If you’ve worked in the food service industry, chances are you’ve encountered demanding and rude customers who make your job feel like the worst job in the world. And even if you’ve never worked in food service, perhaps you’ve heard of a person or two who abuse the bread basket, overstay at restaurants and cafes way beyond closing hours, or complain about the food in an attempt to get a free meal, among many others. They exist in real life, and they’re more common than you might think.

Jessica Lynn, a Starbucks barista from Indiana in midwestern United States, took to Twitter last Sunday, March 18, to share a recent order she got from a customer named Ashley. She showed pictures of the customer’s drink, which had a long list of add-ons.

“Ashley, you have to be trolling us right now,” wrote Lynn in disbelief. “This is just the syrups.”

It is known that the coffee shop doesn’t charge an extra fee for additional pumps of syrup, granted that the syrup is already included in the drink. Otherwise, the customer would have to pay approximately $0.50 to $0.60 (about P26 to P31) for additional syrup, but with unlimited pumps as well. Sometimes, this policy gets abused by customers like Lynn’s, who asked for multiple add-ons while only paying $5 (about P260) for the entire drink.

“I had the intentions of replying to people but my mentions are a mess now so just an update,” wrote Lynn today. “Yes we made the drink, yes she’s ordered this more than once and this drink would only cost $5.19 (about P270) thank you.”

While there is technically nothing wrong with these kinds of orders, the add-ons usually get too much and are unable to fit in the cup size, thus prompting baristas to use a bigger cup that usually costs more.

Lynn’s Twitter post caught the eyes of baristas like her who had to deal with customers like Ashley, as they shared their similar horror stories from other baristas.

A certain Val (@vnw_x) replied to Lynn and shared a picture of an order she had to make for a customer in the past. “This is from a guy at the store I used to work at,” Val said. “He used to do this once a week for his free drink, no tip, actually drank it.”

“I had a similar experience with a man named Christopher,” said a certain Pastry Boy (@toners_). “These people are just ridiculous.”

Meanwhile, one Jacqueline Gonzalez(@captainyackie) said, “There was a girl at my store who would get a venti iced coffee with 7 pumps of vanilla, 7 caramel, 7 toffee nut, 5 classic, and 7 hazelnut with extra heavy cream. Like I thought that was bad.”

Next time you’re at a cafe for your morning rush hour caffeine fix, try to think of the barista serving you. While requesting for multiple add-ons may be a legitimate way to scrounge a huge serving of coffee for a fraction of its original price, it wouldn’t hurt to consider that doing so may also be a bit obnoxious. No one likes stingy people, nor anybody who holds up a long line. JB

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