30. Special Order
So after realizing I had quite a bit more spending money than I had thought, my partner and I decided that we would go out for dinner. I had been craving mapo tofu for over a week, so after driving to a place my colleague had recommended that had already closed for the evening, we decided to go to a random little place Google maps told us mentioned mapo tofu on their menu.
We got there at about 35ish minutes before they close. I really didn’t want to bother them but I figured that might be enough time to not be a pain. No one was there other than us and I believe an employee eating dinner. A waitress greeted us and seated us with menus immediately, and brought out some tea and water too. She came back shortly after to take our order.
By the way, the waitress had a very heavy accent and there was a definite language barrier. SO = significant other. W= waitress. At this point I see the mapo tofu in the veggie section of the menu Me internally: Oh, that’s a weird place to put a pork and tofu dish… maybe they're thinking the tofu counts it as a veggie? Weird. SO: orders his sweet and sour chicken after some questions
Me to Waitress: "Hey, the mapo tofu, that’s the tofu in the red sauce with ground pork, right?" W: "Oh, no, no pork, just veggie and tofu." Me: insert look of my brain hitting a wall at 100mph W: "You... need more time? Maybe you'd like—lists every pork or spicy dish I was not at all listening to as I desperately glanced over the menu. At this point I basically just resigned myself to not eating anything.
I figured we already took up a table so I'd order my SOs food to go and just tip on it. M: "Oh, uhhhhh, no...no, it’s okay. We'll, uh, we'll just go with what he ordered and, uh, you can probably do that to go and, uh, nothing for me...thanks." W: "You sure? Ok then, I’ll bring some hot and sour soup while waiting, no charge on the bill." SO looks at me apologetically as I put my hands on my temples, framing my eyes as I mutter-groan softly (I thought) to him after she was well out of earshot (I thought), "Man, I just wanted mapo tofu. My GPS said they had it and everything and I’ve been wanting this for weeks."
Apparently, I'm not as quiet as I thought The waitress stops and comes back W: "You know what, we chop pork from shredded pork dish and put in tofu. You still want? We'll make it good!" Me, stunned: "Uh, yeah, ok, thank you!" The waitress walked off as SO and I just stared at each other at how sweet of an offer to special order that for us so close to closing time was.
About 5 minutes later, she brought out our soup, and about 10 minutes after that she brings us out these HUGE portions of food. Seriously, we currently have at least five meals worth of leftovers in the fridge. It gets better. When it came time to pay the bill, she brought boxes for our food unprompted, got us fresh scoops of rice to go because she didn't want to send us home with spoiled rice, and also gave us a freaking QUART of the soup because we seemed to like it.
At this point SO and I are trading awkward glances like “she did NOT have to do any of this, she’s so nice.” So I did what any completely sane person would do. I tipped $20 on a $19 order. She gave us a to-go menu so we could look it over if we ever wanted to try anything else in the future and saw us out before going to pick up the tip. As we were leaving, she came hurrying out of the restaurant (we parked directly in front of it) to thank us profusely over the tip which I just super awkwardly brushed off like “Oh, yes, no problem, thanks for the service.”
Super freaking awkward on my end because as someone with mostly NY heritage who works in customer service, I just expect some impersonal level of casual, normal rudeness. Seriously, people thanking me and going out of their way like this for me bothers me inherently; I have a problem, send help.
31. The Ones Who Came Before
I just got reminded of this. A few years ago, I had stopped by a well-known fast-food place on my way home to get breakfast for everyone. I get to the counter, make my order, and then when she asked if there was anything else I decided that since I was there I'd get some ice cream. She took a deep breath, grabbed the counter, and said, "I'm sorry, the ice cream machine is down."
I shrugged and said, "Okay. I'll have an apple pie then." She looked at me. Her eyes got wide and watered and soon she was outright sobbing. I had no idea what I'd done. The manager came out to see what was wrong (as she very well should have) and I explained the situation. Then I said, "Is it the pie? Are you out of pie too? It's okay; I probably shouldn't be eating sweets anyway!" And the cashier just sobbed harder.
The manager gave her a comforting hug and said, "Sorry. The guy in front of you was a real jerk.”
32. Money Can’t Buy Happiness
At our local grocery store, there is a fully functioning bank. An older gentleman gets $700 out of the ATM. He sticks it in the top pocket of his shirt and starts walking out of the store. I honestly don’t know how he didn’t notice it falling out and then dropping all around him, but he didn’t. There are quite a few people around and I’m concerned someone is going to try and take this money if I don’t pick it up quickly.
I yell after the man, “Sir! Sir! Sir!” But he isn’t responding, just continues walking. I’m frozen for a moment. Do I run after him and leave the money, or pick it up so it’s not all over the ground and then try to catch him...As I’m thinking, a young employee runs out the door after him, also calling for him. I finish picking up all the money, get it neatly organized just as the man approaches me. It all went wrong here.
I go to hand it to him, and he roughly jerks it out of my hand, turns away from me, and says, “It better all be here!” Then starts counting it. At that point, I just walked away. I can’t ever imagine being that rude to someone. I just picked up all your money, stood there fixing it into a neat pile, and go to nicely hand it to you, and that’s how you respond?! I now wish I hadn’t and you dropped it someplace where it was taken. Jerk!
33. Me First
I was at the grocery store, and I had about $200 worth of goods in my cart. I get to the checkout and start unloading. I get about a third of my items out of the cart and onto the belt, when behind me, a lady starts putting her things on the belt. "Hi, you might want to wait until I'm done, I have a bunch of stuff left" I mention as I do a The Price is Right-style open-hand reveal of my still substantially filled cart.
She says, and I quote, "Oh, that's okay." and she keeps putting items on the belt. "No, you don't understand. I am not done putting my stuff on the belt, if you don't remove yours, our stuff will get mixed up. And I'm not paying for your groceries." "I don't have much, it's okay, don't worry about it" she says, as if the cashier can magically keep or orders separate, like the 2-into-1 lines at a fast-food drive-thru.
