Being tipped $1000 and a Tag Heuer watch.
Everyone has conceptions of how wealthy people behave in different scenarios. Some wealthy people can be insufferable while others can be surprisingly charming. But how do those conceptions stack up against real life?
Well, here you can read about what experiences people have had, mainly in the service industry, when they’ve encountered wealthy and/or famous people.
One Canadian restaurant had an Indian gentleman who would come in and spend big dollars on food and wine and leave $1000 in tips. “When we saw him the third time, I had servers fighting over him.” But the story becomes even more unbelievable: one evening, the gentleman became drunk and gave his Tag Heuer watch to the busboy who had complimented him on it. The next day, he came back in and asked to see the busboy.
Not being allowed to speak to a guest
The busboy expected that the gentleman would want his watch back, so it’s not difficult to imagine is surprise when the gentleman asked for his watch so that he could gift the busboy a brand new one.
— alex-manutd
One person, while being interviewed to work at a high-end hotel attached to a casino, witnessed a guest who walked in, picked up her room keys, and left—all without saying a word. According to the manager who was conducting the interview, “That’s Mrs. Richladypants. You never ask her for her name, her ID, or, God-forbid, a credit card. She stays here comped once or twice a week because her husband spends so much in the casino. If you upset her she will yell at you and then hand the person working next to you a $100 bill just to spite you.”
Serving foie gras to dogs
After this incident and finding out that there were multiple guests like this, the person decided not to pursue working there.
— arnber420
Foie gras, usually considered a delicacy from France, is not for everyone. But one server worked at an East coast restaurant where one of the regular customers was a billionaire who ordered for his dogs to be served foie gras while seated at the table beside him.
Being asked for “servant’s quarters.”
And when someone called the health inspector because dogs were eating in the restaurant, the health inspector didn’t try getting in the billionaire’s way. — Auto_Fac
Servant’s quarters seem like a thing from a bygone age, but apparently not to some. One hotel clerk had a wealthy woman book the most expensive suite for the night, only to ask “Do you have servant’s quarters for my driver?”
Being given the keys to an Egyptian villa
When the clerk gave her the pricing for a standard room, the woman protested that the standard rate was “too much” and that she didn’t want to spend the money for an “actual hotel room” for her driver. Fortunately for the driver, the clerk did manage to convince the woman to pay £30 for a standard room so that he wasn’t forced to sleep in the car.
— TheAngryBad
Imagine you live in an apartment where the landlady is extremely wealthy. Now, imagine the landlady loans you three luxury cars—a BMW, a Mercedes-Benz, and a Land Cruiser—while yours is in the shop. And then she hands you the keys to her villa in a coastal Egyptian city and tells you to have a holiday on her, all expenses paid.
Watching a €11,000 bottle of wine being poured into a sauce
Ridiculous, yeah, but in a really good way. Not the kind of ridiculous that’ll have you complaining, that’s for sure. — ezadskoo
While working at a resort in the Seychelles (located off the coast of East Africa), one person saw a wealthy Canadian family visit for holiday, accompanied by their own personal chefs. One of the hotel’s own chefs was also hired to help with food preparations. One night, the family purchased two bottles of wine, each €11,000+.
Moving a bed
When the hotel chef was asked what the family had used the wine for, he replied that they had only been dumped into the broth of a Coq au Vin.
— diarm.
Moving a bed sounds disarming, but if it’s only for one night? One businessman insisted on always sleeping in his own bed, so when he visited a luxury property in California, he hired an entire team to transport his bed, frame and all, and then had it installed in the luxury suite after removing the bed that was usually used.
Being yelled at for not having boot warmers
And then he repeated the process in reverse the next morning.
— Techno_Wasp
One of the golden rules of customer service in general is not to lose your temper, no matter how angry or upset the customer might be. But some customers stop at nothing. When a hotel guest was moved from his original hotel to a neighbouring one—both high-end luxury hotels, mind you—he had to find something to complain about. After asking about food, spa treatments, and a host of other amenities, he finally found something to yell at the hotel clerk about: the lack of boot warmers. “You expect me to put on my skis when they’re frozen cold in the morning?”
Pouring champagne down the drain
And all because a luxury hotel didn’t have boot warmers for a private ski locker.
— JohnHenryAaron
According to one person, a Swedish tradition in Stockholm is to buy an expensive bottle of champagne and pour it down the drain. In fact, this is so common that it has a name—“vaska.”
