Never work in hospitality. Strangest things people have complained about.

[KnopkaPixie]

Here's some to get us started:

"There's broken glass on this steak."
It was fancy coarse ground salt.

"I can't eat from a square plate. It's bad feng shui."

Any more?

Christmas eve at 3:50pm, - we shut at 4pm and are stopping people coming in. A man rants abuse at us because he needs to do his Christmas shopping

My annual contribution to threads like this. Asda, 3.45pm, Christmas Eve, closing at 4pm. A woman in the bare fresh vegetable area screaming at a poor assistant 'Why do you not have fresh sprouts. Don't you know it's Christmas?', all the giggling reductions-seeking customers dying to burst into song. It happened many years ago but I'll never forget her hysterics.

I had similar on a flight back from LA, when someone had what seemed like a heart attack. They stopped in Reykjavik to offload the poor guy - presumably still alive at that point or they'd have carried on to Heathrow - and the complaints about missed connections went on and on

Fair enough to recognise the huge inconvenience, but did they really expect the airline to just let tthe chap die?

@Onthesideofthespiders

Why? Those are two different words. You’ve even got them spelled correctly so you know they are two different words. Fine if you don’t know was tartare means, you can ask but why would you assume it meant something which isn’t spelled the same?

No need to be so condescending to the poster.

Tartare sauce is more commonly spelled with an 'e' at the end so of course it's the same word. And considering surf and turf is a common meal, often with a tartare sauce accompaniment- it's actually a really logical mistake to make .

Because very few shops take it because it needs to be cashed separately, it can’t be counted in automatic counting machines, it’s difficult to spot forgeries and no customers want it as change.

Technically it’s legal currency. It’s not legal tender even in Scotland. No matter what, no shop is obliged to accept it as payment.

That's because mac and cheese is an American dish. I expect it uses American cheese too.

Er...🫢

My dd worked on reception at a big hotel. A man stormed up to the desk with his very embarrassed looking teenage dc and complained that the extractor fan in the bathroom didn't get rid of 'toilet smells' so when the dc followed after him they complained to him about the smell he had made. He was furious that his dc had to smell such things when an extractor fan should be strong enough to get rid of it.

Yellow and white cheddar, actually.

No, I would never dream of it. I just order things i know won't contain milk.
Maybe you should just point her in the direction of vegan restaurants from now.😂

She also ordered dairy free lasagne and sent it back for having tomatoes in it, as she was super allergic. Then had a burger with ketchup on it. I’m sure she would still make trouble in a vegan restaurant.

My MIL once offered me beef olives and I assumed they were some kind of olive like a beef tomato. Some names are confusing.

I hope that you called the police about that

What's wrong with that?

By 'they' I mean hôtel guests. They often take a lot of food from the breakfast buffet and hide it in the room safe for later consumption along with some cutlery - especially spoons for tricky items like yoghurt.

Some can be real food hoarders, like squirrels with acorns. Then of course, the appeal of the items goes away with such storage and then housekeeping finds a stale/rotting mess when they check out.

Sorry if the first post wasn't clear.

I suppose it depends how you like your omelette but they're normally soft in the middle.

In the UK this is fairly low risk though. Most eggs sold in the UK come from chickens vaccinated against salmonella.

Yes, completely agree (and I continued to eat runny eggs even at the height of Eggwina madness in the 80s because I like them like that 😄). But I know women who are PG/BF tend to be super cautious about food risks, which I can understand as a baby is much more vulnerable to food-poisoning.

Seriously? You couldn’t just remove it with a knife?

I've the bird shat on it while I was eating it in the cafe of course I'd expect a replacement

@herecomesautumn yes but not outside which I presumed it was and the poster confirmed it was outside

If it was outside but on the restaurant premises, an outside eating area for example, I’d expect it to be replaced tbh. I’d be very surprised and distinctly unimpressed if they refused.

Er that's not what I meant...but thank you.

I meant 'guilty here too' ☺️

I can't remember who posted about the gravy, but apparently bisto "chicken" gravy is actually vegetarian, so it is possible that in a chain restaurant, their meaty gravy contains no actual meat.

I'm also going to slightly defend milk avoiders as I have a lactose intolerant friend who often asks for vegan when she's out to make her life easier. Even though she is happy to eat meat, fish & eggs. Friend doesn't then eat ice cream or custard though and I agree that those people are just being twattish.

Oh god..but it does remind me of my mum when we were kids. She had 3 under 4 years of age, so in fairness shopping was a logistic nightmare.
no internet or computer in those days

so, outside each shop before we went in, there was a discussion if it was a “hands in pocket” store. That meant literally hands in pockets, not allowed to touch anything, move carefully.

in fairness we were quite poor, and she probably had a realy fear of havin*to pay up for something we’d handled or damaged.

I still (and I’m over 60) reach for my pockets on entering china or glass departments 🤣🤣🤣🤷🏼‍♀️

Yes. I'd still expect it to be replaced if I was eating/drinking on their premises

Loving these stories. Here is one from the other side. When I was about 15 I had a holiday job waitressing in the restaurant attached to a huge local cinema. It was not a very salubrious place, I have several stories,🙁 but this is the best.

One day the manageress callled us all together and told us there had been a complaint about ants in the paper cases of the fancy little cakes we served for afternoon tea, “I wouldn’t mind, “she said,” but I distinctly remember telling all of you girls last week it is your responsibility to check the cakes for ants before you take them through to the customers. I don’t see why I should have to end up apologising for your mistakes.”