Angry customer wanted to kill me (long)

[Shadowwalker]

So I work at restaurant and handle register, phone, and I'm the waiter for tables. The people I work with don't speak English except for two other people. So me or them have to handle the phone, register, seatings, etc by ourselves. Anyway on one particular day I walked in my shift at five and noticed a lot of people waiting in the lobby, I walked into the front and then noticed about 50 tickets for the pizza man and he's going crazy. Then the cooks who can't speak English ushered me to the front right away to do the register.

So what happened is that it was Halloween and we got a lot of calls in for pizza. Unfortunately the pizza man was the only one that knew how to speak English from 12-5 shift. So he was basically stuck on the phone taking orders... when he hung up, it'd just ring again. It was crazy. When I walked in he probably had 60+ pizzas made-to be made.

So just to make the situation for me clear... I just walked in and suddenly I got this thrown in my face. 15+ angry people waiting in front of register, phone ringing like crazy, 20+ pizza already made that I had to sort through and see what each person had, phone ringing more, people coming in and sitting down waiting for their server to come serve them (me) while I'm stuck at the register/phone. And I didn't even have time to take my jacket off yet.

So amazingly things start to run a little smoother now that the pizza man has time to make pizza and has help and everything seems to be going fine now. Until....

Me: "Ummm... order #17, 2 pizzas" I shout as phone rings, I answer, "can you hold please"
Man: "It's about time" he mutters with extremely pissed off look like he wants to kill me.

So I just list off the toppings just to make sure it's the right order since there's so many. He got like sausage, mush, half pepperoni on one. When I list these he says no, I ordered half peppers. (I can't remember exactly but it was something like that) he opens it up and it sure is pepperoni instead of peppers and he just explodes like a volcano on me. (remember at this point I just arrived and I didn't take his order, pizza guy did)

Man: God damnit!! I waited for this long and now I have to get this sh*t. etc etc.

The intensity of the hate in his eyes and voice directed towards me just took me aback and I didn't really know what to think and was at a loss for words. Fortunately he didn't give me a chance to think. He got on his cell and I could hear his wife talking to him telling him it's okay, and he says that it's not okay. Then he proceeds to scream at me more hurling insults and curses while I try to think of what to do. He yells that he won't accept that pizza so I just ring him up for the other one and he leaves screaming "THIS IS BULLSH*T, F*CK YOU etc etc"

After that my spirit sank and I just felt like melting into the ground while 14 other angry people glared at me and the person on the phone is yelling "HELLO?!? HELLO?!?" and the people at the tables are glaring at me to hurry up. lol oh man what a day.

[allniter]

This is exactly why I carry a gun with me and am always prepared to use it

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

Shadowwalker, I am so sorry. It's one thing to wait half an hour (assuming that a pizza takes 15 minutes to prepare & cook) when you are the only customer and the phone isn't ringing off the hook. That might, depending on other variables, be a reason to be peeved.

Your situation? Completely different! Just as in any restaurant, when it's slammed, I expect slower service. It doesn't matter if you're eating in, getting carry out or ordering for delivery, that's how it works.

[karma_gypsy]

Oi, I've had days like that. Customers waiting in the lobby, phones ringing off the hook, screen full of pizzas that are waiting to be made, the stuff that you did get made is coming out of the oven. I've gotten the pleasure of working lunch shifts on my own with one driver (weekday, it was fairly common for us). I even had to deal with a scammer on the phone who was trying to swindle us for free food. Somehow, I managed to get the owner to deal with her, to a certain extent (he was speaking to her from home, on his phone).

Driver only comes in long enough to take care of the ovens and go on the next delivery, which is also running late.... I'm running around, trying to keep the phones calm, making an order here and there all the while trying to deal with an SC and the owner (which we never gave into her story - BTW, I had to do a bit of research, order history and the like, which only wasted more time).

And the one lady waiting in the lobby had the audacity to ask if her pizzas were done yet. I'm completely flustered and told her about 10-15 more minutes, her pizzas were next on the screen (they've all already waited over 30-45 minutes). She turned nasty on me and said she wasn't waiting any longer.

FINE! One less order I had to make! I took another few minutes to bring up and cancel her order and refund her money.

The rest of the customers were relatively easy going though.

[MonSqueek]

So I work at restaurant and handle register, phone, and I'm the waiter for tables. The people I work with don't speak English except for two other people. So me or them have to handle the phone, register, seatings, etc by ourselves.

Wow what a terrible day !!!

I have a question, from reading these boards for a while Ive noticed it seems pretty common in american stories that co-workers dont speak English ??? Im confused about this. Why are they hired in roles that require them to be able to communicate with the general english speaking public?? I can understand if its a role where by a language barrier would not inhibit their ability to do the job, but surely taking pizza orders requires they speak basic english?

Is this as common as I seem to think it is? Or is it not as much of a problem as I think it would be?

[Rapscallion]

It depends where in the states the story comes from. Some areas to the south are heavily populated by Spanish speakers, and some people are not bilingual. There is not, however, a requirement to speak English. America, just like England, has no official language.

A note for all - any attempts to drag this discussion into a language debate will result in deleted posts and mentions to take it to Fratching. We've had the argument and fights before - we have a separate forum for that.

Rapscallion

[Shadowwalker]

Wow what a terrible day !!!

I have a question, from reading these boards for a while Ive noticed it seems pretty common in american stories that co-workers dont speak English ??? Im confused about this. Why are they hired in roles that require them to be able to communicate with the general english speaking public?? I can understand if its a role where by a language barrier would not inhibit their ability to do the job, but surely taking pizza orders requires they speak basic english?

Is this as common as I seem to think it is? Or is it not as much of a problem as I think it would be?

well the guys are just the cooks, they make the pasta, subs, dinners, etc etc. so they don't need to speak english.

[PepperElf]

i can see both sides of that issue since i'm living in japan right now. i'm very fortunate that many people speak english here and when i'm at a place that doesn't... well that's when i point at the nice picture in the menu.

i personally think... it wouldn't hurt to ask the manager to hire some extra people who can help for that situation.

and yes the people who are like "OMG i have to wait, wah!".... proof that too many people think they're Gods.... They just can't seem to wrap their egotistical brains around the fact that there are 3 year olds with fewer temper tantrums.