Watching someone get tipped $400
Some places offer it on the menu where you can watch a waiter pour the champagne down a drain and other places even let you do it yourself. Honestly the dumbest way of flexing I’ve ever witnessed. — jesusbrate
Not all wealthy people come across as overbearing as some. One person’s best friend used to date a wealthy kid who, while definitely rolling in the big dough, remained quite kind and down to earth. When their friend group once stopped at Waffle House for breakfast, the person noticed that their friend’s boyfriend lingered at the table.
Being accused of taking the wrong order
Doubling back to see what was going on, the person saw that the boyfriend had left a hefty tip—at least $400—on the table.
— WifeyP
Everyone is human and every human makes a mistake, so it’s not too unusual for servers to occasionally get orders wrong. But one server was repeatedly accused of making mistakes when, in fact, it was the customer’s fault and not theirs. A woman at a restaurant asked for one kind of soda, told the server that it was the wrong kind when it was brought out, then asked for another.
Being accused of taking the wrong order 2.0
Then repeated the process twice more. Fed up, the server brought out all of the sodas and told the customer to take their pick. The customer became offended and accused the server of being incompetent. While the server didn’t receive a tip—“as expected”—at least they didn’t experience any more trouble the rest of the night.
— unknown
Another server had an experience where they were accused of being incompetent and taking the wrong order. Unlike the soda lady, though, the person had hard evidence that the customer was in the wrong. The restaurant let servers take recordings of customers’ orders to ensure accuracy…
Being left a brand new TV and PS4
When the customer complained about her steak being well-done when she wanted it medium-rare, the server was able to play back the recording of the customer who most definitely ordered a well-done steak. At least the server had the satisfaction of seeing the customer proved wrong.
— Jurais13
One housekeeper worked at a fancy hotel when a guest asked for the TV in his room to be removed. When the housekeeper arrived to remove the TV, they saw that the reason why was because the guest had bought a brand new TV and PS4 to replace the hotel’s TV.
Being blamed for spilled soup
And when the guest checked out, he left the TV and the PS4 behind. So the housekeeper took the PS4 and the maintenance guy took the brand new TV.
— whirler_girl
Common sense and a good dash of experience usually informs our decisions when it comes to handling fragile and potentially messy things like eggs and, more importantly, hot bowls of soup. But one woman who checked out from an upscale supermarket in Chicago insisted that she could put the hot container of soup straight into the pocket of her brand new Louis Vuitton bag and declined the bagger’s offer to double-bag it for her.
Drawing up an Evian bath
Needless to say, the lady returned shortly, furious that hot minestrone soup had spilled inside her bag.
— jkeemi
Bottled water is for drinking, but for some it can also be for bathing. One wealthy guest in Bali only drank bottled Evian water and insisted that her baths be of bottled Evian water as well.
Seeing a grown woman cry over cookies
So her room attendant had to spend an hour filling a large bathtub with a countless number of Evian water bottles.
— icycld
It’s not often you see a 60 year old woman crying over cookies, but one sous chef in upstate New York watched a woman collapse in grief because the restaurant didn’t have the cookies that she wanted. In a crude attempt to assuage her crying, the owner of the restaurant ran to the grocery store, bought some cookies that resembled the ones that the lady wanted, and gave them to her.
Having Penfolds Grange wine sent back
Despite crying over the lack of cookies, the lady apparently couldn’t tell the difference between the store-bought cookies and the real deal.
— hautemamabear
Even if you don’t know much about wine, you should know that Penfolds Grange is considered a premiere Australian wine. So when one customer tried to send back two bottles of Penfolds Grange in efforts of trying to come across as a wine connoisseur, his companions—potential business clients of his—were outraged. They insisted that the wine be brought back out and drank both bottles.
Being blamed for mosquitos
Even better, when the customer who had originally rejected the wine tried to pour himself a glass, his companions told him that he couldn’t possibly have any since it obviously wasn’t up to his standards.
— sweetrhymepurereason
Summertime is a lovely season to eat fancy lobster on the coast of Maine, but it also inevitably means that there will be mosquitos when the sun sets. One server had a group of guests complain about the mosquitos and how terrible the restaurant was for not having pest control. When the server asked them if there was anything else she could do for them that evening, they seriously asked her to be their personal fly-swatter.
Having a $12,000 bar tab covered
And when she didn’t spend her evening swatting mosquitos for them, the guests took offense and didn’t leave a tip on their $350 dinner bill.
