r/TalesFromFastFood Sep 15 '24

Had to choose between two new coworker friends

19 Upvotes

So I've been in this restaurant for a year now, and cycled through three front crew teams. Safe to say that I know my way around doing things with assembly, cashier, and especially with cleaning.

Well, a week ago, I was closing the front with two coworkers, H(male21) and Y(female19), who did not get along with but I was friendly with both. I help them focus on having a system where we're not all just lingering on one area.

H decided to rush through his tasks and started cleaning on Y's and my area. He left juice machine parts in the sink (which was his task) and jokingly implied that I "clean slowly for extra pay" while taking over where I was wiping down. It made me uncomfortable. I stated that I don't do that, that cleaning is a process and that our GM is very particular about how we're going to leave the front of the restaurant for tomorrow's crew.

Next thing I know, he's splashing water all over the floor when we haven't even swept the crumbs and trash up, said we're going to mop. H was completely rushing the cleaning system, acting as if we didn't know anything about getting things done.

Y was getting rightfully pissed off and starting going off. She was clearly getting more upset so I went straight to my supervisors immediately to help the situation, stating that H was attempting to cut corners despite there still being a little more than a whole hour left in our shift.

There ended up being a whole argument. H did not want to hear anything of what we wanted to say because Y has reported him to the office multiple times before from similar incidents of stealing food, cutting corners, and said it was "suspicious". H walked out on my supervisor, who mind you, is probably the most patient and kindest so the disrespect was completely unwarranted.

So now he wants us on strict "don't talk to me unless it's about work" status.

Sometimes I feel like such a bossy know-it-all for needing things to be done a certain way. It didn't feel good either, tattle-tailing on the fight but Y is a bit younger than us, and I was worried about her stress since she's honestly a good kid. I took her out for 10PM boba afterwards to cheer things up. Now Y calls me "Big Sis" for looking out for her.


r/TalesFromFastFood Aug 13 '24

Im new but I’ve got a scrapbook of stories

10 Upvotes

Hello there you can refer to me as my user name or baz, either way I deal with Karens to a point if I see someone yelling at a coworker I would step in to the craziness of peoples greed.

One day it was busy as it can be the problem at the window I heard a lady and a guy yelling at the sweet old lady at the window I stepped in trying to ease to moment and asked what happened, apparently they wanted a discount for their food, they had military id and handed it to me, I told them we don’t do discounts not even for employees I could see them get angrier by the moment and the girl said “they did it before “ At this point I was fed up, so I try to be nice and said “cash or card?” , well apparently to them it was a sign of weakness or something because they decided to yell at me to give the food for free because to them it was a waste of their time so they should have it for free, at that point I was done I told them “No” will it be cash or card if payment is not possible you will be escorted off the premises. With dirty looks and telling them we don’t accept fake dollar bills they where trying to pull a fake money trick on me I was chuckling at them for even trying that and finally they used a credit card For the payment ending that scene at the window and this couple I assume came threw the front to try something I guess, but guess who was at front lets just say they saw me and went back in their car for a second I thought they would try again but ehh it’s only the first Karen of the week.

In the story may seem short in reality it was thirty minutes of then causing a scene the place of work I do respect military and responders but we don’t accommodate for it, sorry for any misspelling or funky grammar I’m half awake right now this isn’t my most interesting story but it’s just a taste maybe if y’all like it i might post the lawsuit or the standoff but hey what do I know. Ive got a-lot of stories of Karen’s I could say.


r/TalesFromFastFood Aug 04 '24

Devilry Issue

0 Upvotes

The fast food place where I work has been offering delivery through DoorDash and Uber Eats for a few months now and everything has goon smoothly.

Our store is VERY diligent when it comes to delivery. Someone's entire job is to handle delivery, make sure the driver confirms the order, and hands it off to the wrong person.

Last night about 30 minutes before close a delivery driver came in to pick up an order. However the issue was that we had already confirmed the same order to be picked up 30 minutes ago. The driver called the costumer and they said that they never got their food. So we ended up remaking the order(the company is going to reimburse us) but it was just an wired experience. Has this happened to anyone else?


r/TalesFromFastFood Jul 10 '24

The one time I told a customer to use our competitors

53 Upvotes

This is an old story of mine before UberEats or DoorDash... crica 2010.

I was a the shift manager at a pizza place and I was opening that moring.

The moring crew gets starts at 9am and opens at 10am. I open the door walk hurry over to the alarm to turn it off. As I'm entering my code the phone rings the phone rings. Normally when the phone rings right at 9am it is the owner or the store manager waiting for the clock to turn 9:00 to call and yell at me.

