Fast Food Frustration

Well, are you ready for more bitching? It is really funny because this was the post I had planned to write yesterday, but my movie experience was so horrendous that I couldn't let it go unacknowledged.

Now why is this funny?

It is funny because Jan, who is the writer of one of the blogs I always read and who is just a super sweet person, wrote a post today on the very topic I had planned. And you know what? I had thought (about a month ago) how fun it would be to throw out a topic and whoever wanted to write a post about it could and then we could all read each others ideas.

I still think that would be a fun thing to do, so if after reading mine and Jan's if you have your own experiences you want to share, well feel free.

You may be wondering what topic I am going to write about. It is about a little situation I like to think of as "Fast Food Hell"

I will start with Taco Bell.

You go to Taco Bell. You go through the drive-through. You place your order. They always, and I do mean ALWAYS ask you if you want "any hot or mild sauce with that? Now my answer to this is always "NO". The thing is it really doesn't matter what you answer. In fact I think next time I'm going to just say something random like "sweaters".

Why doesn't it matter you may be thinking? Although you will only be wondering that if you have never patronized your local Taco Bell. The reason why it doesn't matter what you answer is because when you get up to the window to pay, and before they hand you your food, they will always ask; "did you want any hot or mild sauce with that? I always just stare at them incredulously. In fact sometimes if I am feeling extra combative I will even say, I already told you I didn't want any sauce. There was actually one time when I was asked at the speaker, again when I paid, and then an unbelievable third time, as they were handing me my food. If I wanted "Mild or Hot sauce with that?"

I don't know? Maybe they are for some reason expecting people to keep changing their minds about their desire for "mild or hot sauce". I don't really know why. Is it possible that Corporate tells them they must ask at least twice. Was there once an incident when someone answered NO on the first time, to then go ballistic when he received no sauce, so now they are required to ask each drive-through customer at least twice.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if that is exactly what happened.

Yeah, lets annoy everyone by asking twice just in case someone changes their mind. So what if we piss off at least seventy five customers in a row. Sometime during the day there will be at least one person who will suddenly decide that yes, now that you bring it up for the THIRD time, I realize that I really do want mild or hot sauce after all.

I'm not sure. This one may call for further research.

Now Jan mentioned McDonald's. For good reason too. I dare you to go through their drive through and not have them mess up at least one thing. Jan included the dialogue. And though it may seem a little copy-catty, I will too.

McDonald worker (hereafter known as MW) "May I take your order please?
Me (hereafter known as Me) "Yes I want a Grilled, Ranch, Chicken SnackWrap, please.
MW : Do you want that crispy or grilled?
Me : I already said I want it Grilled.
MW: Okay so you want it grilled. Do you want that with the honey mustard?
Me : NO, I already said I wanted it with RANCH.
MW : Okay, so you want a Grilled Chicken, Snack Wrap, and you want that with Ranch? Or did you want that with Honey Mustard?
Me : (First I heave a BIG SIGH) " I said I wanted it with Ranch! RANCH!!!
MW : There is no need to repeat I heard the first time that you want it with Ranch. Is that right?
Me : (Thoroughly beaten down by this point.) Yes that is what I want. A Grilled Chicken Snack Wrap with Ranch. And that is all except for an Ice Water please.
MW : Okay. You want a Grilled Chicken Ranch Snack Wrap? And an Ice Water? Did you want Fries with that?
Me : By this point I have completely lost my mind. After all didn't I just clearly tell them that this was all? So I patiently tell them that No. I do NOT want Fries.

Now just try to tell me that this hasn't happened to you at least once????

My next example happened just tonight, as luck would have it.

I decided that Don and Shawn and I would go to Arby's and get dinner. I decided on Arby's because Arby's quite often sends out coupons. And then in case you missed those, they send out more, usually a week or two later. So I had in my possession valuable Arby's coupons.

We go to the Arby's on Clearwater. It is not usually too busy which makes it a good choice. We go in. We are the only ones at the counter. There are three workers up near the counter. Oh good I think, quick service tonight. I see the young man that seems to be manning the register. I smile. I make eye contact. He starts to ask for my order. Just then the SHIFT SUPERVISOR, I know she is a SS by her name tag, well she quickly comes over and tells nice, friendly, willing to take my order guy, that he needs to take the drive through orders first.

What??? Clearly I was not expecting that!

