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

[peg2001]

Well, it is not always easy to order food the way you want it. I've finally learned how to order for DD4 at McDonalds:

"Cheeseburger, plain, no meat"

If I try to order "just the bun and cheese," they don't know how to ring it up.

Peggy.

 

[Grog]

I'm sorry to hear that McD's has that ridiculous 90 second in line rule at the drive-thru. I seldom go through the drive-thru anymore, but when I do I refuse to move up. I have been forgotten before on more than one occasion. Once, late at night, I had pulled up and was waiting when I looked in my rearview mirror and noticed the lights going out. They had forgotten about me to the point that they were closing for the night! They had to refund my money because everything had been turned off and the couldn't make my order. Now I politely, but firmly, tell the person at the window that I have been forgotten before and it's not going to happen again.

 

[KingsFanInRI]

Originally posted by Pam
You deserve a break today - so get up and get away.... to McDonalds.........

I'll give a pound of pixie dust to whoever knows who wrote that jingle for McDonald's... hint: the author was in the news this past week and no, it's not Janet Jackson

 

[phillybeth]

Barry Manilow.

Please share my pound of pixie dust to all those you need it!

 

[worm761]

mcdonalds manager chiming in....the reason we park you and the 90 second rule. our goal of 90 secs or less is because 75% of my business is throught the drive thru. that number is very close for all mcdonalds with a drive thru. we park you so we can get the order behind you. my crew goes nuts with parking people. but i have been known to have 70 second drive thru times on a friday night. and i work at a high volume store! please please do not yell at or make remarks to my kids in the drive thru about the amount of time it is taking. we really are trying our best to get you out! sometimes it is not our fault. in one night i had one guy run up my drive thru times to 600 secs for nonsense! and the best part~ my operator was in my drive thru!!! later that same evening i had a woman dig through her purse and every nook and crannie in her car so she could pay her order in nothing but change!!! if you are in the drive thru have your money ready!!! i could go on and on. i have been doing this since 1994. my biggest pet peeve is "customers" yelling at my crew! this person is barely paid about minimum wage. dont yell at them. they dont make the rules!!!! BTW, neither do i.

 

[mum4jenn]

Oh MAn does this bring back memories!!! I used to be a manager with Wendys and we had a 30 second rule!!! There is a metal detector at the window and it would count from when your first metal part from your car arrived until the last metal part of your car left. We got graded on it and our raises were also partly based on drive thru times. At night when we were slow we used to hang out of the window with the ice scoop in front of the detector over and over to get our times down!!!!

I once had a customer that came through the drive thru almost every day and ordered a single with everything extra extra extra lettuce. I was in training and was tired of this guy saying we did not ever put extra lettuce on his burger. So the next time he ordered I made his sandwich and put about 15 leaves of lettuce on his sandwich. It took about 3 wrappers to even get it all covered. Then the man parks his car and comes in and wants to know who just made his sandwich. I was scared to death I was about to get fired but he said he wanted to shake my hand because it was the first time anyone had ever made his sandwich the way he wanted it!!!

Another time a man ordered a triple with extra extra extra cheese but did not want to pay for the cheese. After he got his sandwich (We only put the amont of these that normally comes on a triple cheese since he refused to pay extra) he came inside and argued with me and proceeded to throw his unwrapped sandwich at me. Quite a mess let me tell you!!

I also have fond memories(NOT) of when I was at my first week out of training(this was in 1986 and back when the tables were cleaned for the customer) and a softball tournament was in town. We had 14 busses and 8 vans pull up at about the same time. It was also back when Wendys pattied their own fresh ground beef everyday and we almost ran out of meat. I was the only one old enough to use the machinery so here I was trying to run the restaurant,patty meat and make sure everything was running as smoothly as possible(With a sketeton crew because it was supposed to be a slow night) The store manager walked is a few seconds after the last bus left and the place was a MESS!! He was LIVID at the mess until he checked out my sales and he almost had a heart attack.We has done about 2 full days worth of sales in one hour!!! Needless to say he got out to the dining room and helped clean up the place!!

