Most servers can tell when a table is going to be trouble. They might not know exactly what’s coming, but they know it probably won’t end with a good tip.

This server got that feeling when a walk-in party of 11 showed up on a busy Friday night and started making special requests before everyone had even arrived.

At first, it seemed like nothing more than a demanding table.

However, as the night went on, the complaints kept growing, and it quickly became clear that getting free food may have been the goal all along.

Unfortunately, the group didn’t stop there, and before the night was over, they had pushed one manager to tears and even called the police.

Read on to see what happened.

Walk-in party of 11 tries to pull scam on my manager, leaves $0.11 tip and calls cops on us

I work for a busy Italian casual dining family-owned restaurant in my city. I have worked at almost 10 different restaurants over the past 15 years, and I gotta say this is by far my favorite. I’m friends with the manager in this story (CM), and while I definitely got burned, I really feel bad for what she had to endure.

It was about 7:30 PM on Friday night when a party of 11 walked in. Of course, they didn’t make a reservation! It wasn’t a slow night by any means, but it had started to slow down at that point, so they miraculously didn’t have to wait that long for their table.

We had to push three 4-top tables together using two tables from two other servers’ stations. I was the most seasoned server out of the three of us, so CM told me that I would be taking it.

I told the other two servers they could have one table each out of the rest of my section so they wouldn’t get screwed over either. One of them took me up on the offer. The other is relatively new and decided to just keep his smaller section. When the table sat down, I had a full section (three other tables), so I was pretty busy.

Everything started off pretty well.

The party sat down and was missing three people from their party. No big deal. I got drink orders and asked if they wanted appetizers.

The guy at the head of the table pulled me to the side and said that he’s going to be a pain, but he wants a pitcher of water for himself and a large ‘Roni pizza cut into 16 pieces. We usually cut pies into 8 slices, so this isn’t a huge ask or anything, but I’m starting to get a feel for how these people are going to be.

He also put in an order for our fried calamari, well done, no banana peppers. No problem. I put in the order and got their drinks. By the time I got back to the table with their drinks, the rest of their party had shown up.

It’s a woman with two small children, both looking to be under 5. As I’m trying to get a drink order from her, her kids are SCREAMING in my face. The mother does absolutely nothing to quiet them down.

These kids were the worst.

Now, normally I love kids. Parents love me because I actually interact with their children. I go out of my way to give them special things. I just love making kids happy. But these two demon children weren’t letting me even speak to them.

So from that point on, I decided I would just ignore them. Their mother didn’t seem to care either way, and I didn’t really have the time to be doting on a couple of brats anyway. By this time, the table was ready to order their meals. They only ended up ordering six entrees, but with the pizza and calamari, it didn’t seem that weird to me.

I put their food in and brought out the pizza and calamari.

They ordered some bar drinks at this point (of course they were all frozen drinks that take a while to make), so I put those into the computer and tended to my other tables. I dropped off the drinks about five minutes later, and one of the women literally pulled on my shirt and said, “These calamari are rubbery and cold. Get us a new one.”

The CM fixed the first problem immediately.

I apologized and took the plate from the table and went to inform CM of the problem. She said no big deal, got a new one fired up, and said she would bring it out to the table.

At this point, their entrees were coming up, so I ran the rest of their food to the table and explained the calamari would be out shortly. I was starting to suspect that something was off about them because I delivered the calamari myself. It looked fantastic and had literally just come out of the fryolator.

As I’m delivering the food, I glance over at the children because they were still SCREECHING at the top of their lungs, and lo-and-behold, the kids are throwing pieces of bread AT MY OTHER TABLE. The mother still not giving two *****.

After I dropped off the food, I headed to my other table and profusely apologized.

At this point, the manager did what she could to make them happy.

They were regulars, and although they were not happy that their dinner was being interrupted by these awful kids, they sympathized with me as they could see this table had me running around ragged. After the table had left, they admitted it was actually kind of entertaining to watch, and they actually left me a 150% tip.

