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easy fix,
What I do, on the rare(once or twice a year) occasion I actually eat from a place with a drive-thru, is to get out of my car & go in and order and get my food. That way the order will be correct, and I can burn off a few of the calories I am about to consume walking and standing. ;-)
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re: swsidejim
Jim...(SIgh!)
That would be far too easy and makes far too much sense. How could we trade drive in disaster stories if we did the smart thing and actually went into the FFP? No...Far better to be hopelessly lazy and whine about the silly (albeit incredibly annoying) incorrect and/or missing items. EG: Last week at lunch, my friend picked up salads,and met a friend in a local park, only to discover the enclosed plasticware consisted of one knife and one spoon!.
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mkmccp
Apr 22, 2008 09:31 AM
It just boils down to the lack of good customer service in all aspects of food-service, whether its at the drive-thru or at a upscale sitdown restaurant. I loathe going through the drive-thru because I expect my order won't be correct. Its ridiculous. I can only hope that there are CH's that live a double life, the other being someone working for one of the fast food places. Maybe they will read these posts and it might make a difference.
I do pull over and check my order, and yes as others have posted, the one time I don't is when I get home and find out the order is completely wrong. -
All I could think of after reading your post was Joe Pesci's line in Lethal Weapon II - "You always get f***ed at the drive through!".
But seriously - if there are more than two cars in the line up, I always park and go inside; I find it much quicker. I've seen people waiting with 10 cars ahead of them when I've gone inside; when I come out, they're still waiting five cars back. Makes no sense to me.
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ajs228
Apr 14, 2008 12:10 PM
It's not often that my order gets screwed up, but one event stands out in my mind. My college girlfriend and I rolled through the Jack in the Box drive-thru at about midnight after a particularly long day. We were both famished. When we got our food home they had gotten the order totally wrong and omitted a few items. I was too tired to really care, but to her it was the last straw.
She dragged me out the door, made me drive her back to JITB, and proceeded to climb over me from the passenger seat so she could stick her head through the order-window and scream at the guy taking orders. Needless to say, he gave her whatever she asked for.›1 Reply -
Aimi
Apr 14, 2008 11:59 AM
About once a week, I stop for McBreakfast for myself and my office-mate on my in to work. Last Friday, I ordered and paid for two meals (breakfast sandwich, hash brown, drink). Only got sandwiches and drinks. So I parked and went inside. When I told the girl at the counter (who happened to be the one who handed me my order) that I was missing the hash browns, she nodded and said "yeah... they'll be ready in a minute and a half." I hate to think that they did it on purpose, but I actually saw her and another employee check the contents of the bag against the order screen before she handed it to me. Really annoyed about that.
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im_nomad
Apr 13, 2008 03:13 PM
In my university days, i worked at Wendy's, and i think alot of the screw-ups there are because they expect you to get the food out super-quick, before you've barely had a chance to even look at it. I was seriously afraid of my supervisors who barked orders and doled out blame and degradation at every opportunity. Sometimes, a meat-less bun came back i think as a result, and the place was also known for forgetting fries. I remember once a bus load of people came into the restaurant and we were still expected to get the orders out in two minutes. It was not a happy place to work.
Stuff there was done assembly line style, so the person who put the toppings etc on the bun, was not in charge of cooking the meat....under pressure it'd happen once in a while that you assumed the meat was there and just wrapped it up.
I always check though, but it's hard to do that if you're handling other people's orders, and some times you just don't want to hold up the line while you unwrap a sandwich to confirm if it is, in fact on whole wheat.
I REALLY don't like coffee with sugar, and that's happened a few times as well....driving on down the road, oooh, coffee has cooled enough, open it up, take a sip, blech.
I don't eat meat either, and i am still paranoid any time i grab a fast food veggie burger that they'll screw it up and give me the regular kind. For now, however, knock wood, this has only ever happened in sit down restaurants.
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re: im_nomad
Miss Needle
Apr 13, 2008 07:49 PM
I don't order drive-through (don't have a car) but isn't it also possible for a lot of errors with drive-through because of the microphone? I can see how the people who take the orders may misunderstand what the customer wants because of the acoustics.
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That is one thing that I love about Krystal (besides those tasty little burgers)- they put your order in a clear bag so you can visually check it without removing everything! Really cuts down on mistakes when the person at the window *knows* that you will be checking your order before driving away- in fact since they have started doing this, I have never had them screw anything up.
Krystal went from the worst drive thru to being among the best! Free wi-fi too!
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re: Tay
Not sure how far they go, but they seem to be all over the south...
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Hasn't happened often, but did happen one time at McDonalds. Got my Big Mac, fries and soda. Started eating the Big Mac after driving for a few minutes. Tasted cheesier and saucier than ususal. Soon realized why. It had everything a Big Mac should except any beef patties. Kind of an important piece to the sandwich, I think.
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re: jdf
jdf... I'm laughing!...
I was once at a Wendy's where the same thing happened and the customer, who was an older woman, took it up to the counter and got to utter the famous line: "Where's the Beef? ..Anyone within earshot cracked up, Even the Mgr laughed. They gave her 2 free burgers... It was hysterical !
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re: smartie
smartie
I hear ya... I hate that.
My only suggestion: If you have the time, pull into a parking space and check the order. Annoying and time consuming, but really the only way to be sure.
I have notiiced that fast food places that have a "pay" window AND a "pick up" window, seem to do a much better job. Makes sense. I imagine taking orders while packing up the previous order can be a daunting task, esp at peak times. I actually know of at least one fast food restaurant that will take 'call ahead' orders! I wonder if that is unique or something that will spread?
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Paul Weller
Apr 12, 2008 08:39 PM
Here is southern california it seems that drive through places frequently put someone at the window with limited english speaking ability. When I place on order and they repeat the wrong item back to me in a heavy hispanic accent, I order in Spanish. Works almost every time.
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re: dtud
Sam Fujisaka
Apr 13, 2008 07:46 PM
Here in Colombia where all ordering is (obviously) in Spanish, we also don't translate "Big Mac" (which is what I was wondering about). But we are a bit more polite: "Quisiera un Big Mac, por favor" or "Me gustaria un Big Mac con una coca, por favor".
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re: dtud
Sam Fujisaka
Apr 13, 2008 07:52 PM
Same in the Miami airport, "Un 'quarter pounder' y un Esprite grande, por favor'".
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re: Paul Weller
John Manzo
Apr 16, 2008 01:42 PM
It's the same almost everywhere in North America. Thank God for immigrants. The last time I stepped inside McDonald's here in Calgary (25% foreign born here), every single employee was from either the Philippines, China, the Middle East or Africa.
Thank God for immigrants. Nobody would staff these service jobs otherwise.
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re: John Manzo
John
The vast majority of employees at our local fast food restaurants are American born &/or, raised kids who speak (the scary kid form of ) English. On those rare occasions when I see an adult of ANY etinic group, I am thrilled b/c it usually insures a properly put together order..
I don't think it's a matter of "Immigrant" Vs American raised. It's more a matter of Teen Vs Adult work ethic. .
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This is why I hate going through the drive-thru. Besides the long lines, I never seem to get what I ordered. The last time I did the drive-thru I got all the way home once from Wendy's and realized they'd forgotten my dipping sauce for the nuggets. That was the last time I did that.
