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?

Lots of places don’t take it, we got stuck with some once, even our bank refused to take it so it ended up in a charity pot.

What is ED?

thanks :-)

Worked in pizza hut restaurant when I was a teen.

Had someone with a 'severe' allergy to tomatoes - made quite a song and dance about it. Insisted on having the saver menu price of £5 but with a more expensive pizza with BBQ base about £15 (BBQ wasn't included in the offer and was a fair extra £).

Chef goes out and tells her the BBQ base is 98% tomatoes.

Apparently, that amount of tomatoes was alright and wouldn't kill her 🙄

They’re not legal tender in England and Wales, despite being legal currency. No shop is obligated to take them.

I had many back when working in hospitality. My few favourites were;
These Chips taste too potatoey - my response was, im sorry but are you aware that chips are made our of potatoes.

Your hair looks awful today - was in a ponytail!

You look like a hooker in that skirt - my skirt was down to my knees!

The usual, extra extra hot americano please, hot iced coffee, drinks cold after an hour of chatting.

Also had a guy send his food back as he didn't want that green s* all over it. (Chopped parsley)

Snagging in the changing rooms.

Wanting to change accommodation because your girlfriend is a screamer.

Leaving your curry and/or period stains EVERYWHERE even the curtains and up the legs of the table.

Screaming at me at an event where the food stock was limited to 1 per person because your group ate more than the fair share the previous night.

Having to put wd40 on the backs of toilets to stop you sniffing things off it.

Poo. On walls, floors and in the shower.

"But John Lewis do it." - we are not John Lewis

I want this promotional item in a different size. Really sorry we don't have it but we have similar items in the right size over here if that helps. Bet they're double the price. Yep that's how promotional items work.

Stealing. So much stealing.

I've worked retail/hospitality most of my life I could be here all day 🤣

That poor little boy. God knows how she treats him at home if that's how she speaks to adults in public and he thinks it's normal. I hope you reported her to SS.

May I have half a sandwich please? I'm not that hungry, I don't want a full one. Why should I pay for a full one when I only want to eat half?

To be fair, proper coffee should be just the right temperature to drink straight away, it shouldn't be extra hot (somebody already mentioned that it makes the coffee taste rubbish and also means the milk is burnt). I think you need to find another place to get your take away coffee from, the one you get sounds shit.

If you pick the Chicken out of the Thai Green Curry will it be vegetarian!

Ugh. The entitlement and rudeness of the personal comments. Foul. And bad managers would advise to just laugh it off.

It makes you feel so trapped.

I most recently had to pretend to be polite to a customer who took full advantage of her captive audience (me) and started evangelising about jesus. Really unfair.

Scottish currency isn’t legal tender in England. I got some in Glasgow recently and was a nightmare to get rid of in London

That’s vile 🤮 I guess at least the wanker* let you know so the curtains could be cleaned/replaced

Oh and my favourite one just this week

A family comes in and is going down an aisle full of decorative items (think vases, diffusers, candles etc"

Dad - "don't touch anything kids. I told you don't touch. Don't fucking touch it. Fucks sake how many more times"
Kids "but daaaaaad"

big smash and bang on the other side of the aisle

Dad - "excuse me, there's a breakage just round here"
Kid "but muuuuuum Dad told us not to fucking touch anything and you did and broke it"

Didn't like you much kids but you're right there. Of course mum has broken the smelliest item on the shelf so I stink of it for the rest of my shift!

I really don't get that. There was the whole independence thing where people said better together, we're all British, but only if you use English bank notes? Not having a go at you, just don't understand it. Surely the banks will accept it? Not as if we're using Euros and there's an exchange rate. Maybe the English want rid of us after all 😂

Well, the thought of this is the whole reason he did it, I think.

I think it's because English people aren't familiar with the Scottish notes, so can't spot a forgery - better to refuse than take a forged note by mistake.

Because you cannot cash it in at the post office.

I had a similar experience to your last one! I was directed to be informal and homely at the American style burger restaurant I was waitressing at during university, and a horrible male customer loudly exclaimed to his table’s amusement how I should address him as sir not “hey guys”. The same customer ordered a starter and then when it arrived said he hadn’t ordered it and to take it away, and then he made fun of me as I had to wait for my manager to take the payment (still training), speaking to me as if I was very slow and stupid. I honestly believe it was because I was a young female who was other wise completely off limits to him.

Scottish notes aren't legal tender in England or Scotland.

• Bank of England

But I thought most shops had a wee pen thing that shows if it's fake? That does make sense though. Although even up here we have at least the wee pen and sometimes a scanner thing.

I had a steel toe capped boot thrown at me once. Hit me square on in my mouth and bust my top lip open. Why because I refused to sell some guy just one boot at half price. I tried explaining he would need to buy them as a pair. What he did with the other one afterwards was entirely up to him. The manager also tried explaining it to him, but no he wasn't having any of it. Picked the boot up off the counter and threw it full force at me.

Vegetarian didn’t like the 2veggie options from the daily set menu. Offered her options from the standard menu and those weren’t any good either. Offered to get chef to cook her something? Any suggestions as to what she might like? No

ill have the lasagna, ah yes the vegetarian lasagna - no the Italian ragu lasagna - that isn’t a vegetarian option though, that’s ok 🥺😩🤣

How did you handle that one?

Not me, but knew someone working at Harrods when the IRA bomb went off. They had been on alert for weeks and as soon as they heard the explosion knew exactly what it was.......customer she was serving got the hump they had to leave and couldn't continue with their purchase.