Photo: TikTok
Her husband was on an iPad the entire time.
By Ethan Cotler — Written on Mar 01, 2023
Handling rude customers is a common occurrence in the service industry. Most of the time, customers can be indecent without facing repercussions for their behaviors.
One rude customer's forgetfulness, however, made up for her behavior and rewarded her server's resilience.
A server says he got to keep the rude customer's Gucci bag and Versace sunglasses.
A waiter named Dean Redmond works full-time at a busy restaurant in New York City.
Redmond posted on the video-sharing app TikTok about his experience with a rude customer and her family — a "toxic" husband and two children.
Before Redmond could greet them, she handed her children's coats to him. He claimed to be caught off guard, so the children's jackets fell on the floor.
"'Those are Canada Goose. Do you know how expensive those are?'" Redmond claims the woman said to him.
The woman was so upset that she claimed the jackets would need dry cleaning and would send the invoice to the restaurant.
In the meantime, the husband has been sitting in silence, playing Pokémon GO on an iPad.
As Redmond left for two chairs to hang the coats, his manager went to the table. The customer continued to be angered by the situation.
'He threw the coats on the floor!' she told Redmond's manager.
After he denied "throwing" them, he resumed serving the table.
They ordered two cappuccinos and two glasses of chocolate milk for the children.
"I go and make the two cappuccinos, and I put the chocolate milk in cups with lids 'cause the kids were like five years old," he says.
However, the customer complained that her children can have "real" cups. After he switched out the cups, she had another complaint for him when he returned.
"'These cappuccinos are so weak,'" he claims she said to him. "'We hate them.'" After she rejected his offer to remake them, she demanded that he put an extra shot of espresso in each.
"[The husband is] literally still just scrolling on his iPad," Redmond tells TikTok.
Now that the food service could begin, she ordered a bacon cheeseburger for each child off the kids' menu.
Redmond claims he warned them they might need more than the kids' portion size and suggested ordering one burger off the regular menu and splitting it between the two children.
Unsurprisingly, the couple refused his suggestions and ordered off the kids' menu — prompting complaints when the food actually arrived.
They complain that it's not enough food for the kids.
He says that he did warn them before they ordered, but the woman snaps back at him with a "What?"
The husband spoke up for the first time to ask him, "'Why are you arguing with my wife? Just get us another bacon cheeseburger.'"
Redmond left and got them the third burger, but she soon called him over for the final time with a snap of her fingers.
She was upset that they were charged for three burgers instead of one, explaining that the regular burger was roughly the same size as the others combined.
After Redmond refused to change the bill, she confronted the manager. She shouted at the manager about how he's a "horrible worker" before finally leaving.
Luckily for him, she left her Gucci bag at the scene of the crime.
However, the restaurant has a three-week policy for lost and found, meaning he couldn't have it until that time elapsed.
In the video, he explains it's been three and a half weeks since that dinner service.
"We tried so hard to find her, but we couldn't," he says.
So, he not only gets to keep a Gucci bag but also a pair of Versace sunglasses that were inside.
"I'm balling out on a Karen's dime," he sings as the video ends.
People in the comments attribute 'karma' to the outcome of this situation.
"That's karmic justice, love that for you," one user wrote.
"Tell me you saw karma in action without telling me you saw karma in action. Enjoy the bag/glasses!" another added.
Whether you believe in karma or not, you should treat all service workers respectfully. Many have to deal with rude customers daily and walk away with nothing to show for it — spare a funny story.
Fortunately, this waiter got the tip of a lifetime.
Ethan Cotler is a writer living in Boston. He writes on entertainment and news.