January 30, 2025 at 6:23 am

A Waiter In China Wouldn’t Serve Him And His Western Friends Coffee, But He Figured Out How To Follow Her Rules And Get His Cup Of Joe The Way He Liked It

by Matthew Gilligan

Source: Shutterstock/Reddit

I’ve never been to China and I don’t plan on heading over there anytime soon, but by the sounds of this story, the customer service doesn’t seem to be too stellar!

So how did this Westerner handle it?

Read his story below and see what you think.

Welcome to China.

“This happened at least 15 years ago when I did a work study in China.

China was still in the process of opening up to the West at this point, and had taken the first few tentative steps on her journey from communism towards raging capitalism.

I worked part-time in an English school in a medium sized city in Northeast China, and took Mandarin courses in the mornings at a local university.

As I was making an attempt at learning the language I got on well with the school admin, and sometimes got interesting jobs to do.

Such as (in this case) being the welcome committee for new teachers, where the school would cover the bill for a Welcome to China meal.

Let’s get acquainted, shall we?

The two teachers in question were fresh off a flight from Australia.

Once they dropped their bags off in the hotel we all lived in, I took them to a tea house nearby for morning refreshments and a chat.

This tea house (Be For Time Tea) was one I went to often to study.

There was a door fee which let you stay for up to 24 hours, and which covered all the non-alcoholic drinks you could drink and all the snacks you could eat.

Enough background, on to the malicious compliance.

The Australians wanted coffee, which I ordered for us.

Three tiny paper cups of Nestle 3-in-1 arrived shortly, causing a couple of raised eyebrows.

Each cup contained a small mouthful of coffee.

Excuse me…?

After a long haul overnight flight to a different continent, this wasn’t going to cut it for my new jet lagged friends.

I called the waiter back to ask if it was possible to get a couple of large mugs of coffee – bear in mind all the drinks etc. were covered by the door fee.

This request seemed to blow the waiter’s mind a little bit.

After a few moments in limp mode, he stammered out that he didn’t know if this was possible, and disappeared to talk to his manager.

I explained what was going on as we watched them discussing heatedly on the other side of the room.

Hmmm…

The waiter returned and apologized that he wasn’t able to do this.

I asked why not, since we could just sit here all day drinking little cups of coffee instead?

He went all deer-in-the-headlights again and went back to the manager.

I updated the Australians and we watched things unfold.

This time the manager came over too.

I had spoken to him once or twice previously and had the distinct impression he didn’t like me, maybe on account of me being a white guy in China.

He told us pretty bluntly that we couldn’t have mugs of coffee, then rudely turned and walked back to his manager booth.

I could tell the Australians were about to start making a scene, but I held out a hand for a moment’s patience, as I had an idea.

Cue malicious compliance.

How about this…?

I asked the waiter, who was still standing there, if he could bring a dozen little cups of coffee, and two empty mugs.

Confronted with a request he could deal with he immediately brightened, and went off to get what I asked for.

I filled in the Australians again.

The waiter brought a tray covered in little paper cups of 3-in-1, and two empty mugs.

I then proceeded to pour all the coffee into the two mugs one shot at a time right in front of the oblivious waiter, putting the paper cups back on his tray as they were emptied, then handed the mugs over to my two very bemused colleagues.

This whole time the manager glared knives at us from over the parapet of his booth across the room.”

Check out how people reacted on Reddit.

This reader had a story to tell.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

Another individual chimed in.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

And this person spoke up.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

He maliciously complied with the best of them!

And in the end, it all worked out.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.