People Share Their Most Mortifying “I Want To Speak With The Manager!” Moment

There is a tendency at the moment (with many attendant memes) to make fun of people who ask to talk with a manager at any type of business, especially retail or restaurants. While there is some truth to the idea that many people asking to speak to a manager are overreacting to something, this is not always the case. There are plenty of legitimate reasons a customer would want to speak with the manager of a business. They may want to complain about an employee, true, even the one they are asking to go get the manager for them, but there are other reasons as well. The customer may need assistance with something beyond (they believe, at least) the employee’s ability to help with. The person may not be a customer at all, but a professional from higher up in the company here to check on things, or even some sort of inspector or another person with authority to affect the store! Not all people asking to speak with a manager are “Karens” (as the most popular meme about these types of people name them) wanting to complain about an employee who did nothing to deserve it.

The stories below are told by people who saw their parents or someone else ask to speak with the manager at some sort of business. Were they justified in wanting to go over an employee’s head, or were they merely being dramatic and causing a scene for nothing?

42. Getting The Sausage Roll Sorted

“One time my Grandad got a sausage roll at a football match during half time, when he got back to his seat he found it was overdone, the pastry was quite burned. The man was irate. He didn’t take it back straight away as the second half was about to start, but he spent much of the second half angrily lamenting his savoury snack letdown.

So he takes it home, calls the customer service number on the back (I assume he had a few choice words for the poor soul on the other end but I wasn’t present for this), and keeps the remainder of the sausage roll in the freezer for the next couple of weeks.

Skip ahead to the next match day, my Grandad tells me we’re heading out early so he can have his sausage roll replaced. The customer service line told him to go to Kiosk 3 at the front of the ground next to the ticket office. When we arrive, however, the shutters are down at the food place.

The old man looks around growling and turning red in the face, stamps right over to window number 3 of the ticket office and slams his frozen burned sausage roll down like a f**king flaky gauntlet. At this point I’m trying to convince him the ticket office was a completely different department to the catering concession but my Grandad was having none of it. The lady working the ticket window continually attempted in vein to convince him the same, they sell match tickets not hot snacks, but this just got him angrier and angrier. Across comes a colleague behind the glass, now there’s just two people to rage at.

Then a head steward comes to attempt to diffuse the situation and my Grandad begins to wave the burnt sausage roll in this man’s face, I was actually surprised he didn’t whack him with it. At this point I’m mortified by the whole affair, wishing I’d have stayed back at the house until nearer kick off.

Eventually, after an hour or so, the shutters come up on the food concession. Fella at the counter goes ‘You must be Mr. Alaginge’ and calmly resolves the situation, dispatching a freshly baked sausage roll with the steady hands of a surgeon. My Grandad is completely satisfied with the result of his hour of insolent rage.

As we’re walking away he turns to me and says ‘that’s how you get these things sorted.'” alaginge

41. Didn’t Even Really Want The Pants

“My dad just loved to argue, and he loved a deal.

We were shopping in a department store, and I found a pair of pants I was mildly interested in. The pants were tagged at (let’s say) $40, and the sign on the rack was ‘All pants $25’.

I was mildly interested, I asked the salesclerk if they had them in my size, the clerk said ‘those aren’t supposed to be on that rack’.

My dad lost his s**t and insisted on getting the pants for $25, and started asking for a courtesy discount on top of that.

Escalated to the floor manager and the store manager.

Meanwhile, I didn’t want the pants. They were ok pants I guess, nothing awesome, I just didn’t care very much about them. I was more than happy to move on. I told my dad I didn’t want the pants, by then he didn’t care about what I wanted, he wanted the pants at the better price.

Eventually after like an hour of arguing the store manager said ‘we’re not giving you the pants at that price. Take them or leave them at $40’. So we left them. Which suited me just fine, because I didn’t want the pants.” TheseWereThePlaces

40. No Napkins Given Or Needed

“When I was around 10 years old my grandmother went out and got us (her, my brother, and me) McDonald’s.

We got home and we didn’t have napkins in the bags. No big deal, right? We have paper towels and napkins in the house, also me and my brother are pretty good with not making any messes while we eat.

Nope. Grandmother got us in the car, drove back to McDonald’s, demanded a manager, and screeched about how upset she was that we didn’t get any napkins. I wanted to just melt into the floor and disappear. It’s just napkins, Nanny….” snopal

39. Knew The Salad Rule And Complained About It Anyway

“I grew up in a smaller town right on the cusps of its big growth boom.

We knew our town had finally made it when we got an Olive Garden. We used to eat there 2-3 times a month. My mom and I would always split an entree and my dad would get his own. We knew the rule if you’re splitting and entree and you get more than one of the family style bowls of salad than you’ll get charged an extra $4 for the extra person. Which is fair, 2 entrees come with 2 unlimited salads.
Welllll one day my dad decides he wanted more salad. Only he wants the additional salad, but the waitress said if she refills the bowl, that we will be charged the extra $4.

