When you make an order at a cafe, you need to stay and pay for it or you aren’t going to get your food.

What would you do if you were working at the cash register and someone came in and began their order, but before they paid they said they had to step away for a moment?

That is what happened to the girl in this story, so she just held the order, but then other customers came up, so she had to cancel it. When the first customer came back, she was very upset that the order had not been left on hold.

It is really hard to see how she did anything wrong here. Some people are just irrational. Read through the full story below and see what you think.

Am I at fault or not?

This is something that happened at my last job.

Let’s see what happened.

For clarification, I am on the autism spectrum and have problems trying to determine what I should do in certain situations.

It can frustrate me because what could be considered ‘acceptable’ at one time may not in another. Regardless, I think I did the right thing here.

Ok, he is still very new.

I had just started at a cafe run by a mental health charity. I did a couple of hours a week, either in the kitchen or on the tills. This was my eighth shift, I believe, so I had only been working there a total of a few days.

I had also spent most of my time beforehand in the kitchen instead of on the tills, but I was on the till this day.

These rules are pretty simple.

There is one specific rule to remember at this cafe – if you are a volunteer and order a drink, you do not pay. If you are a volunteer and order food, you do, with a 40 percent discount.

Another factor is that I had a supervisor from my residence with me that day, sitting at a nearby table. I do not know exactly what her rules are, but she was not allowed to interact with me, only observe. My supervisor is a separate hire from the charity, if that makes any sense.

Let’s get this person rung up.

An entitled volunteer woman was here that day.

EVW: I want [order that I have forgotten].

I rang them up, because their order included food.

Why would she take off right after ordering?

EVW: I’m just going to [she either said ‘go to the toilet’ or ‘get my purse’ (which is weird because we don’t use the word purse in Britain)].

She left and I expected her to come back. The room is also L-shaped and she was out of my line of sight.

Waiting even five minutes is excessive.

I waited for several minutes for her to come back and pay. There were two or three other people standing at the till, but I kept telling them that I was waiting for the woman to return and pay.

After about 5 or 10 minutes I felt that I had to void the order because I couldn’t leave the till. A couple of minutes later, EVW came back.

How long did she expect her to wait?

EVW: When is my food coming? I’ve been waiting.

I explained that I had had to void the order because she hadn’t paid. She sounded a little disbelieving and sour after my explanation and the next customer saying that I’d done it.

This person is not happy about it, that is for sure.

But here is when the EVW turned nasty. I tried to tell her why I hadn’t put her order through, but all she did was fold her arms and look away from me.

A few minutes later when I was still there, the EVW was talking to some other volunteers she had presumably come with, pointing at me. I heard her say, “She voided my order,” in a nasty voice.

There is something wrong with that lady.

This EVW was also in the kitchen at one point (I’m not sure why) and when I bumped into her, almost literally, I tried explaining again, but all she did was fold her arms and look away from me.

I felt angry and upset, since, as I said before, I had only been working the shifts for a few days and had never come across this problem before.

She did nothing wrong, and it seems like her manager agrees.

I said to the manager (and my supervisor agreed with me) that I was very polite the whole time and that I had tried to apologize.

The EVW didn’t come back, by the way.

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One thing to learn about working in food service is that some customers are just never happy. She should just put this rude customer out of her mind.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.

This commenter thinks she was trying to get free food.

She really does sound horrible.

Yup, it is really this simple.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighbor who documented times of noise spikes and turned their neighbor into a model tenant.

This person says she held up the line too long.

She followed the rules.

How long did this woman expect her to hold her order? Honestly, she already held it for way to long. She should have started helping other customers immediately.