'Eye for an eye': Barista fights fire with fire when a customer throws her ‘incorrect’ coffee on the ground, finding the Karen at work and making a mess in her department as payback

Author image for Jesse Kessenheimer
Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Sep 22, 2023 10:00 AM EDT

Customer service jobs are where a person's attitude and personality are stripped away and employees are purposefully polished down to the meager politeness, a blank smile, and the need to people-please. Anyone who's worked in an industry where your sole purpose is to please the customer– hospitality, retail, the service industry –then you know how easy it is for a customer service rep to snap and reach the point of no-return with their manners. A cookie-cutter employee can only be pushed so far before they 'break character'. 

The thing that's most likely to make a customer service worker completely lose their cool is when they're being berated by a Karen. Karens everywhere have found the perfect way to get under the skin of every minimum wage employee and their tactless entitlement is enough to make the most polite church mouse to throw down a few curse words in the break room. So when a customer service employee sees that a fellow customer service employee is wreaking havoc in their workplace by being the most insufferable Karen, the next step is obvious. 

Two can play this game.

Scroll down for the full story where a barista turns the tables on an insolent customer by doing giving them the exact same treatment at their job. For more juicy revenge stories in the coffee-world, check out this tale of a barista that gets payback on a policeman who's mean to her at work by forcing him to drink decaf until he apologizes.  

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  • 01
    Font - Posted by u/oh_deery 3 hours ago Make a mess at my job, i'll make a mess at yours. *TL;DR at end* A This isn't huge or anything and has a bit of set-up, sorry, but it brought me a good amount of
    via oh_deery
  • 02
    Smile - satisfaction lol. So before C worked at the mermaid coffee shop. This location was in a strip mall, and I had worked there for about a year at the time. I There was a matcha green tea latte which normally had 4 pumps
    via oh_deery
  • 03
    Font - of sweetener in the medium cup (at the time, I've heard it may have changed). A common substitution was vanilla instead of the regular sweetener. If someone said they wanted vanilla, we normally didn't also put the regular sweetener in. Honestly, it's a service, 8 pumps of any type of sugar is a LOT for most people.
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  • 04
    Font - So anyways, it's sort of a slow period so its just me and my shift supervisor out front. I'm managing cash and making the drinks as the shift cleans. In comes Karen. She looked maybe 24-26 and was dressed very nicely in an all black outfit. The encounter starts
    via oh_deery
  • 05
    Font - normally, with me ringing her in at the cash (an iced matcha green tea latte with vanilla) and then go to make her drink. Of course, I only put the Vanilla and not the regular sweetener. I hand the drink to her and she takes a sip. Her face scrunches up and immediately she turns to me pred off.
    via oh_deery
  • 06
    Font - Her attitude goes 0 to 100 as she raises her voice to start in on me about the drink not being right. Well, luckily for her, its an easy fix. I tell her I'll just put the sweetener in, no problem at all. So she hands
    via oh_deery
  • 07
    Font - the cup back and I pump the sweetener straight in the cup (totally normal) and make sure it's mixed. I ask her if she'd like to taste it before I put a lid on to ensure its sweet enough. She
    via oh_deery
  • 08
    Organism - agrees. It's important to note that this is normal. We often hand out drinks without lids so I've pretty good at knowing when something is a spill risk. It wasn't even close. She picks up the cup and takes a
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  • 09
    Font - sip and it spills down her front. I honestly don't know what happened, maybe the ice moved oddly or something. Still, it wasn't a big spill and she was wearing black so you couldn't see anything.
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  • 10
    Font - Either way, i'm reaching for paper towel and asking her if she wants a wet one. She fully goes off on me.: it's my fault she spilled the drink, it I had just put the sweetener in at the beginning this wouldn't have been an issue, etc. She's swearing,
    via oh_deery
  • 11
    Font - waving her arms everywhere and throws the cup on the ground and starts screaming that the coffee shop better pay her dry cleaning bills, etc. I'm just kinda staring at her having a full on tantrum in the shop.
    via oh_deery
  • 12
    Font - My shift notices the drama and comes rushing over. Karen continues to go off on a tirade about me and the company and this store. The shift ends up giving her a refund and another drink, but says -obviously- theres nothing
    via oh_deery
  • 13
    Font - the company can do about her spilling a drink on herself. Karen is pared but accepts it and leaves the store, a huge mess in her wake. I have to go get a mop to clean up the drink she slammed on the ground. Green tea latte EVERYWHERE.
    via oh_deery
  • 14
    Font - Now, what I haven't mentioned in this story yet is that this Karen happened to be wearing a nametag which said her name and company, and this company happened to be a shoe store in the same strip mall the coffee shop
    via oh_deery
  • 15
    Rectangle - was in. I simmered over the rest of my shift about whether I should actually do what I was thinking or not, but at the end went' it, i'm going shopping'. So after my shift I head on over. A large part of
    via oh_deery
  • 16
    Font - me doesn't expect to actually see her, but there she is. She's in the isles, stacking shoes. She seems to be the only one out front. I head on over and ask her for assistance. I think it took her a minute of talking to me to realize who I was,
    via oh_deery
  • 17
    Font - but I knew everything had clicked when her face suddenly goes from customer service to shock. Still, I act as if I don't know who she is and ask her questions about a random pair of shoes. I ask to try them on, and give a range of three
    via oh_deery
  • 18
    Font - sizes, lying to say I don't know what size will fit. She offers to do a sizing and I refuse, saying I just want to try on the shoes. She brings out three pairs. I try them on, making a mess of the boxes,
    via oh_deery
  • 19
    Font - papers and shoes, before telling her none of them are what I'm looking for. I make no attempt to put things back (which, ngl, kinda hurt me to do lol )and grab the nearest shoe and ask her to try on the same sizes in that shoe instead.
    via oh_deery
  • 20
    Font - Rinse and repeat for many pairs of shoes. There are still no other customers in the store. At this point she looks really annoyed, but another person (a supervisor, as I found out later) has come out from the back to handle the cash
    via oh_deery
  • 21
    Rectangle - register so it's not like she could say or do anything. Overall, this process of back and forth takes about an hour or so. I got really into the role of 'ridiculously picky customer' which was fun as hi
    via oh_deery
  • 22
    Font - when you're purposefully messing with someone. I was polite as all but just wouldn't give her the opportunity to escape. Only a few other people come in the store but the supervisor helps them.
    via oh_deery
  • 23
    Font - Eventually I decide I'm done and pick out a pair of socks and head towards the cash register. The supervisor rings me out and I head on my way. Karen messed with the wrong tired barista that day. She came into my work and made a mess, so I went into her work and made an even bigger mess.
    via oh_deery
  • 24
    Font - *TL;DR: Karen spills a drink on herself and makes a mess at my coffee shop. I find out where she works and go make a mess there while she's working.
    via oh_deery
  • 25
    Font - CoderJoe1 2 hr. ago An hour? You're a shoe in for the petty revenge effort of the year award. /s ↑ 50 Reply Share maDAMN-Pink. just now Eye for an eye
    via CoderJoe1
  • 26
    Font - dertwo 2 hr. ago My internal petty revenge addiction just said "Let the hate flow through you." This makes me happy.
    via dertwo
  • 27
    Gesture - Make a mess at my job, i'll make a mess at yours.
    via u/canva

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