— SuitAndTy89
It’s a nice surprise when someone buys you a drink on a night out. But when you’re out at a military ball, you don’t expect an old stranger to pay for the entire night’s bar tab.
People presuming you can’t be good enough
The morning after a large military ball at a marina, people discovered that all of the drink costs had been covered by an old gentleman who owned part of the marina and wanted to treat the service men and women.
— KodakBear88
Classism is, unfortunately, still alive and well in certain forms. When one couple checked into their posh hotel after a day of hiking, their elevator companions gave them the side eye. After pressing the button for the top floor, one of the women told the couple in a condescending tone that “you need to press the button for your floor.”
Serving a 6-year-old steak tartare
The couple had the satisfaction of telling her that the button for their floor was already pressed (they were staying in the top floor as well). The woman was incredulous.
— Valiantlycaustic
Steak tartare, a delicacy made up of raw beef, is not for the faint of heart. But one family decided that their 6-year-old’s birthday party would be incomplete without trying to feed their child steak tartare and jalapeno crème brulee.
Being yelled at for making cookies
The parents even tried to quiz their 6-year-old on wine smelling.
— Wolf_Craft
Just because people try to be nice doesn’t mean other people can feel entitled. In one Swiss town, a luxury vacation rental company would make efforts to make fresh-baked cookies for guests in the evening who were coming off of the alpine lifts. One evening, a guest confronted one of the workers because there weren’t any cookies left.
Being gifted incredibly expensive wine
And just as the worker was trying to explain that they could make more cookies for her, the guest launched into a furious tirade.
— enlguy
Some people are just exceedingly nice. One customer at a high-end hotel restaurant went through an exaggerated routine of ordering an extremely expensive bottle of wine, declaring that it was “bad,” and then would order a second, equally expensive bottle of wine. The (good) catch was that the customer still paid for the first bottle of wine on the condition that everyone on the serving staff could taste a glass in order to learn why it was a “bad” wine.
Being asked, as a classical musician, to play a pop song
In short, the serving staff was regularly gifted an incredibly expensive bottle of wine.
— yupynut
Some professional classical musicians go the route of playing in quartets and little bands for events and parties and can find themselves at events with wealthy patrons. Well, when you’re hired to play classical music for several hours at a high-profile party, that’s all you’re obligated to do.
Having your groceries paid for by a complete stranger
But one musician had various patrons who would come up and demand that the classical musicians play some pop song or another, apparently assuming that string musicians had the same skillset as DJs.
— AngryPuff
Being a broke university student is no fun, but sometimes random strokes of good fortune can happen because of the kindness of strangers. Two university students were in the self-checkout line of a supermarket when the man in front of them offered to pay for their groceries. They laughed, certain that he was joking.
Being tipped in cocaine
Only to see that the man was being serious and, besides paying the grocery bill, gave them an extra £70 and even tipped the assistant.
— GreyCull
Sometimes the generosity of customers isn’t necessarily a 100% good thing. One server was asked to cut up straws so that some customers could snort cocaine… and, apparently, the customers were wealthy enough that they didn’t feel like they needed to hide the fact in a crowded restaurant.
Being given $10k has an engagement present
Afterwards, the server was tipped $500 worth of Bolivian cocaine. It’s not clear what the server did with such an illegal, albeit valuable, tip.
— hallieinc
One could argue that wealthy people are nice because they can afford it. Either way, one couple had the good luck of getting engaged in a restaurant as they were seated by the daughter of the regional president of Sony who, needless to say, was very wealthy.
Serving four 1.5 oz shots worth $1700
The president’s daughter turned around, congratulated the newly engaged couple, and wrote them a check for $10,000 (and this happened in the ‘90’).
— Traxe33
Bartenders have to put up with all kinds of things and that’s to be expected. But one bartender had four customers who wanted four shots of Remy Martin Louis XXIII, an extremely high-end cognac that, at that particular bar, cost $435 a shot.
Being called a peasant
But what seems to have irritated the bartender the most was that the customers didn’t know how to drink their really expensive cognac. So instead of diluting the alcohol in a snifter, the four wanted cognac shots.
— PersuasiveContrarian
Some people are better at handling insults than others. Take this example: a wealthy businessman was hosting his friends in a bar and wanted to show off how wealthy and high-class he was and he ordered a round of expensive whiskeys for his friends. But then he took out a roll of $100 bills and handed them to the server, saying “Take one, peasant” without looking at her.
