When you’re used to getting free refills on things like water and soda, it can be surprising (and disappointing) to learn that other beverages are charged by the glass.

That is what happened in this story when the waitress ‘forgot’ to mention that orange juice did not have free refills when taking the order of a regular customer who was known to be quite rude.

When she placed the bill down in front of him, she could tell that he was absolutely shocked to see that he was charged for every glass of OJ he and his family ordered. Fortunately, however, his pride wouldn’t let him complain. So, he paid the bill and never came back.

Sometimes you have to think outside the box when dealing with rude customers, and that is just what happened in this fun story. Check it out below.

I got revenge with orange juice

Before I begin – I know a lot of people have strong feelings about tipping culture in the USA. While this story relates to tipping, that isn’t the point of the story or the reason I felt like I needed to get revenge. With that in mind…

Working in a restaurant can be a wonderful job.

Back in 2011 or so, I was working at a local restaurant in my hometown. It was the only greek restaurant in town and it was a small but popular place.

We had a lot of repeat customers and often were quite busy even on normal weeknights. Its worth noting that this is not an affluent town.

Some people are just grumpy, it seems.

One such regular customer was the “Thompson” family. I have no idea what their names are. Mom, Dad, three kids, probably under 10 years old.

Mom and the kids were always fine but man, the dad in this family was SO RUDE from day 1.

What kind of person behaves like this?

They came in 1-2x per week and every time this guy used to bark at me and the other servers from across the room about everything, leave huge messes, but worst of all, these kids slurped down 3-5 sodas each during their visits.

While this in itself isn’t a big deal, every time one of the kids finished their drink (which was every couple minutes) the dad would yell at us across the room “MORE SODA!”.

I bet everyone hated it when they came in.

It sounds ridiculous, but this guy was ridiculous. It didn’t help that the guy also never left a tip.

Eventually, the owners started offering breakfast on the weekends, which turned out to be quite popular. One morning the Thompsons rolled in during the middle of the morning rush. Not these guys again…

Oh, this is a smart strategy.

As they sat down, the instrusive thoughts won. Before they could order their sodas, I said “hey gang, who wants orange juice?”.

The orange juices were $3 each and didn’t have free refills, as stated on the menu.

The dad clearly doesn’t realize that they don’t get free refills.

Everyone got orange juice. Per usual, every few minutes he’d shout “MORE JUICE, MORE SYRUP, MORE NAPKINS!”.

We had to go to the grocery store across the plaza they drank so much juice. Each time, I added another juice to the ticket.

He will definitely not be happy about this.

Eventually when I was time for them to go, I looked at their ticket and saw they had consumed 13 juices between them – there was an item on the bill for $39 dollars for just juice.

Adjusted for inflation, this is about $57. I placed the bill on the table and left the area, not knowing what this person was capable of aside from yelling and being rude.

Wow, this little bit of revenge got rid of the bad customer forever. Well played.

I peeked around the corner, and saw him looking at the bill, then the menu (about the juice) then back at the bill.

Eventually they paid the bill and left – no tip (obviously). Never saw them again after that. Hope they are doing ok.

When dealing with annoying customers, sometimes you need to get creative. I’m just glad that the guy didn’t freak out over having to pay for all that orange juice.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a teacher who learns a lesson of his own from his student’s essays about personal responsibility.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about this funny story.

Yup, the one time she was glad to serve this family.

Healthier than soda, yes. But definitely not healthy to drink that much OJ at a time.

A wonderful story with a happy ending.

Ok, too funny.

It really is a great story.

No free refills was clearly stated right there in the small print, sir. While it is normally best to remind customers that they don’t get free refills on this type of drink, it isn’t strictly required.

Rude customers like this often get worse service because of their bad attitude, and it is well deserved. If they would just treat their wait staff well, they wouldn’t have to worry about it.

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.