Dine-and-dashers don’t usually expect to end up serving the people they once ripped off.

So, what would you do if a nightmare customer from your past suddenly appeared as your server at a fancy restaurant? Would you laugh about it and let it go? Or would you mirror their behavior before exposing what they did to their own manager?

In the following story, one woman and her manager find themselves in this exact situation and decide to do just that. Here’s how it all went down.

Whatever you can do, I can do better

Kate used to be a server in a steak restaurant, in one of the outer suburbs of this city. One night, she got a table of 4…all of them in their early to mid-20s.

For the entire night, they made Kate’s life a living nightmare. For example, they originally ordered the rump, but when it was brought out, they claimed they ordered the rib-eye. They ordered medium rare, but when it was brought out, they claimed they wanted it well done.

One of the group members took a sip out of a glass and then claimed there was a lipstick stain on the rim of the glass.

And the most juvenile complaint of all: the group each claimed they didn’t have forks on three separate occasions.

One night, Kate and her manager ran into one of the people from that night.

In the end, the manager had to come out and take care of things, comping half of their meal.

The group decided they wanted one more drink before leaving, so they ordered some cocktails. Then, they did a dine-and-dash while Kate was busy getting the drinks from the bar.

Fortunately, the manager saw a lot of their nonsense and didn’t make Kate pay for the skipped bill (which, with the comps, was still a couple of hundred dollars).

Fast-forward 8 or 9 months. Kate, her manager (who was a family friend), and two of Kate’s friends happened to be in the city CBD. They decided to go to the Rock restaurant, which is Hard to celebrate Kate’s completion of her university studies.

When their meal was over, they asked to speak to the manager.

They entered, got seated, and guess who was their server? None other than the ring leader from 8 months prior.

She did not recognise Kate and the manager, but Kate and the manager certainly recognised her.

Petty revenge time. Kate and her table decided to act exactly like the other group did eight months prior. They complained about everything, orders being stuffed up, and cutlery missing.

When it came time to settle the bill, Kate & The Manager wanted to speak to this restaurant’s manager.

They explained everything, and he took care of the rest.

When he came over, Kate & The Manager started talking about what the server did 8 months ago at their restaurant.

The Manager even had a photo of the docket for that night on her phone (when I asked Kate why someone would keep a photo of a docket for 8 months on their phone like this, Kate said she had no idea, but the manager used to take photos of the dockets for dine & dashers when it would happen).

This restaurant’s manager called the server over, asked her a few questions, showed her the docket from 8 months prior, and then comped the entire meal for Kate and her table, saying it was going to come out of the server’s tips.

Wow! It’s such a small world!

Let’s see how the people over at Reddit feel about it.

Such a great analogy.

As this person points out, a server should know better than to do a dine-and-dash.

This person is happy it all worked out.

Exactly!

She had that coming!

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.