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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Icy_Cress1442 on 2025-10-26 22:47:39+00:00.
I originally posted this in r/traumatizeThemBack and it was suggested that folks in this subreddit would enjoy my story too.
This was from a couple of years ago when I worked at a small cafe. It had a soft serve machine that served vanilla and chocolate with a nozzle in the middle to serve both flavors swirled together, and there was this one customer who always made a big deal about the soft serve he ordered.
He would come in just for the soft serve and there was always something wrong with it. He would ask for toppings and then complain that it was either too much or too little and then ask us to serve him a new cup with the right amount. As if this nitpicking wasn't annoying enough, one day he decided he wanted both flavors so my coworker served him the chocolate vanilla swirl.
The guy said it was wrong, that he didn't want the flavors mixed together so my coworker served him a new cup with chocolate on one side and vanilla on the other. The guy then says it's still wrong, that he wants the chocolate on the RIGHT side of the cup. My coworker was a 17 year old kid who got all flustered, apologized and then served him a new cup after struggling to figure out which side of the cup was the right side.
After that, I made it my mission to make sure and help this guy the next time he came in. I didn't have to wait long because he was back the following week. He had a smug smirk on his face and asked for a vanilla and chocolate soft serve so I got him a vanilla and chocolate soft serve with each flavor on a different side. I slid it over the counter to him, he looked at the cup and his smirk disappeared.
I asked if anything was wrong and he said no but then a second later the smirk was back and he said that he wanted the chocolate on the right side of the cup. I told him "ok, no problem sir" and turned the cup 180 degrees. I looked him straight in the eye, gave him my own smirk and told him "there. The chocolate is on the right side now. Anything else I can get for you today?".
His smirk disappeared again and didn't come back this time. He said "no, it's fine. Thanks.", he picks up his cup, I charge him for his soft serve and he leaves without another word. The minute he's gone my coworkers burst into laughter and I told them that if he ever tries pulling that right side stuff again to just do what I did, that we weren't going to waste anymore soft serve on him.
That guy didn't come back after that day, at least not during my shifts there. Maybe he figured out we weren't going to let him mess with us anymore. Idk what his deal even was. Maybe he just enjoyed complaining and watching us bend over backwards for him. Whatever it was, I was just glad I was able to traumatize him enough to not come back.