"Uhh... ma'am...you don't understand, I'm not done yet!" Now, I'm getting frustrated. Of course, she just keeps ignoring me. I knew what I had to do. I grab the yellow plastic separator thing—you know that bar you put between your groceries and the next in line—and place it between her groceries and mine. I then use it to sweep her groceries back, like that arm that sweeps up the fallen pins at the bowling alley.
This of course gives me room to continue unloading. Which I do. And as I continue to push, one hand on the bar, the other unloading my cart, her groceries are starting to fall off the edge of the belt. She huffs, gives me a look, and a "Well, fine!" then arm sweeps her stuff back into her basket and storms off to find another checkout lane. Wow. Some people...
34. Holiday Cheer
I joined a Secret Santa at work, and it had a $20 limit. My pick wanted soft winter wear. I went to a store that sells everything and their winter gear was half-off. Awesome! So I picked up a soft scarf and a pair of gloves. I didn’t have much ringing out, so I went through the self-checkout. When I scanned the gloves, they were 22 dollars. I had gotten them confused with a different pair.
I hit the void button and the very busy self-checkout cashier came up and took them from me and asked what was wrong with them. “Nothing, I’m so sorry. I got mixed up.” “How much did you expect them to be?” I was getting pretty embarrassed at this point. “I thought they’d be 12 dollars, I got confused, I’m so sorry.” He then over-rode my purchase and punched them in at 12.99.
These were originally 44 dollar gloves. I thought this guy was being mean and just being stressed from holiday retail, but he was so kind. I thanked him profusely and I’m so sad I couldn’t speak to a manager about how great he was because I was scared he’d get in trouble about the discount. It meant a lot. My co-worker was so happy with her gift, and so was I.
35. Busting A Gut
When I was around eight years old, my mom took me to her co-worker’s wedding. During the reception, I was quietly sitting around bored so my mother nudged me and asked me if I'd like to get a soda from the bar. This was a Very Big Deal because we grew up very poor. Like, poor to the point I thought it was normal to eat cornflakes with water because milk was a treat for rich people.
I was always really anxious about money being spent on me and as a result, I'd always feel so guilty. My mother reassured me and told me not to worry because the drinks were free as part of the wedding. She told me I just needed to go up to the bar and ask for a drink and I would get one and I wouldn't need money. Mind you, the entire restaurant/bar was booked out for the wedding so it's not like I could have been mistaken as a separate diner who had to pay.
I walk alone up to the bar and see a young woman of around ~22 behind the counter who stares down at me with an annoyed look on her face. I was still really worried about the money issue since I'd never heard of free drinks before, so I shyly asked her, "Um...Is it true that the drinks are free?" I'm a tiny kid and I'd never heard of catering. The way she treated me still haunts me to this day.
The woman stops polishing her and lets out this loud snort. She then starts smirking. She stared at me silently with that smirk on her face for at least five seconds (which is actually really long when it happens to you) and then without taking her eyes off me, she tilts her head and loudly calls out, "Oi, Melissa!! Come over here!" And then she starts cracking up laughing.
A second waitress wanders out of a room behind the counter, stands next to the first waitress, and glances at us curiously. She asks what’s up. The first waitress sticks her arm out and points her index finger right in my face and while still cackling, she tells Melissa, "This little girl thinks the drinks are FREE." Melissa howls with laughter and they both stand like a meter in front of me, one still pointing straight at me, just straight up jeering and laughing uncontrollably.
I'm beyond confused and I feel so tiny and humiliated. I thought it was an innocent question? Why are they both making such a big deal about this? They continued laughing and clutching each other for so long that I started to turn away and walk out on the verge of tears. That makes them stop laughing as hard and Melissa yells out "Oi!" I turn back. Melissa says to me in an extremely condescending voice, "They're not free, they're on the house."
I've never heard of that phrase before and I'm still scared from their reactions so I just kind of froze. They sneer harder and go on to say that "on the house" means I won't have to pay so hurry up and tell them what drink I want. And now my earliest memory of Fanta is sitting quietly at the table next to my mom drinking it and feeling so ashamed and tearful because I still didn't understand why I didn't have to pay if it wasn't free, but that it must be my fault for being stupid because grown-ups wouldn't react so strongly unless they had a reason.
Obviously, I know better now. I know it's such a minor incident since it's not like it cost me any money, but their reactions were so over the top. I'm now older than they were at the time and I simply can't understand calling over your co-worker to point at and mock a child who was too little to know the difference between "free," "on the house," and "don't have to pay." I honestly didn't exaggerate anything about their reactions.
36. Healthy Boundaries
This was almost six years ago, when our daughter was only a few weeks out of the NICU after being born more than 10 weeks early. She is now fine and doing great in Kindergarten. When we first brought her home, she still needed a lung and heart monitor to make sure she was breathing properly. She was born in February, so most of the time we would keep her home due to the extreme Midwestern weather.
But occasionally we'd want to take her out and feel like a normal family with a newborn. Obviously, additional precautions needed to be taken. We had a baby carrier cover to protect from the weather, but that gets quite warm so we started to use a mosquito net in order to keep random strangers from just reaching in and touching her. This worked amazingly.
It was important because she had a severely low immune system and any little bug could send her right back to the NICU. So this was a very big deal for us. We started using this net because it was an issue with complete strangers just walking up and touching our newborn. Not cool to do, by the way. And it mostly worked great, people could still see her and get all mushy over her, but couldn't easily get to her without us noticing.
Well, this one particular day, we went to the grocery store to get a few items. All is going fine, mosquito net is working great. We go to self-checkout so we can get finished quickly and get her home. The woman attending the self-checkout apparently notices that we have a newborn and wants to see her. No problem, peek through the net like everyone else, right? Nope.
