I think that spitting in someones food is some kind of myth that was started in movies. We’ve never spit in anyones food. First, because that’s disgusting. Second, its a health violation and the whole restuarant would be shut down and we’d all be out of jobs. Third, because we don’t wanna touch or look at the food any longer than we have too, the extra 4 seconds of having to look at the food in order to spit in it would be four seconds too long.
Actually its been in my experience, that the better looking employees are put in the front. And that the employees that are usually stoned are put in the back. Also, the more annoying you are to the other employees the more likely you’re washing dishes in the back.
Oh, and I considered asking my manager to put in the back, but I talked to a guy who worked in the back (he’s one of the usually stoned ones) and he said that you have to deal with stupid employees that yell at you to make food for stupid customers…so you get the worst of everything in the back.
Lois: Jesus, nevermind the total lack of civility, manners, and decency your customers are displaying: how about the lack of common fucking sense? You DO NOT give a hard time to the person who is handling your food! This is just stupid. There is such an incredible variety of horrible things you could do to someone’s meal. I know a couple of people who admit, proudly, to hawking up something nasty into the orders of particularly annoying customers. And on one memorable occasion, half the wait staff took the opportunity to spit in Billy Ray Cyrus’ Coke, simply because of his music. I’m guessing from his mannerisms that Doug K. has some more first hand expierience with this sort of thing, wether he knows it or not.
I used to work at a veterinary hospital, and we would get people coming in asking for refills on meds for their animals when their prescription was out of date. It’s the same for animals as it is for humans- if the prescription is over a year old, it cannot be refilled until the animal is seen by the doctor! There was also heartworm medication- all dogs have to have had a heartworm test within 2 years before going on the Rx. IF the dog wasn’t tested and ended up having heartworms, and took the heartworm Rx, it could end up killing the dog! And we’d get these elderly people in the office saying, “My dog doesn’t need a heartworm test! I’m on a fixed income ya know!” Then WHY the HELL do you own a pet in the first place? Once this lady came in with a liquid antibiotic (unused) that is only good for 2 weeks after it’s been mixed up- her bottle was a year old! She asked me if she could still use it, it had been in her fridge for a whole year. When you add water to this Rx it turns pink. This stuff was so old it was brown! I took it back to my boss and asked him about it even tho I knew the answer already- “No, you cannot use this medication- it’s only good for 14 days! Would you like to make an appointment?”
I spent my time in fast-food hell when I was younger. While I was working at the vet’s it was nice to be working in a place where ‘no, the customer is not always right’.
I used to work at an unnamed pizza chain (to protect the manager who still works there), we had a lady throwing a hissy fit that her mushrooms looked wrong (we used fresh as opposed to the canned she was used to from some other local pizza place. She unpacked every adjective in the book as to how we couln’t make a pizza correctly including “I should know that a stupid chink dosent know shit about pizza” (our manager was Thai). Despite the fact that her order was correct in all respects she demanded we make her a new pizza and that she recieve a refund. Our manager cheerfully refunded her money and proceeded to make her a totally new pizza (-mushrooms). Pizza was cooked and we were all in the back mumbling about what a bitch this lady was. When the pizza came out of the oven our manager asked us all to join him at the cutting table. We walked over, and he instructed all 4 of us to spit on her pizza. He then cut and boxed the pizza and presented it to the customer who then walked away quite pleased with her free pizza.
I used to be an assistant mgr at a small amusement park, IMHO this should be gospel in manager training. My standard instruction to my area sups was never lose your cool if I showed up to a screaming match, the customer was given a bunch of freebies and the employee was disciplined. If a customer is screaming at a polite, respectful, staff member who is trying to correct the problem, that customer usually ended up being shown to the nearest exit. My staff does not make enough to get abused by customers and neither do I. If you want to speak in a civil manner I will fix the problem.
