I used to work in a nice BBQ restaurant in NYC. Everything came out quick unless the food item was fried (like wings, fries, etc.). The reason for this was that the meat was smoked, so if it wasn’t too busy, all the cooks had to do was pull the meat out of the smoker and cut it up. People should be happy about this, not upset.

I had two young women come in and immediately start asking me questions before I could even greet them. The questions were about which drink is the strongest, which plate of food is the best deal, etc. Anytime I’d ask them if they wanted a drink they’d respond by asking another question about the menu. They finally ordered drinks and I quickly brought them over. Seconds later as I walked away they yelled for me to come back to them, because the drinks weren’t strong enough. This has happened before when customers try to get free drinks, so our store policy is that we take the drink away and order something new (and void the first drink). When I took the drinks away they were not happy, obviously thinking I’d let them finish their “weak” drinks and give them something else for free.

Then they ordered their food, and when I told them we were sold out of the potato salad, one of the women literally rolled her eyes at me and turned her head to face the wall, in disbelief. Moments later she turned back, shrugged, and switched her order to cornbread. The food, like always, came out quickly and the women were happy, except for one thing: that darned cornbread. They were made it wasn’t made to order. It would be lovely if we could make cornbread to order, but we unfortunately don’t have 45 minutes to bake cornbread for every customer who orders it (which is plentiful). They asked for my manager, who was smart enough not to give into their obvious demands to want something for free.

At the end of the night, they were the worst customers I had all week. They constantly waved me over or yelled for me loudly when I was in the area, even though I would walk by their table minutes earlier. I kept a happy face on trying to “kill them with kindness,” but at the end of the night, received $40 total for the $39.46 bill.

Submitted by: Heather