This woman thinks it's OK to just lift the net and rub her cheeks. This woman works with money all day. Her hands have to be absolutely riddled with germs. We say politely not to lift the net, and not to touch her as she has an immune disorder. The woman actually says oh no, that's OK, I'm sure she'll be fine and keeps reaching into the carrier. My wife puts the net back down rather forcefully and says, no it's not OK, and please don't reach in there again.
I was grabbing a soda from the "last-minute coolers" at the register, when I hear a horrible sound. It is very clearly skin-to-skin contact from a slap. Apparently, the woman went back to our daughter while my wife was loading cash into the machine. My wife spotted her at the last second and reached over and slapped the heck out of the woman's hand.
Now, this woman was easily in her late 60s. My wife and I were a very young-looking 27 at the time. She was just beside herself that someone had the nerve to slap her hand. She actually started scolding my wife about being disrespectful to her elders. So, my wife says let me speak to a manager NOW! Suddenly a look of "Oh God, what have I done" comes over this woman's face.
As the manager is approaching, the cashier is being very apologetic and trying to calm the situation down now. My wife tells the manager what happened, and then told her about how the cashier responded. We didn't stick around for what was said to the woman, but we never saw her again. The manager is now the GM at another location that we shop at now that we've moved, and she still remembers us.
Our daughter is always so excited to see her and talk to her about how things are going in school.
37. Double Dipping
I've been dealing with some really severe health issues, and am also visually disabled and don't drive. I'm definitely doing better than I was before, but can sometimes be hit out of nowhere with flareups. Now, because of my eyes, I can't navigate by bus, so I pretty much get rides from family/friends/neighbors and/or use Uber/Lyft when I really need to go somewhere.
So, on Monday I had a pretty important appointment in the afternoon to deal with matters related to my grandma's estate, as she recently passed away. The plan was, I'd take a Lyft to my meeting, then run some errands in the area (pick up my meds, etc.), and then would go to the restaurant next door to have something to eat and my mom could meet me there when she got off work shortly after.
Everything goes according to plan, it's all a pretty good day, and so on, until I get to the restaurant, and it immediately goes badly. I order and everything okay, but then start suddenly feeling really sick. So, I text my mom to let her know and ask her to please hurry, and nibble at my food and such while I wait for her. I also pay the check in full with my usual 20% tip and such, but don't really pay much attention because I'm pretty out of it by then.
So, my mom gets there to get me, but even with having taken my meds, I need to run off to the bathroom. In the meantime, my mom glances at the check that's still on the table and notices that it's wrong. The restaurant has early dining specials before 6:00. In fact, these early prices are programmed into the computer that calculates the checks to make it easier on the staff, as we know because we're regulars and on a first-name basis with all the managers.
It's only a $2.00 difference, but the waitress had literally done a manual override to charge the full price. So, my mom asks for a drink for herself on a separate check while she waits for me because I'm really sick, and asks the waitress to please fix my check while she's at it. I get back to the table to sip my lemonade for a few minutes while I see if it's safe to get in the car, only to have the waitress come back, hand my mom something, and basically straight up toss a new check into my lap.
“Here, you just sign this." Now, granted, I was pretty out of it, but not so much so as to not remember having already signed a check, so I was pretty confused. I open it up to look, and see my mom’s glass of red on there now. So, I'm just like, "Oh, okay, I guess I'm paying for your drink.” My mom looks up, startled, from what I can now see is her own check.
"Wait... what? Let me see that!" Sure enough, the waitress had fixed the early dine price thing, but when I was too out of it to notice that the first time around and my mom had told her how sick I was, she went ahead and put my mom’s drink on my check as well, as well as printing my mom her own check for that same glass, apparently counting on me to just blindly sign it.
My mom literally took both checks directly up to the manager. The full meal and drink and all ended up being zeroed out, because it was all so blatant. So, this waitress turned a 20% tip on two separate checks into no tip and a loss for the restaurant. I'll be surprised if we keep seeing her in there.
38. Never Have I Ever
I was not there when this happened, but my husband told me right after the event. He was in line to pay for his groceries later at night, and the young female cashier checking out the woman in front of him was being talked to by another, older female cashier. The older cashier is bugging the younger one about any boyfriends, and the young one is looking uncomfortable about the conversation.
She looks shy and possibly a bit underdeveloped. The young one is saying she hasn’t had a boyfriend, and the older one puts up her two fingers in a “v” and goes “it’s because you’re one of these” and then smirks at the customers in line. Obviously very embarrassed, the young girl tells the older woman to stop, and that she’s uncomfortable. The older woman doesn’t stop.
My husband is furious at this behavior and obvious harassment. He is a wonderful and sweet person, but the moment you behave poorly, you will be getting a stern talking to. It’s like when you get in trouble from your most respected teacher. He means business and you will know deep down in your bones that you were in the wrong. He turned the full force of his anger on this woman.
He calls the older woman out for making the girl uncomfortable. She makes a comment about it being “just a joke.” He tells her it’s not a joke, it’s harassment, and that she’d better apologize, right now. She makes some sort of other excuse and he cuts her off and demands the apology again. She finally meekly apologizes to the girl—She actually apologized to him first, and he says, “Why are you apologizing to me?! Apologize to her!”
He got the name of the manager and told her to expect to be hauled into the manager’s office tomorrow. He let the woman sweat, and didn’t call the manager for a few days to make her think that maybe she was in the clear. When he did call, the manager was appalled that this happened and said he would deal with the woman right away. I bet it wasn’t the first time this happened for that poor girl, but I’m hoping it was the last time.
39. The Milk Of Human Kindness
I had to run some errands in town on the third consecutive day above 113°F and my three-month-old baby was not having it. I walked into a new café to sit down and feed her when she started screaming loudly. I went up to the counter pretty flustered and ordered a coffee quickly. The waitress says, “I’m sorry but the machine is down, do you have cash?”