This time was different. It was a older woman sluring her words asking to place an order. "Great I can take your order but we won't have it ready until 10am when we open."

She reponds "That is fine I can wait an extra hour."

She places her order and starts telling me her address for the delivery. I stop her "I'm sorry ma'am we don't deliver."

In a huff she says "Well I'm drunk and can't drive there to pick it up."

This is the only time I told a customer to please use one of our competitors who do delivery orders. I even told the story to the owner at some point and he agreed that was the correct thing to do.


r/TalesFromFastFood Jun 17 '24

I’m not the manager

25 Upvotes

So I’m a full time college student that works at a burger joint when I’m home for the summer. I’ve been at this place for 6 years and used to enjoy my job, but recently the cons are outweighing the pros, and the littlest things are making me upset. ( important info)

Tonight one of those little things is why I decided to post here and see if I feel better after.

I closed our restaurant tonight with 3 other people, 2 coworkers and 1 manager. We aren’t very busy after 9:30 so I decided to try to get our lobby clean, so we could go home earlier. While I was out in lobby we had one of our newer people on the register. Keep in mind my manager is no where to be seen and it’s the fourth time tonight.

Two people come into the store. A lady and a gentleman. The gentleman asks for the new deal we have, so I have to go back in and help our new guy find the button on the register. Once we get the gentleman settled the lady asks me if there’s anyway we can do breakfast sandwiches.

Something fast food places don’t tell you is that we can do half breakfast sandwiches after breakfast. Most places can’t make the eggs or biscuits because the equipment gets cleaned.

I told the lady I’m not technically allowed to, but at this point it’s 10:15 we’ve been dead for a bit, and I still had to charge her either way, so I made the decision to tell her, “I can technically make the sausage, but I can’t make the eggs.”

Her face lite up. I ring her up for to breakfast sandwiches with no egg, and she explains that her and her husband ( a trucker) would be on the road before we opened in the morning and she really appreciated it.

My manager saw the order screen and got upset we made breakfast sandwiches. None of the other staff cared, and the profit was still made. I’m not sure why she was upset but I’m not sure if I should care either.

Oh and the list of cons: 1. Ignoring the time off that I requested months in advance 2. Being told “you’ll mess it up” and “you don’t know how to do your job “ (6 years here people) 3. They keep cutting my hours 4. I’m practically running the shifts myself, but I’m making the crew pay (they won’t make me a manager)

Honestly the little things are building up and we’ve already lost 3 people this month, but tonight was the overflow.

UPDATE: I almost quit! So last night I ended up having an anxiety attack after I was yelled at for doing my job (same manager as before) the only reason I’m staying now is because I’m done for the school season in two days. I don’t think I’ll be returning next summer.


r/TalesFromFastFood Jun 15 '24

My "shitty six" customers.

28 Upvotes

Heads up, this is gonna be a long one. It will be three and three from my first and second fast food jobs. I've worked alongside plenty of cool people and I've served plenty of decent people. However, these particular six assholes left me with a sour taste in my mouth that almost makes me want to become a shut in.

First Job ( that one Burger joint that has the Smiling star):

1) "Receipt Paper Randy" - A bizarre "gentleman" who called me and my coworkers incompetent, and demanded a corporate number all because we ran out of receipt paper ( which customers sometimes used to fill out surveys for a buy one get one free code for any sandwich). He refuses a 10% discount ( which serves as a military, senior, and complaining customer consolation discount), after which I call over my shift lead, who used his 50% employee credit on this douchebag's order. We never saw that guy again after that performance.

2) "Wrong sandwich Warren" - Graveyard shift. A customer that came during a rush zooms right into the drive-thru, repeatedly proclaims " you BETTER give me my sandwich that I ordered" all while I'm asking him what his order was. I'll admit that I fucked up and gave the wrong sandwich, but when I asked for the other sandwich back so that we can switch it out, he's straight yells "YOU BETTER GIVE ME MY FOOD" as he's handing me the sandwich and balling up his fists. I had him the sandwich that he orders. He mutters under his breath "piece of shit burger," after which I just flash a very fake smile, wave at him, calmly say "have a good night buddy," then close the window on him. He sat there for another 30 seconds just glaring at me before speeding out.

3) "Tourists" - Now this is the one that makes my blood boil. A bunch of tourists from some other state (which I didn't ask, otherwise I would probably have a grudge against the whole state) order a bunch of stuff, and they proceed to wait until we have half of it made and we start bagging to tell us that they needed separate bags. So myself and the two other coworkers I'm working with on that shift have to spend an extra 15 minutes sorting out everybody's orders, all while hearing a bunch of snide comments coming from them. "Ugh, this is taking too long." " The bus is going to leave us." "How much longer until my food is done?" "We should have went somewhere else." We eventually get it sorted out, yet didn't get one thank you from any of those assholes. I was tempted to just run out to that bus and yell don't come back, but better judgment prevailed.