Anyway, my manager dropped off the calamari, and instantly the entire table erupted into a tirade of complaints about EVERY. SINGLE. ENTREE. My manager offered to remake them for her, but they declined. She offered to get them something else. They declined.

At this point, they had eaten more than half of each plate, so she told them she would comp three of the dishes (so half of what they ordered). But since they refused to take anything else and hadn’t had a problem eating that much food, she was unable to comp the rest of them.

She told them she was risking her job just doing that, as she had told me before she took the calamari out that she recognized the guy at the head of the table because he pulls **** like this all of the time.

After enough arguing, she apologized and walked away.

They argued for a good 10 minutes in the middle of the restaurant. Literally all of the adults in this party were yelling at my poor manager while these two children just screamed. My manager was sweating, and I could tell she was very uncomfortable. She just said, “I’m sorry,” and went back into the office, where she erupted into tears.

I felt so bad. This was my table, but these people knew what they were doing. They knew my manager would bring out the appetizer, and they just cornered her.

At this point, she just tells me that she’s not going to comp any more food and that if they say something when I drop the check, to get her. I went back to the table and asked if anyone wanted dessert or more drinks. They all looked defeated, tbh, and just quietly said no.

I brought over the check and walked away. About two minutes later, I saw them all arguing, and one of them signaled for me. She said that my manager was supposed to take off a fourth dish. I said that I would get my manager, and I went back to get her.

The next time, she brought help.

She then grabbed the kitchen manager (he’s a big dude) and went out to talk to the table, who had all gathered by the door at this point. I had told the hostesses to keep an eye on them because I was afraid they would leave without paying.

They argued with my manager for another 10 minutes. My manager wound up giving them the owner’s email address and told them that they could take it up with him. Then one of the women said that they aren’t paying for that last dish and that she was calling the police.

The woman handed me a bunch of cash, and I counted it in front of her.

They paid the exact total of the check, leaving me $0.11. They left, and I went into the back stunned. I said something to a coworker, and she was like, “You should go say something to them.”

Frustrated, she found the people.

Now, I am probably one of the least confrontational people alive, and working as a server for 15 years, it’s a cardinal sin to ever bring up the amount of gratuity a table leaves you. But these people made my friend cry.

So I said, “You know what? I’m going to.”

I walked out the back door and chased them down in the parking lot. I have no idea where this came from, but I confronted these awful people and asked if their service was bad.

The one spokeswoman of the group said no, I was great, but my “awful ***** manager” should have taken that last dish off the check, and I would have gotten my tip.

Then, a cop showed up.

I said that isn’t how this works and that this is my livelihood. I didn’t expect them to pony up any cash, but it was definitely satisfying to at least call them out for it.

Anyway, they left, and a cop showed up. We explained the situation, and he laughed and said if they ever came back and gave us a problem to give him a call. He left his cell number.

I’m just waiting for a 1-star Yelp review, but I guess the owner has said that if we recognize anyone from that party in the restaurant again, to let a manager know and they will be escorted out.

**** scammers. ******* trash-*** people like this. I have no idea why a free meal is worth so much trouble, But I’m so ******* glad my restaurant won’t be allowing these specific ones back.

Wow! That family sounds like an absolute nightmare.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a waitress who refused to return a tip after a party returned to the restaurant with a complaint.

Let’s see how the people over at Reddit would’ve handled it.

That’s a great policy… and it’s fair.

This person doesn’t understand how people enjoy looking like that.

Here’s someone who sees it for the scam it is.

New Zealand sounds much different than the US.

It sounds like these people knew exactly what they were doing.

The whole thing just feels way too calculated to be a coincidence. They complained about one thing after another and kept pushing for more discounts the entire time.

It’s unfortunate because people who pull stunts like this make things harder on everyone else. Restaurants have to account for those losses somewhere, and honest customers usually end up paying the price.

At the end of the day, the server and manager did everything they could to make the group happy. So, it’s clear they just wanted something for free.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a thrift store employee who refused to play “guess the price” without seeing the item in question.