A waitress who was hit with a brutal one-star review from a family who'd visited with their 'screaming child' decided to make the most of the situation with her epic response.
Anyone who's ever worked in the hospitality industry will know that some customers are just harder to deal with than others. Whether it's awkward orders or a bad attitude, they're just part of the job.
British waitress Daniella Claeys clearly knows this, which is why she didn't let the situation get to her when she had to deal with an unsatisfied family and their unhappy child.
Daniella, who was 24 years old at the time, took to TikTok to share her story and described how she'd come across the family at work one day when she was struggling with a cold.
"I could just hear this child screaming. It was a big family," she recalled.
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"The crying went on for a considerable amount of time and other staff members were aware of the disruption. Because of my migraine it just seemed to pierce through my ears. I think the family could see my discomfort. I'm not denying that.
"On reflection I should have handled it better but I was quite openly uncomfortable."
In a review left online after the family visited the restaurant, Daniella was named and shamed as they hit her with a one-star rating.
The waitress was accused in the review of suggesting the family sit 'outside [in] the cold' because their baby was crying.
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"[Daniella] didn't bother to hide her discomfort and looked at us like we were rubbish," the family claimed, before saying they 'left the restaurant straight away'.
The review was rounded off with one-star ratings for Atmosphere, Value for Money and Likelihood To Recommend, prompting Daniella to speak out and explain that while she knew the mom was 'angry' at the time, she didn't realize quite how infuriated she'd been until she saw the review the next day.
"At the time I was super upset. I never want to make anyone feel uncomfortable," Daniella said.
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However, she decided to take it on the chin and turn it into a funny story.
She explained: "I sent [the review] to everyone I knew and put it on my Instagram. Everyone thought it was so funny."
Leaning even further into the incident, Daniella ordered a personalized t-shirt with the review printed on the front of it and showed it off on TikTok.
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Footage of Daniella shows her proudly wearing the shirt at work, along with the caption: "When you get a one star review for being a bad waitress so make a top out of it."
Explaining why she decided to make a t-shirt out of the review, Daniella pointed out that while serving for '14 hours of the day', the chance that she 'might get something wrong is quite high'.
By creating the shirt, she hoped to humanize servers.
"I wasn't doing it out of malice or saying the woman was wrong, I was just laughing at what had happened," she explained.
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"It is widely felt across hospitality that a lot of the time people talk to you as if you're their personal server... Waitressing is just not regarded as a high-skill job even though I truly believe it is. A lot of the time people don't appreciate or recognise the effort we make.
"I have so many friends in hospitality that have to put up with a lot. There is quite a small margin for error in terms of getting service right."
After sharing her response online, Daniella was praised by viewers who described the shirt as 'the best thing [they've] ever seen'.
Topics: TikTok, Social Media, Viral
Emily Brown