My baby started crying louder so I apologized and asked if they don’t mind me leaving my stroller behind for a minute so that I’d run down and withdraw some cash while I feed my little one. Meanwhile, the waitress had stuck her head back into the kitchen and spoke quietly to an older man (presumably the owner), then said to me, “You sit down, you’re not to worry about it. I’ll bring the coffee over to you, which size were you after again?”
I thanked her and said I’d go to get the money as soon as I’d finished feeding, and she shook her head and said, “No way, this one is on the house.” I went and got the money anyway as soon as my baby settled, and when I got back to the counter I ordered lunch from a different waitress and asked to pay for both the food and the coffee I’d been given earlier. The new waitress shook her head as well and said, “Nope, she gave you that coffee for free didn’t she, you’re not paying.”
I left the change in the tip jar (despite their protests) and will be back for many a meal in the future.
40. On A Wing And A Prayer
A couple of nights ago, I was getting off the night shift at my own restaurant and craving some chicken wings, so I went to this place down the street. It's this sports pub-type joint on a college campus. It was some night in the middle of the week, so it wasn't really busy. I asked the hostess if I could get a seat near an outlet (phone was low battery) and she took me to a four-top.
The server comes over and asks if I'm waiting for anyone else. I said no and his face immediately changes. He’s like "Oh...okay..." before taking my drink and app order. Now, I was the soul unlucky enough to have a table near the point-of-sale system. This dude either had no idea how to whisper or just didn't care, because I soon heard everything he was saying.
He and another server were debating on whether or not I got stood up. He also said something along the lines of, "She better be a great tipper because I’m losing money having her at that four-top” and "I could be serving a bigger party there and make better tips." Stuff like that. But it got so much worse from there. First, he brought me the wrong flavor of wings.
I politely told him (I get it, mistakes happen) and he huffed and made that same snarky annoyed face before taking the wings back. When he dropped off my wings and drink, he plops them on the table and rushes off before I could even say anything. I had to call him a couple of times so I could put in my entree. After receiving my entree, it had been so long since he came to my table that I had to ask another server to flag him down so that I could order dessert.
The options on the dessert menu were different types of sundaes, but I just wanted the ice cream, so I asked if I would be able to just get a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream. This dude snickers and is like "Yeah, I guess we could do that..." I watched almost two episodes of TV on my phone in the time it took for him to come back to my table for the check.
I probably could've just flagged another server again, but it's not their responsibility to check on my table, it's the other dude's. I usually tip 25-30% but I tipped 15% because the service wasn't that great. He goes to the point of sale and he's laughing with the same server from before and showing her my receipt and being like, "Wow seriously? I can't believe that's my tip."
I'm not usually a "I wanna speak to the manager" person, but if it weren't late at night and if I weren't ready to go to home and sleep, I probably would've gotten a manager. I liked the food there and everyone else seemed nice except for those two servers. Thank God for nametags, so next time I go, I can request to not be put in either of their sections.
41. The Root Of All Evil
So yesterday was my son's 10th birthday. Last year we put his $50 birthday money from his grandpa into a new savings account at a local bank. He was crazy excited about the concept of his money increasing over time (simple interest). We even took him into the bank and explained the whole concept in front of the bank officer. He was more excited about getting mail than anything else, so we gave him the envelopes unopened.
Yesterday, we went over with his new birthday check…only to find that his balance had dropped and was around $35. The bank was charging him $5 every quarter to let him know by US mail he had earned a few pennies. The bank never mentioned the $5 charge or offered e-statements. I guess the good old days of opening a savings account to learn about simple interest are behind us and the days of banks sucking every fee they can off their customers are upon us.
Still, the kid actually did learn a lesson about banks.
42. Bad First Impression
So I recently switched doctors. I’m under Tricare as I’m a veteran and the doctor I’ve seen since I’m 14 suddenly doesn’t take my insurance. Anyway, I made my first appointment. Me and my significant other arrived at the appointment a half hour early as stipulated to fill out paperwork. I fill out the paperwork and I’m sitting waiting for the doctor.
The doctor is in a practice it’s her and another female doctor. Anyway, I’m sitting there and my SO and I are browsing the Internet, and out comes this tiny terror of a doctor. I hear the front office lady going, “Doctor, it’s not them!” However, too late. She gets in our faces and starts going off on me about how her time is precious and how I showed up an hour late, etc.
Meanwhile, two of her staff members are literally shouting at her, “It’s the wrong patient!” The patient, as it turns out, is an elderly lady who was late because the facility she was at was told the wrong time. She is now sobbing. The lady is like 85 with severe Parkinson’s, and her aide is this big burly guy who is now also ticked off.
I’m still being told what a piece of trash I am. Finally, my actual doctor comes out and basically drags this other doctor into her office. The medical assistant is trying to put out fires, but the old lady is just done by now and her aide takes her home and tells the front desk his facility will be filing a complaint and not bringing back any of their patients. My SO, who is fiery, is really mad, but I’m way laid back and was just amused by the entire thing.
I was more upset she made the old lady cry. Finally, my doctor comes out to me again and she takes us into an exam room. She apologizes and tells us her partner is going through some personal issues. She was nice and did apologize but pretty much left it at that. We told her we won’t be back and my SO and I will be filing a complaint as well.
43. Whipped Into Shape
I recently went to my local coffee shop for a blended frozen mocha with extra whip. Normally at this chain when they make your drink they will fill the cup but a little extra remains in the blender, which I assume gets tossed. If you ask for extra whipped cream you might get slightly less beverage, which is fine with me. I’m just here for the whip.
