Customer interactions can be much different face-to-face compared to over the phone.

So, what would you do if someone gave you a hard time while placing an order, then later spoke negatively about the employee who helped them, without realizing they were talking to that same person? Would you correct them? Or would you just laugh to yourself at their ignorance?

In the following story, one delivery driver deals with this exact scenario and just laughs it off. Here’s his story.

Customer insulted me to my face because he didn’t know I was the one who took his order

I work at a local-ish pizza place that has stores all over the area.

When I was being trained to answer the phone at this particular store, I was told to always check that the address was within our delivery area. This is because the area intersects with a lot of different stores, and addresses that are just a few minutes away may be in another store’s delivery area since it would be closer.

We very commonly have customers try to order food from our store that is in other stores’ delivery areas. We also have a “No delivery zone” that starts a few blocks from the store, due to a high crime rate that management wouldn’t want anyone to go to.

Immediately, the customer got angry.

This is relatively new, so another reason to always check is that customers may say, “I always order here though!” or “Well, you’ve delivered to me before!” when we don’t anymore.

This customer was particularly angry when I asked them to hold while I checked their address.

Me: “Would you mind holding for one moment so I can make sure you’re within our delivery area?”

Customer: “No, I am within your delivery area. I’m just a few minutes down the road.”

The customer was adamant about being right.

Me: “I’m sorry, but I have to ask every time.”

Usually, when this happens, that line gets me on hold so I can check the address, but not this time. As I was reaching for the hold button, I was interrupted, and I didn’t want to rudely cut them off.

Customer: “Wait! I don’t understand. You’ve delivered to me before. I order here all the time!”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but I-“

He was not giving it up.

Customer: “Are you new here? Because I haven’t been asked this before.”

Me: “Well, I’ve-“

Customer: “I order here all the time! I don’t understand why you would have to check that I’m in your delivery area!”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but I have to check every time. This will only take a moment.”

Finally, he discovered they were within the delivery area.

At that point, they were yelling at me, but after that last line, they were quiet for long enough to put them on hold. I’ve gotten pretty quick at checking addresses, so this customer has made a 20-second part of the order take 2 minutes.

To be fair, though, if management or a shift leader (or someone inexperienced) recognizes a street or address, they don’t check the address. Although it’s safe to check every time, because a few streets cross multiple delivery areas.

Me: “I’m sorry about that hold. It looks like you are within our delivery area, so what can I get for you?”

Taking the order was actually pretty quick.

Customer: “Well, I could have told you that!”

The rest of the phone call was standard enough. They were on hold for a relatively short time, and there was nothing else for them to complain about.

The whole order part of the call probably took half as long as arguing about the address. I can usually enter phone orders into the system and finish the call in less than a minute.

Since it was a delivery, and I was the driver, I took it to the house. Someone answered the door and took their credit receipt into another room to sign it (even though I gave them a pen?), and that left me standing at the front door with someone else.

Then came the insult.

I recognized their voice on the phone. They took a long drag from their cigarettes and said:

Customer: “You know… The person who took my order was a jerk.”

Me: “Oh?”

I was pretty surprised at that comment and took a step back, but tried to hide it. I may have smiled.

The customer told him it wasn’t his fault.

Customer: “Ya, they kept talking about how I wasn’t in their district or something, and they didn’t seem like they knew what they were doing.”

I never used the word “district” in any interaction with this person.

Me: “Oh, I’m sorry about that.”

Customer: “Oh, don’t worry about that, it wasn’t your fault.”

He never told them any different.

The other customer returned their receipt. They tipped me, and I gave them their food.

Me: “Thank you! Have a nice night!”

Customer: “Thank you!”

I smiled the whole drive back to the store. I thought it was hilarious. It’s really weird that the interactions I have with people are drastically different on the phone than face-to-face. They’re so much nicer when I’m there in-person.

Too funny! It’s actually pretty comical how clueless those people were.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who reported her manager to HR after being forced to work 24-hours straight.

Let’s see if any of the fine folks over at Reddit have ever been insulted by an unknowing customer.

This reader deals with a local pizza chain like that.

Here’s what this reader would say.

For this reader, he should give less info.

According to this comment, they hated it when customers did this kind of thing for a discount.

He should stop explaining and handle it better. The way he’s doing it now leaves it open to arguments like this.