Fast food workers have to be quick and precise in order to be good at their jobs. But what happens when their customers can’t keep up? In these stories, fast-food workers reveal the customers that definitely weren’t the brightest.
All stories have been edited for clarity.
Hostage Situation
“I used to be a hostess at a well-known steakhouse.
A middle-aged man walked in and asked to be seated as soon as possible. Even though he was dining alone, the wait was still estimated to be about forty minutes. Once I quoted this time, the man literally pouted and sulked away.
A few moments later, the man jumped up from the waiting area and approached my podium. He gestured toward a closed section of tables and said, ‘But there are four tables right there! Why can’t you just seat me over there? Why are you making all these people wait!?’
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes before saying, ‘Sir, those tables are empty because that section is closed. The server is at home with the flu. There is no one available to serve those tables.’
The man crossed his arms, ‘That’s ridiculous! I demand to sit there! You can’t just hold tables hostage like that!’
We were way too busy for me to go back and forth with him. I shrugged and said, ‘Ok. You can sit there, but no one will come by to take your order.’
The man shot me a ‘That’s what I thought’ look and marched right to the closed section and had a seat at one of the many empty tables. I continued welcoming guests and honestly forgot about him before the man verbally expressed his outrage once more.
At some point, he beckoned over one of my shift leads and yelled that he didn’t feel welcomed because no one had come by to serve him a drink.
‘That girl wouldn’t seat me here because she said it was closed. So I sat down anyway because she can’t just do that!'”
Wrong Place…
“I worked at Burger King for a while. One day, we had a massive rush come through. There was a line all the way to the door, but we kept pushing our way through the heat.
At some point, this guy got in line with an agitated look on his face. He waited in line for about five to ten minutes. His anger intensified with each passing moment before it was finally his turn to order. The stomped up to my register and screamed at the top of his lungs while waving a Taco Bell bag at me. ‘You forgot my sour cream!’
I was dumbfounded. Somehow the guy waited in line our massive line, with pictures of burgers everywhere to have his Taco Bell order corrected. Seeing how upset he was, I told him I would go get a manager and disappeared into the back of the kitchen, holding back a laugh.
As I came back, I saw the guy looking around with a bewildered look on his face. Once my manager and I finally made it back to the counter, I explained to her how we messed up his order.
‘We forgot the sour cream for his tacos.’
My manager gawked at me, rolled her eyes harder than I have ever seen anyone roll their eyes, and turned around and walked back to her office.
The guy looked at me as he opened and closed his mouth but no words came out. I could tell from the look on his face that his brain knew something is wrong.
Finally, I pointed out the window. The man followed the direction of my finger and saw the Taco Bell next door.
The man, his face a bright cherry red, made a beeline for the front door without another word.”
Old Water
“The ice dispenser broke at the fast food joint I used to work at. As a temporary fix, we set out a giant serving bowl full of ice with tongs, so people could still ice their drinks. We didn’t have an estimated time of arrival for the repairman, so it was the best we could do.
About ten minutes after putting out the ice bowl, a customer marched up to me and complained about the machine not dispensing ice. Duh.
With my best customer service voice, I told him, ‘We know. A repair guy was called, but he’s not here yet. In the meantime, there’s a bowl of ice next to the soda fountain.’
The guy immediately cocked an attitude and said. ‘How do I know that ice hasn’t been sitting out there all day?’
I believe I stared at him for a good thirty seconds before saying, ‘Because it’s still solid.’
The man returned my gaze with bitterness. We stared each other down for a few more seconds before the man’s eyes softened once he realized what he said.
‘If left out at room temperature ‘old ice’ would just be water,’ I spoke up, not even caring how ‘unprofessional’ I sounded. I couldn’t believe I had to explain the physics of ice to someone twice my age.
Of course, seeing how dumb he looked, the man did the one thing he knew he could do to ‘get back’ at me.
‘I want to speak with your manager.'”
McDummy
“I was working in the drive-thru at McDonald’s one day when this guy pulled up to the speaker.
‘Hello, what can I get for you today?’ I greeted the man, not even realizing my patience was going to be tested to the extreme.
‘Um, yeah can I get a chicken nugget happy meal but it’s a hamburger?’ The man said.
Thinking I misheard him, I asked him to repeat himself. The man however said the exact same thing. So, I asked him ‘You want a chicken nugget happy meal with a hamburger on the side?’
‘No,’ the man said firmly. ‘I want a chicken nugget happy meal, but it’s a hamburger.’
I was horribly confused so I asked him, ‘Did you mean a hamburger happy meal?’
Again the man said no with a hint of annoyance and repeated his order which made absolutely no sense. Trying to help guide the man in the right direction, I asked him if he wanted a chicken nugget happy meal OR a hamburger happy meal.
Amazingly, I got the same response from him. The man was so agitated he was on the verge of yelling into the mic. There were no audio issues of the sort. The man was speaking complete nonsense that I could not for the life of me figure out.
Giving up, I said, ‘Okay, we’ll have your total at the first window.’
Before he reached the window, I typed in a hamburger happy meal and had him pay for it before sending him on his way.
Thinking back on it, I think the dude must have been under the influence of some kind of drug. I don’t think he had an issue with what he got because I never heard anything after that day.”