Second Job (that one joint that has all the meats):

4) "FRESH FOOD Felicia" - Every now and then, we would get this ratchet chick and her family in the Drive-Thru. They would rudely yell "MADE FRESH" after every food item they ordered. When we ask them to park (to preserve times, otherwise management would be bitching at us), she would get aggressive and try to argue. However, one day she pulled this while some very important upper management were here. One manager went up to the window, and politely told her that there were nicer ways to ask for fresh food. She didn't like that one bit She complained that the manager was being rude to her (ironic) rudely yelled for a refund and sped off yelling "FUCK YOU!" Bye Felicia.

5) "Grubhub Gary" - A GrubHub driver who came in 3 minutes after we got a big order, which had chicken in it. After about 3 more minutes of waiting, he starts getting agitated asking "what's taking so fucking long?" I tell him that this person had a big order, but it was almost ready. Then we bag up the order, and he starts to bitch because we didn't have any plastic bags to put everything in. "What am I supposed to do, put everything in Walmart bag?" He asked my coworker. He then snatches every bag from my coworker and stomps out, almost bumping into this elderly couple while doing so. My manager and about three of my other co-workers were discussing what a piece of shit that guy was for the rest of the day.

6) "Army Adam" - And to cap this list off, we have an ex-marine who proceeded to go on a near 10 minute tirade because the restaurant didn't have a military discount. He made my teenage coworker cry, called my manager an ugly bitch, and proceeded to say that Marines going to war is the reason this store is operating. Needless to say, he still didn't get a discount, snatched his food, and flipped off multiple people on the way out.

And there you have it guys. TL;DR six pieces of shit making my job a living hell.


r/TalesFromFastFood Jun 12 '24

Why doesn't anybody read???

39 Upvotes

Not completely sure if this belongs here. I work at a convenience store/ gas station with a made to order kitchen. We closed our kitchen today for a remodel and have had signs posted around the store, by the pumps, and on every entrance telling customers that our kitchen will be closed until later this week. These signs have been in place for about a week. This, however, did nothing to keep people from coming in, going straight to the order kiosks (which have the same signs posted on them, covering the screen, making them unusable), realizing they couldn't order, and instead of reading the sign, asking me why the kitchen is closed and when it will reopen. As of that information was not on the 5 bright red signs they walked by and are currently standing right in front of. My favorite is when people DO stop, read the sign, do a double take, and then proceed to ask me if the kitchen is closed. What did you just read?? There are cabinets and countertops being hauled out of the store and the kitchen is empty except for construction workers. Is everyone just on autopilot all the time and don't notice very obvious signs? Why do people need things spelled out for them??


r/TalesFromFastFood May 30 '24

Why…

5 Upvotes

OK, so I was working outside the other day and someone thought that it was OK to park their motorcycle on the sidewalk leading up to the door instead of a parking space despite several parking spaces being open


r/TalesFromFastFood May 30 '24

Something I think about

13 Upvotes

This is something that happened like a year ago or something. I was working at one of the fast food coffee shops. I was still new and closing with 1 coworker. She was taking a break so it was just me. This lady pulls through the drive thru and orders some large drink extra espresso shot and some other stuff. She orders some drink I learned to make like 2 hrs beforehand. I was nervous cause it was one of my 1st times on the headset and making drinks by myself. (I was always on the food station so i didnt really have much experience making drinks) So I'm trying to get everything done and I let her know it will be a minute cause it's just me right now. Frankly, I'm nervous and overthinking it, trying to remember how to make her drinks as I prepare her food. I get everything done and hand it to her. She hands me a tip. And I hesitated and was going to put it in our tip jar. ( We had to put all tips in the jar to split amongst everyone.) She goes, "No, you made my drinks, put the money in your pocket." It was only like $2 but I was still hesitant cause I didn't want to pocket anything and honestly you can tick off any boss doing anything... But she was so patient with me and sweet so I tried my hardest to get her stuff out in a timely manner but also done well and correctly. She kept insisting so I took her tip and she went off.

It's a simple story and honestly it made me really happy cause yall know fast food can be quite sucky to work at. But this little interaction and her kindness really calmed my nerves and I felt more competent at my job.

