shrug
I’m just going on my own experiences.
It may not linger in the air, but if something offends, why should you have to deal with it for even a minute?
Ok, I give on the erase thing. I had a day full of impatient people, who changed their orders much, and cashiers cannot erase items, so I come running every time, it’s not that much of a problem normally, it’s the few that get you. I know people change their minds a lot, thats fine and dandy by me, I just hate having to fix it on the average of 15 or so a day. Add to that if you go over so many a month, the Home Office starts to question why you’re erasing so much. There was a lot of information I could have added to the OP, I just needed to get some steam out.
I’ve never personally been in my car and smelled the car in front of me smoking, (exhaust) but my non smoking grandparents have, some people have more sensitive noses. I’m not saying people should not smoke in their cars, by no means, just if you’re at the drive thru, would it kill you to put it out or wait just a few minutes?
If I could go back to my OP, it would have the disclaimer that these things don’t always happen, and there are exceptions, and when you’re really frustrated with people who are clueless, it’s frustrating as hell!
And when they say fries, they don’t always mean potato wedges. Some people honestly believe we have fries as well. I ask to clarify.
We’ve had people call and complain that they ordered fries, so higher up wants us to ask. Not all of us do, but I am not out to screw someone over, I want to make sure that they know what we have, and what they are ordering.
Perhaps there are other KFC’s out there that do have fries, we don’t.
Fair enough. Now just fix the problem of the cold potato wedges and we’re all set. 
I often end up behind folks ordering about 20 value meals and keep changing their order. 
I thought one of the large burger places has both the fries and the wedge things . . . or am I confusing them with “curly” fries? But then you also have the “criss-cut” fries (or "cross-cut?), and the “seasoned” fries, and . . .
Anyway, it does get a bit confusing trying to remember what is where, especially for those who don’t frequent such places as much. Taking 5 minutes to decide, however, is pretty ridiculous.
And honestly, the smoking bit had never crossed my mind, either. I would have assumed that the a/c inside a fast food place usually results in air blowing out of a drive-thru window.
[quote]
Let me count the ways…
1- mumble mumble mumble… if you have a low or soft voice, the drive thru is not for you. My drive thru is not crystal clear, and I imagine many others are not as well, you either need to speak up, or come inside.
4- If you don’t know what you want, why did you just pull up to the speaker?? I’ll gladly give you time, but if there is three cars behind you, you’re pissing more than me off.
[quote]
Number 1.
How strange, I usually have exactly the OPPOSITE problem. Most of the time it’s the drive up person that cannot, or willnot ENUNCIATE! I pull up to the speaker and hear something to the effect of …
Drive up person: mumble mumble mumble Help you?
Me: Excuse me?
DUP: Wel COME to Subway, Can I HELP you (very huffily).
Me: Yes, I’d like a number X with diet coke
DUP mumble, mumble will that be mumble mumble mumble
Me: Pardon?
and so on.
Number 4. I’m not sure what the configuration is at KFCs but when I go through a drive through, the menu is usually mounted AT THE SPEAKER, not before it.
Way too fricking rational! Negative points for pegging the Rant-O-Meter below the zero hash mark.
Rant back at ya!
Put the fucking menu in 2 places! How tough could that be? I may not know what I want as soon as I get to the menu board. And EXCUSE me for not following every goddman fast food promotion (bbq nuggets? that was LAST MONTH? And now it’s…fishhead bites - or the pork crispies.?) I order french fries, you don’t have them, just say sorry and MOVE ON!
And, BTW, THANKS for the great photos and splashy graphics on your menu board. Very pretty but sometimes impossible to decipher.
I NEVER do drive thrus any more. I think they take longer. And, you meet a better class of people inside.
Some places, such as Jack in the Box, do have two menu boards, one for the person at the speaker and a second, identical board for people in line to look at before they order. How I wish we had a setup like this when I worked at Burger King.
I agree that people with loud engines should shut them off, especially people who drive diesel-powered pickups.
