To think food service employees shouldn't mess with peoples orders?

[LucyLeblanc]

Saw a Tiktok earlier of a barista claiming she "messes" with the orders of "rude" customers. And there were thousands of comments in agreement with her and saying they also do similar 😧

The examples she gave were: Putting full fat milk in the customers coffee, rather than semi-skimmed. Giving them regular coffee rather than decaf, and vice versa. Serving them carrot cake rather than the chocolate cake they ordered. Etc...

I know she's not necessarily contaminating the food as such, but I think petty acts like this are totally unprofessional.

I understand some customers can be rude, I've worked in retail, but I just got on with it, I didn't feel the need to mess with anyones food for 'revenge'.

AIBU to think this is petty behaviour and food service employees should maintain some professionalism?

This is really quite unbelievable that the staff are so petty. If you can't deal with rudeness, don't work in hospitality.

Admittedly I am often amazed at how entitled and demanding people are, just because they can be, but doing stuff that could endanger a customer's health is criminal at worst and nasty at best.

Also one person's "rudeness" might be the very minor "offence" of asking for the salt without tasting the food first! Do you really deserve to have your dessert gobbed on for something like that?

Mind you, if someone pinched my arse or made sexist remarks, I'd simply throw the food at them and walk out. But really, something like that is down to the management, who should be throwing such customers out.

Exactly. Same like with the bodily fluids thing.
2 countries, 2 decades, from takeaway to 5 star hotels have not actually heard anyone to do it in real life. Saw people on SM though, but I think that is for sm because who would be THAT stupid to potentially kill someone and put it on tiktok...

But! We all gave that dry piece of cake from the end there, the day old bread instead of fresh one, squished something by accident, put less cheese/veg/meat etc.

I thought everyone knew that you simply don't be rude to people who are making you food or drink? Not that you should ever be unnecessarily rude to anyone in any case. I worked in lots of catering places when i was a teenager and have seen people do some awful things to orders for rude, obnoxious customers. Serves them right imo!

I wouldn't ever mess with someone's food or drink, the price I could pay is too high for a bit of petty revenge. I find it hard to believe that many people would tbh in this day and age where an innocent mistake that harms someone due to sensitivity or intolerance/allergy can lead to hefty concequences - but then maybe I'm naive.

Leave an order sitting on the till for a bit before putting it through, definitely.

Act the level of dumb people have decided to treat me as because of my job, deliberately misunderstand them and just generally slow the whole thing down when I'm treated like shit for no reason, yes.

My attitude usually depends on how the customer treats me, come at me with an attitude and treat me like I'm beneath you, dumb, stupid etc then I'll give you the person you've decided I am and you'll get nothing more than what I have to do, and that will be done slowly and deliberately - you're going to slate me anyway, why the fuck do I need to put extra effort into that?

Treat me with a bit of common decency and you'll get more than I'm required to give just to keep my job, and done pleasantly, with a smile and maybe even something extra.

And as an aside, when did food service workers become professionals?

Oh absolutely, I would never do that.

There's getting a bit of petty revenge and then there's being a dick.

Tbf to the TikToker I have watched them and the decaf thing was the other way round. So giving decaf instead. The others were things like charging for non cows milk ( which they are meant to but most don’t put through the till), putting change on the till rather than in their hand. Petty not particularly gross or dangerous actions

Not the same video.. I've seen many with loads of different examples though. Yuck.

How rude can you be exactly whilst ordering a latte with semi skimmed milk? 🤔

I used to add either too much or too little garlic to the garlic mayo if someone was rude to me.
Or give them unsalted chips.

We always gave the customer what they asked for...sometimes we took it as literally as we could ie

"I just want a fucking cocktail that doesn't take half an hour! Are you fucking slow?
Make them the quickest cocktail we can.

"I just want a fucking burger" customer gets a plain burger.

Maybe there should be some kind of national service introduced where everyone has to work in retail or hospitality in a customer-facing role for three months so everyone can experience the true horrors of working with the public and the situation might improve a bit😂

fair enough. I can’t say I have much sympathy for people being given wrong orders/ smushed cakes etc. simple rule is don’t be a dick to people and you won’t have any problems

Three months isn't enough for it to destroy your soul - I think at least a year 😂

I think the management have to take some responsibility here, if arseholes like this aren't immediately ejected?

I think it should be tiered
3 months in local chippy
6 months in subway/costa
1 year in nice-ish cafe restaurant

About a week if any of the above is in a train station
"Are you stupid? I will miss the train because of you! This is taking too long!"
"Sir, the grill has timer as usual, I can't make it grill faster"
"Fuck that. Idiot, i bet you could if you wanted to. Stupid. Like it's my fault I overslept you idiot"

Why would you be petty enough to mention they were a bit late with our coffees ?

Agree with Balalake - any rudeness, abuse, nastiness should just result in the customer not being served. It's because they're allowed to get away with it that the behaviours continue. Businesses need to support their staff in refusing to put up with dickish customers.

Unfortunately management are under pressure from Head Office to make as much money as possible - that means pretty much everyone with money gets served.

I think she meant reminding the guy, not leaving feedback.

And that's why they feel free to do it. I can't imagine it doesn't impact on sales, though. If I was sitting next to an animal behaving like that who was tolerated, I wouldn't be going back again?

Before I escaped, I did over a decade in retail, and in my experience, it won't impact on sales.

I've had customers apologise to me/check I'm okay after rude behaviour, but it certainly doesn't stop them wanting to return.

People can be horrible and some of them would deserve to be shit on by eagles as they leave. Doesn't mean they deserve potential allergic reactions to food they specifically did not ask for.

Or kill someone if they are allergic to an ingredient!

Of course they shouldn't but this is extremely common according to everyone who I know who has worked in hospitality.

I don't think people's food or drink order should be tampered with or deviated from as it's too risky with allergies or other health issues. I do support their drinks maybe not being filled all the way, or an excess of ice etc so it's watered down. Really, retail staff should have the right to refuse service to arsehole customers - too many entitled, nasty people about. The customer is NOT always right.

I once worked at a Box Office in a fancy theatre and one woman was so horrifically rude to me on the phone when I couldn't sell her the tickets she wanted (the seats were already sold but we still had others nearby available). She was so, so nasty and made me feel awful. I went on my lunch break all stressed about it and when I came back, she'd called back to apologise! She told my colleague she was mortified by her behaviour and had just been having a bad day and unfairly took it out on me. Really appreciated that and IMO, it shows great grace to admit when you've been awful and to try and put it right.

The general public can be total dicks and unbelievably entitled especially to people working in retail and hospitality!

I was 16 working my first ever job in a local cafe where a full grown man about 4 times the size of me threatened to ‘rip my fucking throat out’ because he couldn’t read dates properly on food and thought I had served him something out of date.

I’ve had grown ‘women’ offer me square go’s outside because I wouldn’t refund something, people scream abuse and tell me I’ve ruined their DC’s Xmas because the item they wanted wasn’t in stock.

My last situation before I escaped was stepping in to protect a male colleague from a women trying to assault him.

I think everyone should have a job in retail or hospitality as teenagers. Might stop them being pricks