'You were in no rush to help': Managers scapegoat server for entitled customer's kitchen complaints

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Dec 9, 2023 7:00 AM EST

It can be incredibly difficult and frustrating working in customer-facing roles where your managers refuse to face up and take accountability on behalf of the operation they are managing, instead throwing the lowest-level workers under the bus for things well out of their control.

When you're an honest, well-intended person, it can take an unfortunate amount of time to realize that not everyone is wired to be honest and well-intended and that there are, in fact, people trying to take advantage of every situation. Even if you're experienced in dealing with difficult customer situations like this, it can take a while to dawn on you that these people were trying to manipulate a situation and take advantage of it when your first reaction was to take their words at face value.

Unfortunately, this happens a fair amount to servers when entitled customers complain in order to get a free meal, and the servers end up taking the brunt of their customers and their manager's wrath.

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    BC24 h अवस्थाला Gree Mebo 3
    via Jessie McCall
  • 02
    r/Tales From YourServer 13 hr. ago selsina ● r/ A customer complained 3 times about cold food, then tipped the kitchen chefs and complained about me Long Okay. This is going to be long, but I'm upset still so I need to vent. ... This two top (guy and girl) came in tonight, a pretty slow Sunday evening. All goes well and the girl jokes around with me, while her (dad? Grandpa? Unsure of ages) is generally easy going. At first.
    via selsina
  • 03
    The first problem is when the girl's food comes out. The guy says her fries are cold. I tell them oh that's no good, let me have them re-plate your salmon and veggies so you can still eat while we cook up a fresh batch of fries. This was my first mistake- not realizing he wanted fresh fries on top of the cold ones so they had two orders of fries. I run it back to the kitchen and ask our expo to have them make new fries while we re plate the dish. Thankfully, they had fries coming up then so they
    via selsina
  • 04
    I have her check to ensure they're fresh, she says yes thank you. But then the guy says his rice and quinoa is cold. I say oh no I don't know what's happening with cold food, that's not okay! Let me make a new batch of that and I'll relay the message to my manager and the chefs about the food coming out cold this way. The guy then just decides to get combative for no reason and says "I'm not coming up with this stuff out of my head!" Which? I didn't understand what that even meant so I said no I
    via selsina
  • 05
    I bring it out. Fresh. He then says, "this is ridiculous at this point and I don't even want you to do anything about it because we keep going back and forth on the food, but my salmon is dry while hers (the girl he's with) is moist." He was visibly annoyed and I was so lost on what else to do other than get him a manager (which, btw, I'd already told one of the two managers on shift to check on him after the rice was cold). I say I'm so sorry, and he says no I just want you to see what I'm seei
    via selsina
  • 06
    His tone has been gradually shifting into anger from the first incident with the fries, and I can tell he's not going to be happy with anything I do. I say unfortunately sir I don't know as I don't make the food, so let me tell the chef again and my manager (again). He says I didn't say you made the food, you don't have to agree with me. Never mind. But it's dry and you should be able to see that as a consumer.
    via selsina
  • 07
    ?? It honestly looked like regular salmon to me. I eat our salmon all the time and it's bomb, so idk but I obviously take his word and tell my manager again. He's not going over to the table (when I asked what the guy told him when he checked on him, he said he "just walked by and the guy was eating his food just fine" so they didn't talk). Okay... so I tell the second manager and ask him to check on the table. HE walks by. Doesn't speak to the table. Just looks at the table to see if he's eatin
    via selsina
  • 08
    The 4th time I go up to this table after they've gotten their meals is when it really just goes off the rails. I ask how everything is, the guy immediately starts berating me saying "how do I think it's going" and "I already told you how it was going" meanwhile still eating his food. He's very combative at this point and my other tables are turning to glance, so I say okay I'm sorry I was just checking- and he says "you're checking now that we're almost done? What's that going to do? You've done
    via selsina
  • 09
    I say, honestly sir I did tell my managers and asked them to come speak with you. I'm sorry that they haven't and I will go get them again (at this point he's right, it's ridiculous I've had to ask them 3 times). But he doesn't know I've asked 3 times for my managers to step in and check on him. In his mind, I've done nothing but bring two fresh items they said were cold and haven't done anything about the dry salmon that he said he doesn't want fixed.
    via selsina
  • 10
    Once he heard I had asked for a manager and hadn't had one come, he gets VERY insistent about needing the corporate phone number and starts getting louder demanding the names and positions of the managers (are they general managers? Shift managers? Names???) I give their names that he's demanding and say okay hold on, and leave to get a manager AGAIN because clearly I can't deescalate this situation on my own.
    via selsina
  • 11
    I tell my managers that he's demanding the corporate number and has their names, and only then does one of them FINALLY intervene. He proceeds to talk to this table for, I'm not kidding, 25 minutes. The table next to them is visibly uncomfortable and keep turning around to look at the guy who's complaining for so long, then make eye contact with me. They then ask for the check and pull me aside to tell me "not to worry about miserable people like that."
    via selsina
  • 12