Another fun thing 
I usually had most of the area sups trained to react accordingly to a key statement on my part. When a customer demanded to know what I planned to do about him/her (the employee who he had a problem with) I stated very calmly “I will deal with him/her momentarily”. The employee in question would the do their best to look like a whipped dog, one of the cashier sups could even cry on demand. The customer walked away all smug thinking they had gotten somebody in trouble. 30 seconds later I usually apologized to the employee in question for not arriving sooner and told them if they gave her any more shit let me know. I would usually pull them aside to see if there was any way we could head off a similar situation in the future but nobody was ever disciplined when I used the “momentarily” line
You know something? This sounds EXACTLY like something I might do, when my blood sugar is low and I NEED to eat something NOW. I’m diabetic, I need to take insulin and then I need to eat within a certain time frame. It’s not at all fun to have your blood sugar bottom out because somebody can’t be bothered to make the item correctly. Perhaps she has been to your place before, requested no mayo, and always received mayo. And this time, she wants no mayo on her sandwich. Why IS it so difficult to not put mayo on a sandwich? Maybe she’s allergic to something in mayo. Or maybe she just finds it disgusting. She might not be diabetic, she might have just come off a 14 hour fast or something (also something I’ve done for medical tests). Hell, I finally got fed up with a pizza place, I’d order a veggie pizza without onions, and every single time I got it with onions. This went on for half a dozen times. I finally had to get with the manager and have him talk to the pizza maker, because I was tired of having to pick onions out of my pizza. Raw onions make me sick, literally. I can’t digest them.
Lest you think I’m completely unknowledgable about this situation, I used to work swing (4 to midnight) shift at a combination convenience/deli/liquor store in Las Vegas. I got to run a cash register, make food to order, deal with drunks, deal with kids wanting to buy booze and/or cigarettes, chase kids off the slot machines, watch for shoplifters, AND deal with people who were pissed because our slots didn’t pay off frequently. Well, of course our slots were tight, they’re in a convenience store, you want loose slots you go to a casino. I usually dealt with all of this stuff in a single shift.
I’ve seen both sides. Yes, people sometimes over-react, but oftentimes there’s a reason for it that’s not readily apparent. You say that an order’s gotten wrong maybe once a day. Maybe only one customer complains about it per day…but if someone’s gotten the same order wrong twice in one day, that should tell you that your error rate is far greater. A lot of people won’t even bother to tell you that their order is wrong, they’ll just take it, and not return to the store.
I also did pizza duty during my senior year in High School. We never spit on anyone’s pizza but we did have a special thing that we did when someone was an extreme asshole. This only happened twice during my nine months as a pizza chef. Anchovey juice as an extra ingredient! Colorless, oderless from a foot away, tastes like crap.
Haj
No, I don’t condone spitting in food or tampering. BUT, at the same time, I KNOW it probably has happened. I know people who HAVE wiped a burger on the floor, or on their shoes, because the customer was so abusive.
Never has the phrase, “You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar” been more appropriate.
Yes, I’ve never understood why people would be mean to customer service reps. Besides the spitting tactic, there’s plenty of other stuff they can do. One favorite is to fill the person’s drink cup up to the rim with ice so that they get almost nothing to drink. There’s just no sense in being rude and antagonizing an employee.
Finally, restauraunt chains have done studies and found that when orders are incorrect, it’s almost always because the customers didn’t order the correct thing, not because of employee mistakes. With that said, mistakes to get made sometimes, especially if you’re in a fast food place. fast food places are specifically designed to make food quickly, not correctly. That why they’re called ‘fast’ food. I got a chicken taco once when I wanted a beef taco. So what? A chicken taco won’t kill me.
I’m wondering where they conducted their study because it sure as hell wasn’t around here. I have to specifically ask for a receipt whenever I go to a fast food place so that, inevitably, when the order is not filled properly I can prove that they forgot something. Once, twice, no problem. Chicken instead of burger, I can deal with it. But every single time? I order a burger, I would like a burger. If i wanted chicken I’d order chicken. If I’m paying for it, I want it.
As for people bitching about rude customers, get used to it. People are rude. If you don’t like it or can’t handle it, get the fuck out of the customer service field. Hell, you can make more money, with just as little skill required, to do data entry.
I personally am polite and I’ll tell you, it doesn’t get me my food any faster or my order any more properly filled, so it almost makes sense that some people resort to being mean.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by soulmurk *
**
Does it occur to you that the people being mean do get their order more slowly?
The time spent bitching and whining to the poor scrote on the front desk means the order takes longer.
And if they have to get the manager, even longer.
And if the manager has to talk to them to find out what happened, even longer.
And potentially a pube in the burger.
Have a nice day.
I don’t care. After tonight when a truckload of drunk frat boys yelled “i wanna eat your pussy” at me, I don’t care if your blood sugar’s low…there’s a fucking circleK across the street, go buy a Snickers.
We’re not going out of business from one unhappy customer.
I’m starting to wonder if all this crap is worth it.
Is this post even for real? whoa… and I complained about the customers 
I got asshole customers. I don’t want someone I don’t know to collapse because of me not caring. I think I’d care a lot if my manager found out I’d fucked up an order which caused someone to collapse.