Wellll low and behold my parents threw the biggest tantrum because only HE wanted the additional salad. The demanded to speak to a manager and the manager explained the rule (which we knew) but offered to comp the extra salad just to get my parents to stop yelling….and they did. When our bill came the manager comped my dads entree and the additional salad fee. Well my mom got up. Interrupted the manager while he was talking to other guests and threw the check in his face and asked ‘what’s this?!?!’ She was furious that he comped my dads meal. He ate the meal therefore we would like to pay for it.

She wouldn’t stop raising her voice until she was allowed to pay for the meal (but not the salad). The manager was confused but obliged…when they brought the change the manager slipped a few free appetizer coupons. My mom ripped them up and threw them on the ground as she left. Safe to say I didn’t eat out with them for at least a month and I still refuse to go to Olive Garden with them.” hidcid
38. Dinner With The Complaining Neighbor

“I had this awful annoying af terrible neighbor who, because I’m a giant sucker, I was kind to. She asked me to come with her to dinner because it was her birthday, and I knew I was the only person on the planet who would go with her and goshdarnit it’s her birthday how could I say no?

So she and I went and we brought our kids (all girls, one mine, two hers).

She makes her oldest do her math homework right there at the table. When the child asks her for help (mind you this is like third grade math) the mom says it’s too hard. I end up helping.

The waiter is just fine. He comes by and takes our orders. She is already acting weird but she always acted weird so I didn’t think much of it. Waiter comes by again and asks if we need anything. She dismisses him and waves him off and tells him no. Then like 30 seconds later turns to me and is like ‘Can you believe how awful the waiter is? He won’t even refill my drink!’ and just goes on about all these ‘issues’ that literally don’t exist.

I’m like ‘He just asked if you needed anything…’ she cuts me off ‘I’m going to talk to the manager.’

Oh God….

She talks to the manager like this is the worst experience she’s ever had in the history of her miserable existence. I’m in shock, her kids have their heads down. Mine is oblivious, lol.

The manager gives her like half off the meal. Oh and the kicker? ‘That’s my half so you only need to pay the rest!’ OH GEE THANKS!!

I left a big tip and a note on my receipt telling them the waiter was great and apologizing for the complaints that were totally not warranted.

It was the second-most embarrassing restaurant experience of my life.” DataIsMyCopilot

37. No Reservations At The Red Lobster

“Not me, but my sister in law. Her step dad and mom took the family out to eat at a Red Lobster. They get there and it is super busy. So the step dad walks up to the host and says ‘Yes, we have a reservation’.

The problem is, Red Lobster (or at least that one) doesn’t take reservations. The host explains this and says it is going to be 20 min wait for seating. Her step dad FLIPPED out and started screaming that he had called 3 hours before hand and made a reservation.

The host politely told him this was not possible as they do not take reservations (again).

He continues to scream at the guy, and says he wants to talk to a manager. So the manager comes out and she tells him the same thing. They don’t take reservations, so it’s not possible that he had made one. He continues to cause a scene and people started leaving just to get away from this toxic guy. Finally, the manager says, ‘Fine, we will put you ahead of everyone else that has been patiently waiting their turn’. He says ‘Thank you’. They get seated.

Once they get to the table and the waitress walks away, he slyly winks and says to my brother and the rest of the family ‘THAT is how you get things done. I wasn’t going to wait 20 min’.

My brother refused to eat or order for fear of getting food that had been spit on.” sixstringhook

36. Screaming About Her Room

“I was 13 when this happened. My mom had made a reservation at a hotel for a trip, but when she got there the lady said there was some error with the reservation and that my mom’s payment didn’t go through, so the lady offered us a double bedroom for a discount.

Rather than just taking the room, thanking the lady, and leaving, my mom decided the best course of action would be to scream, in the middle of a hotel lobby, ‘NOBODY IS GOING ANYWHERE TIL I GET MY F**KING ROOM!’ She then proceeded to pester the lady, who clearly couldn’t do anything about it, until eventually she called the police on my mom for public disturbance. Mortifying.” elsoov

35. Complained About The Dancing Delay

“My MIL is truly a Karen. Going out to eat with her is always a nightmare. Her orders have 14 special requests, but she’s not at all kind about it, she is defensive from the get go like you’re an idiot who’s already screwed the order up.

‘Nooo dressing. Not on the side. Nothing. Completely dry. Do you understand? I will send it back!’

