Working in food service can be a great gig, but as anyone who has ever done it knows for sure, it also comes with its challenges.

OP was working as a manager in an ice cream shop when he heard a customer complaining about her hot fudge being too hot.

Yeah.

Briefly during the pandemic, I worked as a manager at a Ralph’s (a NYC-area ice cream chain) and one night I as I’m helping out scooping I hear a customer getting annoyed at the window and starting to get snippy with one of the young kids who was working the window, so I head over to smooth the situation as manager.

The woman is mad because the hot fudge on her hot fudge sundae is hot and going to melt the ice cream.

So, he fixed it for her, offering a magic shell instead – and letting her keep the hot fudge sundae.

I explain to her that hot fudge is indeed served hot but she insists so I make her a new sundae with magic shell topping instead and let her keep the hot fudge one.

When he returned, she began to complain about her “graham crunch” flavor not having enough “crunch.” He tried telling her they don’t make the ice cream but she won’t quit.

By the time I return with that, this customer is stirring her spoon through another cup of cream ice (kind of like a sherbet) she ordered, obviously about to complain about it.

The flavor she ordered was called “graham crunch” and she proceeded to tell me that there wasn’t any graham crunch in it. That she orders this flavor all the time and she knows that I am intentionally stiffing her.

I tell her that this is just how the flavor is and I don’t name or make the ice cream, but she isn’t having it. She wants me to “fix” it.

So, he went to the back and got her all the graham crunch she could want, embarrassing her in front of a whole line.

We’ve got some crushed graham cracker topping in the back, so as she is berating me I just walk away from her and grab the entire container and come back to the window with it. At this point, we’ve got a line of people down the block because this lady has held us up so there are lots of witnesses to what I was about to do.

Without breaking eye contact with her as she continues to tell me that I’m wrong about the ice cream I scoop 6 days a week, I open the lid of the container and empty the entire thing over her cup of the offending ice cream. Graham crackers are everywhere. Her ice cream is now definitely crunchy.

When she tried to pull the “I know the owner” line he put her right back in her place and sent her on her way.

She loses her mind at this and starts yelling at me she knows the owner and will get me fired. I tell her “Yeah, Steve is a nice guy” and she responds with “I’ve known Steve a long time” to which I respond “well his name is John. Get out of here and don’t bother my employees for free ice cream again.”

Now sufficiently embarrassed in front of the long line of customers, the lady leaves in a huff and indeed never returns.

The next few customers left us $20 tips in the jar to make up for her, so the kids who worked for me left with quite a bit more in their pockets than they normally would and realized that their manager had their back.

I know Reddit is going to love this story about a manager having his employee’s back!

The top comment is impressed with OP’s quick thinking.

More people need to be permanently banned.

There are all kinds of clever managers out there.

Public embarrassment is very popular.

Sadly, managers like OP are not a dime a dozen.

This is a great story.

A how-to manual, even.