Karens Gone Wild: Fast Food Horror Stories

By now, everyone who hasn't been living under a rock for a decade knows exactly what a "Karen" is. The term is used to refer to people who have a tendency to act haughty, entitled, and bratty—especially when it comes to interacting with people in customer service. These nightmare Karens make life more difficult for all sorts of unsuspecting employees with their unreasonable and rude demands. If a Karen appears in your workplace, your best bet is probably to run and hide! 

You might think that these Karens are all upper-class and complaining about poor service in 1st class or a sub-par yacht, but that couldn't be further from the truth! Sometimes the biggest Karens you'll meet are throwing a fit over inexpensive items and bickering about pennies on the dollar. So, it's probably no surprise that fast food restaurants are one place where Karens are constantly making an appearance. 

Today, we're taking a look at some of the worst Karen stories from employees and visitors to fast-food restaurants. From demanding free food to getting physical with cashiers, these people have embarrassed not only themselves with their bad behavior but also the entire human race!

All of these stories have been sourced from Reddit and edited for clarity and length. 

Let's get started! 

I used to work at a theme park in the UK in a fast food area, and twice a year, the day after the derby at a nearby racecourse, we used to get hoards of a certain type of people visiting to cause trouble, so much so that the theme park used to ban alcohol sales and introducing x-ray scanners on those days only. 

These days brought the most absolute Karens I've ever met. I spent most of my time at either a Ben and Jerry's ice cream hut or working in another hut that made giant (like 2 feet across) pancakes. 

My favourite lines were:

"This pancake was too big for my child to eat. I want a refund for the half he didn't eat."

"That queue was too long. My meal should be free for the inconvenience"

"My daughter is diabetic, so you need to give her the ice cream for free."
 

But the absolute most Karen move was when I refused to take her coupon for a free tub of Ben and Jerry's from a supermarket chain as payment for a cup of ice cream at a hut in a theme park that was in no way affiliated with the supermarket chain. 

The moment I turned my back to rinse off the ice cream scoop, she tried boosting her child over the glass ice cream display to try and grab the ice cream cup I had made for them. Security was called, and she screamed that they were abusing her the whole time as they escorted her out of the park.

—u/WanderCold

Worked at Jimmy John's for a few years as a delivery driver. Answering calls to take orders was the worst. The amount of dumb sh*ts who don't understand what a delivery range means is incredible.

"My address is (x); I'd like to order #5 for delivery."

"I'm sorry ma'am, your address is outside of our delivery range."

"So you just aren't going to deliver to me? You don't want my money? F*cking idiot."
 

They also don't seem to have the mental capacity to understand that they've just given their home address to someone whose name they don't know, then got really mad & started yelling at them for no reason at all.

—u/Radical5

I work at Burger King, and a lady came through the drive-thru and ordered a small order—just a bacon cheeseburger and a fry. She stopped at the first window to pay, and we asked her to sit there because we were having issues with the registers at the second window, and we were going to hand her food out the first window.

Her response to being asked to wait there was, "No I want my money back since you're making me wait." Now keep in mind the lady had been in the drive-thru for less than three minutes at this point, and we were in the process of bagging her food. We bagged it and took it back to her, and her response was, "I don't want it because I had to wait. Give me my money back."

—u/alexaleighh

I used to work at McDonald's, I was a crew trainer and I worked there for 2 years at the time of this story. I was packaging and handing out orders in the front of the store, and we had a new worker on the till taking orders. 

This mom with 4 kids was ordering and she started getting really angry when the new worker didn't know how to punch in her coupons. So after a minute or two of searching for the button for the coupon she gave them, they asked me for help. 

I went over and she handed me the coupons. They were all old coupons from over a year ago, and all the coupons were for LTO (Limited Time Offer) sandwich combos. I told her that we no longer accept these coupons as they are expired, and we don't even sell these sandwiches anymore. 

She was furious and demanded to speak to my manager. I told her alright, but the manager was gonna say the same thing. So the manager comes over and as I expected, tells her the same thing. She starts yelling at me and my manager that she should be given a discount since we were so rude to her, and my manager tells her politely that no one was rude to her and that we can't give her a discount for coming in with expired coupons. 

