'BULLY' CUSTOMER BANNED FROM BUYING SPUDS AT VILLAGE MARKET - OVER 'I'M NOT YOUR MATE' RANT
A 'bully' customer was banned from buying a jacket potato at a village market - because he was caught on camera 'going nuts' at the spud seller for calling him 'mate'.
Luke Ab was serving jacket potatoes in his trailer at the Shepshed village market in Leicestershire earlier this month [Sept 5] and was filming a live stream when the customer came up to him.
Footage shows Luke greeting the man and calling him 'mate', only for him to bluntly respond 'I'm not your mate.com, that's a website' before angrily later adding 'what's with this mate sh*t?'.
The customer goes on to ask for two fillings for 50p cheaper than the menu price, but the 26-year-old seller politely points out that the menu prices are set.
The punter then says he only has notes so Luke kindly offers that they have change - only for the angry bloke to say he 'doesn't want change' and that he 'doesn't deal in coins'.
The viral video, which has more than nine million views, shows the two going back and forth, with Luke remaining calm despite the rude man getting increasingly aggressive.
When Luke eventually refuses to serve the customer due to his attitude, he can be heard retorting 'What attitude should I have? Yes sir, no sir, beg, beg.'
The shocked business owner said he will not accept being spoken to like that for the sake of £5.50 and that he has never had to refuse service at his trailer before.
Luke said he sees the funny side of the story and has printed a t-shirt that reads 'I am your mate.com', offering customers 50p off if they call him 'mate'.
The business owner said he has gathered almost 30,000 followers since the video went viral and had double the amount of customers yesterday [September 9th].
Luke, from Shepshed, said: "We were serving in the trailer, we had a very busy morning and this bloke came up to the trailer, he looked at the menu board, even after saying he couldn't read, read the prices, asked if he could have two fillings for a fiver.
"I just said no because our prices are set. He went off because I called him mate, he said 'I'm not your mate.com', I don't know why he was saying that. I think it's just a phrase he must use.
"He was just going on and on, I wouldn't serve him, he was getting more angry but I wasn't going to serve him, then he walked over to my mate's stall, who runs brownies and he also refused to serve him.
"I ran a pub for four years so I can tell when someone is drunk, he definitely wasn't drunk.
"I've never had to refuse people food. In the pub, it was a different ball game, [I was] refusing drinks all the time, but refusing somebody a jacket potato is not something I ever thought I'd have to do.
"For the sake of £5.50 I won't get spoken to the way he spoke to me.
"I wasn't threatened or scared, we were more shocked because something like that doesn't happen in Shepshed, it's quite a nice village, all the customers we get are really nice, we don't get horrible people.
"If I go to the supermarket, people are like, 'You're from TikTok.' My pitch is on the way to school for a lot of children and yesterday all I had was 'I'm not your mate.com'.
"I did an offer yesterday, I had a t- shirt printed that said I am your mate.com, and I'd knock off the 50p he wanted if they came down and called me your mate.
"I had double the amount of people down here yesterday. Annoying as it was that we had to deal with someone like that, it's been good for us.
"I only had two thousand followers on my TikTok page, I've just nearly hit 30 thousand. It's a bit of a blessing in disguise."
Upon sharing the clip on TikTok, Luke captioned it 'man goes nuts at me'.
While some people online have accused him of faking the interaction, he said he had never seen the man before and that the incident was 'surreal.'
Luke said: "He seemed like someone who would just go out and try to bully and intimidate someone, I don't think he liked the fact someone stood up to him and said no.
"We've had people in the pub before going off at us, but it was just shocking this happened at half eleven in the morning. It hadn't even hit lunch time yet.
"I've dealt with people that were grumpy but I feel like there's a line and he definitely crossed it.
"It almost did seem that we set it up because it was so surreal something like that would happen, [but] we'd never seen him before.
"It's the only incident I've had at the trailer. I have really nice people come up, even if they're not having a potato they come down and have a chat with me.
"Hopefully the first and the last but he might come back again, who knows."
Commenters online have expressed their anger over the incident with some pointing out the customer called Luke 'mate' too.
One commenter said: "I'm not your mate.com…I'll take one filling mate."
Another said: "He called you mate back at one point too."
Another said: "How do people like this exist? How you stayed so calm…this proper raged me."
A fourth said: "No way this is real!?!"
A fifth said: "Don't want to be your mate but wants mate rates."