Anyways, she made my drink, then poured it into the cup. Seeing that there was a little extra in the blender, she poured it into another cup and then topped both cups off with heaps of whipped cream and a delectable drizzle of mocha sauce. She did the same with my friend’s drink. Maybe it’s not great for the environment to use so many cups, but this gesture absolutely made my day.
I told her this and thanked her, and also contacted the company to tell them of her outstanding service (leaving out the particulars of supersizing drinks at no charge). If you’re reading this, thank you generous barista, for knowing what I really mean when I ask for extra whip!
44. A Little Patience Goes A Long Way
My boyfriend and I went to a restaurant for dinner on Easter. The whole shtick of the restaurant was the 90+ beers on tap. When we got there, the hostess let us know their CO2 had blown and they were working on getting a new one, and she wouldn't be upset if we wanted to leave. We ended up staying anyways, and I'm glad we did. I used to work as a server, so I could tell right away they were in the weeds.
The service was still great, and they did their absolute best. I asked for a cup of ranch to go with my fries, and the server forgot to bring it out. He remembered halfway through the next time he checked in and immediately began profusely apologizing. I interrupted him right away with "Don't even worry about it. I've been there before. It's all good."
I could SEE the relief wash over him. I'm talking his whole body relaxed as he asked, "You're a server?" I told him I used to and that I know exactly what he's going through right now. He relaxed even more and began describing the horrible shift he was working. It was nice to see how he relaxed when he realized I was a server and wasn't going to blow up on him, but it made me a bit sad that servers/retail workers/etc. have been so conditioned to automatically expect mistreatment from customers.
45. Standing Up For Yourself
My wife has been an endurance runner and triathlete for years. She’s in incredible shape. Two months ago, however, she got into a horrible car accident. A sloshed guy plowed into her and her sister. Thankfully they both are ok, but my wife suffered multiple fractures and two leg operations with pins, etc. Recently she’s been feeling much better and is home from the hospital and rehab, so we wanted to go out for dinner.
Now, she does have a wheelchair but she’s been doing really great with her physical therapy and is using crutches, so we decided to go to a chain restaurant here in town. Mind you, my wife has a heavy brace on her leg and obviously, it’s visible that she’s got an injury. We go into the restaurant with a six-minute wait. Cool, we take a seat and suddenly a family of 10 piles in.
It’s kids, a pregnant woman, and a miserable older lady. I get up, as does one of the other men sitting. The pregnant woman says thank you and gives us a smile as she sits. Granny gives my wife the stank eye, then she sits down and asks her, “How old are you? Didn’t your mother teach you manners?” My wife looks at her, like what the heck lady. She tells the woman she had surgery and has to stay off her leg.
The woman grunts and then looks at my wife, “lazy cow.” My wife ignores her and starts showing me something on her phone. This woman then intentionally knocks my wife’s crutches onto the floor. “I said get up!” She gives us both a glare. Thankfully, her daughter and son-in-law stepped in, and our table was ready. We get our food, eat our delicious meal, and get our bill.
The manager comes to see us, he’s a Black man, as is my wife. He tells us the hostess told him how rude the lady was to us. Apparently, she let loose with a bigoted rant after we left. Her family was completely mortified and the hostess had alerted the manager. Unfortunately, they turned away her party thanks to her behavior, I say unfortunately as her family seemed like good people.
The manager offered us free dessert and apologized again. Class act and we will definitely be going to eat there again.
46. Pay It Forward
I got up early this Sunday morning and treated myself to a buffet breakfast at a restaurant I frequent. The buffet is self-serve and the waiters clean up and bring drink refills. The place was slammed. I was seated in my favorite waiter's section, a young man from Bosnia who is working his way through college. He's always pleasant, friendly, upbeat, and highly attentive.
I love being served by him. On this very busy day, people are being very demanding, as well as rude, but my boy takes it all in stride and just keeps on working. I noticed, however, that these cheap, demanding jerks are all leaving a dollar or two, or stiffing him altogether while leaving a nasty mess at the table. When I left, I went to the wait-station and pressed a $20 into his hand.
He processed it for a second and then said, "Let me get you some change." (His first thought is not of himself.) I said, no, that's for you. Looks like you have a bad day ahead of you; I hope this helps make up for it. He started tearing up, pressed both my hands and said thank you, which made me tear up!
47. Not A Drama-Free Evening
My boyfriend and I were out for an anniversary lunch. We went to a slightly fancy place because it’s a celebration, but somewhere we had been before, so we knew it, and most importantly trusted them. This is because my boyfriend has celiac disease. He was diagnosed years ago, before going gluten-free as the fad began. This means zero bread, zero pasta, zero pastry—simple enough to understand, right? Apparently not.
So we went to this place before because they claimed to have contamination-free areas for preparing dishes for those who requested it. They also had specific “free” products, including gluten-free bread and pasta. They were as good as their word—my boyfriend had a great meal, and didn’t have any pains or repercussions afterward, something uncommon for us.
It was a no-brainer to go here again, and we checked online to make sure that there weren’t any bad reviews or red flags about dining with allergies. This time was different. We got there in good time, were sat down and ordered drinks, and decided on what we wanted. The menu, as it had done before, clearly stated the gluten-free options available.
We’d seen online that someone had ordered a gluten-free filled pasta, which is something my boyfriend loves. Our initial waitress was as helpful as anything when we asked about it, saying that they did indeed have the pasta but served it in a slightly different sauce as the kitchen couldn’t promise that the original sauce was safe from cross-contamination. My boyfriend was happy enough with that and ordered it as his entrée.
He had a plain salad as his appetizer, which we were also told was gluten-free. Appetizers come and are eaten, we drink and shamelessly flirt because why not, and wait for our entree. They both come out promptly, but it’s clear that the sauce served with my boyfriend's pasta is the normal sauce and not the sauce that the waitress said would come with it. We queried it, and the waitress said that it must have been a mix-up with a normal meal placed at the same time.