So she tells us she is never coming back here again and grabs her kids, and leaves…

I wish that were true because she continues to come in with her kids weekly and always tries to get free or cheaper food. God, I hate working fast food.

—u/FireShockPro
 

When I was 16, I worked at a pizza place taking orders and doing cashier work. Our credit card machine took a 2% surcharge, and there was nothing we could do about it because that was the way that machine operated. It was a small business and we couldn’t just eat up the cost to run the card. 

A Karen paid for her food, and when she looked at the receipt, she yelled, “What is this?” I explained it was the surcharge to run her card. She got angry and demanded a manager. My manager came over and said she would not be issuing a refund because on the counter was a sign that said, “All purchases done with a credit card will have a 2% surcharge,” so it was labeled.

Karen then went on to tell us it was illegal to do that, and the news had a thing about it last week in California and blah blah blah. She said if we didn't refund her money in full, she was going to go to the police and the news about the pizza place, a well-known and fairly liked pizza place in a city of ~72,000 people.

She didn’t get a refund, and no police or news station came.

—u/Claxton916

I worked at a coffee shop for a while. Now, many people are very particular about their coffee and complicated orders were something we dealt with on a daily basis.

This one Karen however, came in every day asking for a “large sugar-free vanilla latte nonfat milk add 4 equals at 200° no foam double cup”. Fine. No problem. Except there was ALWAYS a problem. 
 

As soon as we set the drink on the bar, she would take the lid off to check for foam. If there was even a hint of a bubble she would want it remade. No matter how many times we told her it was just a few air bubbles from whisking the drink and pouring the super hot milk, we were always wrong in her eyes and deserved to be insulted.

One day Karen came in for her usual drink. She took the lid off in front of us to check for foam, and it was surprisingly satisfactory on our first try. Yay! Until about 20 mins later, when Karen calls us from the bagel shop down the street to tell us that we didn’t put her lid on correctly and her scalding hot coffee has now been dumped all over her and the interior of her Jaguar. 

Even though we know she was the one who took off and replaced the lid, even though we had surveillance camera evidence, even though she made it to her car and a mile down the road to the bagel shop with no lid issues, it was somehow all our fault. 

So she came in and screamed at all of us about how we burned her so badly and how she would be scarred forever and her beautiful car would never be the same. Corporate ended up paying for her dry cleaning, a professional detail of her car, and an undisclosed amount of money. And that b*tch still came in every day.

—u/bigbagofkisses

This Karen was a man. I used to work at Wendy's, where the burgers come standard with cheese. This guy didn't want cheese, and he wanted a 40¢ discount because that's the price of a slice of cheese.

Being just a cashier, it was totally not within my power to take off the 40¢. I literally had no way to charge him less, and I couldn't just give him extra change, because he wanted to pay with a credit card. I would have given it to him myself, but I didn't have any cash.

Finally, after arguing for several minutes, he insisted on taking the slice of cheese on the side so he could "feed it to a bird."

—u/youngadultnovel

Had a woman come in and order two coffees. I was working on coffee and my coworker was at the register, and I finished making the drinks and went to see what was up because my coworker still hadn’t finished ringing her up. 

The woman had a “coupon” for a $.99 coffee that was just a screenshot of text saying “medium coffee $.99” with no barcode or sign of location. She was berating my coworker, so I took over. I told her we couldn’t accept the coupon and she got pissed and told me to ring her up for something else on the menu that was $.99, because “everyone else here does that for me all the time.” 

I refused and started bringing the coffee to the sink to toss them (it was a weird order that literally no one else was going to drink before it got cold).

Her: You’re going to throw them out? Instead of just giving them to me?

Me: If you’re not going to pay for them, then yeah.
 

Unsurprisingly she flipped sh*t and demanded my name, declaring that she was going to report me, telling me that “that’s what you get when you’re a hater.” She then rounded it off by calling me fat and ugly before storming out empty-handed lmao. Sorry you and your Gucci sunglasses couldn’t shell out $5 for a couple of coffees.

