'The look on her face when she opened that burger was priceless': 20+ Petty ways that fast food employees got back at their most entitled customers

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Oct 3, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

These fast-food workers made some split-second decisions about the food they were making, and their customers had no idea. 

Some people have no sense of self-preservation. They're happy to order food in the most impolite tone possible. Why is that? Why do people choose to be combative over something as trivial as a cheap burger or some fries? You get what you pay for, so if your fast-food burger isn't 100% perfect, is it really worth complaining over? To these people, it sure is. It's almost like they forgot that there are real human beings with feelings who are making their food. They've somehow become so entitled that they don't think anyone would mess with their meal. 

But, according to the thousands of people who replied to u/confusedworried's question, getting revenge on a customer by messing up their food is totally fair game. People from lots of different food service industries weighed in, including chefs and fast-food workers. As long as they were out of the customer's line of sight, they could do pretty much whatever they wanted… Check out some of the most startling and funny stories below. 

Up next, this HOA board member made a startling decision without telling any homeowners, writing, "The pool is closed… what you may not know is the reason." 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10411940608
    via Getty Images on Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    Those who work in the fast-food industry - have you ever sabotaged a meal because the customer If so, what did you do? you off?
    via u/confusedworried
  • 03
    pandapied At an old pizza place I worked at, we all found out that our boss took out some of our tip money from the jar... Everybody got extral food for the next week or so. A dozen wings you say? Here have 30!!! And 5 ranches to dip in.
    via u/pandapied
  • 04
    [deleted] When I worked at McDonalds, I would make the sandwiches look like the pictures if people were This consisted of putting all the condiments on one side of the burger with the pickles hanging slightly out.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    6_ft_4 About 10 years ago when I was working at a KFC, I had an older lady start yelling at me as soon as she began talking. She also mentioned something about not smashing the biscuits. I smashed the biscuits.
    via u/6_ft_4
  • 06
    vanillasoftserve Once a lady made me go through about fifteen wafer cones 'till I found one that was not "destroyed" (wafer cones are fragile and are prone to chips around the edges). When I finally found. one she approved of, I pressed the ice cream in it just hard enough as to
    via u/vanillasoftserve
  • 07
    create a stratigically-placed crack. The crack would get worse and worse the more she bit into it, ultimitely rendering the cone useless.
    via u/vanillasoftserve
  • 08
    t I guess this isn't technically destroying the food, but it's pretty close so here goes. When I worked at burger king there was this one middle-aged lady who would come in once or twice a week and order a burger with extra onions. And no matter how many we put on, it was never enough. I'd put a sizable handful on (even
    via u/thingg
  • 09
    though you're only supposed to put like 4-5 onions on it and then add a few more if they ask for extra) and it still was never enough. So one day she comes in and the store manager (surprisingly given the industry, she was actually pretty cool) told me to put a lot on so I put a huge handful on and my manager handed it to the customer
    via u/thingg
  • 10
    while making sarcastic comments over the internal channel on our headsets. Sure enough, the lady comes back an complains that it's not enough onions (keep in mind we already put, no joke, at least 20x more onion than we should have). So my manager (while swearing under her breath) hands me the burger and tells me to put some more
    via u/thingg
  • 11
    onions on. Then before I got a chance to put any on, she was like "actually, no; forget this. Give me some of those gloves and I'll do it." She then proceeds to take almost half of the 2.5kg container of onions, dump it on the burger, and rewrap it.
    via u/thingg
  • 12
    The lady took it back to her seat while we all went out by the register to watch. The look on her face when she opened that burger was priceless and as far as I know she never complained about not having enough onions after that
    via u/thingg
  • 13
    brosssh I didn't ruin any food (or drinks in this case) but when I worked at Starbucks some dude was being a said "Please, don't be so l to me, sir" and it was the worst thing I have said to a customer.
    via u/brosssh
  • 14
    FaT_LiP Pizza slinger here. I won't mess with your food, but I sure will shake the out of your 2L of coke in the car and smile as I hand it to you.