So nice, friendly, previously ready to take my order guy, heads off towards the obviously much more important, Drive Through People.

We stand there and wait, and wait, and wait.

He finally comes back. I am using several coupons and I hand each one to him as I order that particular item. For Shawn I get the four Arby Melt Sandwiches for five bucks. Don and I are each going to get one of their Subs for the coupon price of 2.99. The only problem is (Oh wait I forgot to mention, for some reason Shift Supervisor Girl has taken over for nice, friendly, eager to take my order guy.) So the problem is she now needs me to repeat everything I have already ordered. This is annoying but it can be done, so I do it. On the Sub Sandwich order for Don it is quite simple. He wants the Turkey Club.

Very nice, very straightforward.

Now I am the first to admit that I can be a little High-Maintenance at times. One of my problems is that I cannot stand the slimy, processed, cheese flavored oil that passes for cheese at most Fast Food places. I tell Shift Supervisor Girl that I want the french dip sub. And then I tell her that I don't want cheese on it. That instead I just want lettuce tomato and their Red Ranch Sauce on it.

Now really, how HARD can that be?

I notice that she is ringing up two more charges. I ask her why. She informs me that if I want tomatoes and lettuce I will have to pay extra for them. I point out to her, that I don't want CHEESE, and that Cheese, surely costs them more than two thinly sliced tomatoes and a little bit of shredded lettuce. She informs me that her hands are tied. The only way to let them know in the back how I want my sandwich made is to put it in the machine. And, if she puts it in the machine she has to charge me for it. I ask her why she just can't go back and tell them how I want it fixed. She looks at me like I had suddenly started speaking Swahili.

Oh one other thing. When we get there I notice that there are two Cherry Turnovers. Don and I both want one. I had already told nice, friendly, boy that but I had to tell Miss SS as well. She pointed out to me that one of the cherry turnovers had just been sold to the Drive-Through, so she only had one left. I told her I wanted it and that I would take an apple one too.

After all Don's not picky.

Well they finally have our order ready. Nice, friendly boy brings it out to us. He is quickly followed by Miss SS. She has come to tell me that someone in the drive through wanted MY cherry turnover so now all they had was apple, and did I want an apple one. I told her NO I DID NOT want an APPLE one. She very grudgingly tells me that she will bring me back my money.

She goes back to the front. She starts taking orders. By now I have looked at our tray and noticed that not only is there no cherry turnover, but the apple one for Don is missing as well.

I head up front. It has been at least five minutes and she has made No Effort to bring me back my money for the missing Cherry Turnover. She says "I was just now going to bring that out to you." Uh huh, sure you were. I then inform her that they didn't put the apple turnover on our tray. She says in an extremely haughty voice that if we want an apple turnover we will have to pay for one. I look at her in amazement. I inform her that we had already ORDERED and PAID for it. She insists that I had only ordered and payed for the cherry one and then she points out to me that I have just gotten my money back for that. At this point I am so relieved that I had asked Mr Nice and Helpful to bring me our receipt when it didn't come on the tray along with our food.

Somehow I suspected that I would want it.

I grabbed it. I head up to the front and show her that I had indeed ORDERED and PAYED for TWO Turnovers! She looks at me and slowly turns around and gets an apple turnover. She hands it to me. She looks so pained that she apparently feels she has just done a huge favor for me.

Well I won't bore you with anymore details. Suffice it to say that we did NOT ring the "Thank You For Such Good Service, Bell."

Now those are some of my most recent horror "Fast Food Hell" stories. Do you have any that you would like to write about? If you do, I promise to read them. Misery is always easier when shared after all.

UPDATE :

I seem to be doing quite a few updates these days. Chalk it up to trying to do a post in under two hours I guess. ( And yes that is approximately how long it takes me to write a post. I'm a really pathetic typist)

Anyway, I forgot to mention this in my Arby's story. My sandwich came. It did indeed have two thinly sliced tomatoes and a little bit of shredded lettuce, but, it also had CHEESE on it. Normally I would go right up to the counter, demand someones attention and point out the unbelievable mistake they made. This is how I always handle this kind of situation. Last night I did not do this. Why? Because I had, had all the FastFood Frustration I could stand for one night. Fortunately the cheese was still cold and not melted like some kind of slimey glue to my sandwich. I took it all off and gave it to Shawn.