The one I will never forget though was dinner at Joe’s Crab shack. In case you’ve never been it’s one of those places that every so often plays a song that the entire staff is required to drop everything & do a little synchronized dance to. It’s quick, everyone gets a little kick out of it, it’s part of the fun. Now my MIL Karen knew this, it’s not like she’d never been here. But apparently she was not willing to wait 2 extra minutes for her dry salad, so she starts going off as soon as the dancing starts.

She gets a manager, who clearly knows Karen well & offers a quick apology (for doing their job), a discount & her dry a** salad. But Karen’s not completely ***sati*sfied. Sh*e tells us* that e*ven tho*ugh *dinner for* our par*ty of 8 *is on her,* she’s n*ot t*ipping th*e waitres*s 1 *penny. Sh*e p*roceeds to*******…..loudly…the rest of the meal & antagonize our waitress over petty s**t.

I worked too many years in customer service & ya know, I’m a decent human being. I made sure to get my bill separate so I could tip for the entire table. I wrote a quick note on the receipt, something along the lines of ‘Way to stay positive even when the customer’s a jerk’.

I was a little afraid of the wrath of Karen, it was one of my first interactions with her too, but when the waitress came & hugged me, Karen & I locked eyes. She knew. I didn’t care. Don’t be a Karen.” RixxiRose

34. Exposing The Steak Sauce Secret

“When I was 6 my mom took my brothers and I out to Golden Corral for dinner. She went up to the buffet, got a steak, and came back to the table. She’s an avid A1 steak sauce fan and cannot, i repeat, cannot eat steak without it.

She poured out the A1 onto her plate, tasted it, and was instantly horrified.

She proceeded to pour out the Golden Corral Steak Sauce right next to the A1 and it matched perfectly.

Outraged, she called over a waitress and eventually the manager showing them her little experiment and how she exposed the Great Steak Sauce Fraud of 06.

My brothers and I were scarred for the rest of our lives. I still have nightmares about it.” Streaks-

33. Willing To Get A Woman Fired For A Lie

“I work in a call center, and one of my coworkers spoke to a woman and explained a thing to her (I forget the exact thing, like, supposedly told her something would be covered and it wasn’t or something along those lines).

The woman calls back super angry and escalates to a manager. manager reviews the call and finds woman was in fact told the correct thing. She is still angry and insisting she was told the wrong thing. Manager replies ‘are you sure? are you 100% sure? Because I am going to take you at your word, and if that is the case, employee will lose his job. Someone is going to be fired over this if you are certain that’s what they told you’. The woman did not give a s**t, and insisted she was told the wrong thing. Some people are scum.

The manager did not fire my coworker, she had proof he was correct. She just wanted to see how far this woman was willing to take her lie.” annieisawesome

32. The Record Store Made No Cents

“One time I was in a record store with my dad. He bought a record that was 19,99 euros. He paid using a 20 euro bill. The clerk took the money and put it in the register and gave my dad the cd in a plastic bag. I started walking off when I noticed my dad wasn’t moving. As I turn around I hear him say to the record store clerk “You still have to give me my cent back.” The clerk replies that they don’t return one or two cents because they don’t accept them and as such don’t have them in the store.

My dad replies by saying that is “Judicially impossible” and asks for the manager. To make a long story short; one of the clerks gave my dad a cent from his own wallet.” SpaceChauffeur
31. Threw The Burger At The Cook

“Ugh, my dad. He can be such a pr**k if you get his order wrong, it could be fast food or a nice sit down restaurant. He often yells at wait staff if they ‘undercook’ his steak. It has to be well done or he claims to have lost his appetite.

One time we went to Burger King when I was younger and we sat down to eat.

He took one bite of his burger, spit it out and immediately started b**ching about it being under cooked. He cut in front of everyone in line to yell at the cashier, then he asked who was the cook. when the cook appeared, he launched his burger hitting the poor kid directly in the face with a lidless burger. He’s now banned for life from Burger King” cok3noic3

30. Rude And Demented Grandmother

“My grandmother wasn’t only a ‘let me talk to your manager’ type she was a racist and advancing dementia completely turned off her filter for that. I’ve blocked out all the context behind it other than I took her to buy yarn and something went wrong.

I think maybe they shorted her a couple bucks or wouldn’t honor a coupon or something. Whatever it was ended in a ‘let me talk to your manager’ followed by a tirade to the manager about how they shouldn’t be hiring Mexicans.
I just remember having to talk over her and say, ‘Oh my god you can’t talk to her like that. Nothing you just said is ok’ followed by me trying to push her wheelchair out of the store as fast as possible with her digging her feet into the ground trying to get me to stop so she could go back to trying to ruin someone’s day and me wondering if I’d go to jail for elder abuse if her ankles snapped in the process because nothing was going to stop me getting her out of that store.

