# Fast Food Hell **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 9, 2001, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669 "2001-08-09T21:10:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2001, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/21 "2001-08-13T03:59:58Z")
By all means, send the letter. You wouldn’t believe it, but companies (well, most of them) pay attention to letters. My wife does this a lot, and even the most innocuous complaints will most times get a response. A letter from you (maybe with a copy of this thread) could be da bomb. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2001, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/22 "2001-08-13T09:21:20Z")
So I look at the title of the thread and think: Does that mean there is a Fast Food Heaven somewhere? It must be the dimension where puppies never die, **Podkayne** ’s hubbie does laundry, and 15-year-old girls in Northern Ireland are smart enough not to get pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2001, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/23 "2001-08-13T09:25:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Does that mean there is a Fast Food Heaven somewhere? Yes, it’s called The Six-Dollar Burger. 😃 Carl’s and Jack-in-the-Box are the only two fast-food restaurants where I’ve NEVER had ANY problems. All the others in my area have had several occurances of annoyance, so I just don’t go there anymore. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2001, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/24 "2001-08-13T09:48:07Z")
Where I live, Checkers is far and away the best. They have great burgers, perfect fries, their onion rings are excellent and they never get an order wrong. Next time you are in Florida, give them a try. No, I don’t own stock in the company. ---
**Author:** ![Pnuk\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Pnuk\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pnuk_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2001, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/25 "2001-08-13T10:02:58Z")
Reminds me of when I was in Mcdonalds and I saw a customer having a huge go at the manager because his cheseburger had meat in it. eh? ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2001, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/26 "2001-08-13T23:38:34Z")
Huh. McDonalds. My friedns kept saying they were getting something left out of their orders (3 times at least) when they went thru the drive through. I went in to eat there, and they left something off my tray! Sheesh! I’ve never had a problem at Burger King or Wendys or Arbys. A former manager at Taco Bell was so nice. She knew we were poor, so when we ordered somethign, she would enver charge us for the drink. So nice. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/27 "2001-08-14T00:53:14Z")
How is it that they make these mistakes? They have these little TV screens that tell them what to do, and color-coded buttons, and pictures on the cash register. You know the franchise’s corporate headquarters do everything they can to make the job easy to learn and do, as quickly and efficiently as possible. I rarely get a fast-food order with something missing, but it often seems that the people behind the counter are struggling to keep up with everything they have to do. They always seem to be out of stuff. They always seem to be understaffed. They always seem to have a lot of brand-new workers who not only have not completed their training, but also behave as if they’ve never _been_ in a [franchise name here] before. I just don’t get it. FWIW, I’ve been there myself: I worked in a Taco Bell for six weeks once (the air-conditioning went out in 90 degree-plus heat, and we were wearing double-knit polyester uniforms and they didn’t seem to know when it would be repaired, and I was outa there), I worked in a Subway for 8 months and I worked different concessions stands and restaurants in a zoo for three summers when I was a student… and we only ever had those kinds of problems briefly, and it was a matter of individuals who were more interested in goofing off and socializing than working. Then the good workers hassled the bad workers until they either straightened out or quit. No, it’s not glamorous work, but you know you won’t be there forever, and in the case of the job I held at the zoo, we really took pride in doing a good job, keeping up with the lunch rush and keeping our eating areas neat and clean. Re making change: the first place I worked when I started working at the zoo was a tiny trailer without electricity, and we rang up purchases (for the purpose of inventory and cash recordkeeping only) on one of those old-fashioned cash registers with the little signs that pop up. We sold only about five things at this trailer, but we had to add up totals in our heads and make change by counting it back to the customer. Great training: now I can do that stuff automatically and I never have trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Shera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Shera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shera)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/28 "2001-08-14T02:13:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pnuk Guy \* > \*\*Reminds me of when I was in Mcdonalds and I saw a customer having a huge go at the manager because his cheseburger had meat in it. > > eh? \*\* He was probably a vegetarian. I order cheesburgers without the meat all the time. I put french fries in it instead, it is pretty good. I have ocassionally gotten meat when I asked for none, but I didn’t flip out considering it was a pretty easy mistake to make, I just asked them for another one. I think that if you are going to be that picky about meat, then you shouldn’t set foot in a McDonalds. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/29 "2001-08-14T03:17:54Z")