I worked at BK until 1994. Cell phones were just starting to become more commonplace, but not nearly as many people even had them then. I can only imagine how much more of a problem it is to deal with now.
Here’s an issue I don’t think has been brought up yet, as it is one I dealt with all too often: Don’t just dump all your change on the people at drive-thru’s. We were held to maintaining speedy service times in the drive through and the last thing I had time to do was count out $5.84 in coins in which nothing larger than a dime appeared in the pile. Usually said coins were sticky, too.
Oh, and if you have coupons, ALWAYS let the order taker know you have them BEFORE going up to the window. Failing to do so means the cashier will need to void the old ticket, re-enter the entire order, which in turn delays you, the workers, and the six people in line behind you.
You fail to make a single good point here. Because you, in fact, make several good points.
Lately my girlfriend has been stopping at the drive-thru of a well known Seattle-based java vendor. While the order-taker impatiently asks what we want, I’m trying to navigate an inscrutible menu of things like mocha grande latte steamed taztoburrito geewhizzers and tallboy cofftea halfcaff cappathingo popcorn shrimpless javabean mangrove poprocks, and see if anything remotely resembles “juice.”
It makes me feel like I’m an outsider, not being a charter member of the Cult of the Designer Coffee Bean. I am not a speaker of Designer Coffee Lingo. It is not intuitive for me to call a “small” coffee a “grande.” What in the name of twisted fucking anti-Spanish is that? Ah, I see. By calling it a “grande”, it makes it easier for you to charge $3.79 for – get this – a small cup of coffee.
Wankers.
SlightDistrurbance, when I was a teenager I worked at McDonalds. I did my time in the drive-thru booth, I know wherefor you speak, except the cellphone thing, they weren’t common back then. I always felt, though, that the occasional really hot-looking girl driving thru in a miniskirt and halter top went a long way toward making up for all the crap…
Tell you what SlightDistrurbance, the day you stop asking me if I’d like to try your Monterrey Chicken Shack Ranch Sandwich Combo today, or when you stop asking me “Would you like to biggie size/power up/go large your order,” or when you stop asking me “will there be anything else?” when I told you “I’d like the number 3 combo AND THAT’S ALL I WANT” is the day I and my fellow drive-up orderers make your job less stressful.
And DON’T HAND ME CHANGE WITH MY DRINK! You have any idea how hard it is to keep both change and drink from splatting on my door when you do that? 90% of me is right-handed. We only have our less-than-reliable left hands for grabbing stuff while you have both of yours.
Oooh… An anti-drive-thru rant. may I join?
When I say I want a drink with light ice, that does not mean “pack the cup to the brim with ice”. And would it kill you to put some napkins in the ^&!^%$# bag?
Ahhh… better.
–Patch
Ooh, can we extend this to a general food service rant? When I say I want just a small bit of mayo, four heaping tablespoons is not a small bit. And when I tell you I want mustard on a hot dog, please be advised that mustard is usually not that red stuff that tastes like tomatos.
God, I would have given my left foot to stop the suggestive selling (snerk) but I couldn’t. We had to ask customers those questions; if we didn’t, it’d be counted against us during performance evaluations. Trust me, I was painfully aware that most customers don’t give a shit about new sandwiches and that they sure as hell don’t want their ordering interrupted by sales pitches. Chalk it up to the idiotic, out-of-touch management who have distorted ideas of what customers want and how the ordering process goes.
Neutron star- I’m really trying to figure out what they’re doing to give you cold wedges, thats just wrong in the general scheme of wedge goodness! We keep them under a warmer, so perhaps theres something wrong with theirs.
el gui- I don’t understand why when we open that window up, it creates this huge gushing air stream into the window, I’m sure it has something to do with our exhaust systems.
Canvas shoes- I’ve had a few people tell me that I come out unusually clear on the speaker. I don’t take that for every time though, it goes both ways. I’ll ask someone to speak up, but it’s kinda hard to ask them to stop yelling at me.
