I work at a family-friendly restaurant. I started right before my seventeenth birthday, the summer before my senior year of high school. This summer, I am the opening hostess on Saturdays and Sundays.

I have a customer order a breakfast that comes with two eggs cooked to choice, a choice of potatoes, a choice of meat, and biscuits and gravy. My manager is cooking the order and he watches me bag everything up.

Since I am still fairly new, anytime he doesn’t have a ticket to cook, he comes out and makes sure tables are clean and that I am caught up.

About twenty minutes later, we get this gem of a phone call.

Me: “Thank you for calling [Restaurant]; would you like to play a carryout?”

Customer: “No! I just ordered [Breakfast] and I came and picked it up. You’re the one who cashed me out, right?”

Me: “Yes, sir, was everything okay?”

Customer: “Absolutely not! Why didn’t you give me my potatoes?!”

Me: “Sir, you’re talking about the home fries, correct?”

Customer: “I want my d*** potatoes. What are you going to do to fix this?!”

Me: “Sir, I’m pretty sure I gave you your potatoes. Did I not go over the order with you before I sent you on your way?”

Customer: “NO! YOU DIDN’T! I want my potatoes!”

Me: “Okay, sir, I’m really sorry about that. I’ll go ahead and let the cooks know that I need an order of home fries, and for the inconvenience, we’ll include some extra in there and an extra order of biscuits.”

Customer: “Okay. But how are you going to take care of this problem?”

Me: “Oh! I’m sorry, sir, we must have a bad connection here. I said we’ll be happy to fix our mistake. We just need you to come back and we’ll compensate you for the inconvenience.”

Customer: “So you’re not going to do anything for me?”

Me: “May I ask what you’re referring to, sir? I’ve already offered extra food for the inconvenience.”

Customer: “I’m already at work, so now I have to leave and come back because you screwed my order up?!”

Me: “Sir, I do apologize. We can fix it at another time, but we don’t deliver. You’d have to come back now or at a later time. Would you like to speak with my manager?”

Customer: “NO! I want my d*** potatoes!”

Me: “Sir, I’ve already given you a couple of options. Now, would you like to speak with my manager?”

Customer: “No!”

Me: “Okay, sir, have a nice day.” *Hangs up*

I start working on other orders and cashing customers out when I get another phone call about two minutes later.

Me: “Thank you for calling [Restaurant]. Would you like to place a carryout?”

Customer: “No! What’s your name?”

Me: “[My Name]. May I ask who this is?”

Customer: “The customer you pissed off!”

Me: “Sir, did you change your mind? Did you want to speak with my manager?”

Customer: “No! I want my d*** potatoes!”

Me: “Sir, if you don’t want to speak with my manager, I’m going to have to hang up on you.”

Customer: “Hang up on me, brat! I dare you! I’ll have your job!”

Me: “Good luck, sir. Have a nice day.”

I’m near tears because I’m getting so frustrated. This is my first angry customer. He calls again.

Me: “Thank you for calling [Restaurant]; my name is [My Name]. Would you like to—”

Customer: “Let me speak to your manager, [My Name]!”

Me: “Yes, sir.”

I tell my manager about everything that happened and he starts laughing.

Manager: “He definitely got his potatoes. I remember that order because he got cheese on his sunny-side-up eggs, and he wanted white gravy instead of sausage.”

Me: “Thank you! Now he’s on the phone, has threatened my job, and now wants to speak with you after calling me a brat.”

My manager rolls his eyes and picks up the phone.

Manager: “Thank you for holding; my name is [Manager]. How can I help you?” *Pause* “Yes, sir.” *Pause* “I am the manager.” *Pause* “Sir, if you’d let me talk.” *Pause* “Okay. Are you done now?” *Pause* “Okay, great. Sir, I’m the one who made your order, so I know for a fact that your home fries were in the to-go box. I watched her bag your order up and go over it with you. She’s already offered that we make you more home fries with extra and extra biscuits. We don’t deliver, so there’s nothing she can do for you beyond offering you compensation for something we absolutely did not mess up.” *Pause* “Sir, she was not rude to you; I heard the conversation, and I know that this girl does not give off an attitude since she’s still fairly new and this is her first jo—” *Pause* “No, sir, I will not fire her.” *Pause* “No, I’m not going to make her deliver your food; in fact, even if you were to come back in for your ‘compensation,’ we now have the right to refuse you service as you’ve made my employee cry on her first morning shift by herself. You’re no longer welcome here. You have a good life, sir. Goodbye.”

I work in a small law firm. We have recently moved. There are several other companies located on this floor of the office building. Every door is marked with the suite number and company name, except ours; building management hasn’t done ours yet. As I am checking something with the receptionist, the front door bursts open, and a middle-aged man comes barreling in.