—u/reimbur

There was a guy, dressed like Lance Armstrong, who thought it would be a good idea to ride his bicycle to try and order food at the drive-through. Policy says you can only serve motorized vehicles in the drive-through, due to potential safety concerns for both pedestrians as well as workers.

Upon being denied service, Karen Armstrong decided to ignore any logic or reason about his current situation and nearly got hit by a car in the parking lot. Dude comes into the lobby raging. Throws his arms up, starts yelling at the manager, blaming her (and the rest of the crew) for nearly being hit in the parking lot and started threatening to sue our manager and the store.

It was hard to take him seriously in any capacity. Largely because of his one-piece, full-body spandex outfit and his ridiculous helmet that made him look like an emaciated big bird. I don't remember what he was saying exactly, but when you bundled it all together it just became comical. You could feel the energy behind the counter as you could see how hard our manager was trying to keep from laughing.

Finally, the hilarity came to a boiling point and I couldn't contain myself anymore and just lost it. I started laughing so hard, it ended up spreading, and before anyone realized it, this guy had the entire crew's attention nearly cry-laughing at this him. He huffed and puffed a few more times, started mumbling sh*t under his breath, and stormed off.

Our manager's face was turning colors because of how hard she was trying to remain professional and hear this guy's nonsensical complaint. I wonder if that guy ever looks back at that moment and feels embarrassed or if he's always maintained in his own head that he was somehow in the right... 

—u/keepitquickk

Used to work in a bbq place. Casual but the system was down pat. All food was served in coke trays with wax paper, everything was by weight or volume.

We had this regular, older woman who would always come in just after lunch rush about once a week. Everyone knew her and dreaded getting stuck with her. She always got the same thing but would spend 10 minutes deciding what to get. 

She was crazy picky and would send back cuts for being the slightest bit over or underweight. She’d throw a fit that each thing she ordered was positioned right in the tray, not touching each other, and would always complain about the lack of plates and how her bread was smushed. It was such a regular occurrence that the second she was off the line, the manager would let whoever handled her cool off in the walk-in for a few minutes, she was that frustrating.

Finally, after several months of this, she came in and I was about to take her but my manager that day tapped my shoulder and told me to do something else and handled her from start to finish. She still complained the whole time and he just calmly nodded until he’d finished ringing her up.

As he handed her the receipt, he told her she treated us horribly and after she finished this meal she wasn’t welcome back at our restaurant. The silent celebration we had behind the line was glorious, and that manager told us he’d actually done this to the same woman at another location a few years ago, but he didn’t realize it was the same problem customer since he typically worked mornings and was gone by the time she got there. Good managers are worth their weight in gold.

—u/Not_Campo2

I had a 2 top come in—a mom and a son. They sat down and the server greeted them immediately and got their drink order. Well the son ordered our special house martini, but unfortunately we were out of the vodka. 

So the bartender tells me (Manager on Duty), and I go to the table to break the news and ask what vodka he would like instead. As I’m talking to him I glance down and he has his phone on a timer like he’s literally timing everything. When I break the news he sighs heavily like it’s the end of the world and says, “well this is really inconvenient!”

I agreed, and told him unfortunately we’ve tried ordering from multiple places but no one has it in stock. He then asked me what I would recommend. I told him if you’re looking for something high end I’d go with Belvedere or Grey Goose; if you want something unique we have Chopin. 

He again sighs dramatically and says he’ll just take a Tito’s. I went and told the server and my general manager what was going on, definitely mentioning the timer on his phone. When they were about done with their meal my GM checked up on them and the mom piped up and told her this was her “worst experience dining out EVER!” 

My GM asked what was wrong, and apparently, she had a laundry list for us, saying it took them 5 minutes to get sat, 5 minutes for someone to come greet them, 20 minutes for drinks, 35 minutes for entrees, and the entrees were cold (they literally all but licked their plates and were on their third round of drinks). 

Then she goes on to her that “she used to work in the service industry and it was never like this, the customer is always right and should always come first.” My GM just walked away at that point, brought them their check, paid them out and told them to have a nice day. The lady was pissed, “well we were going to order dessert!” My GM again just smiled and said, “Have the day you deserve!”