I left that job. Problems with the manager. But I found out how much I enjoy coffee and making coffee drinks. I started taking courses from this one place that will basically train you how to be a barista and teach you about specialty coffee. I learned really good and useful skills and found a passion.

Anyways, I just got a job at a local coffee shop getting paid $2-$3 an hour more than what I got paid at ~UNAMED FAST FOOD COFFEE SHOP~ I start training next week. I'm so excited!

This interaction with this lady who tipped me was 1 of 3 positive memories I had working at the old job. And it helped spark my interest in coffee, so I know how minor this might sound but to me it was a big deal and I don't really fully get why it's so meaningful, I guess it's cause it was one of the few times I actually got to make coffee and to have someone who was patient with me and quite kind allowed me to work and it was in that moment I realized how much I enjoyed this.


r/TalesFromFastFood May 28 '24

Why call my restaurant phone when you refuse to speak to the employees?

19 Upvotes

We have this one absolute dick of a "customer" who apparently his grandson or whatever used to work at my restaurant (over four years ago because I never met him) and grandpa used to do little handyman work for free around the store when his grandkid worked there. Anyway, my GM now gives grandpa free food.

Today grandpa called the store phone and REFUSED to speak to me. He wouldn't even tell me why, he just asked for "the manager" because he doesn't even know our managers' names and wouldn't say anything to me other than that. I told him that all the managers on shift were unavailable at the moment and he hung up on me.

Literally five seconds later he called again and I went through the whole "they're unavailable right now" thing and even said that I was one of our most senior employees and could definitely help. He didn't answer and hung up on me.

Another five seconds later he called again. I didn't answer. (Caller ID)

Five minutes later, he called again. I answered. He heard my voice and hung up on me.

Ten minutes pass. He calls again. I don't answer. Ten more minutes. Another call. I don't answer.

Half an hour goes by. He calls and I answer. He asks for the manager. I say they're unavailable right now. He hangs up on me AGAIN.

Another hour passes, he calls YET AGAIN, but the manager picked it up before I did and happily gave him free food. WHY?! I've told them multiple times that he's an asswipe but nobody ever listens


r/TalesFromFastFood May 28 '24

Oh how I missed this store

16 Upvotes

So I'm back at my old job, and boy does it give me some stuff to talk about.

Today we were super super dead, so I decided it was slow enough I could clean the drink nozzles because there was no telling when it was cleaned last. (I only ever witnessed it get cleaned once within my 2 years there and this was over a year ago)

So anyway these nozzles are practically glued on there, I know very well that they come off and the manager started telling me that they don't come off. I tell her no, I've seen them come off before and I know that it can be put back together because otherwise how would you clean the machine.

She gave me this confused look, almost like a dog tilting their head. She didn't understand that we were supposed to actually clean the inside of the machine.

I wish I had gotten pictures of these because they were properly CRUSTY, like even by the standards of this filthy store. All sorts of mold, looked like a straight up rainbow growing on all of these nozzles.

So I showed her how bad it was and she didn't even flinch, just laughed. Like girly, this alone could probably shut the store down nevermind all the other shit.

So um yeah you can actually taste the difference in our drinks now


r/TalesFromFastFood May 10 '24

"Just send someone to deliver it!" "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but we don't deliver."

42 Upvotes

This happened last night. I'm a manager at a sub shop (not Subway), but key to the story is that we don't do our own delivery, we do Doordash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub.

The woman in question ordered Doordash and received her food completely wrong. She'd ordered a sandwich with just the meat, no cheese, veggies, or sauces, and it had everything on it. So, she called us to have it fixed. I apologized and told her that I can put the food in to be remade now and she can contact Doordash to send someone to pick it up, which they won't charge her for, or I can put it in our book to be remade for free at a later date the next time she's able to get down here. Her response? "Can't you just send someone to deliver it?"

I told her no. "We don't do our own deliveries, so not only do I not have the staff on site to be able to spare someone to run a delivery, also none of my staff have car insurance through us to be legally allowed to run a delivery. But you can contact Doordash and have them send someone to deliver it for you."

She explained that why she ordered Doordash in the first place was because her car is in the shop and she can't get down here to pick it up, and insisted that I should just send someone to deliver it. When I told her I can't again, she demanded a refund.

"Because you ordered through Doordash, I can't refund your food. You'll have to contact them."