 

[Manda1219]

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

They have a tendancy to do that to me at McDonalds...Whenever I order ONLY onions (not EXTRA, just ONLY) they pile them up so high, you would think the bun was being held up by toothpicks

 

[chager]

I am a person that special orders my cheeseburger but only becuase I HATE onions and pickles. I can't say how many times I still get them though. Onions really upset my stomach so just eating them is not an option. I have been informed that I will get a fresh burger and I don't need to special order it. OK, that's not the issue,I do it becuase they make me sick. At any rate I think that most of the fastfood workers need medals for what they put up with. I have had some go beyond their call of duty to make my son smile Oh I have been a parent that lets her child order. Actually what happened was we got to the speaker and I discovered my window wouldn't roll down so I had Nick order from the backseat. He then had to pay at the window too. He is not a "quite" child though. I think everyone nearby knew what we ordered. I did run into an interesting situation at Burger King though. They had no hamburger. We were told to come back later if we wanted a burger or we could get chicken right now. But that is our BK for you. They always have some kind of issue happening and 90% of the time don't give you the right order Haven't figured out that yet either especially when no one else is in line

 

[Danauk]

I know what you mean and can sympathise. When I order food I always state clearly what I want as I do not like mayonaise. I used to work at a fast food place and some people were just plain rude. One night a customer came in and ordered some food. As it was late and not busy we cooked to order (it took literally 2 minutes and I explained this.) She then said I better hurry up and that she should have known someone who is obviously not bright enough to have a real job should take so long to cook her food!! My reply to that was that actually I had graduate degree in music and was studying for a post grad certificate and that this was a weekend job (she didn't like this) I then went on to say that the other people who worked here were just as smart as me or probably her!! I know I should probably have kept my mouth shut but I though her comment was out of order!

 

[Banzai]

Danauk,

At that poiint, we give them an appilcation and tell them that if they want to do a better job, to come work for us.

 

[Jeanny]

sorry, Banzai that you had a crappy day... I know it can't be easy trying to satisfy tons of personalities.

I'd like to know though, when I place my order-- "can I get a #6 with an ice tea, that's it" ... why do they then ask me "anything else??" The other night when I went through the drive through, the kid on the speaker told me, "there's no iced tea, the spout is frozen"... I couldn't understand why only the iced tea spout was frozen and none of the others were frozen, not even the spouts next to the frozen iced tea... a better excuse would have been "we're out of iced tea right now".

and why when I order at McDonald's, I too, do not like onions and pickles, so when I order a cheeseburger with ketchup and mustard only,,,, why do I have to say "Can I have that cheeseburger with ketchup, mustard and cheese only?" Why do they not put cheese on a cheesburger???

Sorry for ranting,,, I'm on the soapbox now... and I hope you have a better day tomorrow!

 

[DisneyObsessed]

As far as asking, "Anything else?", we HAVE to. It's considered suggestive selling. If we were to say, "Is that all?" we would be in trouble. There are inspectors that come around and grade us on things like this. I totally agree with you. If you wanted anything else, you would tell us. It's annoying for us too that we have to do that, believe me.

 

[Shannon G]

Okay, I'll jump in with my fast food pet peeve along with everyone else...

Is the timing of the drive through is from when the customer pulls up to the speaker until they leave the drive through line? Or does it start from when they pull up to the window to pay for & pick up their food? If the timing starts when you pull up to the speaker, WHY can you not see the menu (at most places) until you are actually AT the speaker? At most places, the speaker is built into the menu board. Since I don't go to the fast food places all that often, I usually need to look at the menu to decide what I want, but by the time I can read the menu, someone is asking me for my order! I'm sure I've screwed up someone's time averages because I've had to tell the person that I need a minute to decide what I want.

 

[browneyes]

I know how to order fast food, but somehow the computer thingy doesn't always ring up what I've said I wanted to order.

 

[coliebird]

Originally posted by Jeanny
and why when I order at McDonald's, I too, do not like onions and pickles, so when I order a cheeseburger with ketchup and mustard only,,,, why do I have to say "Can I have that cheeseburger with ketchup, mustard and cheese only?" Why do they not put cheese on a cheesburger???

Lol, this cracked me up b/c whenever I order a cheeseburger for my husband, I ask for a cheeseburger with ketchup only and I always get a hamburger. I never got that. I am asking for a cheeseburger, please keep the cheese on.

 

[Melora]

Heres my fast food vent for the day....

We were taking Chris down to drop him off at the Air Force processing station and stopped at Subway for lunch. (I wanted to eat somewhere else but Chris was so nervous he couldnt think of anywhere better).

So we go to the counter and the lady asks what we want. Jeff orders for the 3 year old and says we want a kids sandwhich with turkey, cheese and mayo only. She says Ok and gets some bread and cuts it.

