This page was created to voice various complaints that a server could have with customers at a restaurant.

Let me just say that not every server, cook, etc., in the food service industry is a wonderful person. However, many customers treat us as if we were slaves. Many others tip us and maybe we don't deserve it every time. But, overall, customers act as selfishly as possible.

Remember, we make usually around $3.00 an hour. So, tips are what provide for our living. Many people don't realize this or don't care.

• Many customers must believe that they are the only ones in the restaurant. Let me say this another way. There may be one waitress in the whole restaurant. Customers sometimes refuse to wait for more than 30 seconds before loudly complaining. They seem to have no conception of my duties and choose not to observe how many other people are also in the restaurant.
  
  

• Customers have a skewed sense of time. I have had customers who had waited for perhaps 3 minutes claim that they had waited for 15 or 20 minutes. I knew this to be impossible. I have been tempted at times to hand them my apron and ask them if they can do a better job than me.
  
  

• Customers refuse to read the menu, as evidenced by stupid questions that are clearly answered on the menu.
  
  

• Customers will blame a server for many mistakes or faults, which are not caused by said server. These include mistakes by cooks, dishwashers, or high prices created by the owner, or high taxes. Yes, that's right, I had a customer complain about the taxes on their purchase. I told them that I did not control the state sales tax rate.
  
  

• Customers sometimes try to talk on a cell phone and order at the same time, this is endlessly annoying.
  
  

• Customers fly in the face of reality by stating that coffee is cold. Now, it may not be hot enough for them, or it may be lukewarm, but it is NEVER cold.
  
  

• At Top Notch East, Police officers receive a 50 percent discount. They still insist on seperate checks, even if there is 10 or more of them, even if they are PAYING less than they would PAY at McDONALDS!
  
  

• A majority of the customers make it clear through various covert and overt hints that YES, they ARE more IMPORTANT than others.
  
  

• Certain customers will state that a server or cashier is racist, simply because the customer is upset for some reason.
  
  

• Customers assume that our female waitstaff like to be called "honey", "babygirl", "sweetie", etc. They DON'T.
  
  

• Customers mispronounce simple English words.
  Examples:
  strawberry=shrawberry
  sausage=shawsage
  fruit integration=fruit interrogation
  monterey jack=monterery jack or monee jack
  
  

• Customers ask for a waterglass-sized soda rather than a small or large.
  Since we have small and large, everyone attempts to order medium.
  
  

• Lazy people demand that the cooks put ketchup, mustard, etc., on their burger for them, and demand that the burger be cut in half.
  
  

• People say, "Maybe I'll have (x)", such as a cup of coffee. Who came up with that expression? People either should want something or not!
  
  

• Customers will ask what soup is today. We will tell them, for example, Cream of Broccoli. They will then proceed to order Chicken Rice, as if we had been speaking Russian.
  
  

• This is a minor, but annoying thing. Almost all people wish that you place the change directly into their hand, but most people throw or drop or place the money on the counter and expect you to scramble to pick it up. Why? I believe this is because many people get a kick out of pretending consciously or subconsciously that people in restaurants are their servants.
  
  

• Customers always assume that we are trying to cheat them out of a handful of pennies. They do not consider that we are simply trying to do our job...they always expect the worst. For the most part, very little of the money goes in our pockets. What motivation would we have for overcharging?

  Unfortunately, I suppose this is because of a few bad people in the industry, that people have come in contact with.

In the years that I have worked in the food service industry, I have seen how in America we have become a country of self-worshippers. In other words, me, me, Me! is what we are all thinking. Even myself, in what had been my less than enthusiastic tackling of my restaurant jobs, showed this tendency.

This is a microcosm of society in general, and is one of many symptoms of our selfishness as a whole. Thank God I am now out of that profession.