If you’ve ever worked in a restaurant, you know that customers often ask for the weirdest things. Sometimes it is just a matter of having weird taste, but other times the waiter knows that they don’t really want what they ordered.

That was what happened in this story, so the waiter questioned the customer multiple times to clarify what they wanted. After confirming that they wanted chicken wings in their calzone multiple times, the waiter brought it to them.

To nobody’s surprise, they didn’t like what they got and complained to the manager. The manager fired the waiter for giving them this food even though it was exactly what they asked for.

Read on to get all the details of this unusual story and see if you think he should have been fired.

I got fired for this, but worth it

I was waiting tables at a regional specialty pizza place, about ten years ago.

I’m not sure they can do this.

Family comes in, taking their order and the teenage daughter wants a calzone, and wants chicken wings as a filling/topping.

I start to confirm she wants wings (this was before the boneless wing craze), because they have bones in them.

Well, if that is what she wants, I suppose they can make it.

She’s gives me that open mouth, raised eyebrow look that says “uhh, did I stutter?”.

I say I’m going to have to check with the kitchen, and I ask a line cook if he could put wings in a calzone, his response was “I mean…..I guess….” and he translates to the pizza guy what we need, pizza guy shrugs and nods at me.

You just know they are going to regret this order.

I go back to the table, and say “the kitchen says they can do it, but I want to make sure you want chicken wings in your calzone” the dad, exasperated, says “buddy, why is this so hard?”

“Not hard at all, sir, coming right up”.

I bet the guys in the kitchen tried to watch what happened once it was served.

The kitchen guys are actually chuckling while they put this thing together, I walk it to the table, happily drop it off, and get called back 3 minutes later to explain why there’s bones in a calzone.

I (very comfortable with confrontation) say this is what you asked for, I confirmed twice, and the dad snaps his finger to the manager and calls her over.

He was very clear about what she was ordering. They insisted, what else could he do?

He complains there’s bones in his daughters calzone, manager looks at me and I say “I confirmed twice she wanted chicken wings”, and the dad says “you know what she meant, like chicken meat”.

I explain “there’s chicken meat on those bones”

Maybe this family will be more careful with their order in the future.

Manager tells me to wait elsewhere, manager takes the tongue lashing from customer, and personally makes a new calzone.

Mind you, the family eats their food while new calzone is being made, forcing teenager to eat alone while Dad keeps looking at his watch.

Honestly, he doesn’t deserve to be fired. He was just giving the customer what they wanted.

I was fired (with no protest from me) about ten minutes later, in fact I got to leave before Calzone Girl finished her meal, and take great satisfaction knowing the manager had to bus the table afterwards.

If you are ever at a restaurant and the waiter has to double-check your order, you know you’re doing something wrong. The waiter is obviously going to know what is normal and what isn’t. Plus, it isn’t his job to make sure the customers don’t order weird things. He did not deserve to be fired.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a third-generation business owner who is thinking he might know the people in his community a bit too well.

Keep reading to see what the people in the comments have to say about this funny story.

How can someone know what you want if you don’t tell them?

I agree with this commenter. Give them what they want, but charge them for it.

This commenter would hate to work in a job like this.

This is why managers need to stand up to customers way more often.

I don’t understand why he was fired either. He did exactly what the customers wanted.

He was in a lose-lose situation. If he had pushed back more, they would have complained to the manager, and he would have been fired. So, he gives them what they ask for, they complain to the manager, and he gets fired.

There is literally nothing he could have done to please these people. He tried to explain what they were doing wrong, and they got upset about it. I wish he had pushed back against the manager about it.