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A word to the wise…
Don’t mess with the people who make your drinks and food!
Because it won’t end well.
Read on and see what happened when this bar employee got tired of dealing with a rude and unrealistic customer.
“This happened a couple of years back in a pub I was working at.
I worked the bar at this pub which was pretty popular especially on sunny days as we had a lot of outdoor seating and a pretty huge beer garden. Now the story takes place one exceptionally hot summer Sunday.
For those of you who have the joy of not being all that familiar with our tea and crumpets society I’ll enlighten you as to why this is a pain for working in a pub.
This is pretty exciting for the folks over there!
Firstly the moment the sun blesses our sodden gray land with its presence we British come out of our thatched caves to bask in its glow like the lizard people our royal family is.
This subsequently also means every one had the exact same though of “Let’s go have a pint at the pub and sit in the sun”.
Yay for bartending.
The other noteworthy point here is that on Sunday, a roast is had. Beef, lamb, chicken or pork with roasted potatoes veggies, gravy and Yorkshire puddings.
All of which is wonderful unless you have to spend 2 hours cooking it. With that out of the way this particular Sunday we were full and I mean full.
Bar 4 or 5 people deep, the 100+ tables all double booked for turn over and I found myself without a moments respite between pouring drinks and telling people we were fully booked.
During this manic rush I spot a bit of a commotion outside and see a group of roughly 30-35 people including screaming kids walking through the courtyard ignoring everyone and into the beer garden.
Once my colleague and I had thinned down the numbers at the bar substantially I told him I was going to walk past to see what the huge group was doing.
Anyone that’s worked with real life people of course know that people suck, hence why I just wanted to walk past and avoid interaction.
This was going to be annoying…they could feel it…
Also it’s a pet peeve of mine when people just sit themselves down ignoring all the staff and expecting us to accommodate them without even the courtesy of mentioning to someone that they’re here.
So I take a step past the threshold of the bar (always dangerous and that day a choice I regretted) and walk through the beer garden collecting empty glasses as I go. As I near the area the group has settled in, as far away from the building as possible I might add, I avoid eye contact at all costs.
You’re not going to come say hi, then I can’t see you. Walking past the group I am spotted by a very angry woman, the Alpha Karen if you will.
Uh oh…
Snapping her fingers at me to try and get my attention, as I tried to get away. She stormed up to me and stared me in the face.
“Excuse me we’ve been waiting here for the last 15 minutes and no one has come to give us menus. What the hell are you all doing?”.
I’ll admit I was momentarily in shock, as the group had to walk through the courtyard and must have seen the crowds of people and stressed waiters everywhere.
“I’m sorry madam but I had no idea you were here, did you speak with anyone to let us know?”. Then what I saw was a rage build just below her plasticized skin. “Yes, I… I spoke with the red head!” (No one that worked there was a red head) “Well anyway I want some menus we’re STARVING!”.
I looked past her and asked how many they were.
Doh!
“Were 36 people, that’s not a problem is it?”
She said without so much as a hint of understanding why this was ridiculous. “Well yes actually, that’s quite a lot for a walk in and as you probably saw on your way in we’re extremely busy. I’m afraid we have no tables available and we don’t serve food in the beer garden. You’ll have to try your luck at getting a table in the courtyard but I can’t imagine you’ll be able to find enough seating for the 36 of you and I simply can’t hold tables for you turning other guests away”.
The realty is that I could but simply didn’t want to. She stated at me for a moment then said “you don’t serve food in the beer garden or YOU won’t serve me food in the beer garden?.”
“No madam the establishment does not serve food in the beer garden”.
“Ugh! Fine, look can we just have chips then? For the kids? They’re starving.”
I thought about it for a moment deciding if I was really willing to put up with this or if I should just say no and send them on they’re way.
Sure…
Against my better judgement I said ok but they would have to sit in the courtyard once the tables were available and asked roughly how many portions of chips they would be wanting.
She replied 6 and I said that’s probably fine but she’ll have to go inside to order. This did not sit well with her and she started to get very cross. On my way back in I swung by the kitchen to let them know what’s up and to expect 6 chip orders but not to rush them because the woman was an enormous pain.
I get back to the bar and it’s busy again, 3-4 people deep so I immediately jump in and start pouring pints.
Here we go again…
A few minutes later I hear “Oh for god’s sake this is ridiculous!” and immediately know who it is, this tiny angry woman pushes her way through the crowd and snaps her fingers at me to get my attention.
“You, I want to order my chips. And hurry it up the kids are hungry”.
“Ok, I’ll put them on now, 6 portions correct?”.
“No, 17”.
Sufficient to say I was bewildered. “Madam that’s not what we discussed, I’ll have to see if the kitchen can even do that, were very busy”.
“We’ll go on then, run along to the kitchen” she barked. As I was about to I hear “Actually can you make it 35.”
“Madam I’ll be honest with you there’s no way you’ll get them all at once it’s simply too many for the fryer. It’ll have to be in batches and it’s going to take a while as there are more pressing orders ahead of you. You will also need to pay up front”.
“I don’t care, bring them one by one if you have to, as soon as one is ready bring it out”.
You got it!
Bingo.
I went and spoke to the chef explaining what was going on, rude woman, many chips, one by one. He laughed and we decided to do exactly as she asked.
Bring on the malicious compliance.
So despite being very very busy as soon as one portion of chips was ready I took it out, one portion, only one.
She was not pleased, “What the hell is this?? I said 35 portions ,not one.”
“As I explained to you inside madam 35 portions is simply far too many for our fryers to handle and there is a substantial number of other orders ahead of you” I had to try very hard to hide my **** eating grin at this point.
“But… But…what the hell do you expect me to do with this???”.
“Perhaps you could have one chip each per portion?” And I swiftly turned and walked away.
Following this every 10-15 minutes I would take out one more and only one more portion of chips the the group. By about portion 12 they had been there several hours and were fed up.
They tried to complain to the manager but she was so rude and disrespectful to myself, my manager and other staff members that he dismissed her stating that I had explained clearly to her that we were very busy and she herself and told me to bring them out one portion at a time if need be.
They left very angry and we had 23 portions of chips paid for that staff got to enjoy later on.”
Reddit users spoke up.
This person weighed in.
Another individual shared their thoughts.
This reader spoke up.
Another Reddit user chimed in.
And this individual didn’t hold back.
Now, this is how you deal with an annoying customer!
If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.
Categories: STORIES
Tags: · bars, customer service, ENTITY, garden, malicious compliance, picture, pubs, reddit, top, work, working
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