And christ on a cracker, is that hard to pour the right drink? I’d say at least 30% of the time–this is a conservative estimate–I get regular coke when I have clearly asked for DIET coke. I am not a mumbler or a low talker. I strongly prefer diet soda’s taste and I always enunciate that I am ordering a DIET cola. DIET DIET DIET. I know there are some people that merely have slight preference and will happily slurp down whatever they get, no big deal, but I AM NOT ONE OF THEM. After a decade of this believe me, I never slur my words when it comes the ordering the drink. Not that this does one damned bit of good. Self-serve drinks are a godsend inside the restaurant, but for the agony continues when I chance it on the drive thru…It’s gotten so I always taste my drink before I take my foot off the brake at the drive-thru. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/30 "2001-08-14T07:09:09Z")
**SPOOFE** has it right- you pay a little more in Carl’s Jr. and Jack In The Box than other places, but you most definitely get what you pay for. My dormitory last year was directly across the street from a Carl’s Jr., and a JITB was a little ways further. Excellent food, excellent service (how many fast food joints will bring your food to your table?). I try to lay off of eating at McDonald’s, but when you work right next to one, it’s hard to avoid eating there. And as our store has an arrangement with the McD’s, how can you pass up free food? 😃 The workers at McDonald’s have _never_ flubbed my order yet, even when I make special requests with my free meals. Plus they’ve switched to a self-serve soda fountain, so it’s next to impossible for them to mess _that_ up. Also, I’ve seen the registers at this place, and they don’t have pictures, only the names. Yay for literate workers! **CrankyAsAnOldMan** , do you ask for a ‘Diet Coke’ specifically? I’ve learned that since they need to work fast, they will only latch on to a key word and work with that, namely the ‘Coke’ part. (Just theorizing there, but it’s a plausible, if negative explanation, no?) I’ve taken to asking only for a ‘Diet’, and leave the brand off. Since most joints have a deal with either Coke or Pepsi, there’s only one diet soda to be had, so that’s the one they’ll pour for you. If there’s more than one, it’ll force them to ask you which one you mean, and thus pay more attention to your order. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/31 "2001-08-14T07:14:25Z")
Bayle Domon, eh? I guess someone else reads a lot of Jordon. Marc ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/32 "2001-08-14T15:48:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BayleDomon \* > \*\* > > **CrankyAsAnOldMan** , do you ask for a ‘Diet Coke’ specifically? I’ve learned that since they need to work fast, they will only latch on to a key word and work with that, namely the ‘Coke’ part. (Just theorizing there, but it’s a plausible, if negative explanation, no?) I’ve taken to asking only for a ‘Diet’, and leave the brand off. Since most joints have a deal with either Coke or Pepsi, there’s only one diet soda to be had, so that’s the one they’ll pour for you. If there’s more than one, it’ll force them to ask you which one you mean, and thus pay more attention to your order. \*\* Hmmmm. That’s a good idea. My love for precision means I nearly always tack on the full name, but I think your strategy may save me endless grief. If it works, I’m remembering you in my will. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/33 "2001-08-14T20:18:54Z")
Wow…you mean I contributed something worthwhile? And it only took 86 posts, too. 😃 Glad to be of service. Oh, uh, yeah…and people who _can’t_ get your order right no matter how clear you are need to be slapped with a dead fish. Yeah. ---
**Author:** ![InkBlot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5e925/32.png) [@InkBlot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InkBlot)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/34 "2001-08-14T21:33:02Z")
Sometimes is all in how you make your order. I like a cheeseburger with just mustard and ketchup…no lettuce, onions, pickles, etc., etc. At McDonald’s, I’d order a double-quarter pounder with cheese, ask for “mustard and ketchup only” and suddenly my cheese became an endangered species. Sometimes I’d get it, sometimes not. Or, I’d get all sorts of other questions I felt should be obvious, _do you want lettuce?_ No. _Pickles? Onions?_ No. _Cheese?_ Yes, it wouldn’t be a cheeseburger without it. So, one day I asked what comes on a DQP, now I just ask them to hold what I _don’t_ want. “No pickles, no onions” is easy to belt out, and McD’s hasn’t flubbed an order of mine since. Well, I wish my world was all rosy…there is one Jack in the Box I stopped going to because when I ordered a “bacon-ultimate cheesburger, with mustard and ketchup only” I would be asked not once, but on several seperate occasions if I wanted cheese and bacon. Kinda defeats the purpose of a bacon-ultimate-cheeseburger, doesn’t it? The right way to order now is just “mustard, no mayo” (is JITB a yankee chain?), but I still don’t go to that one particular place. I just can’t help picturing the employees in back, _now this is supposed to be a cheeseburger…should I put cheese on it? Better ask…_ inkblot ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/35 "2001-08-14T22:12:06Z")
Reminds me of a poster I saw outside Burger King in Benidorm. This was obviously meant to be an ambilingual poster, as it rather lacked language. It featured a large picture of a Whopper, and below it 5 or 6 circles containing pictures of different ingredients. 2 ha a cross (pickles and onions, I think), 1 had a tick (bacon), and 3 had no symbol. I wondered if this poster was actually “_How to order your Whopper_”, and meant: [ul] [li]If you want bacon you have to say so[/li][li]If you don’t want pickles or onions, specify and you won’t get them[/li][li]You’ll get the other 3 anyway no matter what you say[/li][/ul] Or maybe I was completely deluded. ---