Man: “What? Why are you here?!”

Receptionist: “I’m sorry? Did you have an appointment?”

Man: “Of course not! Never thought I would need one. But why are you here?”

Receptionist: “I work here. Was there someone you wanted to see?”

Man: “Of course not! This is ridiculous! Just let me in!”

Receptionist: “I need to know who you need to speak with before I can let you into their office.”

Man: “No one! No office. Let. Me. In!”

Me: “Sir, I’m the office manager. Can you tell me what the problem seems to be? I’m sure we can get you pointed in the right direction.”

Man: “I’m in the right direction. Move!“

He tries to push past me.

Me: “Sir, you need to leave now or I’m calling the police.”

Man: “Police? Just let me use the f****** toilet, you b****!”

Me: “The men’s room is two doors down.”

Man: “And you couldn’t tell me that in the first place?!”

He turned around and left, SLAMMING the door behind him.

I work in the games department at an amusement park. My “area” is the children’s area. I am working the basketball game and I am doing callouts to various guests. I decide to call out to a boy that looks about ten or eleven. The boy has, who I assume to be, an older sister with him.

Me: “You there, with the red and black NBA shirt. You look like you would like to give my game here a shot!”

The boy looks at me for a moment before shrugging and walking over.

Boy: “Can I get a free shot?”

This is a common question.

Me: “No, but if you have two dollars on your game card, you can get one ball. If you have five, three balls you can shoot. Ten bucks will get you seven.”

The boy looks down at his game card while one of my coworkers enters the game to help me run it while we wait for our third to come back from storage with our supervisor.

Boy: “There’s no way I can get a free ball?”

Me: “Sorry, but no.”

Boy: “B****.”

After this, the boy turns and walks away. My coworker walks over and asks what’s wrong as she was able to hear what I was saying, but not what the boy was saying.

Coworker: “You good?”

Me: “I just got called a b**** for the third time today.”

Coworker: “That has to be a record.”

Later, when my supervisor is walking with me back to the office, she asks me about what happened earlier. I guess my coworker told her. We see the boy and I point him out to her. He proceeds to run to his group, which consists of two more females besides the one I originally saw him with.

Supervisor: “If you ever see that kid again and I’m working, call me. That same kid called [Coworker] and [Area Manager] b****es, as well.”

A lady comes in with a pair of shoes to return. I’m still pretty new at the job.

Customer: “Hi, I’d like to return these shoes.”

I recognize the box as one of our shoeboxes but she approaches us at the folding table. Nevertheless, I try to help her.

Me: “Okay, was there something wrong with them?”

Customer: “No, I just want a different pair for my son.”

I open the box to see a pair of shoes I’ve never seen before, but they are the style we sell.

Me: “Well, I’m still pretty new here and I’m not 100% sure of our return and exchange policy, so I can’t guarantee that we can exchange these for you.”

Customer: “What?! But I called your corporation on the phone this morning before I came in and they said I could!”

Me: “Oh, well, if they said that you can, then you should have no problem. One of our sales associates in the back can help you get the shoes you want.”

My coworker and I went about our shift as normal, and then one of my managers approached us. She explained our return and exchange policy to us and then told me that the customer tried to tell her that I had practically forbidden her from trying to return the shoes. Luckily, my coworker had seen the whole thing and vouched for me, and my manager knew that I wouldn’t have made any decisions without asking her about it. But apparently, she had tried to get me fired because I was new and didn’t know our exchange policy.

I am serving a group of people, taking orders, forcing smiles under a crazy workload, when the kitchen yells out front to us:

Kitchen: “We’re out of soup!”

The girl right next to me has just taken an order for soup from a lady, and the kitchen is supposed to give us a three-bowl heads up before it is out. This lady has a friend who quickly jumps over to my order station.

Customer: “I was in line when that announcement was made; I’d like a bowl of soup.”

Me: “Ma’am, we are out of soup. I’m sorry.”

Customer: “No, you don’t understand. I was in line, and I wanted soup. I’m with this lady here. I want a bowl of soup.”

Me: “Ma’am, we are out of soup; we have no soup left. I’m sorry.”

Customer: “You aren’t hearing me, young lady. I was in line when that announcement was made!”

Me: “I am very sorry, but I cannot give you any soup. There is no soup, none.”

She glares at me for a prolonged amount of time before huffing.

Customer: “Fine, I won’t order anything.”

She waits for my answer like I am somehow going to magically pull out soup. Instead, I am just slightly relieved she’s leaving!

Me: “Okay, have a nice day.”

She steps out of the way and slowly begins to walk away while watching me like I am going to do something. Another customer steps up, but before they can speak, she quickly jumps in front of them.

Customer: “Fine. I’ll order something else.”

I don’t remember what she ordered, but it wasn’t soup.

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