She Hung Up on Me Twice—But I'm the Rude One? True Tales from the Front Desk
You think you’ve seen it all in customer service—until you’re accused of being rude by someone who hangs up on you. Twice. If you’ve ever worked the hotel front desk, buckle up, because this wild ride from Reddit’s r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk is a masterclass in guest relations, fire alarms, and the fine art of being called “rude” for literally doing your job.
Meet u/ManagerNotOnDuty, our intrepid front desk hero, who just wanted a normal shift. Instead, they got a fire alarm, a family check-in with three kids, and a phone call from a guest’s mother that would test the patience of a saint. Spoiler: the mother didn’t even stay at the hotel. But that didn’t stop her from demanding a refund, hanging up repeatedly, and—naturally—calling the staff rude.
Let’s set the stage: A fire alarm blares (false alarm, again!), and chaos briefly reigns. The front desk checks in a frazzled family—daughter, son-in-law, three kids—while the world seems to be ending. The family shrugs it off; they’re fine with it. “They couldn’t go anywhere else,” they say, even though there are plenty of empty hotels nearby. But hey, sometimes inertia is more powerful than inconvenience.
Just when our hero thinks the storm has passed, the phone rings. It’s the mother of the guest, and she’s not here for small talk. She wants a refund. The front desk, juggling a rush, asks if she can be put on hold for a minute—a standard courtesy to any reasonable human. But the mother snaps, “No.” As u/ManagerNotOnDuty puts it, “Asking to put someone on hold is a courtesy, it’s not even really a question. Everybody knows that.” Or so we thought.
With the call on hold anyway (service must go on!), our OP comes back to find the mother still agitated. She doesn’t know if her family will stay or leave, but she’s certain that she’s experiencing “really bad customer service.” She interrupts explanations, ignores offered solutions (refund if they leave, free breakfasts or points if they stay), and, when met with calm professionalism, hangs up. Twice.
The icing on the cake? As OP clocks out, the family leaves, giving the desk that icy, “you know what you did” glare. As OP reflects, “I was literally just trying to explain her options and what was happening, and she kept interrupting me and accusing me of having an attitude.”
The peanut gallery of r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk showed up in full force for this one, bringing both empathy and some much-needed comic relief. Top commenter u/WoodenExplorer2530 summed it up perfectly: “Karens will bestow the name to anyone insubordinate to their whims, ‘Rude’.” (Let’s be honest, “rude” is their favorite word. If you’re not bowing to every demand, you’re automatically rude.)
Others chimed in with their own tales of “customer service” gone sideways. u/harconan recounted being called rude for trying to give someone money, while u/PunfullyObvious shared a retail throwback where a customer couldn’t grasp sales tax, so she paid the difference herself—just to make him go away. Sometimes, even generosity is “rude” if it’s not exactly what the customer wants.
But it’s not all jokes. As u/Severe-Hope-9151 insightfully noted, “Good customer service doesn't mean getting whatever you want. It's about being treated respectfully, fairly and honestly.” The front desk’s job isn’t to hand out refunds like Oprah, but to offer real solutions. As OP themselves added, “You got that right”—and, echoing another comment, “Good Customer Service requires Good Customers.”
The community also vented about the “hold” dilemma. Multiple staffers agreed: asking if you can put someone on hold isn’t really a question. Sometimes, it’s survival. As u/Various_Jelly20 described, it’s a common scenario: single-staffed, juggling a full lobby, and a caller refusing to wait. “The thing is, guests think that you only exist for them and that you have no other obligation… when you don’t [have backup], it’s a shitty company and then that shitty company’s decision BECOMES YOUR PROBLEM.”
And let’s not forget management. Too often, as u/RedDazzlr pointed out, “most managers will like reward their bad behavior in some way.” That perpetual, “you need to fix your attitude” refrain? It’s management-speak for, “Just give them what they want.” But not all managers cave. As u/birdmanrules proudly declared, “I say no refund for you. No refund for you. People try, they fail almost all the time.”
Of course, sometimes the person causing the scene isn’t even the actual guest. As u/MrStormChaser asked, “Was the mom a guest because if she wasn’t then why in the hell was she calling?” To which OP replied: “Either way she decided to be a dick. And her daughter was a pussy for not handling the situation herself.” There’s always that one family member who takes up the crusade, armed with righteous indignation and a cell phone.
So what’s the takeaway from this hotel melodrama? Working the front desk means becoming a crisis manager, therapist, and occasional punching bag for the “Karens” of the world. The real pros know: being called rude is sometimes just the price of not giving in to unreasonable demands. And as the r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk crowd agrees, sometimes the best customer service is simply standing your ground—with a polite smile, and maybe a complimentary breakfast.
Have your own “rude” story or customer service war tale? Let’s hear it in the comments! And remember: the next time you’re put on hold, someone might just be fighting a three-alarm fire, both literally and figuratively.
Original Reddit Post: She Hung Up on Me TWICE and Then Called Me Rude