This is an off the wall question. Does anyone have a sign in their shop for customers stating in not these exact words.
“We have the right to refuse or serve anyone at anytime”
My son was asking me about it, because last weekend he had a customer come in to pick up an order and literally went off on him because the gal(his wife) on the phone taking orders could not tell him how big our individual lasagna was, claimed this was the first he had ever been here & will not return, but in investigating I looked up his name & number & he had been here 4-5 times in the past, any way my son wants to put up a sign for belligerent customers as this one was
I think you may be going overboard to put up a sign. I would be more inclined to say something to the customer such as " I am sorry that we have not been able to meet your expectations. You may prefer to find another place to do business."’ Don’t get into an argument with the customer just make the statement then be quiet.
Remember the majority of you customers are not a problem. Why make a public statement that would put a question in the minds of the other customers? By placing a sign you are opening the question up as to who exactly you do not want to serve. This may lead to people thinking you are intolerant of a particular segment of the population rather than an abusive customer.
I agree on not doing the sign. Unfortunately this is one part of the restaurant business: the occasional irrational customer because their blood sugar is low since they are hungry. That’s why you see so many YouTube videos of people freaking out in restaurants. If they weren’t hungry they wouldn’t be buying food.
“What do YOU MEAN I can’t get breakfast?? I was in this line at 10:29!!” etc…
I usually kept my cool but occasionally lost it. One time comes to mind. A young guy bought a pizza to go from my sit-down restaurant and it took too long for him. He started screaming and I literally threw his money back at him and screamed, “I don’t need your money! Get the out of my restaurant you <expletive.>”
Perhaps I was hungry as well! Luckily this was before Yelp and Facebook!
In 6 years, I’ve only had 2 people ever take me to the edge.
We had a lady come in on a summer holiday to order some of our bulk sides (Slaw, Potato Salad, Etc.) our ticket numbers are already in the 3-digit range at 2:00 PM, there is a line out the door, we are running about 20 minutes wait time from the door to getting your food. She starts screaming that she has ice-cream in her car and it is melting, I suggest that she bring it in so we can get it in our freezer while she waits.
Apparently that made too much sense and her brain short circuited, so she starts dropping F-Bombs. I interrupt her by suggesting that maybe the ice cream should have been the last stop on a 90 degree day, or she can get it in our freezer, or call ahead so it is ready and waiting for her. (I am on the line preparing orders during this conversation, open kitchen restaurant) then she starts barking about she had to park on the road, about 1 block away because our lot is full and people are parking on the road, so I look out the window at the lake, and see an open spot at the dock and suggest she come by boat next time. I did not hear much after that from the sound of clapping and cheering in the dining room. She did come back later that summer with her family and apologize for her tirade.
The other guy was in group of about 12 people, they ordered from 2 different registers, and were about 4 ticket numbers apart. One ticket had just sandwiches, the other had pizzas, nobody was told this group was all dining together, so the tickets came up in order, and he freaked when his order was not up at the same time as the ticket 3 ahead of his and starts barking at one of my line cooks in a vicious manner.
I step in by asking 3-4 times what his ticket number is, then seeing we are building it as he is screaming, he calms down a bit. They go outside to sit by the lake, But, they decided cross a little border fence with a 'Private Property" sign on it to go sit at a table on my next door neighbors property at the motel, and the kids are screwing around in the boats on his pier. So I wander out asking how everything is, and gently explain that I will need to move them over to our property. This friggin guy went ballistic! He was trying to chest bump me & screaming at me I would just side step every advance while I was reaching for my phone to dial the boys in brown (Sheriff’s Dept) The other part of the group he was with are regulars, like here several times a week when they are up here at their vacation home. Luckily they stepped in, grabbed him to restrain him and led him off to the car. For a guy to be this angry, there had to be some brain chemical imbalance going on.
You know how you can look at someone and immediately know you’re in for a rough ride with them, yeah, he had that look about him. I thought it was sunburn at first, but maybe he was just flushed from such high blood pressure.
Once upon a time, a long time ago I was in Ft Lauderdale for Spring break. This is back when the drinking age was 18 and the Spring Break scene there was out of control. I went into a Burger King near the beach. They had 8-10 cash registers and line with at least a dozen people in it for each register each time we went in there. I can only imagine what the business was… it was insane. I have never forgotten the sign they had at each register: “Have it OUR way. No special orders please.”
We have a sign that says " WE reserve the right to refuse service “” to avoid potential law suits for not serving someone. When someone starts using the f word on me, it’s game over , please leave or i’ll call the police.One time on a phone order i refused service for the f word, he was drunk, he proceeded to use auto dial and i lost 2 hours of phone orders, i told him Just order from Dominoes down the street, he said he was coming in and if i didn’t sell him a pizza he would kick my ass, i called the police and when he showed up, the police arrived shortly after, they questioned him and told him it is illegal to be publicly intoxicated and cuffed him, bottom line, he would rater go to jail than eat a dominoes pizza rather than ours !!!
