Does anyone here who obtains meals at fast food places via the drive thru, sit at the window and open the container to make sure the order is correct? Is this okay to do? Does it unnecessarily piss off the order-taker and the customers behind you in line? I should probably start doing this because the last time I went to Popeye’s, I received a white meat fried chicken dinner instead of the dark meat chicken dinner I wanted. What are your experiences?
I always pull into the parking lot, then check. This way, you don’t piss off the people behind you, and it is easier to drive thru again than to wait at the window, hoping the cashier won’t dissapear and leave you sitting there trying to get their attention.
I work at McDonalds. If you did this in drive through, I would make a mental note to fuck with your order the next time I saw you. If you are intent on checking your order, PLEASE pull up so that other customers can get to the window. What you are doing will be sure to piss off both employes and the people behind you.
I ususally make a quick check in the bag to be sure I have the right number of items. I don’t open each one to see if they have the right sandwich but after getting the wrong order enough times, I sort of understand the people who do. Shiva418 instead of getting mad at the customers (who are getting the poor service), why not direct that anger into something positive like making sure the orders are right in the first place.
Pull in to a parking space, check, and if it’s wrong go inside (or, if I’m in a hurry or the mistake is livable, I suck it up and eat it anyway). Life goes on, and the people behind you don’t have to wait.
I pull into a parking space or at least pull ahead enough that the person behind me can get to the window. This is only if I have a reason to believe they might have gotten the order wrong, though… normally I don’t bother to check, it isn’t a big deal for me if the order’s wrong since I’m not vegetarian and don’t have any food allergies or other food requirements.
I’m so glad most of you people pull forward and check. It pisses me off when someone will go thru their entire order blocking the window. I mean c’mon! Pull forward. You don’t have to leave the parking lot, just let me pull forward and pay for my food. And ftr, I pull forward and check.
That’s what I do; a quick peek to make sure it looks right. I don’t unwrap anything or sip the sodas.
There have been a lot of times I’ve ordered a Hamburger Happy Meal for one of my kids and been given a Nugget Happy Meal. It’s easier to hand it back right then to exchange it for the right thing.
I usually don’t check the bag unless I go to Taco Bell. (I avoid Taco Bell; but there have been times that I’m in a hurry, hungry, and there are no other options.) Taco Bell screws up my order – and I don’t make “special” orders – about three times out of four. I almost never have a problem at Del Taco, Burger King, Carl’s Jr. (Hardee’s to you Easterners), Rally’s, Jack-in-the-Box, Fatburger (which is walk-in), In-N-Out, Wienerschnitzel (which still doesn’t serve Wienerschnitzel!), or anyplace else. Just Taco Bell.
When I do check the order, I pull ahead two or three car lengths to do it.
(Actually, I’ve been on the Atkins diet for the past month; so I haven’t been to any drive-throughs recently.)
Shiva418: Am I reading your post correctly? “We messed up a customer’s order. He must pay!”? It seems to me that it would be better to “make a mental note” to ensure customers get the correct order in the first place. Or are you just upset that they check the order while they’re still at the window?
I suppose I’d pull ahead and do a thorough check if I had four hungry toddlers in the putative Suburban with me. But I don’t.
There used to be a takeout window at a fish & chips and burger joint near my office. Eventually I got to playing the “Roulette Lunch” with them because the order I got was never the order I made. “Will it be fish ? Maybe a veggieburger ? Ooh, chicken !” It was really a neat way to inject some randomness into my highly structured day.
If I screw up an order (which is quite a rare occurance since I’ve been doing my job for about two years), I have no problem with someone noting that. If I have made a mistake, I will gladly fix it. What royaly pisses me off is when someone will sit at the window, go through everything, lift up the tops on their buns, and wast an inordinant amount of my time. To you in the drive through 20 or 30 seconds may seem like nothing, but to us inside the store you are throwing a rather large monkey wrench in the McMachine. So please, pull up 10ft. or so. I don’t care if you check your food, just don’t block my window. If you do this on a regular basis, be sure that you WILL get some nastyness in your food. 
This is why I check it at the window. I went through the drive through because I didn’t want to go in, so I check it at the window because I still don’t want to go in. It’s not my fault that the kid at the window gave me the wrong thing. Get mad at the person that’s really been careless/inconsiderate. The one that filled the order wrong. It makes no sense to me why I’m the bad guy for making sure I received what I asked for in the first place. 
I don’t eat fast food all that often and when I do it’s usually because I’m in a hurry and don’t really care what I’m eating just so long as it has calories, so to that end I just make sure the bag as the correct number of items and that the soda isn’t the wrong color, since I usually order orange soda if they’ve got it it’s easy to spot a screw up.
No. 99.9% of the time your order will be correct, while the time you take to check it will inconvenience the people behind you 100% of the time. That rare incorrect order ain’t worth the bad karma that you’re banking by being a stickler for your order. If it is the difference between being the early bird or the worm in the next life, is it really that important whether you get a fish sandwich or a chicken sandwich today?!
Um, I kind of see your point, but yes, it is that important. I hate fish. I don’t want fish. I won’t eat fish. I paid for chicken. I have a right to expect chicken, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to get what I asked for.
To turn it around, is it really that important that the people behind me get their food 30 seconds faster at my expense? How does their karma suffer if they mentally ream me for that?
Re the OP, though, I only check at the window if that particular place has screwed up my order before; otherwise I pull ahead and check. If it’s a particularly busy place I might not even do that. But I don’t eat fast food often enough for it to be a common problem for me.
I don’t check my bags at the window, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t care how many of your precious seconds somebody wastes. Your statements are a disturbing and disgusting overreaction.
I pull into the parking lot, then check. If it is wrong, then I get back in line. If it is okay, then I usually stay there and eat it.
Well, actually, when my family went to the local Wendy’s (two of them) once a week for a couple years after church, they got my mother’s order wrong (gave her French dressing instead of low-fat ranch dressing, despite any ideas we came up with to clarify) about 60% of the time. If we didn’t check, we would return home with the wrong thing. God forbid we’d actually get what we paid for!
Sure, I realize that many Dopers work in high-precision fast food restaurants, but how are we to know that? You obviously don’t work at the one we ordered from or else you’d get it right more often!
As I used to work there, Burger King always get my order right so I don’t need to check. But McDonalds often get it wrong. (I ask for it plain, then they put lettuce and stuff on it.) So I usually check,but not right in front of them.