I got her into the car and then went back in and apologized till I was blue in the face. I wish I could say it was an isolated incident but it definitely wasn’t.” AbortRetryImplode
29. Tantruming Mother, Helpful Child

“My mom needed to return some shirts at the mall because they didn’t fit right. It was past the allotted time that she had to return them, so the employee said that there wasn’t anything she could do. My mom started SCREAMING at this girl who was probably about 16 or 17 calling her names and demanding to speak to the manager.
When the manager told my mom that they couldn’t do anything and that the return policy was on the receipt, my mom threw a fit and knocked over a display that was next to the register and stormed out of the store.

I was probably 6 or 7 at the time and I was mortified. I apologized for her behavior and picked up what I could before she started calling for me to follow her. The manager was super sweet to me though and told me that I was a good kid and to stick up to my mom when I could get away with it” jayrambling
28. All The Hoops And A Coke Machine Out Of Order

“My father-in-law and step mother-in-law are the culprits in my case. They are absolute monsters at restaurants towards the wait staff. They seem to enjoy the game of how many annoying little hoops they can make servers jump through.

It’s too cold in here. It’s too hot in here. the music is too loud. The salsa is too hot.
They’ve made them do three or four things by the time we even order our food. Then my mother-in-law loves to order something spicy off the menu, but then tell them them to make it not spicy. And these are not four-star restaurants, just simple diners and so forth. One time my father-in-law was particularly rude over a Coke machine being out of order. He complained to the manager, and stiffed the waitress. When I realized that he didn’t tip, I called back to the restaurant, let them know some of us at the table were happy with the service, and asked them to run my credit card for her tip.

And that was the last time I let him pay for our meal.” misterdandy
27. Wrong Mexican Coupon

“My mom constantly does this, but one time really sticks out.

We went to a local Mexican restaurant and as we were paying for the food she tried to use a coupon. The cashier said they wouldn’t accept the coupon and my mom was furious. She demanded that the manager come out and accept the coupon. She caused a massive scene in the restaurant and it lasted at least five minutes. As the cashier was getting the manager, I decided to look at the coupon…it was for a totally different Mexican restaurant in the area and my mom wasn’t wearing her glasses.

The cashier and manager both came back, my mom apologized, and they ended up accepting the coupon.” xXmoabmasterXx

26. Praising The Good Waiter To The Bad Manager

“It was at a TGI Fridays in Katy, TX. This waiter was amazing. He was working 8 tables that I could count and was managing all of them flawlessly. Drinks never got below 1/3rd full at any table, he was always attentive and prompt, friendly, just a textbook example of the perfect waiter. He impressed my dad so much that my dad asked if he could speak to a manager. Of course, the waiter immediately asks if anything is wrong, since that’s the only time someone asks.

My dad tells him no, it’s to make sure that management knows what excellent service he’s providing. The waiter thanks us and says he’ll get a manager over as quickly as he can.

We wait for about 10 minutes before this middle-aged grease ball of a manager saunters over and starts asking my dad how the waiter screwed up. My dad is not the most patient of people, and we were kinda in a hurry to get home, so the 10 minute wait was rubbing him wrong. But when the manager immediately acted like the guy was a screw up, my dad lost it.

He told the manager that the waiter had done everything perfectly, and that’s why he tipped the guy $15 on a $35 ticket. He also went on to say that the manager needed to be more respectful of his staff and gave the guy an a** chewing for presuming that the employee had screwed up. Before that moment, I thought that my sister and I were the only ones he would scream at when he was upset. It was somewhat embarrassing to see my dad yell at this guy, but he did it for a good reason.” WaulsTexLegion

25. Fake Mustaches And Dairy Queen Managers

“My personal favorite is the Dairy Queen drive-thru incident.

My mom thought she was being overcharged 12 cents and freaked out at the poor Dairy Queen drive-thru dude. He was probably in high school and here’s my ‘adult’ mom screaming at him for overcharging her like 12 cents. Some of her exact words were ‘Are you on crack?? What the f**k is wrong with you?? I can’t BELIEVE this is happening right now. You’re wasting my time.’ Etc etc, the usual flip out. Also, she mentioned her work… she loves bringing up that she works at a certain big business, as if that gives her more authority to be a******* to people.

But the Dairy Queen incident was special… because just before going to get ice cream, my best friend and I had spent some quarters on giant fuzzy mustache stickers. So there we are in the backseat, rubbing our giant fake mustaches and staring at this kid getting screamed at by my mom. Dairy Queen dude was holding in laughter the entire time. I hope our mustaches made the raging mom incident less terrifying for him.

Oh and she did demand the manager who just shrugged her off and didn’t care.” FabulousCrow

24. Yelling About The View Of The Dump

“Spent two hours in the lobby of the MGM Grand in Vegas circa Jan ’99.