    via u/FaT_LiP
  • 15
    CaandiceJaade I don't work in fast food, but as someone who works in retail, let me tell you this- if you're to me, you're getting the ugliest change in the drawer.
    via u/CaandiceJaade
  • 16
    [deleted] One time at Burger King I was working a particularly slow shift and this little kid came in with just enough money for a Cookies n Cream ice cream. These things usually take 30 seconds to make but the kid looked really excited and since things were slow, I took an extra effort to make sure the oreo cookies were nicely mixed into the ice
    via u/[deleted]
  • 17
    cream and that the ice cream itself was full to the brim of the cup. Well my manager didn't like this at all, not the part about taking an extra minute on the kids ice cream, nor the part about actually filling the cup properly. So he made me throw it out In spite of my boss though I just made a bigger and better ice cream for that kid.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 18
    Added the whole shabam, MnMs, oreos, choc flakes, choc sauce, the whole deal. Filled it up so much that it was practically worth 3 times as much as the kid paid and told him to run.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 19
    SHAVES_YER_... I used to work at a sandwich shop. Company policy was 3 baby tomatoes per sandwich. Once a lady me off and I only gave her two!!
    via u/SHAVES_YER_B*******
  • 20
    [ Some guy was being a 1 to me in Drive Thru at McDonalds, so when he asked for extra pickles, I gave him no pickles. I still feel like a badass looking back on it.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 21
    mallardboy I worked at a Subway and lady came through drive- through (my Subway has a drive-through, yes, what the ) and she drove past the order mike and honked and knocked on the window. Slightly irritated I open it and take her order. She got bacon on her sandwich and asked for me to be sure it was crispy. Okay sure. I Give the order to my co-worker
    via u/mallardboy
  • 22
    and tell the lady it would be done in a jiffy. She restates that she wants it crispy, and that the idiot working last night when she drove through was to stupid to know what crispy was. I soon realized that I was that idiot. I tell her, "Okay, I'll be sure it's crispy." walk over
    via u/mallardboy
  • 23
    and take the bacon myself, and charred the greasy outta that bacon. It essentially just crumbled and looked like pepper. I don't like having my intelligence insulted by someone who won't see me making their food.
    via u/mallardboy
  • 24
    mikeehawk When I used to work at a baseball park as a fry cook, remember this one time the biggest of a woman came in and ordered a cheese burger. No problem. Now keep in mind, this is a small little league, non- profit, run of the mill baseball park with a concession stand, so don't expect 5 star quality stuff.
    via u/mikeehawk
  • 25
    So she orders a cheese burger and I grabbed on off of the heating plate thing we had to keep all the food we made hot. I had cooked those burger not even five minutes before she came in so they were still pretty fresh. She then says "Umm.. excuse me? I want a FRESH burger, not that one thats been sitting there." I explain to her that I had just recently put those burgers out but she wasn't having it,
    via u/mikeehawk
  • 26
    so I said and went ahead and made her a fresh one. So when I give it to her, this charming woman proceeds to say, "What? There isn't any lettuce or tomatoes or anything on this burger!" Like I said before, rinky- baseball park, don't expect 5-star quality. I pointed out the fridge that held all the condiments and told her they're all right there and that you just put what you'd like on your
    via u/mikeehawk
  • 27
    burger. She then through the BIGGEST fit ever screaming things like "I'm not the one who works here! It's not my job to make my own burger! You're the one who gets paid for this, not me! Now you either fix my burger or I'm getting your manager" Again, I complied because it was my first job ever, and I was only 14 at the time, so of course I didn't want to get in trouble.
    via u/mikeehawk
  • 28
    Finally I put all her on her burger, still trying to be as polite as possible, wrap it up and hand it to her. And AGAIN, she's not satisfied. She then tells me she wants her burger cut in half. By this time I'm completely fed up. I ask her the reason she needed it cut, hoping that this entire ordeal was for her child which I would have gladly done, or at least some reason for me to feel
    via u/mikeehawk
  • 29
    obligated to grant her request. Her reason: "Because thats how I like my burger's, and I wont eat them any other way." By this time I'm screaming in my head, "THEN STARVE, !" but again, 14, didn't wanna lose my job, I complied. But, like people say, never off someone who handles your food. So I took her burger to the back to cut it, and instead of getting a clean knife, I
    via u/mikeehawk
  • 30
