Do People Not Know How To Order Fast Food? [Vent]

[Banzai]

I had a long day at work, for a short shift. It didn't bother me until now, when I was really thinking of how much some things bother me. I had so many people who didn't know how to order today. It normally doen't bother me, but today for some reason, it just got to me.

It all started with the two cheeseburger guy.

"I'd like two cheeseburgers, one only ketchup, one extra pickels"
"Sure..." *Types it in, in under five seconds [Two Grill Slips]
"The Value Meal"
"No problem" *Retypes it in, as a value meal, then deletes first order [Two <b>new</b> grill slips, plus another two slips to delete the two original items]* "What drink would you like today?"
"A Coke, no Ice [grill slip]"
"Ok...anything else today?"
"That value meal, it was large sized"
" [slightly annoyed] Not a problem" *yet again reenters the food, both grilled orders. [Two more slips for the burgers, plus the two to redelete them, plus another for the coke, plus another to erase the origional coke].

The slip thing might now sound like a big deal, but when you are back in the grill, having 13 come up in under 60 seconds is annoying when you have to use the right ones, plus all the others from other orders.

After that guy left, it got better. Then my biggest pet peeve of all occured. I hate it like no other when people let their children order. Its not so bad on front line [except for during breakfast, lucnh, or dinner rush]...but its annoying all the time in Drive Thru. People always complain that they can not hear us at the speaker. I have no control over that, and trust me, I can't hear you that well either. So having a kid who talks so soft that you can't hear what they are saying is rather rude to do. Remember, I am not only taking <i>your</i> order, but taking the money of the people who have already ordered, often times modifing what they want.

Also, something that I am not a fan of when taking peoples money [normally the first window you go to] is the question "Are You Cold?". Yes. I am cold. I have been stading at an open window for eight hours, in a tee shirt, with that white stuff falling from the sky. Last time I checked, when its warm, it normally doens't fall from the sky. Its not a hard one to figure out, I am cold.


Ok...You May Now Return To Your Normal DISing, Rant Over

 

[Kimickey]

You need a well deserved I hope the next day you work is a much better one.

 

[mommytotwo]

Sorry you had a hard day. Hope you have better ones ahead.

 

[Chattyaholic]

I understand your annoyance at people, I really do...(I'm a waitress, going on 8 years now) but if you're working the drive-thru window can't you "bundle up" more instead of just wearing a t-shirt? The people who work drive-thru in our town wear sweaters, coats, hats, scarves.

I have a pet peeve with Burger King, why in the world can't the order-taker just say "hello, welcome to Burger King, may I take your order?" Instead they have to ask if you want to try one of their combo meals, and if they have a new one out they have to describe the whole thing to you! Geesh!! Bugs me so much that they have to do that!!

 

[CBRorBust]

Awe I'm sorry you had a bad day at work!

But I am super picky when it comes to food, so you would probably hate me if I went to your food place. I make it a point to stress to the person taking my order that I want my sandwich/burger whatever PLAIN AND DRY. So when I get it and it has all that junk on it, I get so mad because I'm like....how hard is it for you to push the little PLAIN AND DRY button on your screen?!?!?

Either way, I hope tomorrow is better

 

[Bojangles]

When they order extra pickles, how many more do they get? I would put on an obscene amount, just because.

 

[Pam]

You deserve a break today - so get up and get away.... to McDonalds.........

Sorry - couldn't resist doing that!!

I special order a lot of my food - but I always ask for a few minutes to get my order straight before processing it. I can definitely see your point about kids ordering.

How's the driving going? We've had one heck of a winter, haven't we? Stay safe, stay warm and I hope you get only smart customers!

 

[shortbun]

I agree about the instant solicitation of new types of foods.
I hate having to start my transaction with a negative.
I also hate that Wendy's always asks me if I want to biggie size.
By now, everyone knows about biggie, if I want biggie, I'll order it.
I guess I'm a rarity. I always approach the drive through knowing
exactly what I want to order and I speak loudly and clearly.
At my closest Wendy's now, there's a guy taking orders and
payments that is an adult. He's competent, polite, quick and
clear. Rare are the mistakes at that drive through. I hope they're
paying him something extra. I always give him a quick compliment and a thank you. A breath of fresh air in a really
weird consumer area!
LOL-I'd never ask any drive through order person if they were
cold although I've made a mental note on many occassions that
I would not want that job in bad weather.

 

[powellrj]

We were never allowed to order anything different than it was listed. I can still hear my dad say " You eat it like they fix it." So we always did. I even did it with my kids, till my ds came home from his first day at McD. Wow mom, did you know you can order food plain???????? Well yes I did, but we were taught to eat it as it comes, so you were too. He was so happy when he learned that he could order his food plain, his life has never been the same!!! (I was so bad, we would order food and switch the bun halves. I would give him my plain side bun and he would give me his topping side bun.)