We had arrived with family friends to attend a hairstylist convention (friend’s mom owned a salon and mine managed it), and we discovered our family suites had a window view of their dumpster area about a minute after walking into the room.

Cue my mother storming back down to the lobby and demanded the head manager at the front desk switch our rooms immediately. Watching her make a scene and get even angrier once security was threatened on her was mortifying. I was 10, tired and embarrassed, and just wanted us all to have fun.

Luckily the head manager offered a vacant Presidential Suite for ‘all of the trouble’ after getting my mother to calm down.

Looking back I realize he did it just to shut her up and restore calm back to the lobby for other guests. To this day, I am overly-nice to retail and food service workers to compensate for her behavior even though she’s not even around anymore. I never want to be THAT person.” PM_ME_YOUR_FEDORA

23. But That Is Not A Firetruck

“Once my mum and I were at an awesome Chinese place. They had the best pork buns.

So I was sitting there eating my pork bun and then the restaurant owner comes up to ask if we would like anything else. Me being about 7, pointed to the kid’s drink menu at a drink called “the fire truck” that sounded like an absolutely amazing drink.

We ordered that and I kept eating my pork bun. When the drink arrived, it was a bright orange Fanta with lemonade and ice cream drink. My mum was shocked, she asked for the manager, (of course she did) and complained that it looked nowhere near a fire truck.

deep sigh please end me” FuriousFetus98

22. Mother Shoves Ice Cream On Manager

“Brother (13) sister (9), cousin 1 (10), cousin 2(11) and I (11) went to go eat at the nearby DQ by our house. Brother orders first and gets ice cream. The rest of us get burgers. Brother regrets his order and asks to trade but non of us wanted ice cream.

So he decides to ask the cashier to switch his order. I tell him he can’t do since he already ate some of it but he ignores me and asks anyways. They say no because since he ate some.

Brother gets mad and walks home and the rest us eat our food. And then, oh boy…. my mom arrives, pissed off, and asks to speak with the manager. Manager comes up and says they can’t switch his order because he already ate some of it. Mom waves the ice cream in managers face demanding to switch his order. Again, she says no.

I’m super embarrassed and focus on eating my food. Now I didn’t see exactly what happened but cousin 1 did and his jaw drops and says something along the lines of, ‘your mom just shoved the ice cream at the ladies face!’ We all look back and poor manager lady had ice cream all over her face and hair! Mom grabs brother by the arm and nearly sprinted out of the store! I almost sank to the floor in embarrassment!

As the manager was wiping the ice cream off, she points to us and angrily asks us to come over. We booked it! Abandoning our food and ran home! Dad noticing us asking us what happened and we tell him.

He gets mad, turns to mom and says, “that was not necessary” but mom wasn’t having any of it and blamed it all on them. Brother was red in the face. I don’t think he expected that to happen.

About 10 minutes later (with parents arguing about it) the police show up with little sister. We all forgot about her! She was mad at us for leaving her behind. The cops basically told us we were banned from entering that DQ. All of us glare at brother, who looked mortified. I don’t know if my mom got in trouble (if she did it was well deserved) but it was so embarrassing and unnecessary.

To this day I haven’t been back to that DQ. And that was almost 20 years ago! I always cringe a bit whenever I think about it.” air-port

21. Mother Is Assumed As The Chief’s Mistress

“Ohh lawdy, my mom is one of those. But she’s not the type to push her way through lines and would only talk to a manager if really need be, but due to her stern and scary personality she can really draw attention to herself.

One incident when I was around 8 or 9 was when we had to pay our immigration fees, this wasn’t in the US btw but in the Philippines.

We aren’t Filipino citizens so we need to go both to the US embassy then the local immigration offices to pay our yearly dues while living there. The immigration processing line was long…like DMV long & slow. Not to mention the office was infamous for having really lazy workers who only speed up the paper work when there’s a bribe.

My mom after 2 hours of waiting had enough, she actually knew the Vice Chief at that time…went to school with him. And this is how the conversation goes

Mom: I want to speak to the Chief Wiggum (Simpson name here).

Officer: (scoffed at mom) Sorry but you cant just MEEt-

Mom: (cuts her off and leans in & in a low drawl) Tell Chief Wiggum, Marge is here.

He know who I AM. (looks at me then the officer). He knows who we are.

Officer had a look of panic, asks a co worker to watch his booth, and leaves. About 10 mins later this Jolly fellow, bit of sweat on his brow comes by. Hugs my mom and gave his officers a look. Mom took me by the hand and we were ushered to his office.

In the 15 mins we were there, our papers were personally processed by him. In the next few years we would just walk into his office to get this done and had this perk till he passed away.

