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?

I got told on TikTok that waiters spit in the food when they hear an English accent apparently. They claim the same doesn't apply to Scots or Irish.

Not sure whether to believe it, but they claim it was true.

All terribly clever and funny until she makes someone ill or worse causes a fatal reaction.

It's awful she had a seizure but how did you react when she was actively rude to staff? Did you call her out or were you okay with it?

I wouldn't substitute but rude customers would get a twat tax and I'd under pour their drinks by a lot

ok, when they end up in jail then I wonder if its worth it?

Tampering with food (which it is) is a crime as it can kill people, a manslaughter conviction with sure show that rude customer that your superior.

I had one guy push me, really hard.

Not that bad, apart from the fact I was at the top of the stairs and I am fairly certain if my manager hadnt have caught me, I would have been seriously injured or killed.

My crime? The magazine he wanted hadnt arrived.

I dont give a shit how much of a bad day he had had, he had no right to touch me and I took great delight in banning him from the store and getting him escorted out when he came back the next day

Just be polite. Simple!

It’s absolutely petty, and it’s disgusting, and in some cases can even be dangerous. But it’s the reality of the food industry.

Long before social media was a thing I've seen food intentionally dropped on the floor then plated back up and sent out.

This was a fairly nice pub as well, or you would have thought so. I can't remember what the customer had done but they'd been ride to the lady serving them and when she collected their food from the dumb waiter she "accidentally" slopped one dish out and spooned it back in.

I've seen people served from drip trays, different pub, and I was a customer

I saw this, she said she'd give people decaf instead of normal, or go really slow if they were rude about being late. Be loud if they were on the phone.

She didn't say she'd give normal coffee to people who ordered decaf

My dh’s cousin used to be so rude to staff in restaurants etc, when we went out with her, it was down right embarrassing.
She once ordered a lemonade, the young waiter brought our drinks to the table and she looked at her drink, tutted then loudly shouted at him to ‘come right back’ whilst clicking her fingers! I couldn’t see what the issue was, when the young lad came back she said ‘this drink has has not been filled high enough, take it back and refill it’.
The poor lad, he came back and it was filled to the top and bubbly, I’d secretly hoped he had farted in that glass of lemonade!
She did this on so many occasions, needless to say I have nothing to do with her anymore, she’s a fucking nutcase.
I’ve worked in customer facing roles and people are down right arseholes.

Perhaps people might wonder about the casual rudeness that many find acceptable to make themselves feel superior. Clicking fingers and whistling and insulting staff. The UK doesn't seem to see hospitality as a profession yet expects people to tolerate rudeness and racism and act professionally. Why have some people managed to be customers for decades without acting rudely yet many have a default of vileness? I remember the law firm in Wales?...

She also said that the policy was only to charge for Non dairy milks if it was something like a latte that used a lot of milk and if they were rude she'd charge them and point to the sign that said non dairy milk is an extra 80p.

She also said if they were rude she'd make the cappuccino as much foam as possible

Honestly things like this make me never want to eat out again. I'm certainly really wary going into costas since I saw a similar video from a Costa employee. How do these things slip through? Like how do employees get away with pissing in a chip pan?

How rude is rude? Like yeah threatening violence is rude, but I've seen tiktok videos where they count things like asking where the milk is rude and have a real disdain for cucustomers. Hat if somethings gone wrong, would they count complaining as rude?

Squishing a burger or adding extra ice or whatever if someone is a dick fine but contaminating food or swapping food is never okay. And actually if someone is shouting at you telling you your useless getting their order wrong is only going to make them think your more useless.

All the people in these comments going “Well if you can’t take me being an asshole to you, you are in the wrong job,” are hilarious. Perhaps the job market is slightly different at the moment, but many people in those jobs are perhaps in their first job and/or would struggle to get a different one.

The message here is very clear, if you want decent service, be a decent person. It costs you nothing. Suggesting the person you’re being rude to is in the wrong won’t help. They’re still going to give you substandard service, because you have substandard manners.

And no, I’m not talking about people having the odd bad day and being a bit short. I’m talking directly about all those in this thread defending bad customer behaviour, presumably because they are regularly the dicks in this scenario.

I once had a customer be phenomenally rude to me, calling me a fucking cretin because I couldn't apply a discount that was for a different chain 🙄 as he left I said "have a nice fucking day!" You should have seen his face. But I was smiling and nobody else heard. He went purple and shouted a bit more and then left when he realised nobody was going to do anything 😂

She should get fired - doubly so for being an idiot and putting it on TikTok.
If a customer behaves as yours do @Ziggyisthebestdogintheworld I hope your manager is kicking them out and calling the police.

I'm horrified at the number of posters saying they should find another career if they can't take being abused. Because that's what it is, it's a form of abuse. If your husband came home and called you "a silly fat cunt" because of something tiny, like you don't have pie in, would you be saying "suck it up, he's just had a bad day?" I'm not saying revenge is also good, but it certainly isn't the fault of the abused that the abuser had a bad day. If someone can't control their temper after a bad day, then they need therapy and to stay indoors if they are feeling angry.

I was a server in a well-known pub chain when I was 16. I was there 2 years and most of the time was fine. But on the rare occasions we did have dicks in, we'd just give them crap service so they wouldn't come back (really slow, 'forgot' something they ordered and then ran around like blue arsed flies pretending to be super busy so they couldn't get our attention, smaller portions of chips, switch the till operator when they got to the front of the bar so they had to wait for us to log out and then back in).

It should be mandatory to work in either retail or hospitality for a month to see how hideous the public can be

I have to say though that I make an effort to be nice when ordering something, be polite, smile, speak in full sentences (seems bare minimum but you'd be amazed 😂) but I find that quite a few staff can be a bit rude to be honest. In local coffee shop, they all speak to their colleagues while you're standing there ready to order and they barely even look at you, just go "yeah?" At train station I have tickets thrown across counter at me rather than handed to me, etc.

No, that's not the same video. I think there's a lot of these types of videos going round atm as PPs have said.

If people are vile, they should be refused service and banned from the cafe, or in extreme cases, the police should be called.

But no one should have their food messed with - in some cases, that could make someone ill.

@LucyLeblanc Sorry but you are incredible naive if you didn't already know this stuff happens.

Just polite to people, whether they are serving you food, coffee or working in a shop.

My point is it's unprofessional. And at worst it could make someone very sick.

Should a nurse have the right to give a patient the wrong medication/dose just because the patient was "rude"?

totally unprofessional.

I work in the hospitality industry as waiting staff bar staff - were not professionals. We are staff doing a job and most of the team I work with do that job really well but we are not professionals and never will be - we are trade people