Zenster- I’m in shame. Did I leave something out? I’m not too big on profanity, but I could remember for next time…
seal_cleaner- If it were up to me, there would be a menu board in two places, but alas, I’m only able to make suggestions, not to implement what I think would work best. I don’t expect people to follow every food promotion, but AFAIK it’s always been a summer thing with the BBQ wings, long before I worked there. And I will help people make decisions, people often think that they can only get mashed potatos with something because that’s the way the picture shows it, I have no problems with that. I never thought that pictures could be so distracting, might mention it to someone, they might be able to help you better than I.
And as far as the drive thru taking longer, it’s the same as on the inside, it depends on who is in front of you, who is working in the store, ect.
Knowed out- I really do not want to ask if you’d like to try the special of the month, it cuts on service time, and people who aren’t interested usually end up getting snippy. I do understand that that is all you want, the corporation does not. If you happen to be a secret shopper, and I don’t follow the rules, there goes my bonus check. Plus, like with this month’s new special, the cheesey wedges, people are actually grateful, (how dare they!) that we asked them, they are now “cheesey wedge fans” as it were.
Patchbunny- Light ice? Check. Napkins? Check. There are times when things go wrong, et. No excuse I know, but if you ask for napkins, I’ll gladly give you more. We’re supposed to put them in, it depends on who’s packing.
“Never go to the drive-through. Ya know why not? Okayokayokay…they FUCK you at the drive-through. They really FUCK you at the drive-through and then your stuck with whatever shit they give you.” Or words to that effect. Joe Pesci as “Leo Getz” (“Whatever you want, Leo Getz. Get it?”) in Lethal Weapon 2 or 3 or 4.
This thread is bringing back memories.
I’m not going to defend the Fast Food workers, because from my memory the customers came and went so fast we didn’t have time to develop such hatred.
And i’m sorry to say that we did do things to the customers just to piss them off… why… I don’t know we were 16 years old and for some reason we thought it was funny and it made the mundane existance of a thankless boring job go quickly.
Sometimes…
we WOULD put too much mayo on when you a little extra, we WOULD leave a particular piece of chicken out of your order that we know you want, we WOULD give you old fries because we couldn’t be bothered waiting to cook new ones when there are 10 people waiting. We WOULD pretend we don’t understand you when you just ask for a ‘chicken burger’ and we call them the ‘New Southern-style blah blah burger’, we WOULD fuck around with the speaker sysytem like mumble and pretend to ‘break-up’.
Sorry, but at 16 we really didn’t care, and we just wanted to finish our shift, get paid, and get to a party.
I know take it easy on Fast Food workers, and there’s not alot they can do to annoy me.
This happens EVERY time at out local KFC drivethrough.
KFC: “Welcome to KFC. My name is Joe, may I take your order please?”
Me: Hello, I’d like the 8 piece meal please."
KFC (different voice): “Can you repeat your order”
Me: waiting silently for someone to respond.
Me: “Hello?”
KFC: “Please repeat your order.”
Me: Drive up to window beacuse I cant hear. KFC folks pissed because I havent responded and they get the orders out of order. This has been going on there for the past 5 years, no amount of complaining has done any good.
The worst is the local Jack In The Box.
Jack: “Welcome to Jack in the Box. My name is Joe, may I take your order please?”
Me: “Hello, I’d like a number 4 with…”
Jack: “You want that large sized?”
Me: “…mayo only on the sandwich, and a …”
Jack: “What do you want to drink with that?”
Me: “… a Coke.”
The order is always wrong because the order taker is too damn impatient to let me finish. When I get my sack, I check it before I leave and when I find the lettuce and tomatoes, I hand it back and make them fix it.
Usually just before they toss you your bag of goodies, the window worker looks at you and says, “Ketchup?” To which I usually reply “It’s a sweet and tangy tomato based condiment.” That’s always good for a blank stare.
A few weeks ago, the Jack in the Box window worker left me speechless, in a good way. Just before he tossed me my bag, he said, “Would you like some ketchup with your order?” I was flabbergasted! A complete sentance out of the drive through guy.
There’s may be hope after all.
Vega