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It’s funny how some people would rather blame anyone else than consider how their own behavior caused the problem.

So, what would you do if a difficult regular customer made a serious accusation against one of your employees over a minor issue? Would you side with the customer in the moment? Or would you stand up for your employee when the complaint made no sense?

In the following story, one restaurant manager finds himself in this situation and chooses his employee. Here’s what happened.

AITA for defending my employee over a regular customer known to be a no-tipper?

I’m the manager for a small family-owned Asian cuisine restaurant. This regular customer is known to be a consistent no-tipper while being high-maintenance as well. We’ll call him Bob.

One of my servers, who has worked at the restaurant for a few months, has waited on Bob several times. The server figured out Bob was a consistent no-tipper after a few times of providing him (and his parties) excellent service for a $0 tip.

After this realization, the server did not give them the best service the next time he waited on Bob. It was adequate, but not the server’s usual friendliness.

Bob had a hard time explaining his stance.

Bob complained to me that the server was very rude, and he believes that he didn’t receive great service from the server because the server didn’t like Asian people.

He was not at all attributing the lack of usual excellent service to his constant non-tipping… but immediately attributed it to race.

Firstly, I apologized to Bob for his poor experience and asked for more information on the situation to clarify how the server was rude, as that seems extremely unlike that server.

All Bob could come up with was that the server had charged him for additional EXTRA toppings. The server also gave Bob a room-temperature soda can, but then gave Bob a cup of ice after he requested one.

When the manager didn’t see his point, Bob stormed out.

I was not at all seeing the problem and was stunned that Bob falsely accused the server of being rude. There was no relevance in the situation or validity in Bob’s complaint.

So.. the server was rude because he charged you extra for additional toppings and initially gave you a room-temperature soda can??

Bob stormed out after I reiterated the facts of the situation and defended the server. And yes, I know “the customer is always right” is a good business practice… but I wanted to defend my employee.

AITA?

Wow! He jumped to conclusions pretty quickly.

Let’s check out what the people over at Reddit have to say about this.

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Here’s an interesting take on the saying.

According to this comment, Bob will be fine.

This reader thinks the problem is restaurant owners.

That’s actually something to think about.

Sure, Bob was upset, but that was actually a great way to handle it.

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Author

Heather Hall

Heather Hall | Contributing Writer, Life & Drama

Heather Hall is a contributing writer for TwistedSifter specializing in internet culture, workplace conflict, and viral customer service stories. With over a decade of editorial experience in digital publishing, Heather excels at curating trending online discussions and providing insightful commentary on the daily dramas that capture the internet's attention.

Since beginning her career in 2011, she has developed deep expertise in SEO-driven digital content, having written for a wide array of publications covering lifestyle, business, and travel. At TwistedSifter, Heather focuses on synthesizing complex social media threads into engaging, highly readable narratives that highlight the human element of viral news.

When she isn’t analyzing the latest internet discourse, Heather is a dedicated mother of three sons who takes family gaming nights entirely too seriously—whether she is dominating in Mario Kart, exploring The Legend of Zelda, or jumping into Roblox.

Connect with Heather on Facebook and LinkedIn.