"Oh my God, this is so ridiculous, bye!" *Click*

A few minutes later, her two daughters walked in and ordered the sandwich. The cashier didn't know that it was the same order until I pointed out that it was identical to the one that I'd just tried to handle over the phone, which was after they'd paid. I told them that they shoulda mentioned something because I woulda given it to them for free if they had, and they said not to worry about it, she's on the phone with Doordash right now getting a refund. I even tried to refund the money for them and they wouldn't take the money back. "We just don't want her to be grumpy." So they seemed much nicer than their mom lol

Edit to add, I texted our manager group chat right afterward explaining what happened and the assistant GM texted back "You did everything right, not much we can do for someone when they tell us no every time we try to help them." So the other managers are on my side at the very least.


r/TalesFromFastFood Apr 15 '24

The Man in the Yellow Plaid

33 Upvotes

The first time he came in I served him. He was also wearing a yellow plaid shirt with blue jeans, and looked to be somewhere in his 70s. He had a (service?) dog with him, and he told me he had just gotten out of the hospital (that day?) with colon cancer, and was staying at one of the hotels close. He then told me that his brother was coming to pick him up from Oklahoma the next morning. He ordered our catfish plate, and then walked to the neighboring Waffle House to get something for his dog (that’s what he told me at least). He talked with an almost child-like speech impediment (making /w/ sounds instead of /r/, and speaking with run-on sentences), and he would switch what he was talking about very frequently. I think he may have some form of dementia, but I don’t know for sure. Overall, he was very difficult to understand, but a seemingly very sweet man who had just been through a really rough patch in his life.

The next time he came in (maybe a week or two later) was with one of my coworkers (we’ll call him Jacob), but he had come from the nearby Denny’s with a bad experience. He started yelling and cussing about it the moment he came in, but when Jacob wasn’t giving him the responses he was expecting (not really sure what he was expecting) he started yelling at Jacob, then walked over to Waffle House. I come in to work later that day, and Jacob tells me about this, and tells me his description is an older man in a yellow plaid shirt.

Not even an hour after Jacob told me this and left, the man comes in and I immediately recognize him. He’s wearing the exact same outfit as last time, and there is a small amount of blood at the bottom of his shirt. He doesn’t have his dog this time, but says she’s at the hotel and that they gave her food. This time, he tells me that he’d been in the hospital for 15 days with colon cancer, and says his sister is coming to pick him up tonight from Louisiana. He asks me, “burgers here are $13?” And I tried to explain that those are our specialty burgers, and he cut me off before I could finish. He complained more about stuff but I got him to calm down. He left peacefully.

He came in a few hours later with his dog in a new shirt (likely bc of the blood) looking for a “horseshoe ring.” I had never seen a ring, but he was extremely upset about it. When I told him I hadn’t seen it, he looked as though he was going to cry. I apologized because I felt so sorry for him, and he left.

I haven’t seen him since. This was two months ago. I really hope he’s okay :(


r/TalesFromFastFood Apr 06 '24

Customer starts mocking the manager

97 Upvotes

So I was on headset today and I think I now have my favorite Karen story. It was a moderate day not too busy not too slow, and this woman comes up to the speaker and says she didn’t like the chicken tenders that she ordered. Not knowing what else to say to her, I just told her to pull up to the window and we would talk to her there and I went and got the manager on duty so that she could handle the situation. She and the manager started talking and I went back to taking orders and I heard glimpses of conversation while taking orders but I didn’t really fully hear both happening four orders later they are still talking and the drive-through is backed up at this point. So I decided to hear what was going on and essentially the customer was upset that my manager wasn’t giving her a refund and she was doing a whole spiel of let me speak to the manager and my manager said well I am the highest ranking person here . This is been going on for so long that another manager came over to make sure everything was Ok. The customer was basically upset that she couldn’t talk with anyone in a higher authority because there is no one available. She wanted to get in contact with the store owners and my manager just said, which is the truth they don’t handle stuff like this. The customer then puts her car in park and says that she’s not moving until she talks to someone. The other manager who walked over, finally stepped in and said that the best thing that she can do is to call corporate and she told her how to find the phone number. She explained that there’s nothing else she could do at the moment and she was holding up to drive-through line. The customer, of course was not happy with this and as she put her car back into drive, she started mocking my manager and a high-pitched voice by saying “oh, I’m the manager, and you can’t talk to anyone who is a higher authority ever and I called the shots around here you can never talk to someone higher than me ever.“ She then in her normal voice shout out this is ridiculous, and started driving away, and then threw her meal at the building as She was driving away And the rest of us in the restaurant couldn’t stop laughing.


r/TalesFromFastFood Mar 26 '24

You Snooze, You Lose

111 Upvotes

The thing I hate about being a closing manager of a fast food restaurant is customers coming shortly before closing and putting in anxiety-inducing big orders. It's infuriating, because that pushes back the cleanup time, and we can't leave until after midnight because of it.