—u/hmmmomm

My last job was at an office canteen, so we'd have the same customers every day. There was a woman who would come for breakfast and lunch and she was so infuriating that I'd have to go into the walk-in fridge to rage after serving her. 
 

She would stand at the counter getting you to pick through everything to find the best-looking food. It would take upwards of 10 minutes to serve her and she'd speak to you like you're stupid.

She'd also make you change your gloves every time you put something on her sandwich. Got the bread on the plate: glove change, butter the bread: glove change, one piece of bacon: glove change, second piece of bacon, etc etc. One day I was so fed up that I just walked off and served someone else and refused to serve her again.

—u/gibbletslaps

Working at an in-store deli with comfort/fried foods as well. Lady asks for an 8-piece white meat chicken box. Sure, no problem.

I put in 4 breasts, and start to put in the 4 wings.

"What the F*CK are you doing?!"

"Um. Getting your 8-piece white, ma'am?"

" No you're not! "

"Ma'am, what's the problem?"

"Wings aren't white meat d*ckhead!"

"What? Yes they are."

She then tries to jump over the counter while chuffing. The only thing preventing her is that she just can't jump high enough. She almost gets me with her claws though. My manager, hearing the commotion came over and proceeded to kick the lady out of the store and threatened to ban her. "Don't talk to my employee like that, and don't threaten them either."

—u/WintersTablet

I'll never forget this. I was in line at Subway and a Karen, about the age of 28 was in line in front of me with her two kids. While they are making their sandwiches she was like, "My kids don't eat vegetables. Can they get an extra piece of meat if they don't get any veggies?" 

The employee said no. Her mouth dropped and she turned around to the rest of the line and said, "Can you believe this?” I was just thinking to myself like, "Yeah, totally.”

She follows up with, "The other Subway does it!” The employee says sorry, we can't do it. She asks for the owner's info, talking about getting him fired. The dude writes the owner's number down. She's like, “Really, you're not gonna give us extra meat? You’re making my kids starve!” 

—u/BLACKMACH1NE

I had a German bloke speaking very broken English coming with a table of 5 half an hour before the kitchen closed. We are bar & grill, and he proceeded to ask for a matcha/mate/chai latte. I explained to him our tea options and he asks for the same things again. Then decided he doesn't want tea and starts to pick through the cocktail menu, asking about a good 8 of them. He gets stuck at Moscow mule and demands I describe the taste of our ginger beer.

He did actually order it with only a little ice. Okay. I get the drinks order in 20 minutes before the kitchen closing. He goes to order the food, and I swear to God he goes through every section of our large menu with me, asking about pretty much everything. In the end, he asks for a burrito. 10 minutes to kitchen closing. The chefs are delighted.

I bring him his burrito, and he complains his cocktail is very strong. I told him the ginger beer is strong but I guess he got caught off guard. I bring him more ice.

He complains the burrito is not hot. Mind you, it's a wrap with shredded grilled chicken, a selection of FRESH vegetables, and separate spicy rice. By now, I'm stewing. My boss is supportive, telling me he's there if I need him. I get the burrito warmed up. He eats the thing for over 45 minutes.

Half an hour after the restaurant closing time and an hour after the kitchen closed, he asks for a dessert and is terribly disappointed when I politely tell him there's no way he's getting his dessert. He tipped me about 2% of the bill...

—u/Mafalda_Brunswick

My mom worked at a deli for years and told similar stories. It was usually with older people, though. She finally figured out that people who engaged like that—impossible to please, finding fault with everything (including things they specifically asked for) making each interaction longer and more frustrating. 

They were all just really lonely people. In the most negative and obnoxious way possible, they were all just stretching out what was likely the one human interaction they had all day. A very human desire, but coming out all curdled and warped.

Because my mom is an angel, she saw this as a reason to kill these grumps with kindness. But because she is also a bit of a devil, she also got a small personal kick out of the fact that this kindness also defeated their goal of stretching out the interaction. She could see them get frustrated that she wasn't taking the bait, and it made her all the more kind and sweet to them.

People are COMPLICATED!

—u/jimmyjazz2000

Last year a Karen did the following:

Karen calls store: “I need to speak to a manager immediately.”

Me: “I’m one of the team leads. Could you tell me what’s going on and maybe I can help you?”

