Tough Customers

If you've been reading this blog, you might have picked up on the fact that I work at McDonald's. I love it there, really, but there are times when I work with customers and I re-think whether or not I want to be there. It's not often, thank goodness, and most of the time it gives me some really funny stories to tell. Here's one of them:

One day, this old man comes in. I say old because he was walking bent over, with all white hair, and he dressed like someone over 60. Sorry, but there is a defined style for senior citizens, and he was rockin' it! He ordered nothing but a small coffee. I have a passion for saving customers money (as strange and untrue as it sounds), so the first thing I told him was that my store offers 'senior' drinks that are the same thing as a small but cheaper. When I informed him of this, he made a sour face at me, as if I had just overcomplicated something and was being stupid. He simply said 'ok' as if I should hurry up and get him his receipt. I asked him if he wanted cream and sugar in his coffee, to which he replied 'of course I do. What do they pay you for???' The next thing I had to do was ask how many sugars and creams he wanted in his coffee. He looked as if I was now just trying to waste his time and said in a condescending tone 'I just want. A. Coffee. Don't you drink coffee? Don't you know how to serve coffee?' So I asked if he wanted it black, to which he scoffed and tried to pull a co-worker over and ask him if he knows how to make coffee. He was pretty surprised when the co-worker also asked him how he wanted it! When the manager didn't help, I decided to just 'wing it.' After all, how much more annoying can he get? After one failed attempt at the 'norm' for my restaurant (2 cream, 2 sugar) I got frustrated and put 8 creams and 6 sugars. I handed it to him and asked him to please try it for taste. Finally! He had the right coffee! He did not thank me, or my co-worker, or the manager that he had pulled over in vain. He waddled off to a chair.

Later, this same man had the gall to come up and order another coffee. I told him if he had his cup, we could refill it for free (because I never learn) and he had the same response as when I told him we had senior drinks. In my frustration, I rang him up for a small coffee instead of a senior coffee. He was with his son, who was in his early 40s, it looked like. The man told his son 'don't even bother ordering a coffee, it'll take them an hour to make it!' The son looked totally embarrassed to be seen with this old man. Of course, the son manages to order the one drink I don't know how to make, so I had to consult someone, but first I made his father's coffee, the way I had learned to, donned an obviously fake smile and chirped 'It took exactly one hour!!' with a nod, handing it to him. The old man turned red and walked away while I worked on his son's drink, which took longer than I wanted it to. I apologized to the son, but he was actually very nice, and told me not to worry 'I'm not like him, I don't mind waiting a bit.'

This is just one of my favorite stories from work, because it shows people exactly what we're up against. Some people are really hard to serve, and it's tough to try to read minds. I have a ton of stories of parents getting mad at the barrage of questions they have to endure just to order a happy meal, but they don't understand that one in twenty of them will come back screaming and throwing food if it's not right the first time (and I'm not padding the numbers here). And I serve probably 50-75 happy meals each shift.

Do you have any outrageous customer stories?

-Mew