I am training a member of staff. A moody customer comes up to our counter.

Customer: *Loudly* “I want a large [meal]. And use only one plate! I am not carrying a bunch of crap!”

Trainee: *Quietly, to me* “Doesn’t [meal] come on three plates?”

Me: *Resigned* “Yes.”

I watch the trainee carefully stack each item onto the plate as demanded, attempting to keep the items separated. It clearly does not meet the customer’s standards.

Customer: *Yelling* “What the f***?! Can you see this slop?!”

Me: *Calmly* “A large [meal], on one dish as requested. What isn’t meeting your standards today?”

Customer: “Everything’s slopped together! When I eat, I expect my food not touching!”

Me: “You requested a single plate for our largest meal. Unfortunately, our plates are only—”

Customer: *Cutting me off* “Your d***ed employee should have used a larger plate! I am the customer, I am right! You will fix this!”

Trainee: “Sir! You can read. The menu says [meal] comes on three plates. You demanded one plate, so clearly you read the menu. What did you expect?”

After a beat, the customer throws the plate of steaming food at me before booming that he is going to “beat some sense” into my trainee. With the sudden threat, I quickly position myself between them.

Me: “He’s new. It doesn’t excuse what he said, and I’ll handle it. Clearly, you’re upset. Please come and see my supervisor. I’ll personally fill him in while you rest comfortably.”

I led my trainee to my boss’s office. I explained what happened while my boss helped me clean up and bandage the burns on my arms. I didn’t want to press charges, but I did want this customer banned. My boss said he would handle it and left us to wait in his office.

Some time passed and my boss returned to fill us in. The customer was still angry when my boss got there and demanded he be allowed to handle the trainee. My boss refused and looked for a solution that would allow this customer to go home and not to jail, but he kept refusing and eventually swung at him!

After my boss slammed him onto the ground, the customer called the police claiming assault. When the police arrived, everything was explained and the police asked if my boss wanted to press charges. He said no, but the customer was banned.

The police explained to the customer what “banned” meant. He didn’t take the news well and went for the cops. He was arrested and guaranteed three free meals a day. I hope he likes them better than ours.

In our produce section, we have a little shelf with fruit and vegetables that are still good but will expire in two or three days, so they’re much cheaper. An older lady and an older man are shopping in this section. The lady reaches for a package of grapes for $0.85, and the man bumps her with his cart.

Old Man: “Put them back! I want to buy them!”

She refuses, so he keeps bumping her with his cart. She picks up the grapes to put them in her cart. He SLAMS his cart into her body, almost knocking her over, and yells:

Old Man: “I want those grapes! You can’t take them!”

Her solution? She opened the package and threw the grapes at the man, screaming back at him. Cops were called and the customers were taken outside to talk with them.

There were grapes everywhere.

We have a regular at our hotel. We’ll call her Miss Smith. Now, I’m pretty new to this property but I have been warned she is unpleasant. Miss Smith always has room 101. A week ago a man whose house had caught fire checked into 101 under the relief disaster folks. Today Miss Smith arrives:

Me: “Miss Smith, unfortunately, room 101 is occupied and has been for about a week.”

Customer: *Starts going off.* “I’ll never stay here again! If I’d known I’d have stayed at [Competitor Hotel] across the way!”

Me: “I apologize for the inconvenience.”

Customer: Screaming. “You should move him! I’m a loyal member!”

Me: “I can’t just make a guest move rooms for you, ma’am.”

She takes her keys to her room, just a little down the hall. On the way, she STOPS at 101 and starts banging on the door! This man was a victim of a house fire. He’s distraught and wants to rest. He opens the door and she starts screaming at him. I’m already hustling my little body down the hall, phone in hand, because there’s no way I’m letting her stay and disrupt the hotel like this.

As I’m dialing the police she THROWS HER COFFEE AT ME! Thankfully it was iced and not hot but f***, y’all. I finished my shift in a too-small spare work shirt with sticky hair, waiting on the police to come arrest her.

All this over a room. All the rooms on that floor are exactly the same. Cleaned by the same housekeeper.

A customer who has been through the drive-thru comes inside and yells at me.

Customer: “I had pickles in my meal, and I said no pickles!”

My manager is also my sister; she comes to talk to him.

Customer: “You again?! I wanted to talk to a manager!”

He thinks we were the same person.

Sister: “I’m a manager, and I’ll fix your problem for you.”

She got him a brand-new meal, fries and all. The man was not happy. He took the old sandwich out of the package and threw it onto the counter. He took the extra fries my sister had given him and threw them at us, too!

After that, he walked out, mumbling about how he wouldn’t come back.

I was a college student working at a small, homely diner for the summer. My coworkers were taking orders at the counter and giving customers number cards, and I was bringing the orders out to tables labeled with the appropriate numbers.

One elderly man didn’t grab his number card to put on his table, so that meant the next lady in line took his card. There were also now two separate orders with the same number label.

I grabbed the first tray of food with that number and looked for the number card, which was on the lady’s table. I went back to the kitchen window and noticed that the next tray of food had the same number, so I brought it out to that same lady’s table, only to be met with confused looks since everyone at that table already had their food.

That’s when the elderly man chimed in. He stormed over and shouted:

Man: “I SAW YOU GIVE MY FOOD TO THAT TABLE! THAT’S MY ORDER! ITS MINE! NOW I DON’T HAVE MY FOOD!”

I was pretty stunned at the shouting, but thankfully, my manager walked over to calm this man down. She explained the situation with the number cards.

Manager: “We will re-make your order and have it out for you shortly.”

That was apparently unacceptable to this man, as he walked back to his table, picked up his chair, and CHUCKED IT ACROSS THE ENTIRE RESTAURANT, hitting the wall. The impact broke one of the legs and dispersed a bunch of screws in the area.

Thankfully, it somehow didn’t hit anybody.

I was expecting my manager to kick him out, but I guess she didn’t want to get the police involved because he ended up staying at his table —  now missing a chair — and waiting on his food.

Needless to say, I was a bit scared when bringing his food to him a few minutes later, but he just angrily ate his food in silence.