What if there isn’t? What if its a fairly remote drive-thru?
One unhappy customer suing the company.
One unhappy customer telling the press.
One unhappy customer telling their friends.
One unhappy customer telling their friend’s friends.
Not out of business, but it can hurt your manager enough to fire you, and potentially lose his franchise.
In your case, it probably isn’t.
Hey, fuck you, okay? If there’s mayo on your sandwich, and that causes you to colapse, you’re pretty much fucked in any situation.
I started this thread to vent on the sheer stupidity and rudeness of some people.
Not a great big debate on the moral values of fast food cashiers. I try so fucking hard to be nice and civil to everyone, and for what? To have “I wanna eat your pussy” and “She might’ve been a diabetic. Hungry diabetics have a god given right to throw temper tantrums over mayonaise!” thrown back at me?
I know life is hard, and I know a million people are out there right now chanting in unison while rubbing their thumbs and forefingers together “This is the world’s smallest violin…” Well you know what? I don’t care. I’m only 18, and the only relief I have is knowing that I (hopefully) won’t be doing this fast food shit for the rest of my life. This fucking job has even made me consider changing my major to something I know I’m garanteed to succeed in, to insure that I’ll never have to do this again. And if I have any children, they will be forced to have a job in fast food, to learn character and to build a backbone, I certainly have. And if I ever own a company, the only people I will hire will have have a fast food chain listed on their resume…that’s like %10 of the population, anyway.
I sold Avon last summer, and I thought that was a degrading, soul sapping job…I had no clue…
I’m sorry I was rude, Lynn, I read back…and, yeah, I guess that was a pretty shitty thing to say, and I’m sorry.
Jeez, nikjohns, turn your Self-Righteousness dial down a tad, would you?
That was the nice part about my telemarketing job… when someone was an ass to me, I could just go ahead and be an ass right back. But always with a smile.
“How about I call and interrupt your dinner?” “Sounds like a plan, sir. We’ll try you when you’re sober.”
“If you call me one more time I’ll track you down and kill you!” “No problem, sir. We’ll try back later.” “FUCK YOU!” “Fuck you too, sir. :)”
These days, when I’m not writing optical security software, I’m a culinary distribution engineer/technician. I’m surprised how few irate customers there are. A drunk guy was ejected from the lounge by way of the restaurant, swearing all the way… but other than that, I haven’t seen anyone angry towards me or anyone else.
Maybe people are just nicer in “slow food” restaurants.
SPOOFE, I have worked in a fast food place for 6 months, and I would never want someone to collapse because I can’t be arsed to check their order.
Is there somehow something wrong about that?
loislane gives the impression s/he hates all customers.
It does seem to me that someone having a hissy fit over a screwed up order it probably upset over something else as well, and this is the straw that broke the camel’s back. For all you know, the woman recently lost everything she owns in a fire, and hasn’t got any insurance or family. She may have just lost custody of her kids, she may have had her parents or her spouse die recently, she may have found out she was pregnant and the father was long gone, she may have just walked in on her boyfriend feltching a goat (would turn ME off mayo). Who knows? While that certainly dosen’t make it OK for her to throw a fit, it should inspire you to be more compassionate when people break down. Life is hard, and you will never make it through if you hold other people to such a high standard that whenever you see them weaken you feel it is ok to laugh and mock.
Manda, have you ever worked fast food? Recently? Or so long ago it’s a dim memory?
I did it for two years a decade ago. If you’re in even a mildly busy retail area, you’re going to go through so damn many customers in a typical lunch rush that even if one collapsed in front of your register, the most you’d be able to do would be call 911, move them out of the way, and take the next order. There’s no time to be concerned over every individual’s possible shitty life. There’s no time to care about whether or not someone is too busy to monitor their own medical problems and got caught short without their orange. The only imperative that a fast food crewmember has is “take the next order”.
jayjay, she specifically states:
I am not suggesting that they should stop and council the woman, just that the better reaction to such a scene is “Oh my god, she must be having a worse day than mine, I didn’t know it was possible” instead of laughter and mockery. If in ten yeas loislane loses her baby to SIDS, and 2 weeks later is in an Arby’s and they screw up her order twice and it all comes rushing in on her and she just . … loses it a little, well, it is going to go worse for her because now she will be sure all the workers were laughing up her sleeve at her the whole time, preparing to tell the story of hte crazy mayo lady to all thier friends as soon as the shift is over. If she reacts with compassion now, when she is the one in the hot seat she will assume that others are reacting with compassion to her. This makes things a little easier.