Barista reveals subtle strategies to counter rude café customers

Performing a job that involves customer service can sometimes be difficult and is not always one of the most pleasant tasks. A certain barista from the United Kingdom experienced this firsthand and shared her ways of dealing with dissatisfied guests.

Betsy Windmill, a barista from the United Kingdom, worked in a café for many years, dealing with various types of customers daily. She spoke about her experience in this job, mentioning how she often encountered rude individuals. Betsy pointed out that it is worth avoiding irritating café staff. This can backfire on customers.

After a brief introduction, Betsy gets to the specifics and explains how she dealt with annoying customers. Some cases may be surprising. Her honesty caught attention online, and her video quickly went viral, inspiring other internet users to share their stories.

Barista Betsy Windmill was not inclined to tolerate inappropriate customer behaviour and decided on certain forms of retaliation. Her first idea was serving annoying guests decaf coffee instead of the classic strong espresso. This method was subtle, and customers didn’t always notice the switch. This brought Betsy considerable satisfaction.

I used to work in a train station, so I could get away with this because people were more often than not in a rush. First up, was a classic tactic most baristas use on rude customers as it isn't detectable and that's using decaf shots instead of regular ones, Betsy admitted with a smile.

The barista enjoyed even the small, seemingly innocent pranks. She would scatter the change on the counter even when customers had their hands out for the money. She would slightly burn sandwiches so that they weren’t perfect, but just enough that no one complained about the taste. Betsy would serve vanilla lattes to customers who ordered caramel ones, and when they returned with complaints, she would blame their inattentiveness. There were really quite a few such incidents.

Internet users eagerly commented on Betsy’s behaviour, while sharing their ways of dealing with difficult customers. These were also surprisingly creative. "Using full fat milk instead of skinny was my favourite", "Cold drinks give the straw a squeeze before putting it in the drink", "Oh I feel like I'd under toast it so that it looks normal but then you bite into it and the inside is still fridge temp chilly" - these are some of the opinions shared.

Working in the hospitality industry is not the simplest, and the staff very often works under heavy pressure from both time and customers. However, it cannot be denied that the "tricks" presented by the barista may be very controversial for many people.