Then asks what kind of meat

Turkey with cheese and mayo

She opens the bread then looks right at us and asks

Cheese?

Yes....cheese and then just the turkey and mayo.

She somehow gets the turkey on the bread by herself then asks

Mustard and mayo?

NO, just mayo.... and thats it

so she puts on the mayo and says

Anything else on this?

At this point Jeff says (not quietly) I guess no one is listening too well today... long pause as she continues to smile at us

No, he finally says.. nothing else

This is basically word for word..... Im not sure if she wasnt listening or was just on automatic but it was irritating.

 

[Christine]

Melora,
That is my biggest gripe against Subway and why I no longer go there. If I walk in and order the "Chicken Teriyaki Sandwich" I expect to get the sandwich as it was "created."

Instead, I go up and say "I'd like the Chicken Teriyaki Sandwich on wheat." So they put the chicken on and look at me and say "would you like cheese" and I have to say "does the sandwich come with cheese?" "Well, it has what you want on it." "Well, I WANT a chicken teriyaki." So she skips the cheese and then asks what kind of sauce do I want on it. "TERIYAKI, I scream."

Why, oh why do they do this????

 

[sha_lyn]

I haven't noticed it in a while but the Subway signs use to say sandwiches come with .... (and then listed the usual toppings) mayo and mustard on request. I send DH to Blimpies while setting up my aunt and uncles 50 wed aniversary reception (this was in 1996). Some how he bypassed the blimpies that was 1/2 away on the left and went to the Subway that was 5-6 miles down the road on the right (my step-grandfather was with ihm and told him there wasn't a Blimpies there so DH didn't look) Anyway my sandwich (which was suppose to have all the usual toppings, no mayo no mustard) came with so much mayo and mustard that I couldn't eat it. I took it back to Subway and asked why the heck my sandwich had mayo and mustard on it when DH told them to just put the usual toppings on it. The guy said well if we don't put mayo and mustard some get upset. I told him he better take the (blank) sign down because it was false advertising. He offered to make the sandwich again, I demanding my money back and went to Blimpies and told him flat out that I would never go in his store again (and I have not and will not, although I do go to other subways)

 

[RUDisney]

Originally posted by mum4jenn
Another time a man ordered a triple with extra extra extra cheese but did not want to pay for the cheese. After he got his sandwich (We only put the amont of these that normally comes on a triple cheese since he refused to pay extra) he came inside and argued with me and proceeded to throw his unwrapped sandwich at me. Quite a mess let me tell you!!

If that man was my crazy uncle, I apologize for the family. My uncle has traveled all over this country, so it very well may have been him. He is mentally ill and very beligerent. He is no longer welcome around anyone in our family. So, it doesn't make it right that he's ill and not medicated (because we can't legally commit him), but we have always said that no one ever deserves to be treate this way by him, or by anyone else.

As for me, I worked in McDonalds during HS. Our busiest day of the year was the day of the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Scranton has one of the largest parades in the country for that holiday. No one working that day had a chance to eat, pee, or do anything else other than their assigned task. I was usually the shamrock shake maker. To this day, I just can't bring myself to order one.

 

[RickinNYC]

Wow! These stories are just too much! LOL!

I have to say, though, that if I were to walk into a Burger King, Wendy's, McDonald's, (insert fast food joint here), and the cashier asked me whether I wanted to supersize it, or if I wanted to jumbo my order, or if I wanted an apple pie, or if I wanted anything under the sun, I think I'd have a heart attack. I know I'd drop dead on the spot if I received a smile and "welcome to ___". My head would explode if I got any inquiry of any kind whatsoever! Anything beyond muttering their demand to take your order is a miracle.

I guess I take things in perspective. In New York City, in every last single fast food joint I have ever been to, whether Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, etc... the cashiers mumble something unintelligible and stare at you with something akin to utter hatred and complete disdain while you place your order. And then they bark at you to step aside and stand next to anywhere from 2-6 other people who just placed their order with said cashier and you have to wait.

90 seconds? 60 seconds? New York City doesn't have fast food. We have "stand there and wait because I damn well told you to and you won't get your food until I feel like getting off my rear and hand it to you and I don't care if it takes more than 10 minutes food."

Oh and better still, my favorite retort from a cashier, "Go ahead and tell the manager. He won't care either." Again with the glazed over, hate filled stare.

So I would LOVE to go to any of those "talkative" fast food joints you all have. And they can chat away! AND offer me an apple pie! AND I won't ask for any custom orders! Promise!