Karen: “You’re trying to f*cling kill me!”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, could you tell me what’s going on?”
 

Karen: “I’m deathly allergic to walnuts, and there’s a giant f*cling chunk of one sitting in my Southwest salad!!”

Me: “I’m really sorry an item unrelated to your salad was inside, but I do want to let you know our cafe does not have any products containing walnuts—neither salads nor baked goods.”

Karen: “Well then, I’m coming down there to show you idiots what I’m staring at!”

Me: “Okay, ma’am, please ask for [me] when you get here.”
 

Karen arrives, slams salad onto counter: “Okay so you’re going to look at this and tell me I’m f*cking crazy!?! It’s a walnut! You’re trying to kill me!!”

Me: *takes deep breath* “Ma’am—this is an olive.”

Karen: *runs outside*

—u/throwaway_benches
 

Had a lady order at the kiosk pull her card out too early. (Video surveillance later showed me, but I didn’t know that at the time.) Long enough to pre-authorize but not clear. Waited for 20 minutes before screaming at me that she didn’t have her order. I checked the kiosk, and we didn’t have anything for her name or even her dollar total. 

She ended up shoving her phone in my face, and I explained that it was a pending transaction but wouldn’t charge and would fall off. She called me a liar and insisted it was cleared. It literally said pending on her cell phone. At that point, I didn’t know she had pulled her card out too early. 

She spent 15 minutes yelling at me, all while I was being overly calm and polite. She even mocked me. Holding her hands folded in front of her, just like I was standing, and repeating whatever I said, but in baby-talk. She became belligerent and hostile and guests and associates were coming to my aid.

The guest then called me later and told me how rude I was and that Panera knew how horrible I was and they were going to call TOM LANDRY! I was going to lose my job and never work again. I said I didn’t know who that was (Google revealed a deceased football player/coach), and she said that obviously, I am an embarrassment to society because of my naivety. 

I had to ask her to refrain from contacting me ever again and to only correspond with my director. She demands my director's information and I told her to reply to the emails they had been using to communicate. She said she never talked to my director. (Lady! I saw the correspondence! Don’t you think that the two of us talked about this? You absolutely have her email address.) Anyway, I end with, “I am not comfortable talking to you. Any further attempt to reach me personally will be considered harassment. I’m hanging up now.”

That’s the last I heard from her. She was nuts. Somebody tell Tom Landry.

—u/Disastrous-Bus-4853

College student calls to b*tch about me ordering saying I never delivered her food but it said it was there. She wanted new food and a refund. I was astonished because I left it right by her door. It was literally my first day on my own so I was panicking that I fu*cked up real bad, especially since it was a college campus that I HATE delivering to.

“Did she… not open her door?? It’s literally right beside her door. I’m not gonna leave it in the middle of the walkway.”

The manager goes back to the phone, “My driver says she put it right outside your door. Did you perhaps not open it and look down?”

(Thank you, manager.)

She apparently sounded super embarrassed after that and said she’d go check. But would call back if it wasn’t there. Never called back. Girl waited AN HOUR to open her mf front door.

—u/hippofanatic

Woman comes back because her pizza is messed up. She INSISTS we look at the pizza and tries to shove it back through the window. We, of course, have to get a manager because you cannot take shit like that back through the window. As well, the lady was IRRATIONAL. 

We offered a remake, a refund, something different to eat, or a combo of all three. But NO. She wouldn’t listen. She wanted us to take it back and see. We said, “If you really want, you can show us through the window.”

She didn’t want to. It’s when she started repeating, “Well you just don’t care.” Over and over and over again.

Every suggestion, every word, “You just don’t care.”
 

I don’t know how long it took, but God, she finally stopped even after my manager said he’d hand-make the pizza to make sure it was up to quality standards. She just got a refund, never showed us her pizza, even through the window, and left.
 

—u/hippofanatic

Had an old lady park stupid, and she hit my car door with her car door. I keep my car parked in front of the window of the cafe that I bake at. When I observed her doing this, I looked out the window, pointed to my car and made a "what the f*ck?" gesture to her. 

