her the bag of baby stuff and the pizza, which did make her start crying again, and he got to boop her tiny baby on the nose. He had to get back to work, so he didn’t stick around to find out if the guy came back.

While my husband was trying to leave, the mum’s dad pulled him aside and shook his hand, saying she’d be very well taken care of, and that he and his wife had plenty of money but his daughter’s abusive boyfriend had made her cut contact with them months before. He’d been elated to get her call and had raced over to help his daughter. He shoved more than enough cash into my husband’s hand to cover the baby supplies and food, despite my husband’s reluctance to take it, and told him again that he was a good man.

Every other week since then, he’s gotten to take a huge food order out to her house again, when she has her parents and siblings over for family dinner. Her dad always pays, asks how my husband and our family is doing, sends his regards to the boss, and gives a big tip, despite tips not really being a thing here in Australia. My husband hasn’t seen Mr. Gangster again, though he doesn’t ask. Baby and mama seem to be thriving without him.

To this day, my husband doesn’t think what he did was anything special; to him, it was helping out someone in a really hard situation that he’d been in only a couple of months prior. I disagree, though. I think he’s pretty awesome.

This story is part of our end-of-year Feel Good roundup for 2021!

Read the next Feel Good 2021 story!

Read the Feel Good 2021 roundup!

This story is part of our Feel Good roundup for January 2021!

Read the next Feel Good roundup for January 2021 story!

Read the Feel Good roundup for January 2021!

I work in an ice cream shop. We currently cannot accept cards due to a problem with the computers. It’s a problem that has been its own week-long ordeal, mostly unrelated to the meat of this story. The point is, however, that we have multiple signs posted.

A family comes in; a mum, a dad, and two kids. The mum orders three ice creams. When I give her the total, she tries to hand me a card. I explain that we can’t take cards right now and that she’ll have to pay with cash. She doesn’t look thrilled but agrees. To be helpful, I offer to keep her ice cream in the fridge while she goes to the cash point. She agrees and I put it in the fridge. I then get distracted by another customer but can see her talking to her husband in the background.

Suddenly, the husband approaches my till and throws down a handful of change.

Husband: “I have £2.50.”

Me: “Yeah, it’s £7.70, sir.”

Husband: “This is ridiculous. You should have signs up saying you can’t take cards.”

Me: “We do.”

I point to a sign right in front of him.

Husband: “Well, I didn’t see it! It should be in my line of sight!” 

He goes on a rant about how the signs should be specially placed where HE can see them.

Me: *Losing patience* “Sir, it’s still £7.70. There’s a cash machine just down the road.”

Husband: “I want to see your manager!”

Now, for most people, this is the worst possible thing that could happen. My managers are awesome, and I know they will recognize this man for the idiot he is being, so I fetch the nearest manager.

I explain the situation to the manager, and the husband starts his rant up again.

Husband: “There should be more signs than just that one up!”

He points at the sign by the card machine.

Me: “Sir, we have had plenty of customers today, and none of them have had a problem seeing the sign.”

Husband: *Very condescending tone* “I am talking to the manager! We are out on a trip, and I am not inclined to go back to the high street to go to a cash machine!”

He doesn’t want to pay… because he can’t be bothered to walk the two minutes it would take to go to a cash point?!

He then starts trying to convince the manager to let him leave without paying, offering to give the manager his contact details and swearing that he will come in tomorrow to pay.

Manager: *Gloriously sarcastic* “Sir, if you can’t be arsed to walk to a cash machine right now, do you really think we’ll believe that you’ll keep your word and come back to pay?”

The husband swears on everything from the Holy Book, to his mum’s grave, to the snow in Narnia that he WILL come back tomorrow. Just believe him! He WILL do it! His promises grow increasingly more outlandish the longer he talks and the longer manager just stands there with an immovable “no” face.

Me: “Sir, in the time we’ve been debating this, you could have been to the cash point and back, and on with your day.”

The husband is already talking over me before I’ve finished speaking.

Husband: “I am talking to the manager!“

Me: “Yes, you are. And now I’m refusing to serve you.”

The man looks at the manager, looking a little gob-smacked.

Manager: “Don’t look at me. Either get your cash from the cash point, or get out. You’re not getting your cones until the entire total crosses my counter in cash.”

Husband: “But I only have £2.50 and I don’t want to walk all that way.”

Manager: “Sucks to be you.”

The man stares, slack-jawed, for a moment, then leaves.

Manager: *To me* “Watch the front. I’m sending an email up the ladder in case he complains.”

It was so nice to know that not all managers sold their souls when they got promoted. And no, we never heard about the incident again.

This story is part of our Best Of January 2021 roundup!

Read the next Best Of January 2021 roundup story!

Read the Best Of January 2021 roundup!

A female customer comes in to do a return. All goes well… until the end of the return.

Me: “All right, this will be going back on your store credit card.”

Customer: “I want cash.”

Me: “I’m sorry, but I can only give cash if you use a debit card; since you used your store credit card, it has to go back onto it.”

Customer: “I want to speak to your manager.”

I call my manager to the front and the manager tells her the EXACT same thing. She huffs and slides her store card. Before she leaves, she looks at me and says the following: 

Customer: “I don’t understand why I can’t get cash back… I mean, it’s my money.”

I have honestly never facepalmed so hard in my life.