    grabbed what we called our "Go-to tool" which was an old knife we used to dig out dirt or caked up grease from the grill and deep fryer. Basically every disgusting place you could think of, that knife had been there. Just for good measure I scraped off some more gunk from anything I could find in my vicinity and then cut her burger for her, and wiped the knife off in her burger, as
    via u/mikeehawk
  • 31
    if the burger itself were a cloth I was using to clean my knife. Came back, served her her burger with a smile and said "Enjoy your burger!" TL;DR: Biggest came in asking for a burger even a king and queen would find to be too much to ask for, I probably gave her some kind of stomach disease with a dirty knife I used to cut the burger.
    via u/mikeehawk
  • 32
    waterfountain... I never sabotaged, but if someone was , they were getting the lettuce that was wilted, or the tomato with the big splotch on it, or a salad that was just about to expire. If they were nice, they got fresh curly fries, mozzarella sticks, what have you. Also, we used to "screw the corporation" by holding the freezer door open (which blocked the office
    via u/waterfountain_bidet
  • 33
    window) while we ate by the fryer, or dropping extra mozz sticks and jalepeno bites so we could eat them in secret. Also, if they ever bring them back- Arby's cheesecake bites are a million times better frozen than fried. Tell your friends.
    via u/waterfountain_bidet
  • 34
    L Not on purpose, but the summer after my sr year of high school, I worked at a really busy pizza shop. It was not a chain, but a company with only 2 restaurants in the Mpls area, where everything was handmade. To the point of pouring flour, water, yeast and salt into a big bowl and mixing it with an industrial bakery mixer for the crust.
    via u/LGXboxDewNissan
  • 35
    Tomatoes were puree'd and seasoning mixed in. Mushrooms were mixed with garlic and butter and baked. Cheese was sliced from a big brick with a meat slicer (one of those electric circular spinning blade but manual "saw the thing back and forth" deals). Anyway, it was blazing hot that summer (1988) and the kitchen was not air
    via u/LGXboxDewNissan
  • 36
    conditioned. I had a drip of sweat run off my nose and into a pizza a couple times. We were so busy that I couldn't take the time to do anything about it so I just kept on making the pizza. Hopefully my germies got baked to death in the oven.
    via u/LGXboxDewNissan
  • 37
    Rosscow 619 Some cop asked for a liter a cola and was being a about it so i stabbed a hole in the side and covered it. with a promotional peel- away sticker. Man that guy was
    via u/Rosscow619
  • 38
    [ When I was in high school | had a very quiet and shy friend. I would frequently decide to fight her battles. for her. So, she dated a guy who ended up cheating on her. Shortly after, he came through the drive through of a local fast food joint I was working at.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 39
    He ordered some fancy blended coffee drink thing, and I mixed a bunch of dirty mop bucket water into his drink before serving it to him. that guy. Other than that, I have never I with a customer's meal/service, no matter how much of an they are.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 40
    BeboFamous This will probably get buried now, but I used to work at Subway. One lady came in and started yelling at me while my boss was trying to tell me something relatively important. It was already mildly busy and this lady had waltz to the front of the queue and demanded I make her a sandwich. I asked her to wait a few seconds while I finished
    via u/BeboFamous
  • 41
    talking listening to to my boss who was already mid conversation. Lady says something like 'this isnt good enough' left $5 on the bench and told me to make her whatever sandwich and she'd be back in 5 minutes. I made her a vege patty with lettuce, a fuckload of jalapenos and red wine vinaigrette, which any sandwich artist in the
    via u/BeboFamous
  • 42
    world will tell you is the most foul sauce ever known to man. One of my coworkers. sniffed it and vomited one day. She came back 20 minutes later and picked up her sandwich change, and probably didnt enjoy the rest of the day.
    via u/BeboFamous
  • 43
    [ When I was a teenager I threw a chicken patty on a Filet-O-Fish when we were busy and the fish was still cooking. The customer did nothing to me off, and I still feel bad for it today.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 44
    IsHomestuckA... I would get people that would give me an incredible amount of sass when they asked for extra whatever. For instance, mayonnaise. I would drown that sammich in mayo if they got enough about how "nobody ever understands extra, blah blah blah".
    via u/IsHomestuckAnAnime
  • 45
    But I have never spit in anyone's food nor added anything extra nor leave anything out. I just did what they told me to do. Maybe in excess.
    via u/IsHomestuckAnAnime

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