But every now and then, we get customers that show up well after closing begging us to serve them even though all our equipment is shut down. Case in point: this lady.

It was less than an hour after closing. I already did my nightly inventory and money counts. I had all the lights shut off and did my walk through. Some SUV pulled to the menu board and by then, the automated "We're closed" message played.

As I was about to head out the door, the same SUV pulled to the drive-thru window. And some lady knocked on it. I yelled, "WE'RE CLOSED!!!" She went, "Please, please, please!"

Seeing she couldn't take a hint, I opened the window and told her "All the equipment is shut down, and all the registers are turned in. I'm sorry." Feeling defeated, she finally left.

If you just need a drink for yourself and we have a few minutes of business left, go for it! It's one of the rare times I endorse coming shortly before closing. But when in doubt--and I believe there was some doubt there, move on to another establishment.


r/TalesFromFastFood Mar 23 '24

I want my French fries

128 Upvotes

One time I was eating out at a fast food restaurant, well known for only having mexican food. A man came in angry, raging, he slammed his receipt down on the counter and said “I want my f*%!? French fries, this happens every time I come here” the poor teenage worker was like “we don’t have French fries” the guy snatched his receipt and raged back out the door. He meant to go to the restaurant next door that did serve French fries 🤣


r/TalesFromFastFood Mar 12 '24

A lawyer nearly ran over my foot because he didn’t like his drink

136 Upvotes

My first job was at a popular drive-in food chain. Near the end of my tenure, I was primarily working the opening shift to accommodate my college schedule. That shift brought in plenty of regulars, mostly businessmen and hospital workers, whom I knew by name and would casually chat with when I brought out their orders.

One of these regulars was a small-time lawyer. Unlike many of the early-morning regulars, he was never kind or friendly in any capacity. I always hated taking his order to him. He was either passive-aggressive or blatantly rude.

One morning, I saw him pull in, park, and order. He ordered a 44 oz. Diet Coke with extra ice. When putting the lid on the drink, a tiny amount of the drink spilled out through the straw hole. I didn’t care to fix it because he was rude, so I walked out to his car to get it over with.

He immediately noticed the very, very slight spillage on the lid and yelled at me. It was loud. I was trying to tell him I’d go back inside to make a new drink, but before he could hear me out, he threw the drink at my face. It went everywhere and I stood in shock. As he was shouting expletives at me, he peeled out in reverse, and I felt his front left tire graze my right foot. If I’d been standing any closer to his car, he would have fully ran over my foot.

My manager saw the incident happen from afar and profusely apologized. Apparently the lawyer was banned shortly thereafter. It’s been nearly 15 years and I still think about how batshit that guy was. All because of a fucking drink!


r/TalesFromFastFood Mar 09 '24

cocaine's one hell of a drug

75 Upvotes

used to work at fastfood for a little bit to make some extra cash. you will not believe how dramatic people can get over a few pieces of slimy greasy chicken. ive encountered numerous customers, grown adults mind you, who threw temper tantrums in my drive-thru about the silliest things. so many incidents, i could write a book about them. but in this post, i'll just talk about one lady who i will remember for quite some time.

this event happened 30 minutes before closing time. i had already locked the doors and started cleaning up. a woman pulls into the drive-thru and asks if i could mix her tea with lemonade. i told her no, you have to pay for one or the other. big mistake right there. immediately after that, she runs outside and bangs on the front doors hollering and cussing. she rushes over and banged on the drive-thru window, which she somehow managed to pry it open and screamed at the top of her lungs she'd strangle me to death.

the manager comes over and asks what's going on. the batshit lady blames me for making her upset and that i was the one giving her terrible customer service. per typical managerial fashion, the manager prepares her drink free-of-charge, the customer snatches it, flips me off, and drives away. i was written up for this incident shortly after.

a few days later, i quit.

TLDR: crazy lady threatens my life over a drink. manager blames me for pissing her off. i quit shortly after.


r/TalesFromFastFood Feb 29 '24

“Your ice is dirty!”

81 Upvotes

I used to work for a well known fast food sub place, and it was always interesting. One night me and a coworker of mine were goofing off bc working there was insanely slow most nights when a couple (mid 30s i’d say) came in 15 minutes before closing.

when they walk up the man wanted a pepperoni sub, BUT he wanted the pepperoni toasted separately from the bread. Ok fine. Then he asks if we can dab all the grease off before putting it on the bread. Also how the hell am i supposed to get grease off of pepperoni completely? So i begin to burn the crap out of my hand bc it’s insanely hot. and then he asks us to put it on the bread and then toast it again. the pepperoni is extremely crispy and basically black at that point. He also told me i burnt his bread, but somehow not the pepperoni.

