The hospitality industry is often a front-row seat to the absurd. But yelling about a decorative phone not being answered? That’s a new level of absurd. But a St. Louis server had to smile through that.
Chelsey Starr’s (@chelsey_starr) recent account of a confrontation with a drunk woman has reached over 10,000 viewers on TikTok. She detailed how the woman was incensed that her “emergency” calls on the restaurant’s phone were being ignored. But the phone she kept pointing towards was not even a working device.
Through her video, Chelsey shows the retail-worker struggle of maintaining professionalism. Especially while a customer repeatedly insists they are “not a Karen” while doing exactly what a Karen would do.
A missing credit card led to a ‘thirteen-call’ meltdown
Chelsey explains that she was filling in at the host stand when a “very drunkenly” guest approached her. The woman claimed she had lost her credit card and had called the restaurant thirteen times without an answer. Pointing at a specific phone on the counter, the guest snapped, “No one answered that phone. That phone right there, no one answered it.”
The ‘emergency’ phone turned out to be restaurant decor
Chelsey’s response was a masterclass in patient service: “Oh, this phone? I don’t even know if it works, to be honest.” She explained that the number the guest was calling likely rang to an upstairs office. The managers were currently unavailable there because they were busy working on the floor…