Jersey Mike's employee wins support for refusing to serve customer who was being rude over a sandwich

Working with customers requires a great deal of patience. Especially in restaurants, some customers are decent enough to make their orders simple and straight while others always look forward to complicating things. That was the case for a Jersey Mike's employee who had to go through a hard time dealing with a disrespectful and cumbersome customer. This video was posted by Sarah Conner, a Texas-based TikTok content creator who often shares videos of controversial interactions between customers and store employees. The video garnered over 12 million views with people rallying around the Jersey Mike's employee for their perfect response.

The video starts with the customer yelling at the store employee, "I just want a regular chicken sandwich." However, the employees tried to maintain their composure and said that they couldn't do it the way the customer demanded. Though the customer then agreed with a regular chicken sandwich, she insisted that she needed peppers and onions in it. As per one user, @jakerou113, who had also been a Jersey Mike's employee, the sub sandwich chain has rules that prevent employees from including such add-ons in the sandwich on their menu due to cross-contamination reasons. Also, another restaurant worker @elchidochidoo mentioned that customers ordering extra items off the menu without paying for them was totally unreasonable. 

While the restaurant employee tried to explain as patiently as possible, the customer wouldn't budge. Ultimately, the employee respectfully asked the customer to leave the building. The rude customer was not ready to give up on the fight and refused to move. So, the employee right away refused to serve the customer and said, "You're acting like I'm stupid so I'm asking you to leave." After multiple attempts to ask her to leave, the customer still stood there, arguing why there was no service. "I can refuse service to anybody. It says that in my handbook," the employee said. 

The customer then began threatening the employee and said that she was going to report them. The restaurant worker simply replied, "You asked for something that I cannot make you," and went on with their work. Though they could've called the police on the troublesome customer, the employee didn't do so. But, the customer seemed like they wanted a fight and even threatened to sue the restaurant for mistreating her. Not encouraging any more conversation, the employee simply said, "Okay. Yes ma'am," and kept up their calmness till the end.

The comments section brimmed with support for the decent and patient Jersey Mike's employee. "I am hoping Jersey Mikes didn’t reprimand this stellar employee who continued to remain calm while being filmed and treated rudely," commented @jennie_from_the_blog. "Please Jersey Mike's. Promote this lady. She deserves a raise. No one should be treated like this. She remained calm and professional," wrote @mandalou828. "The second someone threatens a lawsuit say, 'The conversation is over and communications will continue between your attorneys,'" suggested @corvidhedgewitch. "They don’t get paid enough to get talked to like that. Good on her for refusing to serve her," commented @ferferryan.

You can follow Sarah Conner (@sarah_conner1) on TikTok for more instances of employee-customer controversies. 

Editor's note: This article was originally published on March 1, 2024. It has since been updated.