**Author:** ![Oy\_Vey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dbc845/32.png) [@Oy\_Vey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy_Vey)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/36 "2001-08-14T23:08:10Z")
If linking ain’t a problem… [http://www.theonion.com/onion3726/fast\_food\_purchase.html](http://www.theonion.com/onion3726/fast_food_purchase.html) > [@](#): > > ``` > HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA--Resentment, anger, and pity were among the emotions mutually felt by Burger King employee Duane Hesketh and customer Robert Lalley during a class-conflict-laden transaction Tuesday. > > ``` > > According to sources, at 4:22 p.m. PST, the upper-middle-class Lalley approached the working-class Hesketh’s register at the Beach Boulevard Burger King to order a meal. The two men instantly became locked in an icy showdown of mutual loathing and disrespect, each resenting the other and everything he represents. For the next seven minutes, the age-old conflict between the haves and have-nots was played out in a passive-aggressive verbal exchange that betrayed no trace of the roiling vortex of bitter hatred that lay just beneath the surface. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669/37 "2001-08-14T23:55:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BayleDomon \* > \*\* > Plus they’ve switched to a self-serve soda fountain, so it’s next to impossible for them to mess _that_ up. Aye, I do be liking the self-serve fountains, fortune prick me if I do no. (Sorry about the accent, but your name just triggers it for me :p). Only problem I have with self-service fountains is that I inevitably end up trying to use the tap that has no syrup, and getting a mouthful of pure CO[sub]2[/sub] instead of my Sprite. Luckily, most places that have them will have more than one tap with the same drink. As far as Fast Food hell goes, yeah, I’ve been there. I live exactly one block from a nice, spacious Wendy’s, and I really tried to like it. Unfortunately, I had a problem nearly every time I was there - I was given the wrong size combo, wrong price for the combo (I always ordered the same thing, so i _knew_ the prices, right down to the penny with tax), and a couple of times, instead of giving me my proper sandwich, they just disguised a regular hamburger with a little bacon, and acted surprised when I told them to redo it. I knew one of the managers there, though, and I was always able to resolve things with whoever was in charge, so I kept going there (hey, it’s right next to my house). Until… I stopped in one evening, pretty late, so all the traffic was coming through the drive through. I should have taken the cue and gone through that way myself, but I usually ate inside. Once I got in line, though, there was, literally, nobody there. I could see two people serving the drive through, and two more in the kitchen, but nobody was cashiering up front. That didn’t bother me, yet, because I’ve worked plenty of retail, and I know how it is when you don’t have the staff on hand to do the work. Hell, I’d been in there before, when the only counter person was a single manager who was also handling the drive through headset, while making orders and taking money in the front. However, I waited for a full five minutes before anyone even came up front to check whether there might, in fact, be customers there. “'Scuze me,” sez I, In a fairly reasonable voice, “but I’ve been waiting pretty long.” The response: “Sir, we are Very Busy, someone will be with you shortly. please wait your turn.” This was delivered in an actual offended voice, precisely as if I had called her mother an Assistant Crack Whore, rather than offering to give her money in exchange for goods and services. It was, furthermore, delivered to an entirely empty queue line; I was still the only person there, though I’m certain the drive through was still busy. She left. Five more minutes passed. Finally, she came back. I ordered: Sandwich, fries, drink. She called my order to the cooks, and was about to get my fries and drink, when another customer walked in. To her credit, she didn’t walk away from him the way she had from me. Still counting against her was the fact that she had walked away from **me**. She took his order: Sandwich, fries, drink. Now, as it happened, the crew had already made my sandwich, and I could see it ready. For some reason, though, she decided to serve the line in reverse order- guy who just walked in here, here’s your stuff. As I watched this I noticed, with dread, that she had scraped up the very last of the french fries to give him. “Miss, what about my order?” sez I, calmly, evenly and reasonably, as the guy from behind me in line disappeared out the door with what I was distressingly certain were my french fries. I wanted to be certain, you see. “Fries are out, it’ll be ready in four minutes.” “I see,” sez I, yet more evenly than before. When I am angry, I do not yell; I am utterly, damningly calm. “You know, I’ve already been waiting here ten minutes” “I saw that, sir.” Again, the voice carried an absolute certainty that I had forcibly taken her brother’s oral virginity. “You just gave the last of the french fries to someone who had only been here for a second.” “Sir, I have to thaw the fries. They will be ready in four minutes.” From her mouth, _sir_ was the foulest of epithets, the very voice of contempt. There was no need for her to explain her actions to some worm on the toe of her boot. “You could easily have served me first,” I said, and with the most frigid tone that I could muster. “Sir, your fries will be served in four minutes,” she said, and walked off. “You can cancel the order; I would like my money back.” I said this to her, but she was leaving, and she chose not to hear me. “ **Pardon Me, But I Would Like My Money Back** ,” I said, loudly. I do not normally speak loudly, but she left me no choice- there was nobody left at the front counter. I heard scurrying, and muttering, and about a minute later another employee came to the front. “Can I _help_ you, sir?” said this new face, though it was clear from her tone that _help_ meant _throw out of the store_. “My order is taking far too long; I would like to cancel it and have my money refunded.” “Yes, sir, I’ll have to have my manager do that for you,” said she, and began to walk away. Caution made me speak to her before she left. “Was that your manager that I was speaking to just now?” “Yes, sir.” “Fuck it” I said to myself. To her: “I hope the crack whores give her mother that promotion she’s in line for.” It did me good to imagine the sight of a tiny cartoon question mark over the clerk’s head as she tried to process this information. I never got a chance to see it, though, because my feet were already out the door. Needless to say, I haven’t been back since. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fast-food-hell/75669.md?page=1)