 

[Christine]

Sorry to hear your frustration but please be aware that the customer does not have ANY idea of what goes on behind the scenes at a fast food restaurant. When I read everything you described I kind of thought "well, they deserve these things to happen when they are trying to put out food where every second is critical." But, I know it is frustrating. Believe me, I HATE being behind customers who are like the one you describe. Drives me crazy (see my rant thread on self-checkouts). Can't people just rehearse their order in their head before they get to front of the line--lord knows the lines are long enough to get prepared.

On the opposite side (the customer side), my mother took my DS to Wendy's yesterday and had a frustrating experience due to both my son and Wendy's. He wanted Wendy's chicken nuggets. The sign said "Try our new Homestyle Chicken Strips". My son said he didn't want the new Homestyle Chicken Strips, he wanted the *old* chicken nuggets. My mom told him they don't make the "old" ones anymore and that the "new" ones were probably better. Nope. He'll have a cheeseburger. So, my mom orders a cheeseburger off the 99 cent value menu. The cheeseburger comes back with lettuce, tomato, onions, pickle, ketchup and mustard. Of course, DS just wanted ketchup and mustard. So, my mom takes the cheeseburger up and explains that she didn't realize it came with all that stuff and she just wanted a PLAIN cheeseburger. So it comes back as a hamburger, no cheese, no lettuce, no ketchup, no nothing. She finally had to get the manager to say she wanted a PLAIN cheeseburger which means MEAT and CHEESE. She was afraid to ask for the ketchup and mustard. I told my mom that it wasn't totally Wendy's fault--that is the way their burgers come unless you ordered off the kid's menu, in which case she would have gotten it with just ketchup and mustard. But the fact that they couldn't understand what she wanted and it took 3 tries was very frustrating.

 

[vald1977]

My hat is off to you, Bonzai. I worked at a fast food rest. for a week and I had to quit. I couldn't stand it. I'm just not good under pressure.

Here is my little fast food rant: Why do they always make you pull up now while waiting for your order? If yours is going to take a few minutes and the guy behind you ordered a soda, I can see it but this has happened to me when there was nobody behind me . It has also happened where they tell the guy in front of me to pull up, have me pull up and then the guy behind me pull up. By the time they get to the car thats order is ready, there is such a traffic jam in the parking lot that that guy can't get out anyway. Makes no sense to me and it seems like no matter when I go, how much or little I order, I'm asked to pull up 90% of the time. What's the deal?

 

[DisneyObsessed]

Banzai, your post had me rolling on the floor. It's only funny when someone knows exactly what you're talking about. And boy, do I. I have worked in a fast food restaurant for over 8 years. People think it is the easiest job. Dealing with people is not easy. I have always said it should be a prerequisite to life, that everyone work in a fast food place for a minimum of 1 year. That way, everyone would know what to do and how to do it. In my restaurant we are supposed to ask, "what kind of fries, homestyle or curly. What kind of soda (we have to pour it). What size combo, small medium or large.(The company wants us to just ask medium or large as that is what they make more money on, but I find it dishonest and won't do it). Is is for here or to go. Do you want desert with that today. etc. I only ask the bare minimum. I think it's ridiculous to ask all that. Of course, when review time comes around, I get marked off because I don't *suggestive sell*. Oh well, fire me. The main thing that gets me, is when a family of 4 comes up, and I have to ask all those questions 4 times. Weren't they listening ? Don't they know what they need to tell me? I certainly don't know what kind of fries you want until you tell me. Why do I have to ask over and over.
As far as drive thru goes, we are not allowed to wear anything but the company sweatshirt. And if you didn't buy one (yes I said buy), then you freeze. If the customer isn't ready with their $$, we shut the window and wait. There is no reason customers should have to make us stand their with our window open. And to all the customers, Do Not make us stand with the window open while you put your $$ away in your wallet. Take you food, hold your $$ and put it away when we're not freezing. Please, thank you. I'm not sure, but I think I just ranted. Sorry. But fast food is the most thankless job a person can have.

 

[DisneyObsessed]

Valerie, that does seem a little crazy. Very rarely do we ask people to pull up. Especially if there's no one behind you, there's no reason. That would be annoying.

