‘It was a lie!’: Money-grubbing client fakes getting food poisoning from the food truck after their event to cut costs on their final budget, gets called out by the catering company when they refuse a refund

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Aug 29, 2025 6:00 PM EDT

Catering is a thankless job, but at least the compensation can be quite decent until people start coming after you for refunds. When this caterer and food truck operator realized that he was about to hemorrhage cash after finally completing a nightmare job with a Karen client, he dug his heels in. Because, despite being the only person to allegedly contract food poisoning from the food truck at her wedding, this cheap client wasn't about to get away with a full refund just because she was acting insufferable. 

This was one food service employee who not only knew what he was doing, but who he was dealing with: An amateur grifter. 

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    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • With my own jaded history in the events industry, I am very familiar with the clientele this story describes. Entitled, dominating, and pushy, these bulldozer-type customers are on a mission to lower the price no matter what, even if that means slandering a hard-earned business in the process. It's one thing to money-grub for discounts, but it's another to demand a refund after the day of the event with unsubstantiated lies at your back. 

  • "Customer from catering lied about getting food poisoning"

    I used to manage a food truck and catering company and in the summer, there were so so so many caterings. Great for business, but it was a lot. The owners friend had another friend getting married, and highly
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  • recommended us. His friend would always convince us to give her major discounts for events, and one time even got us to cater an event and then when it came time for her to pay
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  • the invoice, she said "well isn't this charity?" Which it wasn't. We had agreed on a price months prior. Anyways, she convinced her friend that we'd also give a discount to her for sure. Which wasn't something we
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  • did, or wanted to do. However she booked with us very last minute, and we already had an event booked on her wedding day. Plus we hadn't heard she wanted us to cater up until she called to book. She got very r de,
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  • and told us that her friend was the owners friend, (sorry if this is confusing saying friend so many times) and that she was told that we would definitely cater. So, I took it upon myself to offer a drop-off
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  • catering, and I'd deliver it myself and then meet up with the rest of the staff for the other catering afterwards. She wasn't super happy about a drop off catering but agreed to it. She
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  • proceeded to tell us that she wanted our deluxe taco catering plan, but with additional items and toppings. She wanted it to include, without an additional fee, multiple flavors of agua Fresca, margarita Italian ice, more
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  • taco toppings, and more protein options (not just vegetarian, but different types and flavors of meat). We said we would accommodate her request because even though it annoyed us, she was friends with the
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  • owners friend. Then, she said: "oh, and I was told I would get a discount! What will the total be?" I was angry, but the owner was very involved in daily service and events so he agreed to a discount and offered her the price of our basic taco catering plan,
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  • 66666666666666 →BANANA BREAD CHICKEN AND VEGGIES PIE R-1650 COFES WATER-1E50 ORANG LEMON -HOW- PULLED PORK WE HA ERME Wi-
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    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • which was significantly lower than the deluxe, especially with all the add ons she wanted. But it wasn't cheap enough for her. The basic taco plan that was offered was $12 a person, which came with 3 meat options,
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  • multiple toppings, and a side. Which for a catering, in addition to all she wanted extra, is an amazing deal. But it wasn't low enough of a discount. We agreed on $9 a person, which she still fought before agreeing.
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  • Fast forward to the catering, my grandpa passed away day of, so I already wasn't in the best mood. But, had to put my customer service face on and make sure the bride, groom and guests enjoyed the catering.
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  • Drove over an hour away to drop it off, and after setting it up, the bride goes "umm.. where is the bartender?" I was very confused and asked what she meant. "We planned a margarita bar.",
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  • is how she responded. I told her that in her invoice, an email, and a phone interaction, we agreed on adding margarita Italian ice, which she said she wanted and found from our website. She was livid, I guess she
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  • told everyone there was gonna be a margarita bar. I told her it was complimentary because her friend was friends with the owner, on top on everything else she added that we'd usually charge for, but she was just mad. I made sure everything was okay and set up, and arranged a time to pick up the containers and steam tables.
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  • A week later, we got a 1 star review from the bride online. She said we lied about what we were going to bring to her wedding, and alot of guests including her and her husband got food poisoning from our food. I
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  • panicked. I called her to discuss it. She didn't say much other than she expected a refund. Mind you, everything was cooked and prepared not only day of but right before the wedding and stored, heated, and cooked properly. We ended up
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  • reaching out to the friend of the owner, who had referred the bride to us, and she said it was a lie to get a refund, because we had done charity work for her before, why not her friend? The owner to my surprise
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  • went off on his friend, because the "charity" we had done before was because he felt pressured into it when we asked for the invoice, and we charge for our food. She said everything was great, but the bride
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  • just couldn't afford to not get that money back. Even after the major discounts we gave her. Most of our events, other than this friend of the owner, we always required the invoice before the event, at least a few days
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  • before. So, we already had the money from the wedding even though it didn't cover how much we provided — - and did not refund. After that, he told his friend that from that point forward, she had to abide by our normal requirements, paying an invoice before the event. She never contacted us to cater again.
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  • Relative_Leek_2838. Glad your boss backed you up. Some customers think 'friend of a friend' equals free catering.
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  • friskybishh Wow, that sounds exhausting. You handled an impossible situation professionally, and honestly, it sounds like she was just trying to take advantage of you.
    via friskybishh

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customer service deserved refund caterer lies food truck customers client food poisoning wedding food service catering karens in the wild karen budget entitled people
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