Let me ask you this: 'Have you ever tampered with a meal and served it to a rude customer?'

(Ping Zhu)

I worked as a server years ago, and my co-worker Johnny and I were super-close. One day, a couple of redneck guys came in and were sitting in Johnny's section. Johnny came back fuming. "Those assholes just called me a faggot to my face!" He looked like he was either going to cry or punch something... I asked the cook to call me when the order was ready. He did, then left the kitchen saying, "I know nothing!".

I casually took the top bun off the burger and used it to scrub a little bit underneath the oven, where the floor wasn't cleaned often. I popped the bun back on the burger and told Johnny his order was up. Only after the customer ate the entire burger did I tell Johnny what I had done. He laughed for such a long time! That was the only time I ever messed with a customer's food, but I don't regret it at all.

Anonymous

I remember working at McDonald's when I was a teen. With the 24-hour drive-up window, it was not uncommon to get drunks and teens. One night a group of teens was getting stupid and making a scene. The teen in the passenger seat commented, "Stop, I don't want spit in my food". We knew what he had ordered, and gave them his food right away. The others were told that their food was taking a little extra time to "prepare". Once we gave them the food, we told them to enjoy the burgers we made especially for them. We never did spit in their food. But in their minds we did. Lesson learnt.

Anonymous

I worked at a Motorway Services. They worked on the theory that people were in a hurry, would get food poisoning in another location, and accept crap.

If you complained, usually about the temperature, it was just taken round the back, someone would spit on it, and then it would be sent back; people don't generally complain twice.

Once we ran out of clean cutlery, my shift manager just wiped the knives and forks with a paper towel and instructed me to put them out. I refused on the grounds it could kill someone. He threatened me with the sack so I did do it, an action I often regret, but I was 19 and not really used to the world. The whole place was a shambles. I would never eat at one.

Joe Geronimo Martinez

I worked at a five-star hotel in San Francisco in a very famous restaurant. I would see waiters throw a steak down on the floor and step on it, then put it back on the plate. This was for extremely rude customers. I personally have never tampered with an order.

Marimi de la Fuente

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