Working in customer service can be quite a traumatic experience because you have to deal with all sorts of people, even the most crazy kind. It’s safe to say that the worst kind of customer service is when it’s face-to-face when you can’t just ignore an email or hang up on the phone. Retail workers and food servers can tell some crazy tales of how nasty people can become.
TikToker stillpoorandhungry, who worked as a waiter at a restaurant, shared her own story of what she called the worst table she’s ever had and coincidentally it happened during the holiday season when people are supposedly nicer to each other.
More info: TikTok
Woman tells the story of the worst table she had and it involves the customer crying and wanting her fired for no apparent reason
Image credits: poorandhungry_
The TikTok user has almost 20k followers on the account that she posted the viral video on and on her main TikTok page, she has 167k followers. The main page was getting banned all the time, so poorandhungry had to create a backup account, stillpoorandhungry.
She regularly shares her experience of working in a travel agency dealing with customers and of working at a restaurant. The TikToker remembered what was the worst table she has ever had and other people really took interest in it as the story got quite crazy.
Image credits: stillpoorandhungry
The story took place a while ago and stillpoorandhungry didn’t remember when exactly, only that it was the day after one of the biggest holidays at the end of the year. She says that usually, a day after the holiday, she either gets really generous tips or the worst customers.
Unfortunately, it was the latter. This time, a group of around 12 people came to brunch and it’s quite a challenge to serve so many people, especially the day after a holiday, when it can get very busy in the restaurant.
The story took place a day after one of the biggest holidays at the end of the year
Image credits: stillpoorandhungry
At first the group didn’t seem suspicious at all, they weren’t rude or demanding, just a little impatient and didn’t understand that it takes time to make and bring all the things they ordered. The waiter admits that the service wasn’t incredible because there were a lot of other people ordering too, but she believes she was handling her job just fine.
A group of 10-12 people came and at the beginning they seemed normal and not too demanding
Image credits: stillpoorandhungry
The waiter started getting a weird feeling when the group was done ordering but still didn’t ask for a bill or let her take the plates off the table. Even though they didn’t ask for the bill, the server brought it anyway and was regularly checking if the customers were ready to pay.
The group wasn’t in a rush, but after a while, they finally called the waitress and asked to speak to a manager. Here is when the performance started.
It was a busy day so it was a challenge to give everyone perfect service but the waiter was managing everything fine
Image credits: stillpoorandhungry
When the manager came up to the table, a woman started crying and hyperventilating because supposedly the service was so bad. The manager was not willing to deal with her and just let her know that they would remove the auto gratuity, which is the automatically added tip to the bill when there are more than six people being served in a group.
It seems that the manager just couldn’t be bothered to get into a conflict and just said what the woman wanted to hear, that stillpoorandhungry would not be fully paid for the work she had done.
After stalling to pay the bill, the group asked for a manager and when they came over, a lady started crying
Image credits: stillpoorandhungry
The reason for that was because the service was supposedly so bad
Image credits: stillpoorandhungry
The people in the group left and they seemed really angry, which was incomprehensible for the woman as she didn’t know what she had done wrong. And she thought she could forget the nasty customers, but she was wrong.
They called the restaurant after a day and said that they'd analyzed the service again and they now wanted a full refund. There was no explanation what specifically bothered them about the service but they also wanted the server fired or at least suspended.
The manager quickly offered to take off the auto gratuity and that seemed to do the trick
Image credits: stillpoorandhungry
However, the next day, the customer called and demanded a full refund and for the waitress to be fired or at least suspended
Image credits: stillpoorandhungry
The customers’ behavior was a mystery to the TikToker, but other people who listened to the story were convinced that the group was pulling a scam and making a scene to just get a free meal. The bill must have been high because there were more than 10 of them, so that could be believable.
Also, others shared in the comments that they have seen this done before so it is quite possible that the group was just abusing the system and taking advantage of the saying “the customer is always right.”
Image credits: stillpoorandhungry
Here is the video so you can listen to the story yourself
What do you think of this story? Do you believe that the customers were trying to avoid paying the bill by accusing the restaurant of bad service? If you've worked as a waiter, has anyone tried to do this to you? We would like to hear about it in the comments!
Fortunately, the managers were understanding and didn't fire anyone, and what's more, they paid the tip that the server earned
People in the comments suspect that the people planned to do this from the start to avoid paying the bill
