Fast Food Follies

Incident One:

Recently there have been a few events that have caused my blood pressure to rise a few notches blood to boil.

As I have stated we are in the process of moving, so culinary skills have sort of been forgotten to some degree and we have acquainted ourselves with drive-thrus. I went to the Dairy Queen near my house and began to place my order. It was very simple really. I wanted a cheeseburger, well done with extra cheese, combo, coke to drink as well as an order of onion rings, and two blizzards for my girls who had eaten earlier. Little Barbie "not quite out of middle school" Bimbette couldn't seem to wrap her head around my order. She totally butchered it when she read it back to me, apparently as well as means "instead of" so she figured I wanted the combo with O rings instead of fries. I patiently repeated my order.

We went through this gong show FOUR times. FOUR TIMES PEOPLE!!!!!!! Is there anyone who would not have been frustrated by this point? Seriously, if she hasn't gotten it after four tries, it's not happening. I felt like I was at the Special Olympics of the fast food service. I wanted to get out my green crayola and draw her a picture. I was gnashing my teeth and my knuckles were turning white as I gripped my steering wheel harder and harder. I told her to forget my order, I'd go elsewhere. Then little Miss "I wear a headset at the drive-thru window so I can act anyway I want" says, "Don't you be rude to me, there is no need for you to be rude" (Envision your teen daughter talking to you in anger with the head bob/finger snapping going on). While I wasn't rude to this point, her comment raised my hackles and I replied, "Sweetheart, believe me when I tell you I have not yet begun to be rude.... BUT I can begin if you'd like" At this point I figured it was in my best interest to just back away. So I did, I backed out of the drive-thru and came home.

Once at home I phoned the restaurant to speak to the manager. Of course he wasn't in. I got Lil Johnny on the phone who informed me with a snicker that the manager wasn't in. So I asked how it was that there was a restaurant full of unsupervised pre-pubescent pimply faced staff...SURPRISE!!!!!! There was an assistant manager on duty. Imagine my joy when the assistant manager could barely speak English. *sigh* I expressed my displeasure to him, not really expecting anything. He kept saying sorry, but that's not what I wanted. He asked for my number, I refused to give it. As far as I am/was concerned Dairy Queen is no longer on my go to places. Especially when you count this current incident with the one I blogged about before http://fnygrl68.blogspot.com/2008/05/cold-burgerdirty-bathroom.html

They must have call display because it wasn't too long until the manager called me. He said that he'd received my concerns and felt awful. What could he do to make me happy he wondered, could he send me some coupons. I said NO. I wasn't complaining for free food, I was complaining on principle. I was complaining because what happened to customer service and the customer is always right??? I was complaining because I was tired of constantly complaining about the state of customer service and not doing anything about it. I told him that it is easy to walk away from somewhere disgruntled and disgusted by the service received, but how could one expect any changes if nothing is ever said. Perhaps if more people stood up and took a stand saying "we're not gonna take it anymore" change would come. I told him that as such, I would no longer be a patron of his establishment. I thanked him for his time and ended the call.

Yes, I may be just one voice, but I am one voice that spoke up. I am one voice that said I will not stand for this type of service. It is my patronage that pays your wage and I for one am telling you... YOU'RE FIRED!!

Incident Two:

On Monday morning I decided to stop at the McDonald's on my way to work for breaky. Usually it is fast service so I wasn't concerned that I would be running late. So I enter the drive-thru lane and stop at the speaker box. It should also be noted that another vehicle pulled in behind me immediately and there was not a note to be seen anywhere on the menu.

The drive-thru nazi came on line, "Good Morning welcome to Mcdonald's I need to tell you that our interact machine is down. Will that affect your order?"

Uuuuh, hell yeah that's going to affect my order and now I'm STUCK in this drive-thru lane, wasting my time with no food at the end. I was livid to say the least.

I told her that I would not be placing an order and wondered aloud why it was only stated AFTER one was locked into the drive-thru lane. Her response, "I'm sorry Ma'am but it's the best we could do".

I'm sorry you moronic drive-thru drone, but NO that's not the best you can do...You could have an employee standing OUTSIDE, BEFORE the drive-thru lane letting people know that the interact machine is down. You could have been pro-active so that this fiasco could have been avoided.

So there I sat, for FIFTEEN minutes because that was the day they chose not to be "fast food". Now, not only have I wasted fifteen minutes of my life that I'll never get back, I still have no breakfast. Me without breakfast in the morning is NOT a pretty sight.

Finally I was out of drive-thru hell. I backtracked 4 blocks to the A&W and placed my order there. The people were friendly and capable. Most importantly their interact machine worked!!!!!

I think A&W will be my new breaky go to place when I decide to make that stop on the way to work.

Incident Three:

Yesterday I wanted coffee to take with me to the new house when I went over there to do a few things. I drove to the closest Tim Horton's to my house and got in line. Anyone who has ever gone to a Timmy's in the morning knows that it is a gong show. It is like a herd of cattle battling to get to the feed trough first.

This particular Tim's is in a complex that also has a Save-On Foods, a McDonald's (notice I didn't go there) and a bunch of other stores. So when the line for the Timmy's drive-thru is backed up, cars can be lined up to the opposite entrance. Now courtesy dictates that you not block any of the lanes to the parking lot of Save-On Foods, thus you have small breaks in the line every two cars or so.

As I am sitting in line, waiting not so patiently (I hate waiting) a white pick-up comes down the lane from the Save-On parking lot. He can see the line of cars in front of and behind me, I mean you'd have to be severely focally challenged not to. Since I know that he can see and obviously knows that this is a line for Tim's I assumed that he was leaving the store parking lot. Yeah, note to self...ASSUME NOTHING!!!!

This freak of nature CUT in front of me and got in line.

I took a deep cleansing breath. Pried my fingers off my steering wheel and did some relaxation exercises. I would not allow that jackass to ruin my day, I would not. There are just some people in this world for whom common sense and courtesy are too difficult to grasp, let alone practice.

All was right again. I had found my happy place. I was smiling. Then it happened.

A small car came from the opposite direction and turned as though he was going into the Save-On parking lot. But then.... he reversed and then pulled in front of me, behind dickwad number one blocking the entry to the Save-On parking lot. I had to blink my eyes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The rage bubbled over. I laid on my horn and practiced my arm waving and hand gesturing. I think he could read lips never mind the sign language I was sending him. He moved out of the area.

As I watched him he drove up past the front of the line and pulled to the entrance to the drive-thru almost blocking the entrance completely. He had left enough room for small cars to get by. Soon it was time for the truck in front of me to enter the drive-thru, he had to hop the curb to avoid hitting Mr. Asshat I'm Too Cool for the Line Dickhead Nuimber Two.

Then, to my utter astonishment this asshole pulls in behind the truck AGAIN cutting me off and butting in. He had the audacity to look in his mirror and smirk. I hope he felt like a big man all day. I hope he felt like he'd accomplished something with his day. In my world he has succeeded in showing me what an ignorant bully he is. How very immature, sly, sneaky and underhanded he is.

All I have to say is ... and people wonder why I believe in selective thinning of the herd. Why I can understand how people are driven to perform violent acts upon others. Why I think our world is on a hell bent path to self-destruction.

This people is why.