She awkwardly waved and went to the business next door. I went outside, checked for damage, then moved my vehicle so dipshit wouldn't do it again. 20 minutes later she came into my cafe and was complaining to our manager that I had "made rude gestures to her," and she was angry I had moved my own vehicle. 

I explained to our GM what happened, and she kicked the lady out and told her she wasn't welcome back. She said she was going to leave us a bad review...even though she wasn't a customer. This a**hole hit my car and then tried to make it my problem at work. Thankfully our GM was cool and said we had footage of the outside lot if she ever tried to complain further. She didn't.

—u/Silvawuff

Not a Karen because it was a man, but during a shift change, I was put on drive-thru. I give this guy his food and someone else pulls up so I start taking their order.

While I'm doing that, the guy I just gave his food to starts laying on the horn of his car, presumably to get my attention—literally nonstop honking his horn until I could finish taking the order.

I finish taking the order, and I go to see what this guy wants, and he's like, "Can I get my receipt? This can't be right 20 something dollars for two sandwiches and two drinks?" 

I was like, “Okay.” 
 

I print off his receipt and hand it to him, and he says, "Why do you guys think these prices are acceptable?” He literally acted like I set the prices or something.

—u/strawberrycheesecvke

So I work at Chick-fil-a, and for those of you who don't know, corporate has told us that we can no longer do well-done chicken or fries. So today I'm working, and this woman orders the meal and says "I want everything well-done." I politely inform her that we can no longer serve well-done items because corporate wants us to be as consistent with everything. 

She says, "I'm dining in; I'm not in the drive-through." 

I say, "Sorry, it's a new company policy." 

She calls my manager over and says, "She's trying to tell me that you guys don't sell well-done." 

My manager confirms that, yes, we are no longer doing that. Then she legit asks us to make an exception, just for her, because she's a former employee. My manager refused, saying that we have to follow the rules. 

She then asks for the number to our store so that she can call and complain, which I give her, and she gets her food. That should be the end of it, right? Well, I guess she's VERY passionate about this because a few minutes later, after I clock out, I'm just chilling out in the dining room eating some food, and she slams her tray full of trash on my table and says, "You guys can do well-done. I used to work here. I know more than you do." And leaves.

According to the more seasoned employees, she worked there for a few months but was really annoying and never did what she was asked to. It was my pleasure meeting you too, ma'am.

—u/sopranopanda

So I was working the lobby register at Mcdonald's, and this Karen comes in expecting me to take her order. The issue occurred because I was busy preparing a Door-Dash and we have kiosks for this very reason, so I asked her to please use the kiosk so I could finish what I was doing and she could still get served in time, and she rolled her eyes at me. 

Later, when I brought their food out, she told me, "That took 20 minutes," when in reality, it was like 5 minutes from order to serving. Then they came up to the front register and asked for condiments that were not part of the order, and when I gave her some said, "I'm going to need more than that." 

Later, I did have free time to take other people's orders and they were like, "Didn’t have time to take mine?" Um.. yeah, but that's why kiosks exist. To top it off they left all of their trash for me to clean up. Well, it wasn't me that decided to ruin their whole lunch experience just over not getting to use the register. Hope you were happy Karen :)

—u/[deleted]

We have a coin shortage so every time someone comes up to the register I let them know. Well, one night, this lady doesn’t give me exact change (which we repeatedly tell customers to), and I have zero change to give her back. Regardless I only owed her 5 cents. 

She starts yelling at me, saying I need to go to the bank because she needs the five cents, and that’s a lot of money. She also had on designer clothing. First off, lady, it’s not my job to go to the bank. Second, if you are mad about 5 cents, maybe you shouldn’t be eating out. She stormed off after I said well, I don’t have anything to give you.

—u/Mzzzz18

We once had a Karen come in who was very rude to one of our new employees. I wasn't like a manager or anything, but I was more experienced than the poor cashier who was getting screamed at for no real reason. So, I decided to walk over and help. I noticed that the new cashier was on the verge of tears, so I sent her off to go do something else.

Me: Hello ma'am what seems to be the problem?

Karen: That employee there told me that she can't give me what I am trying to order.

Me: I am so sorry about that ma'am. What is it that you are trying to order?