She came back a few minutes later saying that the kitchen had already sent out the gluten-free meal, but was making a new dish already and it would be out as soon as possible. She also comped our appetizers and said she’d see if she could sweet-talk the shift manager and get us a free dessert since it was our anniversary and since we’d be in there for a little bit longer. Then it all went so wrong.
I can only say what I saw, which was the waitress going over to a middle-aged woman standing by the bar, talking for a minute, and pointing over in our direction. The next thing we know, the woman has sped over to our table and is asking what kind of scam we’re pulling. We said nothing since we were confused about why she was being so confrontational, and she started going on about how the pasta was definitely gluten-free and we had no reason to send it back.
My boyfriend started to explain that it was the sauce that was the issue since we were only going on what we were told and apparently it wasn’t safe for celiacs. The manager then started snarling about how she was so fed up with the “craze,” and that kids like us (we’re in our early 20s, so we’re probably just arrogant millennials to her) are so sensitive that we need all these labels.
The waitress brought over the new dish of pasta at that point, but the manager snatched it from her and started taking it back to the kitchen, saying that the “precious table” couldn't eat anything unless the chef told her that it was all safe to eat. I really wish we had left then, but the waitress looked so nervous that I felt like we had to stay just so we could tip her well when we finally left.
The manager and the food came back a couple of minutes later. She kept a tight hold on the dish, asking sarcastically if we felt safe yet, or does she need to drag the head chef away from his job to please us. My boyfriend said that everything was fine and even thanked her for her level of care (he’s the calm and collected one, I was ready to flip) and started eating as quickly as possible, if only to get out of there.
I was halfway done with mine anyway, so we just sat and ate until we were both done. I was seething that our anniversary had been ruined so soon by the manager’s attitude, but the worst was still to come. We flag down the waitress as soon as we are done and say we want the bill. She says she understands completely and apologizes for everything.
She's gone for a little while and comes back as white as a sheet. She says she went into the kitchen to check on another order and saw a pasta dish that looked exactly like the dish my boyfriend had sitting alone on a side. She asked if it was meant to be going out, and she is told that it’s the one that the manager brought back in about 15 minutes ago.
The waitress says the manager brought it back out to the customer, but she is told that the manager cornered the chef who was doing the pasta style dishes and told him to drain some normal pasta and serve it with the gluten-free sauce for a particularly demanding customer who didn’t “need” the gluten-free pasta. Guess who just ate a whole dish of gluten? My celiac boyfriend.
The waitress had comped more or less everything but the drinks. I insisted that we paid for all of my dishes, and then gave her a pretty big tip on top. We didn’t know what the deal with comped meals was, but she didn’t deserve to lose out on a table because of her manager. To cut out the gruesome bits somewhat, my anniversary afternoon and evening has been and will be spent with my boyfriend shut in the bathroom as things come out of both ends.
His stomach has bloated so much that he looks several months pregnant. He will be having repercussions from this for weeks, and maybe even months. I am so annoyed that I don’t even want to write a review about it since I will end up threatening the manager on a very aggressive, personal level. I want to call anyone and everyone, from my mom to the local news, about this.
I keep on bearing in mind that if I go nuclear, and I can, then people like the poor waitress who served us will be out of a job.
48. Dog Day Afternoon
My vet has been after me to take my dog to get his teeth cleaned. I made an online appointment to drop him off and received a confirmation email of my appointment time being 9 am. A couple of days before the appointment, I received another reminder email with 9 am. I arrive to the clinic at 8:45 am and check in with the receptionist. They ask me to have a seat and they’ll come get my dog quickly to take him back.
About 30 minutes later, after no one had come, I asked the receptionist if there was a delay and she responded, “Well, you should have been here at 7 am. So since you’re late it’s taking longer.” I replied that the appointment time I received and confirmed was for 9 am. She refused to accept my answer and continued to say that it was 7 am and it doesn’t matter what I received.
I politely sat back down to wait again instead of engaging in an argument. Shortly after, they came to take my dog back to clean his teeth. I spoke with the vet tech and they said that the reason for the 7 am arrival was for blood work but it wasn’t a big deal and they’d get it done still. Before leaving, I looked up the email on my phone and of course, it said 9 am. I proceeded to try to show the email to the receptionist, who didn’t even look at the email and instead said, “I don’t have control over the emails sent. That’s corporate.”
I responded that she may not be responsible for sending the emails but she works for the company that does and should be able to provide the feedback. She smirked at me and kept to her story, that it wasn’t her problem and it was my fault I wasn’t informed of the early arrival. The smirking is what sent me over the top. She began to act as if she wanted to physically fight, which was fine with me, but the lead tech came out to defuse the situation.
Eventually, I left to do a few errands while they completed the teeth cleaning. But it was far from over. 3 pm rolls around and I began to get worried that I hadn’t heard from the vet since 9 am. I attempted to call with no answer. After a few tries, someone answered. I asked about my dog and they simply responded with, “He’s doing good. He’s been out to pee and they should be calling you soon.” We hung up. 4:30 pm comes and I’m starting to get more and more upset that I have no idea what’s going on.
I tried calling and despite numerous calls, I couldn’t get through. I called corporate, who also was having trouble getting through. Corporate told me the only way to truly speak with someone was to GO THERE. I tell the guy on the phone he better hope he gets a hold of them before I get there to warn them I’m coming, because it won’t be pretty. I drive 30 minutes with corporate still trying to get a hold of them.
I park, get out of the car, walk up to the front desk and wait for the receptionist. Corporate comes back on the phone saying they still can’t get a hold of them. I tell the guy “I know. I’m right here waiting for the receptionist to stop ignoring me and I’m watching them ignore your phone calls.” At the vet, I ask about my dog. THEY HADN’T EVEN COMPLETED THE TEETH CLEANING. MY DOG HAD BEEN KENNELED FOR 8 HOURS FOR NOTHING.