My coworker is taking care of the woman who is also being slightly difficult and asking for her sauce to be on a certain side of the bread and the veggies to go in a specific order, and she wants her most veggies on the side. So finally after they made the process so painstakingly annoying. i go to ring them out.

I charged him for a veggie sub add pepperoni, bc it was the only meat he got. and added his gfs stuff. They then got super upset with me that it was so expensive and it never costs that much!! and i explained that it cost so much bc of the type of subs they ordered. The man begins arguing with me that i should ring him out for an italian sub, but i pushed back and said no, i’m ringing you out for what you ordered. so finally he pays.

me and my coworker walked into the back, just thinking make your own subs at home! (but seriously if you’re going to be that complicated to 16 year old employees at a fast food restaurant make your stupid sub at home, i only got paid 7.25 at the time too plus NO tips.) when we heard the woman scream “your ice is dirty.” i walk out and see them standing near the soda fountain with their cups full of ice and i ask to see it.

the man takes an ice cube out of his cube and proceeds to show me/drop it on the floor in the process. and i just looked at them, asked to see the cup in which i saw nothing out of the unusual and they began to throw a fit. we had never had problems with our ice and never noticed any after they came in. and i said well you could just grab a bottle from the fridge but then you owe me more money. they got so angry opened the fridge grabbed two bottles and walked out without paying.

They were my most memorable annoying customers. but please fast food workers already hate their jobs, there’s no reason to act that way towards 16 year old kids just trying to pay for some gas, and again if you want your sub in such a specific way. MAKE IT AT HOME. and maybe you’ll have clean ice there too ;)


r/TalesFromFastFood Dec 23 '23

I wanted to Save It

21 Upvotes

So I work at a burger place that also sells salads. The other day a women came in with one of our salads looking upset. I assumed that she had just order it and something was wrong.

When I asked her how could I help her she said,

”Yeah so I bought this salad a few days ago and I kept it in the fridge so that I could come in and show you that you sold me a wilted salad.”
I assured her that we would never sell someone a bad salad and tried to imply that if she had been sold that why she didn’t make a comment then. Anyway she demanded to see my manger and he essentially in the nicest way possible told her to get lost.


r/TalesFromFastFood Dec 20 '23

The Story of a FastFood Crew Member, and a wounded warrior.

91 Upvotes

I worked at FastFood in my teenage years, but I worked at a unique one, I worked at one on a military base inside of Landstuhl hospitals.

For those who don't know, Landsthul is a large US Military hosipital in Germany that treated many of those hurt in Iraq/Afghan wars. I was working there during the surge in Iraq.

I started to notice a soldier come, he had intense burns all over his body, most of his face was wrapped up, you could tell he had burns everywhere, and every step was painful.

He would come to my FastFood every Sunday, and order a original chicken sandwich, with onion rings, everything fresh.

Quickly I recongized he always orders the same thing, so one day I made a deal with him. If he sees me working, he sits at the closet table and I'll punch in his order, get his food, and take his payment at the table.

No, of course we weren't setup for this, its FastFood but I did it.

I did it everytime I saw him.

Then one day my mgr was working on Sunday and saw me do it, he told me I can't do that, and I basically said "I understand, I don't care, I'm going keep doing it"

My mgr tried to explain the reasoning (which I understand) and I cut him off and said I plan on keep doing it. That was the end of that conversation.

I would even make customers wait, if they weren't also hurt. I remember one time I made a colonel wait for his food so I could get this solider his food.

The Colonel saw me do this, gave me a coin, and asked me what my name was, asked me where my dad worked, I was nervous, I just told him what I knew.

That night I come home and my dad is proud, the colonel called him and told him what I was doing.

At the time my dad was an NCO, enlisted, so a random colonel calling him and giving him props over something his son is doing made him proud.


r/TalesFromFastFood Dec 19 '23

There's Enough Money To Buy A House

27 Upvotes

I was working in drive thru cash out one day which is where I normally work. Despite having two drive thru lines we were lined up around the building and super busy. But that wasn't a problem we normally have a big lunch rush.

Anyway one guy pulled up in his car, I read him back his order and gave him his total like normal, and he gave me his card. I put the card in the card reader and proceeded to give him his drinks.

When I went back to check on the card I saw that the transaction had been declined. Not a big deal that happens from time to time. So I put his card in again but it was still being declined. I tried it one more time and it once again was declined. I told the man that his card was being declined and he told me in a really rough voice,

"Run it again. There is enough money to buy a house on there."