Learned later that day of my memory, Chief Wiggum was in a board meeting when he got called and abruptly left. Due to my mom’s actions it was assumed she was his mistress and me the love child. He got quite the teasing of a lifetime because of that.” Sweetragnarok

20. Marching Out In New Boots

“Mom bought a pair of boots at a large, fancy department store. Wore them every day for approximately 6 months. Wore them in the rain a few times and the soles were eventually starting to come loose due to wear.

While wearing the boots, she marches into the store, takes them off at the counter, plonks them down on the counter and demands a refund or a new pair, because the quality of the shoes were not up to par, arguing that if it were, the soles wouldn’t have started coming loose.

Note – she no longer has the receipt at this point, but argues the boots have the store logo on the bottom so she doesn’t need one.

She proceeds to argue for almost 20 min. Refuses to budge. Demands to see the manager. A queue has formed at this point and everyone is staring.

The manager caves.

He walks to the back, gets a new pair of boots and brings them to my mom. She puts them on right there at the counter and marches back out of the store as if nothing happened.” Re8jv24

19. Rude Cashier Ruins Birthday

“I was 14 and my mom did this s**t at BK on my birthday because she didn’t think the girl had the right attitude.

I remember being like ‘please don’t do this’ even though I agreed the girl had a nasty attitude(mom’s partially deaf and the girl refused to speak louder or more clearly even after being told that plus rolling her eyes and twice getting the order wrong) because I didn’t want a scene. My mom was determined to speak with the manager though and wouldn’t take our food until she did. Instead of getting the manager the girl decided she wanted to come around the counter and scream in my mom’s face for being a ‘deaf old*******’. She swung on my mom and I jumped on the girl with my brother to keep her off my mom.

She bit me twice. Police got called. We were banned from BK after the manager came out and took the employee’s side. Cops did nothing because the girl was 16.

Never been more embarrassed or angry. Ruined my whole birthday I should have said I wanted McDonald’s instead. Oh well.” EarnstEgret

18. Overreaction To A Long Wait

“My dad is kind of a drunk. A rich drunk. We were out at an extremely nice restaurant in our small town, a very foodie and chic place that had only been open for a couple of years and had since become my favorite restaurant. I was sitting at a table with my siblings and cousins (all of us college-age), while my dad was sitting with my aunt and uncle and mom at a table nearby.

By the time we get our food, the parents are still sitting there chugging their wine with no food. My dad starts getting upset. I hear him call the waitress over. She brings them some bread and leaves them alone. We finish our meals and our parents are still sitting there without food and several empty bottles of wine. My mom is essentially fall asleep at this point. My father, furious, starts banging his fists on the table, shaking all of the silverware. The waitress goes into the kitchen to find the chef, but she is apparently taking too long. My dad storms into the kitchen.

I hear him SCREAMING at the top of his lungs like a f**king toddler. The chef calmly, politely walks him back to his table. He sits him down and, in the calmest voice possible, says, ‘F**k you, sir. Now, get the f**k out of my restaurant.’ We have not been back since.” whoops519
17. His Personality Is Rude Enough To Be A Disorder

“Preface by saying that my dad is insane and has some sort of undiagnosed, severe mental disorder that he calls ‘personality’. Anywho:

Once, he and I went through a Starbucks drive-thru and he was smoking a cigarette in the car (which I can’t stand).

When he rolled up to the pickup window he ‘accidentally’ blew his cigarette smoke in the barista’s face as they took our money. Barista made a face (that any of us would make in this situation) and waved the smoke out of his face. He made no comment, but that would never stop my dad from taking offense.

DAD: ‘what’s the matter with you?’

BARISTA: ‘sir, could we ask you not to smoke at the drive-thru window? It’s our policy (and CA law btw) not to let anyone smoke within 20 feet of-‘

DAD: ddon’t talk down to me, I know my rights. You’re f**king rude.

Don’t wave your hand in my face.’

BARISTA: ‘sir, I really wasn’t-‘

DAD: [no eye contact] ‘I’m done with you. Go get your boss over here.’

Manager comes over and my dad claims that the barista is being racist (dad is white, barista was black) and that we shouldn’t have to pay. Dad threatens to call corporate to ‘get all your a**es fired’.

Manager apologizes profusely, but I could feel and understand a steady undercurrent of ‘please f**king kill me and end this conversation’. My dear old man stayed at the window for the next 15 MINUTES while the people behind us were losing their marbles.

I should’ve said something.

I should’ve stopped him, called out his ridiculous behavior, and apologized to both baristas. Instead, I sat there in the passenger seat and tried to will my atoms to lose structure and disappear from the f**king earth. I’ve never been more mortified to be related to him.” Veritasia

16. Make Mother’s Order Perfect Or Else

“My mom asked to speak to the manager after her food took too long during lunch. He spoke to her and personally apologized plus a free meal etc. Then she went home and wrote an email to the address listed on their website, complaining again about the situation.