At this point, my voice is raised and I’m not holding anything back. The same lead vet tech comes out to discuss with me and while I’m explaining that just that morning the receptionist (who wasn’t there anymore) had argued with me about needing to be there at 7 am FOR NOTHING. That it wouldn’t have mattered whether I got there at 7 am or camped out in the parking lot, they wouldn’t have completed my dog’s cleaning anyway.
I also pointed out the fact that NO ONE communicated with me about them not being able to get to my dog. Then I got sent over the edge. What does this vet tech do? SHE SMIRKS AT ME. I couldn’t even contain the rage anymore. I started lecturing her about the smirking and the fact that the SAME behavior is what set me off with the morning receptionist.
She swore she wasn’t smirking and apologized but it was too late. I told her if they don’t bring me my dog I will go back there myself and get him. An employee in the store (the vet clinic is inside a pet store) who was leaving stopped in his tracks and began watching the altercation between me and the lead vet tech. He stood there for about five minutes, holding an empty water jug, about 15-20 feet away.
After I finished giving the vet tech a lecture I turned to the employee and said “Can I help you? You can keep it moving. This isn’t a show.” His response was to turn around and walk back into the grooming salon that was right next to the vet and point at me as he gossiped to his coworkers. Me? I waved! I yelled: “Where’s YOUR manager?” He came back out and told me HE was the manager and he was worried about the vet tech’s safety.
I turned to the vet tech and asked her if she felt threatened and she replied no. I pointed out to him that he wasn’t needed and if he was soooooo worried about her safety he should have been much closer than 20 feet away for so long and shouldn’t have retreated to his grooming salon until I called him out for gossiping. As I’m talking to him, a woman appears and asks what’s going on. It got real interesting.
Guess what? SHE was the manager. I tell her that homeboy wanted to be an onlooker and then go and gossip to other employees. She tells me he wouldn’t do that. I tell her at this point all I want is to leave. All I want is my dog and I’m gone. They bring my dog out while the manager, grooming employee, and lead vet tech are there. Homeboy tries to pet my dog!
As I’m trying to leave, the lady who runs the clinic comes out and tells me she wants to talk. I respond that I’m done talking and they’ve lost my dog as a patient. She continues to try to get me to speak with her so finally, I give in. I don’t wanna be rude to an older lady. As I’m describing everything I’ve been through, the incorrect time on the email, the receptionist with the attitude, my dog being contained for 8 hours for no reason, the lead vet tech’s smirking, the employee who couldn’t mind his business...she proceeds to tell me that they KNEW when I dropped him off that they wouldn’t be able to get to him because of another emergency.
SAY WHAT?! She also tells me they’re having a lot of trouble with the employees at the clinic and she’s upset at my experience and wants the opportunity to do better. She offers to clean my dog’s teeth if I bring him in again, to which I replied absolutely not. I’ve got problems with at least two of your employees and you want me to trust your team to take good care of my dog?
You’re crazy. I left and vowed never to shop at the pet store nor use the clinic or grooming salon ever again. Good riddance!
49. Bon Voyage
I booked a cabin through Expedia for a little two-night getaway with my wife and 11-month-old son. Their “front desk” (a remote building miles away from the cabins) is only open until 7 pm. We wouldn’t be able to arrive until much later, so they suggested that they could just give me the combination to the door lock over the phone the day of arrival and I could formally check in the next morning.
This seemed reasonable so we got the code and drove out there. We arrived around 10 pm and I had my wife stay in the car with our son. I wanted to make sure we had the right cabin and that the code worked before waking my son up and carrying him out of the car in 30-degree weather. When I walked into the cabin, all of the lights were off except for the bathroom...I could see light under the crack in the door.
I assumed the cleaning crew just left the lights on in there. I’ve never been more wrong in my life. As I got closer, I heard someone was clearly on the toilet. To my surprise, my immediate reaction wasn’t fear or surprise, I was just trying to figure out how to handle the situation. Do I knock on the door? Do I say something loudly from the living room? Do I wait for him to finish and walk out on his own? This was certainly a first for me...
I decided to turn on all of the lights, get a good sense of the floor plan and layout, and see if anyone else was in the cabin. It appeared that everything in the rooms was untouched and it was just the one guy in the bathroom, so I just got prepared to confront him when he got out. I wasn’t expecting a physical altercation but I made sure I knew where anything was that I could trip on, anything that could be used as a weapon, etc.
In hindsight, I probably should have just left the cabin and called the front desk, but it didn’t seem necessary in the moment. The mystery pooper (or “MP” for short) walked out of the bathroom and was pretty shocked to see me standing there. “Who are you and how did you get in here?” I said, firmly. MP: “Uh...um...I thought this was our unit. Sorry...”
Me: “This is not your unit. Again, how did you get in here?” MP: “Uh...” Me: “What is the code to the door?” MP: “XXXX” Me: “How did you get that code?” MP: “The guy at the front desk gave it to me.” Me: “Why did he give you the code to my cabin, and if you thought this was your unit, where’s all of your stuff?” MP: “Uh...umm...” Me: “OK, I don’t even care at this point. You need to leave, now. Do not come back in this cabin again.”
MP: “Ohhh oh ohkay, sorry.” I then watched him leave my cabin, walk 30 feet away and walk straight into the cabin next door, where a group of three of his friends were drinking. “Oooookay then...time to call management,” I thought to myself. I found the 24/7 support number on the fridge and called. The person who answered had no clue where I was staying and didn’t recognize the name of the cabin I was staying in.
Clearly, the 24/7 support was outsourced to another company unrelated to the group that owns the 20 or so cabins. After much back and forth, she figured it out and connected me with the person responsible for the cabins. Me: “I just arrived at cabin #X and a strange man was using my bathroom.” Manager: “What?” Me: “I’m in cabin #X and a stranger was just in my bathroom. He said you gave him the code to my cabin.”
