Everyone has dealt with a Karen, or read a Karen story at some point. There are always going to be those people that you just can’t please. This story is another one of those, but what happens to this Karen, is truly the best outcome. She definitely had it coming to her!
“Years ago I worked at Stovepipe Wells in the Death Valley National Park, an awesome place to visit by the way. Anyway, it’s a lot more built up now than when I worked there. Back then it was only a little restaurant and some employee housing. I can’t remember if there was even a hotel there or not.
I was flipping burgers at the little restaurant and at times I would help with the register. I was back in the kitchen cooking and this lady comes up to the counter and nobody was there to take her order. I yelled to her that I’d be up to help her in a few minutes. As soon as I round the corner I knew that this was going to be an interesting encounter.
It is really hot in Death Valley, and this lady was feeling it. She was red faced, wet clothes sticking to her everywhere and she was not at all happy with the situation.
When I said this was a small restaurant, I really meant it, we didn’t have any inside seating. I think there were a couple picnic benches outside but unfortunately not much shade to be found.
I come out with a smile and ask what I can do for her. Now she’s irritated that there wasn’t someone there at the counter to greet her, and made sure I knew it. I tell her the other guy that works there is probably taking out the garbage or something and I would be happy to help her even though I wasn’t thrilled at the way things were going so far. She orders a burger and a large cola. Think about the old super size McDonald’s cups. I get her drink, make her food and deliver it to the counter. Instead of handing me the money, she throws it on the counter, turns around and as she’s leaving says “y’all are slow as f**k!” By that time, the other guy working shows up who is also my boss. He caught the tail end of it so I told him what happened and he uttered his favorite saying, “can’t please em all!”
So I go back to the kitchen and this lady comes in again demanding to speak to the guy that helped her before. My boss calls me out and I see this woman again, no smile this time. I ask if anything is wrong with her food and that’s when she goes off!!
‘I ordered a MF Pepsi and I don’t know what this is but it ain’t that!’ I calmly tell her that we only have Coke products and if there is something else she wants I’ll be happy to replace it. So now she wants a root beer. While I’m getting it, she goes on to rant about how this place is sh*t and how we should have air conditioning and some place to sit down. I lost track of what else she said but it amounted to a temper tantrum from child.
I put the drink on the counter and tell her I hope she has a better day. As I turn to go she rips the lid off her old drink and chucks it on me. Being as hot as it was in that little place it actually felt good, however I was pissed. I turned back to have her yelling at me about how piss poor our customer service is, how I should be fired from this job and she was going to the ranger station to get me fired. Mind you, we didn’t work for the park. I did notice that she hadn’t picked up her new drink so I snatched it off the counter, ripped off the lid and threw the root beer in her face. That stopped her tantrum in its tracks, at least for a few seconds. So me, my boss and this lady are standing there just looking at each other and my boss starts laughing.
I didn’t say anything, she looks at me and says ” I. Want. To. See. Your. Manager. RIGHT NOW! I silently point to my boss who now has big fat tears rolling down his face and I give a little chuckle. My boss tried three times to ask her what the problem was, finally getting it out. She first demands that I be fired on the spot, then demands another drink because its f*ing hot outside. My boss calms down enough to tell her he’s absolutely not going to fire me and adds, “I’m sorry, we don’t give free refills. But if you want I can give you a small water cup.” Thats when I lost it. His tone was so condescending. She stormed out like a child stomping off to her room.
I never heard if she came back and didn’t hear anything from upper management. I hope she learned that if you are going to be rude to people you’d better expect at some point to get a little payback.”