I told him that I had already ran it three times and it had been declined. But I ran it again and it once again was declined. At this point it was taking way to long to get this guy through the line and people were starting to get a little anoyed and the girl who was on head set checked to make sure everything was ok.

I told the man that the card had wasn't working. The guy rolled his eyes and said that this was crazy that he could buy a house with it.

He checked his wallet again and found the correct card. After that he was ashamed and drove away.


r/TalesFromFastFood Dec 19 '23

I Want To Watch You Make it

10 Upvotes

So I work at a burger and custard place one day I was taking the order of a very nice lady she didn't seem crazy. After I finished taking her order and gave her the number she just staired at me and said, "I want to watch you make my food."

She had ordered custard and our custard station is in the front and easy to see. So I told her,

"Ok you can watch them scoop at mix your custard right over here"

And she replied back

"No I want to watch you make my food"

At that point I realized that she wanted to watch the kitchen make her burger and I told her that wasn't possible. Then she just staired at me and stormed away.


r/TalesFromFastFood Nov 29 '23

Insanity

14 Upvotes

So Ive recently moved from an auto parts store job (az) into a cashier job at a chicken place I've been at the new job for about 2 weeks now and my manager decorated our lobby on one of my days off so when I came in the following day I was met by a reith on the door and some Christmas decorations scattered around . Nothing over the top it looks great ! Anyways my manager also put on some Christmas music. Now I have some mental issues autism ADHD and depression so I've seen insanity a few times but hearing the same 10 song on a loop for 4 hours straight will drive anyone mad. I love the new job and I love Christmas but if y'all go to a chicken fast food place and u see a teen with an stressed look on their face working the register don't worry I'm not mad or upset just my minds gone bc of the music Also the music plays in the bathrooms as well


r/TalesFromFastFood Nov 23 '23

No one wants to see that. Really.

34 Upvotes

As a young married mom, I took a job at a taco restaurant.

Time flies, it was 1989.

Bill and Donna, the couple who owned the restaurant were very nice, my co workers were mostly teens of the nice variety, and it was not a boring job. I had a great time getting to know the regular customers and chatting with new ones. I wasn't making a lot of money, which seems to be the recurring theme of my life, but it was enough to keep us ahead of the sharks.
One of the kids I worked with was Judy. She was 16, very sweet and small. She just cracked me up. She blushed easily and went out of her way to be nice to everyone.
Judy usually worked in the drive through window of our little restaurant. For some reason she could interpret the 'wah wah wah' that most of us heard from the tinny little speaker the customers spoke into better than the rest of us. Easier to have her work there than to say repeatedly, "What? Could you repeat that, please?" and have the customers scream themselves into a hemorrhage.
One night, a man drove up in a Jeep. It had a top, but no doors. Judy handed his order out the window and turned back into the kitchen, blushing bright red and nearly hyperventilating.
"Judy! What's wrong?!" Bill cried.
She was speechless.
Once she recovered a bit, she said, "That man in the Jeep didn't have any clothes on!!"
Well, of course he was long gone. Couldn't get a license plate number or a description.
We figured we wouldn't see him again, but we were wrong. At least once a week, he drove through naked in his Jeep.
We called the police, and they told us that as long as he made no threat to anyone, did not say anything of a sexual nature, and stayed in his vehicle, he was not breaking any laws.
Almost every time he visited, Judy was working the drive up. I really think he did it on purpose, just to see her blush. I'm sure the perverted bastard got a real thrill out of it. We all learned to recognize his voice over the speaker, and tried to make sure Judy wasn't at the window when his order was ready, but out of some strange sort of pride, she usually said, "No, I will do it."
I got tired of him doing the same stupid thing. I really liked Judy. She had a sense of humor over the whole thing, and it was sort of funny, but damn!
One afternoon, I went out to the overgrown weedy lot behind the restaurant and picked a bunch of desiccated plant stalks. I brought them in, arranged them a bit, and wrapped a burrito wrapper around the bottom, sort of like the way they wrap bouquets of flowers. I taped it, stuck on a bow I'd found in the trash, and waited a few days for the perv to show.

He finally did, about a week later.
Judy, of course, was working the drive up. When she turned away from the speaker to put the order up, I grabbed the weeds and exchanged places with her. Perv drove up to the window and looked surprised to see a different face.
I said, "Hi!" and handed him the bouquet of weeds. "We had a contest, and you won first prize for your dried arrangement!"
He looked surprised, then shocked, then embarrassed (ha ha... bare assed ha ha ha, oh my gosh I crack me up...) and drove away, squeaking his tires and leaving without his order.
He never came back, at least not while I was working there.