 

[Banzai]

Here is the deal-eo behind the pulling up thing [at McDonalds]:

Our Drive Thru is timed. We have 90 seconds to get you in, ordered, paid, and away. 25 seconds is the max time we are permited to have you order. We obviously go longer, but in theory, you should be at my window at 30 seconds. After the first item is entered into the PC, the internal timer starts. That timer keeps going until two things happen:

1) You leave the final window
2) We hit the serve button, erasing your order from the system

The TTLs [Total Time In Line] are what counts now. We get yelled at if they are above 90 seconds on avergae. This whole TTL theory is very wrong in the crew's opinion, and in most of the management. The TTLs are a major issue now. To cut them down, they have so far redesigned the buttered buscutis in the morning, so they open easier, and cut out a second. They also took away paper wraps for most items, as the paper boxes move along the line faster


Pam-

Driving in the snow, its ok.

 

[doxdogy]

Sorry you had such a frustrating day. Reminds me of my days working in fast food. It reminds me of my customer one night at drive-thru. The man told me that he wanted a whopper, fries and a coke. Which would have been fine if we had been Burger King and not Hardees. Tried to explain it to the gentleman. He insisted that he wanted a whopper. The poor grill guy asked me what to do. Told him to make the man a whopper with mayo, ketchup, lettuce, tomao, pickles and onions. Bagged the order for him and sent him on his merry way.

 

[vald1977]

I figured it was something silly like that. It is McDonald's that this always happens, nowhere else. I have seen an older person (guessing a manager) come up to the person at the window and tell them to make us pull up when there was no one behind us. I hope they decide to get rid of that system. I have seen some people become FURIOUS about it! I feel bad for the poor people who have to bring out there food.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

Banzai.

I had forgotten what a terrible job working in fast food was till I lost my job and ended up working in a Sonic. I realize now why I don't visit the mall during Christmas after this last Christmas season.

My Sonic is in a mall food court, so we of course have lots of kids come there. ESPECIALLY during that 6 weeks between Thanksgiving and CHristmas with all the choirs and what not visiting. The days when I would come home the most tired and most grumpy were the days when the choirs and massive hordes of small children would visit. Because of course ALL of them would want to come to Sonic. It would take one child fifteen minutes to order because
a)they would speak softly so of course I couldn't hear them over the roar of the crowd
b)they NEVER knew what they wanted to order, so they would stand there dumbstruck for what seemed like forever before making up their minds
and the one that bugged me the most
c)they usually wanted to pain, er....I mean pay in large amounts of unrolled change which I would have to then spend an eternity counting before realizing they were X amount short. Then they'd have to change their order 6 times to fit however much money they had which was an even bigger pain at times.

There were days when I would come in around 9-10am and see six or seven busses out in the parking lot and go "OH my god..not again." Thank goodness this only happens around Christmastime. If it happened year round, I think I'd shoot myself.

TOV

 

[sha_lyn]

doxdogy's story reminds me of a customer I had at Wendy's. She came through drive through and insisted she had a cupon for a chicken biscuit. thing was we didn't sell biscuits at all. I kept asking her is she meant a sandwich. she argued that she had been eating chicken biscuits there for years. I finally told her to drive around so I could see you cupon. If was for Mrs Winners. I told her Mrs Winners was on the other side of the intersection. Her answer "I am on the other side of the intersection".


Boy am I glad that we were allowed to wear jackets at the window, but I am jealous of the new uniforms. I wore those nasty polyester blue and white striped top that zipped all the way up, and we couldn't wear "flat weave" pants. They had to be double knit.

 

[meeshi]

Originally posted by sha_lyn
doxdogy's story reminds me of a customer I had at Wendy's. She came through drive through and insisted she had a cupon for a chicken biscuit. thing was we didn't sell biscuits at all. I kept asking her is she meant a sandwich. she argued that she had been eating chicken biscuits there for years. I finally told her to drive around so I could see you cupon. If was for Mrs Winners. I told her Mrs Winners was on the other side of the intersection. Her answer "I am on the other side of the intersection".

 

[sha_lyn]

Well here is another one.

Wendy's chicken club sandwich... fried chicken patty with BLT and mayo.

Family comes thorugh the front line. Dad is first, orders a chicken club and heads to the bathroom. Mom and kids order. mom is one of those who disects every sandwich as it is placed in the bag. Gets to her husbands sandwich and screams "no one ordered this". I tell her that her husband did. she argues and says that no one would order such a stupid (crazy? I don't remeber that exacpt wording) sandwich. Starts calling me a long line of names for messing up their order. Manager comes around just in time to stop me from climbing the counter and going after her. Husband comes up. Ask what's going in. She starts in "this #$%^^ @#$% @##% is so @#$% @##$ stupid that she thought you wanted bacon on your chicken sandwich. Husband tells her that is what he ordered. Well she starts in on him. They go out the door. He comes back in and apoligies to me. Seems their son had just caused his baseball team to lose the playoffs to go to the little league world series.