Do you work in a bar/pub/restaurant? What is the rudest thing a customer has ever done or said to you?

Question

Hi! I'm from Holland and have just signed up. I work as an assistent manager in a cafe/restaurant in Nijmegen. Dutch customers can be pretty horrible. Since I've lived in England for two years, I've beenunder the impression that British customers are very polite. Or am I wrong?

Answer 1

I live in the US. The rudest thing anyone did to me as a server was to leave a dirty diaper on one of my tables. Nice tip! (Oh, yeah, and gratuity is *not* included in the bill in the States--nice!)

Answer 2

I worked in hotels, restaurants and pubs for about 12 years in total.
I was a pub manger for a year in a small comminuty pub and during that time I got bottled sorting out an argument between 2 of my regulars (turned out that 1 guys girlfriend had been seeing the other one for about 6 months behind his back). Like one of the other answers said though, in one ear out of the other. 99% of any customers are not a problem although just as with any job, there are customers who are a pain in the a**e.

Answer 3

The British are just more polite in general. As for rude customers, I don't worry about it. I can tolerate anyone long enough for them to eat a meal but rude co-workers and rude management is a different story. One has to put up with them for 8 to 12 hours at a time in the restaurant business. I have a general manager who very rarely ever thinks to say please or thank you, is rude as well as demanding, and just has no people skills at all as far as crew is concerned. That's a lot tougher of a situation than dealing with a customer who has had one drink too many.

Answer 4

I am not a waiter but, I know that I hate to see people taking their kids out to restaurants and let them leave a mess or keep going back and forth to get them things and then leave them a lousy tip. My sister is a waitress and she hates tables with kids. I am a mother of 4 and I know that I don't take them anywhere that doesn't have a playground because I don't want to put my children out there for someone else to take care of, even though that they are good kids, they can make a mess and be loud. I can't afford to give a huge tip to someone for the mess that they can make.

I have heard stories about waiters having to go back and forth for water, which usually isn't charged, and then not getting a tip even though they did work for them. Pretty rude and hateful in my opinion.

Answer 5

Well, this biitch claimed that she over heard me saying that I hate kids, when in fact that's far from the truth and that biitch just misunderstood and overreacted for no reason. I was reprimanded by my manager and it really pissed me off, because I never said that, and it makes me look bad and I know what exactly came out of my mouth because I was the one who said it, and I never said I hate kids, how can I? What I said was that some kids can be obnoxious, and most are annoying. Any who, that biitch was just being nosy and misinterpreted what was said and because of her I was let go. This doesn't bother me as much as it use to, but the fact that I was fired for a biased reason and one that never gave me the right to defend my integrity-well, that just bothers me, because it was an unreasonable/inexcusable reason. I mean, just because that biitch claimed such allegation, and of course they are going to believe her-she helps make business by eating there, but because of a misunderstanding, a lie which is exactly what it was/is-they let me go. I've healed now, and something good came out of it, I got hired with a company that is top notch in it's benefits and I don't have to deal with customer's shiit face to face.

Answer 6

I used to be a waitress. I waited on a 2 couples one time. One couple arrived 20mins earlier than the other so I just got them their drinks since they wanted to wait til their friends arrive. So i left them alone and filled their drinks when it was low. I had other tables to tend to since it was a busy night. Well, I didn't get a chance to bring their foods out since I had a ton of other tables so the manager ended up bring it out (which they do if it's really busy and the food took over 45 mins). One of those A-holes left me a "ZERO" written of the check and the other left a penny on top of his check. The only thing I didn't do was bring their food out to them but they were pissy about, I guess. I should of threw up on their food. Being in the service industry like this is hard. People think they can treat you like sh1t for some weird reason.

Answer 7

The rudest thing ever done to me as a server was a child about 9 years old threw their soda at me. The parents didn't even apologize. On top of that, they didn't even leave me a tip.

Like my boss always says, "if you can't afford the meal and the 20% tip, don't eat out."

Answer 8

A young French waiter, working in an English restaurant, pointed out that the food I had left on my plate would have been regarded as bad manners in France. This came out of the blue, we weren't having a discussion about etiquette.

Answer 9

I live in Florida and have worked in bar/ restaurants for about 15 years, in my experience British are the rudest. Not because they are impolite but here they seem to criticize American lifestyle all the time. I believe everyone has the right to there own opinion, but I would never go where they live and criticize them in their hometown. You know?

Answer 10

I work at a major American restaurant in Chicago, and I wait on all types on a daily basis. I will say that while the English are polite, they tend to be bad tippers. They are nice to wait on becuase they actually say please and thank you, and you don't get much of that in a day. However, since servers in England get paid a decent hourly wage they are used to tipping only 10%, which is a BAD tip here. But I can let it slide because they are so polite and easy to wait on. They usually aren't too demanding.
Lot's of rude stories to share with you, but here is the worst.
A man at my table ask me how the burrito is at our restuarant. I tell him I like it and he says, oh I thought you would say that. I asked why and he said because your name is Maria and you must be Mexican and therefore like all burritos. WHAT??? Yeah I am whiter than white you racist weirdo. He was obviously a redneck that had no idea how to behave in a city.
Another man requested BREAST milk in his cappucino while staring at my chest!

Answer 11

In these areas of work you would find rude customers doesnt matter what country your from

up to you , if you can deal with this situation, other wise if you dont enjoy leave the job, dont make or do anything to upset you

you would be far better in a nice working , safe environment