As anyone on the front lines of the service industry can attest, an unfortunate reality of the job is that a significant number of customers will angrily berate you and there isn’t much you can do to prevent it.
But while it seems this has always been true, enough people have either experienced this kind of abuse or heard enough horror stories about it to start treating it as a warning sign in potential romantic partners. And while it’s still not exactly impossible for customers to rant at staff without consequence, the fact that just about everyone has a camera on them makes this a riskier proposition.
And as one man recently learned, the internet can be eerily efficient when enough people are horrified by what you do.
Be advised that the full video contains strong language.
In a video posted to Twitter on August 21, a customer at an IHOP in Tucson, Arizona can be seen shouting at a manager.
As his wife explains to this woman why their family was dissatisfied with their service, he repeatedly interjects with curse-laden commands to shut up and get out of his face.
It’s worth noting that she’s standing at the distance you see here for the duration of the video.
As the waitress returns with a to-go box for their food, the man continues to make derogatory references to both her and her manager’s genders.
He also claims that this rant was prompted by the waitress being rude to his son, which apparently concerned the way she asked the child to wear a mask as he entered.
As he seems to indicate, his rage wasn’t based on any anti-mask sentiment but rather her supposed demeanor as she made this request.
Upon seeing the full video as shown here, users were disgusted by the man’s rant and particularly concerned for his family.
For some, the fact that he was cursing to such a degree in front of his young children was a concern as they may grow to emulate this behavior.
Others noted a lack of surprise from his family, which in turn made them concerned that this scene was reflective of his behavior at home.
Before the day was out, the user who posted the video had identified the man as Adam Huerta and discovered that he owned a local car wash.
They also claimed that he had inherited it from his father and were able to locate the business, which has since attracted a flood of negative social media reviews.
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Later that day, Huerta posted a video to his company’s Facebook page to address the situation.
Although he admitted his behavior was wrong in this video, comments noted that he spent the majority of it detailing equipment failures at his car wash and issues with his father’s health rather than taking responsibility for his actions and apologizing to the people involved. Instead, he apologized to “the world.”
He also explained that the family’s complaint largely concerned raw bacon (which the waitress has no control over) as well as the time the waitress took in bringing him appetizers and lemon for his water.
As this apology was considered rambling and insincere, he has since posted a more direct apology to the waitress he berated that seeks to take responsibility for his actions.