Then a year later I started working there, and one day, my mom had come in for lunch. Her order ticket had her full name on it on the kitchen line. Coincidentally, a friend from high school was working in the kitchen at the same time as myself, and recognized that we had the same last name. I confirmed that it was my mom’s order when the manager had a look so he could make fun of me for making my ‘mommie’s food’ (regular kitchen banter). Then it hit him, my mom was ‘the polenta lady’.

Her email, as I had found out went straight to the owners, and they pinned it up on the line for a month.

Then they gave the manager an ear beating for the incident.

My mom continued to come in regularly over the next year. Each time she ate lunch there, everyone on the line would start proclaim loudly, ‘RootedOak’s mom’s here! Make sure her order is perfect or else she’ll write another email!'” rootedoak

15. Screaming About Scuffed Shoes

“This was with my mother. Had purchased these Puma shoes (you know the ones. The kind that had like different types of car logos on the sides or some bs?) from Foot Locker and liked them. They were like 70-80 dollars, can’t remember. They were the most expensive thing she had bought me in a long time.

Anyway, a few days of use, the front of them got kinda scuffed up (they were really white with some red, so that would be expected). My mother was having none of that. So, she took the shoes and marched straight back to the Foot Locker store and demanded we not only get a refund but also a replacement pair. For 10 minutes she argued that they’re puma shoes, so they should be held to a much higher standard and shouldn’t scuff so easily Jo matter what. All I could do was hold my head down as she argued with these poor minimum wage cashier’s about this topic.

To make matters worse, the customers in line behind us started arguing with her too and telling her that puma or not, shoes scuff and suffer damage. It happens. She was having none of that either. After about 20 minutes of back and screaming forth (from her end), she insulted them a bunch and they threatened to call security, and the line she kept shouting back at them was ‘why? Am I stealing from you?!’ (During and After the fact, she seemed to truly believe that that is the only reason why security would be called…).

Security was called, came over and escorted us out of the place.

The whole way home, she kept yelling and screaming about it and shouting ‘I should’ve split the shoes open with a knife. THEN they would’ve had to refund and replace.'” prodigalkal7

14. Hiding From Mother’s Embarrassing Complaints

“When I was in High School I worked at McDonald’s. One year i skipped sports day and decided to work instead (because money). I was working in the kitchen when one of the Cafe staff came out saying some crazy lady wanted to speak to the manager. I had to witness none other then my own mother call my manager a baby faced t**t and go off about the Cafe staff.

I had to hide in the dry stock until she left” Lieutenant_Pugwash

13. My Kid Cannot Be That Smart

“My mom came to my school because she thought I was lying about what I got on my SATs. She didn’t think I was that smart. No one in my school would give her that information because they didn’t have to. She got to my principal and said, ‘I want to speak to your manager’ in front of me. He refused and they argued for a while. The principal knew I was an okay guy and the score I told my mother was legit.

It was really embarrassing though.” EthicalHacker17138
12. Food Coming Out Randomly Isn’t That Big Of A Deal

“I was once out to dinner with my brother in law and his family. Our meals all came out at almost random times instead of all together. My brother in law demanded to talk to the manager because it was ‘unacceptable’ that food come out at different times and he said something about how he hopes they don’t expect us to pay for the meal. He gave a big speech about how we came out so we could eat together, and he knows this is unacceptable because he used to be a waiter, etc.

I was mortified because I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.” NoseGraze
11. Smothering Emails To Hotel Management

“I wasn’t there for this (THANK GOD) but my mum once had a LENGTHY email argument of complaints to a hotel’s restaurant because their smothered chicken wasn’t ‘smothered enough.’

One such email included the dictionary definition of smothered.” goldcliffs

10. Convincing Customers The McDonalds Was Closed

“I was young and my mom and step dad took us to McDonalds. Somehow a nail or something got stuck in the tire which caused a flat. I’m not sure if it happened in the lot or not, but they were convinced it was.

They went to talk to the manager. I don’t remember exactly what their demands were, but they didn’t get them. They literally went into the street waving people away saying that they were closed because they were mad. It just seemed like a ridiculously excessive thing to do.” illini02
9. Just Go Ahead And Get Your Manager Now

“One that I witnessed:

I was at a cell phone store a few years ago. This was when phones first started to become water resistant. A kid had apparently gone swimming with his phone all day, and the phone had some discoloration to the screen and the touch screen wasn’t working correctly.

The kid obviously knew he screwed up, and he kept asking the mom if they could just leave. That the phone still worked, and he would survive.

The mom didn’t even try to be civil. She came in, and immediately started to be an abusive customer. I remember she laughed as she said ‘Oh, you’re gonna hate me. you should just get your manager now.'” Rhinosaur24

8. Dad’s Guilty Conscience

“The number of cashiers my father demanded the manager fire because they were too slow, rang us up wrong, etc, including one they actually did. I’ll never forget that girl taking her Home Depot apron off and walking away sobbing.

