They say the customer is always right, but we have a feeling the owner of this long-time Davison eatery would beg to differ in this instance.

Before I continue, let me be clear -- I have no personal stake in this story. I do not know either of the involved parties.

Apollo Family Restaurant has been doing business in Davison since 1972. That's why I was quite surprised by the claims made in the Facebook post seen below. Usually places that conduct themselves that way usually aren't in business for very long -- especially in the age of social media.

Before everyone grabs their digital pitchforks and torches to get some social media justice, let's talk about this a little bit. I worked in restaurants for 13 years, and have personally experienced customers who try very hard to provoke their server, and then play the victim card when the manager comes to the table in an attempt to get free meals. I've also seen people be borderline abusive to their server, just to get a rise out of them, and then start taking a phone video and say, "Look at how I'm being treated, blah blah blah." I'm not saying this is the case here, but you should be aware that these type of people exist.

I've also seen my share of employees, even managers and owners, lose their s*** on customers in a way that was not warranted. The pendulum swings both ways, and not everyone is cut out for the stressful, crow-eating world of customer service.

This video and accompanying post indicate that there a little bit of fault on both sides of the story, but we really don't know, because we were not there. All we know is what we see in the very brief video. We do see the customer on the receiving end of some choice language from, who the customer says, is the owner of the restaurant. More specifically, he is told  "Get the f*** out of my restaurant." Is that the best way to do business? Nope.

There are some things in the customer's Facebook post that are a bit troubling for his case too. He says, "So I took it upon myself to do his job and confront him as he was supposed to me." It's never the manager's job to "confront" the customer, but the fact that he used that word was a big red flag for me personally. That word makes me think of someone picking a fight, and that's how you end up with videos like this.

Like I said, I'm not partial to either party here, but having been on both sides of the counter, I thought it was important to bring some perspective to the story. The restaurant already appears to be taking a beating on social media, and the video currently has 15k views and counting. Everyone has moments they're not proud of, and everyone has bad days. That includes local business owners, servers, and customers. Looks like everyone had a bad day here.

 

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