Karen: I want those little mini crunch wraps. The ones with the Fritos in them!

At the time, they were a promotional item. After a certain amount of time, we would stop selling them.I frowned and said: I am sorry, ma'am, but we are no longer selling those items as they were only here for a limited time.

Karen: This place is completely outrageous! I demand to speak to your manager.

I sighed and went to get my manager. I explained to him what was going on, and he comes out.

Manager: Ma'am the items you are requesting are no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience.

My manager then walks away before this Karen could have a chance to respond.

Karen: I want your manager’s name and his number! I also want the number to your corporate. I am going to report you all for not selling me what I want.

Me: Sorry ma'am I am not allowed to give out that information.

Karen: This is bullsh*t! I will report this store!

She was screaming the whole time as she was walking out of the store. Me being the person I am call out to her as she's leaving.

Me: I hope you have a better day ma'am.

—u/AmethystWitch1

So a couple of weeks ago, my mom and I ordered Starbucks from the app. We were waiting in the lobby, minding our own business, and this woman was arguing with this poor girl behind the counter. From what we caught on from the semi-argument, apparently, the woman had dropped her food (it was a slice of bread) and wanted them to replace it. 

They were willing to replace the food at no extra cost. So, she tried to hand the bread over to the girl, and she said that they couldn’t take it back because of food safety, and told her to throw it away in the trash can behind her. For some reason, the woman got all huffy, said, “Just forget about it,” put the bread in her purse, and stormed out.

It’s just a basic food safety law to avoid contamination and everything. I don’t know why the woman got all huffy about it, because they were going to replace the food for free (since it looked like she got maybe a bite out of it), they just couldn’t take the floor bread for obvious reasons.

—u/Luna-rants

It started with the lady refusing to take her muffin in the drive thru, screaming nonsense at the partner assisting her. So she comes inside asking for the muffin remade with these rules:

The only person who touches the muffin and the food bag is the person on oven.

She has to watch them wash their hands.

They have to wear gloves.

The person on oven can only be handling food. They cannot be on any other duties.

Everyone working has to be wearing gloves.

According to her, these are food safety laws. She proceeds to micromanage everyone working and threatening to report us for “breaking the law”.

Tl,dr: lady spent 5 minutes yelling because more than 1 person handled her food.

—u/Katzitech

I had a Karen come in my store, but this was when i was only there for like two weeks. He said, “Hi, I want a frappuccino iced with 2 shots of white mocha, two shots of mocha decaf in a venti cup.” 

I literally was so confused and my brain just wasnt working. I told him, “Sorry, could you please repeat that?” and he was SO MAD. I kid you not he was so triggered that i didn’t understand what his drink was. 

He was raising his voice, this six foot old man with all that attitude. I was done and told someone more experienced to take his order after he tried to tell me three times. Before I got the other person, he said, “WELL, I DONT KNOW WHAT TO TELL YOU. THE OTHER PEOPLE KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I WANT!"

He then proceeded to watch the barista as close as possible making his drink on the cold bar, and he was talking to her like, “Make sure that has the right pumps,” and stuff like that, which he does every time he comes.

—u/Small_Ad_7487

So, my store has been very short of items. Toffee nut syrup, hazelnut syrup, peppermint syrup, Splenda, stevia—you name it. So, it became so much of an issue that we have four signs around the drive-thru and three in the lobby listing all the items that we don't have. 

I guess people are just too lazy to read but it never fails to have that one person order a latte with all the syrups we don't have. Well, this person ordered a Venti iced Hazelnut latte with 3 pumps of toffee nut and 2 Splendas. What are the chances of that? 

I really tried to stop this person as soon as hazelnut left his mouth, but he just didn't care and kept going on with his order. Once I told him we, unfortunately, didn't have any of those syrups, this man got so heated. He started cursing at me through the speaker for a good 3 minutes and would not stop even after I apologized and offered him other drinks I thought he might like. 

Well, he just drove off as I was speaking and purposely left a good three-car distance between the car in front of him just so he could speed by the window and throw a drink at us. We were so glad we made a habit of closing the window between cars because otherwise, we would've gotten a very unpleasant surprise.

—u/maria_serratos