Being told a cheeseburger without cheese isn’t the same thing as a hamburger
The server had the good sense to refuse the money and swatted the businessman’s hand, causing the roll of cash to spill all over the floor and forcing the businessman to pick up the bills from the floor.
— mr-guest11
One waitress had a customer who ordered a cheeseburger without cheese but with lettuce, tomatoes, or mayonnaise, so the waitress just wrote it down as a hamburger because, well, it didn’t have cheese. But when she reviewed the customer’s order and read it back to her, the customer flew into a rage because she very clearly had wanted a cheeseburger, no cheese.
Watching grown men shout at each other
The woman went on to tell the waitress that she must be incompetent to not know the difference between a cheeseburger and a hamburger…
— DreamGirl3
People are competitive whether they only have a little bit of money or billions. One hotel worker witnessed a shouting match between two parties about who was wealthier and, therefore, better. “I HAVE BILLIONS AND YOU ARE A NOTHING!” “I AM A BILLIONAIRE; YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!”
Making a deconstructed Americano
In the end, turns out that one of the billionaires was, in fact, the owner of the hotel and barred the man that he had fought with.
— WrinklyPanda
People can be pretty picky when it comes to their coffee, making rush hour a nightmare for baristas. But one woman expected a Starbucks to make her a deconstructed Americano—a cup of hot water, a cup of espresso shots, and steamed milk—as she sat in the drive thru and held up everyone else.
Closing with a millionaire
To make matters worse, she insisted on seeing the shots made, i.e., the barista couldn’t begin making the components of her drink until she had pulled up to the drive thru window and could watch them.
— dhawryluk
Closing a restaurant at night is usually a pretty gruelling experience. A wealthy man’s wife ran a restaurant in Singapore and would walk in, decked out in designer finery, only to change into work clothes to work in the kitchen.
Sending groceries up in a private elevator
Some evenings, her husband (the millionaire) would come in, eat dinner, and then help close the restaurant or wash dishes.
— ScoobySharky
Grocery delivery services like Shipt usually still require face-to-face interaction with the service provider. But one wealthy woman apparently found a way to circumvent this by ordering her food and groceries to be placed on a tray that was then placed in the private elevator for her penthouse and sent up.
Watching a woman forget to buy bread in a snow storm
As if that weren’t demanding enough, she was very particular about how her food was arranged on the tray.
— Kratsas
One restaurant employee had a wealthy patron who effectively ate every single meal at the restaurant. Then, on the night before a major snowstorm was supposed to hit, the woman came to the restaurant to ask if they had any bread, which they did not. “What’ll I do?! I’ll starve!” To her credit, the woman also offered to let the restaurant employees stay in one of her apartments for the night.
Accidentally being served $6000 champagne
Apparently, the woman was wealthy enough that she bought the entire top floor of an apartment complex. And this all happened in New York City.
— doremikaru
Sometimes people can benefit when they’re downstream from wealthy people, like sitting beside them at a restaurant. One couple was accidentally served $6000 champagne when their waiter confused their order of white wine with the table right beside them that had ordered the champagne.
Having wine, caviar, and truffles ordered for an entire restaurant
The waiter soon realized his mistake and discreetly swapped the drinks, unbeknownst to the people who had ordered the $6000 champagne in the first place.
— BalloonKnot01
Another notable restaurant-related story is the time when a young man effectively bought the most expensive items possible in order to give them to others. A young man ordered an absolutely staggering quantity of expensive wine and foods like caviar and truffles, but he didn’t touch any of it. Once his food arrived, he began to offer the wine and food to other people.
Getting yelled at because your Italian restaurant doesn’t serve French food
After he had finished donating the wine and food to everyone else, the man left and gave a generous tip.
— Royal-Derpness
One would normally hope that people have a basic understanding of how certain restaurants serve certain kinds of cuisine. That is, an Italian restaurant serves Italian food while a French restaurant serves French food. But some people seem to think that such common sense doesn’t apply to them.
Serving someone who’s allergic to “all fruits and vegetables that start with the letter A”
One restaurant worker was chewed out by some wealthy patrons who demanded to be served French steak and French wine when the restaurant was an Italian seafood restaurant.
— oamo
Another common difficulty for servers is navigating the food allergies of customers, whether serious or absurd. One server had a regular customer who told the staff that he was allergic to basically anything that started with the letter “A.”
The customer was harmless enough, so the restaurant staff did their best to humor him.
— simplikano1