gridlore | Aug. 11th, 2005

After a near-11 hour shift driving a truck, I was bloody hungry, and there was a Wendy's along my route home, so I hit the drive-through for a quick bit.

Now, a bit of a disclaimer: I'm a picky eater with a couple of digestive issues. So when I order a hamburger, it is always no cheese, ketchup and mustard only.

I order a #2 Combo (Double burger, fries and a Coke) and specified my special order. The person taking the order repeated it correctly, and when I paid, my receipt showed the correct instructions.

I must admit I was less than surprised when my order came out and there was cheese on the burger. This happens quite often, and is usually attributable to the fact that the kids working these places do the same thing over and over. What happened next, though, was over the top.

I waved the person working the window back over, explained the error, and handed my burger back. A minute or so later, she handed me a fresh burger. Thinking the problem resolved, I pulled out and started heading back towards the freeway, opening my burger...

..which had cheese on it.

Quick U-turn, and I head into the store. Remember, I'm exhausted, hot, and really fucking hungry by this point. What should have been a three-minute stop has now consumed over ten before I reach the front and ask for a manager. I explain the situation to the manager on duty, keeping my temper. She goes over to the grill area, which was within my line of sight, reviewed the orders, talked to a few people, and several of her crew started laughing, and I heard at least one of them say something like "so cheese is going to kill him, what a weirdo!"

Now I was pissed off.

When the manager came back up, this is what I said.

"Thank you" (she handed me the correct burger, finally) "I'm glad to see your crew finds messing up my order so amusing. I think I'll share their casual disregard of what we actually pay for with my coworkers. Oh, and with the drivers from other trucking companies we interact with. What the hell, I'll just post this locations amusing approach to customer satisfaction on the Internet and let your corporate office know that the crew here mocks customers within their hearing. Good day!"

She was already screaming at the staff as I left.

I'm not normally one to react like that - I make special, odd, orders, so I expect some confusion, but the utter lack of professionalism and screwing up and order when it has just been explained to you verbally what was needed is unforgivable.

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