Manager: “Oh, that must have been the guys next door. There was a mix-up earlier and I gave them your cabin number and code...but we moved them to the correct cabin. It’s all good now.” Me: “You gave them my code and then didn’t change it? You need to come change the code immediately, that is completely unacceptable.” Manager: “I mean, we told them that wasn’t their cabin, they shouldn’t have gone in there. Maybe they thought it was vacant since you arrived so late.”
Me: “So how do I lock my door if these guys can just come unlock it at any time with the code? That is a huge safety concern.” It took a turn for the worse. Manager: “Well now that they know you’re there I doubt they’d come back.” Me: “Are you serious right now? You need to come to change this code.” Manager: “There’s nothing I can do tonight, I can have the manager call you in the morning.”
Me: “So you’re not the manager?” Fake Manager: “No.” Me: “This needs to be rectified first thing in the morning. I don’t have a choice, it’s freezing outside and my son needs to sleep so we’re going to stay here tonight. But this is completely unacceptable.” Fake Manager: “I’m sorry. The manager will call you in the morning. I will also call the guests next door and make sure they understand not to come back.”
I brought our stuff in from the car and got everyone settled. To make things extra fun, the entire cabin smelled like poop, so I went into the bathroom to find that the fan was broken. Opening the window and letting in 30-degree air was also not an option. Awesome. We went to bed and I’m happy to report that our neighbors didn’t come back. In fact, my son slept amazingly well. Yay!
The next morning the real manager called me and asked how I was doing. I told him we were OK but that he needed to come to change the code and rectify the situation. He then asked if he had to come right away or if he could come to change the code in the early afternoon. I was in disbelief at this point, but I didn’t even know what I was in for. He then followed up saying “I doubt they’re going to come back, we already spoke with them. Are you in the cabin now or do you have valuables you left in there?”
What the heck? I told him that I was out eating breakfast with my family and that he needed to get to the cabin ASAP and change the code as it was a major privacy and safety concern. He reluctantly agreed. Then we started to discuss how he would make things right. Manager: “I can offer you a free night on a future stay for the inconvenience. When would you like to come back?”
He was on speakerphone and my wife and I looked at each other like, “Is this guy serious right now?” Me: "No, thanks. I'm going to need a refund for last night, not a credit for a future stay." Manager: "OK, let me see...I can refund you $XX.XX for Thursday night. Is that OK?" Me: "No, that's not even close to the full amount we paid for Thursday night. Are you not including Thursday's portion (half) of the cleaning fee? That cleaning fee is more than Thursday's rate by itself."
Manager: "Well the cleaning fee isn't per night, it's for the entire stay." Me: "If I'm paying a cleaning fee, I'd expect that my room would be clean when I check in. Instead, I checked in to a room where someone pooped in my bathroom, used my soap and towels, and smelled up my entire cabin. By the way, did I mention the bathroom fan doesn't work?"
Manager: "I see. I can refund you half of the cleaning fee. In total, the refund would be $XXX.XX.” Me: "OK, I booked through Expedia. Are you going to refund them and they'll refund me, or how does that work?" Manager: "Oh, no. Refunding through Expedia is way too complicated and would take hours. We will just refund you directly. Do you have a PayPal account?"
Me: "Yes." Manager: "OK, if I send you PayPal can you promise to write us a good review on Expedia?" Me: "I can write an honest review on Expedia and say that you eventually took care of things properly and provided me with an appropriate refund." Manager: "OK, umm...how about you don't waste your time and I send you the refund if you agree to just not write a review on Expedia at all?"
I look at my wife and we're both thinking "What the heck?" and not sure if we should laugh or not. Me: "OK, that's fine." Manager: "Alright, I'll send you a text asking you to agree not to post a review. Please reply with your PayPal and state 'I agree' in the text. I'll send the refund immediately." Me: "OK. Bye." He then proceeded to send the text (which I screenshotted) and it reads:
"Hello. It is good to talk to you today. If you agree to NOT write any review on Expedia, I will refund you $XXX via PayPal. Please reply agree and your PayPal email. Thanks a lot <name of manager> <address>" I replied to the text and he sent me the money. I just wanted to make sure we'd get something. While I doubt the text message is binding (and maybe it is, since a transaction was paired with it) I only agreed not to post on Expedia.
He said nothing about every other travel site or social media. I'm not sure if I should try to post (a much shorter version of) this on the various travel sites to warn potential future guests.
50. The Jerk Tax
This happened about 10 years ago. I used to live in the countryside, and by countryside I mean there is a one-lane road that goes about 500m away from the main road with no streetlights. There is only one other house on the lane before you get to my house, and that one is half-collapsed and has been abandoned for years. My friend was staying over so we ordered takeaway from a place about three miles up the same main road that my lane is attached to.
The order came to $20, I had cash so all is good. Fast forward half an hour later, and I get a call from the delivery driver (D). D: I can't find your house. I look out of the window and can see his headlights parked outside the abandoned house. Me: You’re pretty much here, it’s the house at the end of the road with the lights on. D: No, I'm not driving up, you can come and get your food.
I can see where he is, and it’s only about 100m away. I tell him I'll be there in a minute, so athletic 15-year-old me I set off running down the hill. Literally less than a minute later, I get there and he's pulling out. I wave at him so he opens his window. D: $25.00 Me: What? I ordered [list foods and prices], and it’s $20.00 D: Your house is too hard to find, $5.00 for the inconvenience.
Me: Screw off, you can see my front door! D: Guess you’re not getting your food then. To which he drove off. So I get home and call the place, say he drove off with my food. The manager says "Oh God, not again." Apparently, the guy was new and had been trying to scam customers for extra money all night. I was the fourth person to call with the same complaint THAT NIGHT! He got fired, and I got a free meal the next night.
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