To his credit (I guess?) my dad seemed surprised that it actually worked, must have felt at least some level of guilt and never did it again.” FuzzyElf47

7. Not Every Cashier Knows About PST Exemptions

“My father is 50% native, which means he is ‘PST exempt’ which basically means he is exempt from a portion of tax on certain things he buys such as food and whatever. Every time we went grocery shopping, he’d say he is PST exempt and showed them his status card. This wasn’t really an issue, but sometimes the grocer wouldn’t know what he’s talking about and didn’t know how to exempt him from tax on the register.

They’d get frustrated and my dad would get cross with them, and he’d then ask to speak to a higherup and walk them through the process. Some cashiers got a bit lippy and so would my dad, and it would always end with me regretting going grocery shopping with him lol.” TheTDiz
6. Demanding A New Melon

“Right so my mum and me went shopping, and she dropped a melon on the way out. She then claimed it was bruised and demanded a full refund. When she refused, she shouted at customer service and demanded the manager. I just sat there with a ‘kill me now’ expression on my face.

After, one of the customer service employees gave me a chocolate bar, so 7yo me was happy.” curtisc-j

5. Art Of The Complaint

“There really is an art to stuff like this. You can be mad, just don’t be rude. I remember a time we were on a Vegas trip with extended family (cousin was having a super trashy wedding there) and my aunt and uncle booked a room in the Luxor, non-smoking, they were given their room key… it was a smoking room. My aunt was pissed, but with all her fury she spun up some charm as well and they were upgraded to one of those rooms that were less rooms and more like 3 bedroom apartment.

You gotta not be a d**k when you’re mad and people will give you everything to make their mistake go away.” ZadockTheHunter

4. Accidental Charges And A Purposeful Scene

“I was with my parents on vacation and the hotel put charges on the bill by accident. My mom marched to the front desk and demanded to see the manager. There was a long line, but she cut right in front of it. The manager wasn’t very helpful, probably because she was rude.

So my mom, went to all the other customers in line and told them that the hotel was a scam and they were ripping us off with fake charges.

She made a scene. The hotel called the police and we were escorted off the premises by actual cops. I died inside.” psychswot

3. Making The Cashiers Guess

“Before Value Village (Savers in the States I think) changed policies, she would cut tags to get discounts since the cashiers would basically make up whatever price they thought it would be, on the spot. If they high balled it, she would get a manager involved and I hated that.” Deminla

2. Almost Turned The Plane Around

“When I was a young child on a long distance flight my mother let me and my brother sleep on the floor.

For safety reasons the flight attendants told my mother that we were not allowed to sleep on the floor. She started to argue with the flight attendants who then turned to the pilots. The pilots threatened to turn the plane around unless we get up from the floor but she continued to argue. The pilots announced they were about to turn around because of my mother, so all the passangers got pissed. Eventually she caved in when she had all passengers and flight crew on a Boeing 747 against her..” ohhellnoxd
1. Drove To The Corporate Office To Complain About A Sign

“Grocery store had this sign up that said if an item rang up higher than an advertised price it was free.

It was the 80s and stores did stupid s**t like this that I never see in stores today.

Mom was buying a box of Little Debbie cakes and they rang up for $2.85 instead of the advertised $2.50. So now mom wants her free cakes. Cashier doesn’t know what to do, summons a manager. Manager tells her to ring up the sale otherwise and he’ll be right back.

Comes back and hands my mother 35 cents cheerfully and says ‘There you go!’ My mother points out the sign behind him and he says ‘Oh, the last manager put that up, it doesn’t make any sense.

I’m the new manager and I just haven’t had the sign removed yet’ (it was a printed plastic sign that was screwed into the wall).

Mom insists they honor their sign, he says nah. Now, up to this point, I as an adult looking back am totally on board with mom’s actions.

Mom gathers her things, decides against taking the Little Debbies on principle, and we get in the car. Mom wordlessly drives downtown to the main store of this 3-5 store chain, knowing the office is next door. We walk into this perfectly 80’s wood panneled office where my mother asks the secretary to speak to the owner of the store and is permitted to do so since this is a family owned business and their ‘corporate office’ is smaller than the row of cubicles my staff occupy at work.

Here my mother unleashes a tirade about how she has lost faith in his brand and how his word is meaningless since they will not honor the sign etc. This guy stands up, profusely apologizes, validates her anger and then pulls out his wallet and hands her a $5 bill along with a promise that he will speak to the manager and the sign will either be honored or removed.

We get home and find that the ice cream we bought melted in the trunk because summer and ruined the cereal and the bread.” TheFire_Eagle