    Finally my manager comes back from speaking with them and the guy and his daughter or whatever start to leave. They have their food all boxed up to go (despite it being terrible), and had their entire meals comped. Obviously. But then the guy starts pulling cash out and waits at the very front to "make sure he tips the kitchen staff and the manager." He then leaves smiling and waving.
    via selsina
  • 13
    I see all of this and ask my manager if he tipped him and the chefs. He says yes. I asked what his issue was with me then, and what did you guys talk about for so long? He says "you took the girls plate to get new fries instead of leaving it and getting extra ones, and he said you were in no rush to help, had no urgency."
    via selsina
  • 14
    The expo overheard a and jumps in to back me up on getting the fresh fries and rice ASAP. I had had it at this point, I'm incredibly stressed out as it is and this table made me feel awful, and now it seemed like my manager who spoke to the guy was agreeing that I should have done things different. So I told both managers "honestly, I did ask both of you guys to check on him several times and you guys both waited until he berated me about corporate and wanted your names. Waited until my other ta
    via selsina
  • 15
    upset and I need to go calm down." One manager was silent while the other one argues with me that I "never asked him to talk to the table". I reiterated hat I did, more than once, then went to the back to calm down. teach I finished my shift and left but I'm working on my masters project at 2 am now and have to tomorrow in a few hours because it's so expensive out here I have to have two jobs. In school. And these people just push me over the edge sometimes. Anyway, end rant
    via selsina
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    PACCBETA 13 hr. ago I'm sorry you had such awful customers 分 144 凸 Reply ↑ Share whiskeygambler • 12 hr. ago Honestly OP had awful managers too. It how they're so quick to throw staff under the bus. The whole situation could have been de escalated in an instant if they'd actually listened to OP and helped/done their jobs properly. 4 186 Reply ↑ Share
    via selsina
  • 17
    OverlappingChatter 10 hr. ago Free food. The endgame was always free food. Managers gotta stop comping things that people ate. 4 204 ↓ knighthawk82 • 9 hr. ago Seconded, they wanted to complain to get extra fries, extra quinoa, then he eats the food while and refusing to let you take it away then tips lets say 40, 10 to both managers and cooks, to get out of paying for an 80+ meal. Reply ↑ Share "Sir, I am sorry you are upset. If you want new food, I need to take the old food away, if you keep e
    via selsina
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    beads-and-things • 9 hr. ago hate when managers refuse to manage. I had one get annoyed at me because I convinced him to check in on a table because the CHEF asked me to ask him to speak with the guests about a food quality issue. The manager then got pissy because "they (the customers) weren't mad." Bud, when the CHEF says "I would like the MOD to speak to this table" my then goes and informs the manager what CHEF wants. It is always policy to remove food customers don't like. As far as I can t
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  • 19
    Top-Turnip-4057 . 7 hr. ago I never understand the idea of comping meals just because a customer is a . You want to encourage them to come back and get another free meal and be meaner because you taught them that's how freebies happen? Does anyone comp a meal to a customer who is super polite? 441 ↓ Reply ↑ Share
    via selsina
  • 20
    mittenknittin. 10 hr. ago One manager was silent while the other one argues with me that I "never asked him to talk to the table". What a liar. If you never asked him to talk to the table, why did he say he "stopped by but he was eating his food just fine so they didn't talk", or was he the one who comped their meal apparently at random, since you didn't tell him to stop by? ↑ 39 Reply ↑ Share
    via selsina
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    Tasteful-Yet-Trendy 7 hr. ago And then the manager accepted the tip your table gave them? Wow, just wow. Every restaurant I've ever worked out did not allow managers to accept tips (except on rare occasion they were also serving or bartending) and in this situation tip would have been given to server. Can't believe the customer but also can't believe your managers and that the manager took the cash that was given from your table instead of passing it along to you. 33 ↓ Reply ↑ Share
    via selsina
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    Strict_Condition_632 11 hr. ago ● I still can't wrap my head around the fact that there are people who are so cheap, but want to eat out, that they behave this way just to get comped. Clearly the managers there are cowards, and the one who finally spoke with the AH customer threw you under the bus. I am so sorry you experienced this. ↑ 41 ↓ 1 Share Reply
    via selsina
  • 23
    Sox1804 10 hr. ago That's horrible, and the managers really sound awful. Horrible customers like that are inevitable in this industry, but good managers are supposed to support you through that. Reply ↑ Share 18
    via selsina
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    magiccitybhm • 8 hr. ago Managers who refuse to touch tables are useless. One or both of them could have handled this. The cowards were afraid to do so. ↑ 16 ↓ Reply ↑ Share
    via selsina
  • 25
    Chemical-Paint5966 Jesus what a nightmare! great post. 10 hr. ago ● hope you get your work done. school sux, esp. when your precious brain space is rented out to squatters like this... echoing the above: your management are cowturds... 15凸 Reply ↑ Share
    via selsina
  • 26
    SelkieButFeline 8 hr. ago ● This is the worst....you got trapped between customer and kitchen management, stuff up. The unholy trifecta. Your managers threw you under the bus hard. This is how serving can be so demoralizing.....being trapped between coworkers and take it out of you. ↑ 14 ↓ customers. It can really Reply ↑ Share
    via selsina

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