Monday, May 25, 2009

I know you ordered fries with that, but here's a blog post instead

Is it just me, or have fast food places been making more and more mistakes lately?
I swear, in the past couple weeks, they've been getting something wrong almost every time.

Recent mistakes include:

1. Putting lettuce on a sub when I only wanted tomato, olives, and hot/mild peppers.
2. Putting onions on a sub when I only wanted tomato, olives, and hot/mild peppers.
3. Putting hardly any ice in my tea when I asked for extra ice.
4. Giving me ranch dressing instead of Italian dressing.
5. Giving me plain iced tea instead of sweet tea.
6. Putting bacon on a pizza instead of sausage. (This was still tasty, but not what I asked for)
7. Forgetting the salsa for the breakfast burritos.

With this trend in motion, I envision the following exchange taking place sometime next month:

Them: Hi, welcome to wherever this is. Can I take your order?

Me: Hi. I'd like a double cheeseburger with no onions, and a side salad with Italian dressing. And a large sweet tea with lemon and extra ice.

Them: Great! Here's your chicken sandwich with mustard, and large coffee.

Me: What? I didn't... were you even listening?

Manager: Is there a problem? We always strive for excellent customer service.

Me: I, uh, wanted a double cheeseburger with no onions, and a side salad with Italian dressing. And a large sweet tea with lemon and extra ice. No chicken. No coffee.

Manager: Here, I'll ring it up again....

Other employee: Here you go. One fish sandwich without the bun, an apple pie, and a cup of water.

Me: Seriously? No, wait. C'mon, you guys. Am I on camera or something? This might be funny when I blog about it later on, but for now I just want a double cheeseburger with no onions, and a side salad with Italian dressing. And a large sweet tea with lemon and extra ice. Nothing else. Please? Pretty please?

Manager: You changed your mind again?

Me: No! It's the same thing I said at the beginning! Really! Honest, all I want is a double cheeseburger with no onions, and a side salad with Italian dressing. And a large sweet tea with lemon and extra ice. That's all.

Manager: *sigh*. Give us a moment. We'll be right with you.

(ten minutes later)....

Employee: Here's your large pizza with sausage and mushrooms. We had to walk all the way across the street to get it. I hope you're happy.


.... At this point, I would take the pizza and leave immediately, doing my best to make sure no one sneezed on it.
.

9 comments:

Da Old Man said...

It's the take out food game.

You place your order, and if what you got costs more than what you paid for, you win. If you actually get what you ordered, and was charged the right amount, and got the correct change, you immediately are in the Super Bonus Round.
You get to go back the next day to play for the championship.

No one has ever won.

Mr. Condescending said...

remember, these are not exactly intellectuals that are working there. Simple things like putting the right toppings on seem to oveload their peanut brains.

Janna said...

DaOldMan: Now it all makes sense....

Mr.Condescending: I guess we should all be grateful they aren't doing something like heart transplants or brain surgery.

Lynda said...

They only can follow what's on the little cheat sheet paper in the back. No onions throws them off.

Janna said...

Lynda: Apparently!

Ed & Jeanne said...

Is that why I keep getting pork over at KFC and they keep saying "it's the other other white meat..."

Janna said...

VE: Probably!

whall said...

I find mistakes follow the employees. In particular, it's *particular* locations that have error-prone people.

McDonald's, on a whole, doesn't make too make mistakes. The McDonald's at 620/2222 make very few. But the one at 620/Pecan Creek make mistakes every time we order.

Wendy's, by comparison, almost never makes a mistake, no matter which one (out of dozens) I go to. I think their unique process has a lot to do with that.

A) the person who takes your order is the person at the 2nd window who gives you your order
B) the person who takes your money at the 1st window has nothing to do with your order

Most other places have the person who takes your order be the person at the 1st window taking your money.

So to me, Wendy's is placing an importance on getting the order right verses getting the money collection right.

Janna said...

Whall: I've gotten mistakes from Wendy's too. My theory is that sometimes people (regardless of location or method) just don't listen.