to have wanted to shout at this woman for this rudeness!

[lisad123isgoingcrazy]

ok, me and DH were on a well deserved one night break at a very lovely spa hotel. Sitting down enjoying dinner when this woman is lead to the table behide me and starts yelling at the staff that this isnt the table she wanted, she had reserved a table near the window and what was the point of reserving tables if she doesnt get it! Then complains to husband, then the the manager and then continues to moan though dinner.
From what I could work out they arrived late for dinner, so table had be given to another person. I really wanted to tell her to shut up and learn to moan about things that really matter and also said to DH "this is such a lovely table, its great not to have to face the wall isnt it" but dont think she heard me as wasnt brave enough to say it too loudly.

Please tell me not all posh people are this rude to others!

[kelly2525]

The staff probably spat in her food

[lisad123isgoingcrazy]

i said the same to DH at the time, but really didnt think posh people were rude like that in RL just on movies

I clearly didnt fit in there and felt the staff although lovely kept calling my madma and its just not me. Center parcs i think next time :)

[thesunshinesbrightly]

"this is such a lovely table, its great not to have to face the wall isnt it"

The woman was pissed off already why would you want her too hear you saying that? sounds to me as if you wanted to wind her up some more.

[cupcakesandbunting]

I would also want to wind her up some more. I love winding up self-important idiots like that.

[thesunshinesbrightly]

Least she was posh and not a sloppy mum she must get points for that.

[lisad123isgoingcrazy]

I did want to wind her up more, she was rude to the staff and it was uncalled for,maybe Im just mean but she was ruining my night by moaning so loudly
was it you thesunshines? LOL
well she sounded posh so I assume she was! lol

[thesunshinesbrightly]

Lisad - No wish it had of been me could do with the break.

[fairycake123]

There would have been no point in you saying anything to her, although I do understand why you wanted to. She is just a nightmare customer, the kind of person who will find SOMETHING to piss and moan about no matter what.

We have one who comes to the restaurant where I work every week - I have absolutely no idea why she keeps coming back because she complains bitterly and is unspeakably rude every time she comes. She called my manager a bastard last week; she also once said "If this meat is medium rare, then I'm Donald fucking Duck." Nice. She is quite posh, but I don't think there's a correlation between poshness and being a shit customer.

Rest assured that the staff would have been calling her every name under the sun behind the scenes, and will still be slagging her off for weeks to come And as a career waitress, I can tell you that the best thing you as a sympathetic customer can do in those situations is be extra-nice to the staff.

[SolidGoldBrass]

You could try 'Madam, stop being a dick, you are spoiling our evening.'
I did once have a word with a whining screaming drama queen in the bank. She was kicking up about the long queues - which were very long and the bank was understaffed - but she was going on and on and on so I finally leaned over and said, 'Madam, you've made your point and now you are contributing to everyone else having to wait a long time.' She carried on yacking so I coughed and said, 'OK will you give it a rest now?' and then she flounced off muttering.
But I am generally in favour of telling people to stop being knobs. Unless I think they are the sort of knobs who are going to turn round and punch me in the face...

[singsinthebath]

YANBU she was being very rude and intrusive towards other diners, not to mention the staff.

However, there's nothing wrong with being posh like fairycake says. Aren't "common" people ever rude?

In fact, she probably wasn't "posh" at all - or at least had no class, because otherwise she would have known how to handle the situation better.

[Heracles]

Bitching in a restaurant before you get served makes you either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. I'm guessing she was option B...

[SolidGoldBrass]

Indeed - the kitchen staff will adorn her dinner with bodily fluids.

[singsinthebath]

Just out of interest fairycake - does your valued customer ever get an extra helping of medium rare spittle in her order?

[cupcakesandbunting]

Always be nice to people serving you food. It's rule one in the "How not to be a Complete Dick" handbook.

[SeaTrek]

YANBU - it must have been so tempting to have a word with her. Best not shout though!

I have no idea why some people routinely behave like this. Some kind of warped sense of entitlement I guess.

My DH once travelled on the same plane as a celebrity who kicked off because there were other people in the first class area (no, she hadn't bought all the seats but somehow thought that because it was her....). The cabin crew were not allowed to speak to her directly (had to go through her PA or something). Insane rudeness!

The joy of getting a bit older is that I am much more inclined to have a word.

solidgoldbrass I like your style, and I am sure everyone else in the queue did too!

[tethersend]

Any issues must be addressed after the food is served, to avoid said bodily fluids garnishing your meal.

This is rule number one of the Complainers' Handbook.

[pagwatch]

some people are endlessly rude and I never really understand why. It takes more effort than just being polite. And actually people are far more likely to oblige you when you want something.

But I am really not sure what poshness has to do with it. I have never noticed rudeness more in one group of people than another. And money has nothing to do with class

[MrsChemist]

Where do all these spitting in food ideas come from? I've worked in the service industry for a while, and met many complainers, but I've never come across a member of staff who would spit in someone's food, no matter how rude the customers are.

It's tempting, I'll grant you, but I've never seen anyone actually do it.

[Threelittleducks]

You can always tell folk who have never had to work in the service industry - they all act like this at some point or another!

I have seen otherise really nice folk treat service staff terribly. There seems to be a law which allows unpresidented rudeness in this area where you would not use/get away with elsewhere. And it's not just 'posh' folk.

I always think you can tell what a person is really like by the way they speak to service staff, especially when there is a problem.

[BarmyArmy]

singsinthebath - quite.

In my experience, "common" people are pretty rude but in a ineffectual way - their limited lexical ability forcing them to revert to type and fill their "sentences" with swear words.

I think "posh" people often sound ruder, but only because the person hearing them may be a tad intimidated by their tone/vocabulary...as opposed to any excessive swearing.

[MorrisZapp]

I've worked in food service for years and never seen any spitting etc, what a vile suggestion.

Total urban myth.

As for 'posh', what does that have to do with it? Makes you sound a bit chippy.

[Heracles]

Total urban myth? Hmmmm, maybe you've just worked in nicer places than I have......

[bottyburpthebarbarian]

My mothers friend, now sadly deceased, was a legend for so many things

One very wet miserable winter morning circa about 1979 she was driving to school with about 14 of us in an old mini (well actually was 6 but you were allowed in those days)

Old mini died a horrible painful death at a set of traffic lights.

She tried and tried and tried to get it going again but the poor thing had popped its clogs, taken its last breath.

There was a huge queue of traffic behind us as it was rush hour, including a very fancy BMW behind us, whose driver was beeping and beeping and beeping the horn.

Mothers friend gets out of car (after putting on one of those wee clear plastic rain hat things) walks back to BMW, taps on window and says

"If you would like to go and try to start my car I'll sit her and toot your horn"

I try to remember this when people are winding me up - put down with class.

Unfortunately I rarely achieve it.

[SexuallyInactive]

This brings back old memories of working in pubs. Quite often I wanted to piss in some customers beer.

[pagwatch]

at botty's mother's friend

Brillaint !