I've written several articles about waitressing. It's my life right now. I'm working five to seven times a week, where I come across all different types of people. For the most part, the customers I serve are nice, tip well and don't make my life difficult, but more often than I'd like, there are a few who seem to thrive on being unreasonable. So I'd like to expose some of the worst customers that I, or my co-workers, have had the displeasure of dealing with.

1. Recently, a woman and her husband yelled at me because I forgot their oysters. When I say yell, I literally mean everyone in the restaurant turns to stare, my face gets beet red, yell. Don't get me wrong, it was my fault for forgetting, but when I tried to fix things by getting them the oysters, they refused and were a nightmare for the rest of their stay.

2. The most recent hiccup was less than a week ago. A customer came in with his wife and two teenage sons. He joked with me, mostly at my expense, but whatever, I deal with it. Then, as a coworker and I are serving the food, the husband says, "I need to say, last time we were here I had a pleasant experience and today not so much." I'm surprised, but I say, "I'm sorry what can I do to help?" He responds that all of their water glasses are empty. I look around and notice that one is empty and all of the rest are full. I say, "I'm sorry I'll be right back with some water," and he replies "no you don't get it, you should have already done it." Now this is not the first time that someone has berated me unfairly, but instead of profusely apologizing like I normally would, I just go get more water. But really? I didn't bring my Delorean with me that day so I couldn't Back to the Future my way back in time to fill his sons water glass at the appropriate time.

3. I seat this little old couple, give them their menus and say "I'll give you a minute with these" and scamper off. I see the little old man at the bar ordering a drink, so when it comes out I walk it over to them and before I can even place the wine glass down, the man starts yelling at me. "You didn't say hi to us, you didn't ask if we wanted anything to drink, what is wrong with you?" I was floored. For one, I did say something, and I never ask for drink orders when I first seat someone, I give them their time. He was so mean I gave the table to my manager.

4. I love repeat offenders. The same little old man that tormented me, decided to throw a fit because he couldn't watch the TV program of his choice. At the bar, there are three TVs, two of which are on one side and the furthest, where this man and his wife are seated, is controlled by the remote that goes to the other TV on that side. So you can't change the channel to that TV alone. So this man asks if he can change the channel, the bartender explains the situation and so the little man asks the regular who has the remote if he can change it and a verbal altercation ensues. The little man and his wife promptly exit. I'm assuming his Napoleon complex runs pretty deep if he can't manage to contain his anger whenever he goes out.

5. So I have an eight top and a seven top. Drinks are taking forever and the eight top is super understanding, but the seven, not so much. They constantly make jokes at my expense and complain about the wait for drinks, which I tell them is not my fault. Eventually the bartender leaves because they weren't feeling well, which the owner explains to my table. The owner lets me know that he will comp any desserts for them. As I walk over to the table, they fake their concern and one says, "I don't know if the owner told you, but we get free dessert." They all laugh. Then one says, "Can I get another drink as my dessert?" They all laugh. At this point I have stopped caring and can't bring myself to be pleasant. When they leave I am thrilled.

6. Now thankfully, this did not happen to me, but it did happen to a co-worker of mine. A table of young, twenty-somethings seemed to enjoy ragging on my co-worker. They even asked me if he was new and generally were annoying as hell. Fast forward to when their food comes out. One chick says that she ordered her meal without broccoli, which was true, my co-worker apologizes and has it fixed ASAP. He brings out the food and she accuses him of just picking the broccoli out. Ew. She eventually eats it and everything is fine, until she is nearly done, I mean a few bites are left. And she alleges that there was a hair in her food. My co-worker takes the plate, he, my manager and I examine the hair. It couldn't have been one of ours and because of the way it was placed, she would have had to have seen it (it was draped over the side of the plate), the hair was also completely clean despite being allegedly in her alfredo sauce. She is angry and so is her boyfriend. They demand for it to be taken off the bill, despite her eating almost all of it. When it takes some time for us to give them their check, they freak out. Her boyfriend starts yelling and swearing at all of us and storms out. After at least ten more minutes of having to deal with this table, they of course leave no tip for my poor co-worker, on a $180 check.

I have many more horror stories and I'm sure I will accumulate more within the next few weeks. There are amazing people out there who make my job amazing and then there are those who feel like they need to treat the wait staff like servants and that they are smarter than us. I try to make all of my customers have a pleasant experience, but I can't do it all.