The thread in which DoperChic rants about KFC

The BBQ Pit
1

I just sat down and wrote out this nice long rant about a very well-known fast food chain restaurant. Rather than pose the risk of getting in some legal trouble, although I doubt it’s likely as I’m only speaking the truth based on my experiences with said restaurant, I’ve decided to replace the actual name of the restaurant with ABC.

First of all, let me say that in general, I love ABC. The newly opened restaurant near my home is great – they have friendly employees, hot fresh food is the norm, and the dining area is always spotless.

My problem is with the ABC near my job. Never once have I gone into the restaurant to find the tables and floor clean. Never once have I gone in to see all of the employees actually working. Very rarely have I gone in and had all my food ready at the same time. All but maybe a handful of the employees joke around, curse, have annoying friends visit on a regular basis, etc. I recently went in around 8pm (one hour before closing) to find every single table dirty. I had to search for a table that didn’t look too bad and clean it myself before sitting down. Soon after I sat, the manager asked an employee to wipe down the tables. He responded by talking back and cursing. I’m paraphrasing here because I don’t remember the exact wording, but I know the word fuck was said: ‘Why the fuck do I have to wipe the tables now. I’ll just have to do it again in an hour.’ I was sitting within 10 feet of the kid clearly within view and earshot. The manager said nothing to the employee. Maybe if the employees would clean the tables more than once a day there wouldn’t be so much to do later on.

After hearing my story, one might ask, why the hell do I keep going back? Well, I also work part-time as a waitress and understand that working in the food industry can be very tough. Everyone has bad days and no restaurant should be judged poorly based on one or two bad visits. Well, I’ve gone to ABC at least 10 times since January and each experience has echoed the descriptions I gave above. I’ve given them more than a fair shot. Even so, I keep going back, each time hoping that ABC would redeem itself.

Well today was my last straw. I had just gotten done a hard day of work and wanted to grab some dinner before heading home. I was really in the mood for ABC, so I decided to stop in. I went to the counter and waited for a few minutes for an employee to come take my order. I could hear people laughing and talking in the back of the store, so I figured it would only be a minute until someone came out to take my order. WRONG. I waited a good five minutes and no one came out. I called out, ‘Is anyone there’. No answer. At around this time, a rather disturbed mother came in the restaurant and approached the counter. I asked her if she knew if anyone was working. She said that she was wondering the same thing as she had spent the last ten minutes waiting at the drive thru. A son of one of the employees was in the dining area eating. He also called out asking his mother to come out front because she had a customer. Still no response. Again, I’ll emphasize that there were most definitely employees in the restaurant, we could hear them. I guess they couldn’t be bothered coming out to take orders. After the son called out and got no response, I left. I will not be going back to that ABC. I also plan on writing a letter to both that particular store as well as the corporate headquarters. I really believe that this store could turn into a great restaurant if the proper management and new employees were hired.

Oh, and considering that this is a pit rant and all, FUCK OFF, ABC employees!!!

2

I managed to replace every single occurrance of KFC with ABC within my thread, but not in the title. O well. May the wrath of the KFC empire come upon me.

3

I noticed that. :smiley:

Too bad, I’m glad you are going to say something about it. It seems the problem is mostly management…if employees are that terrible (attitude and everything).

4

i don’t think you have too much to worry about. its not like your slandering them or anything. your just relayin’ the facts.

ain’t it terrible when you got that KFC jones? it seems nothing else will do. you gotta have it!

maybe mike meyers was really on to something there…

actually, i would love to open a franchise in this little town near my home in the middle of nowhere. it would rake in the bucks, but i don’t fancy the idea of managing pimply-face gen-xers with bad attitudes.(plus, im kinda guessing the territory is spoken for) i’ll just buy an apartment building and cash rent checks instead!:smiley:

5

Dang DoperChic sorry to hear about your bad experience with ABC…errrr KFC. Hope your complaint with corporate works for ya. Gotta agree with gatopescado tho, the jonesing for KFC, especially original recipe, is almost worth anything to get some. :smiley:

DAMMIT!!! that stuff is just too good.

6

Hmm, after the third poor experience I would have vowed not to go back. Why 10 times? sheesh.

Then, the next thing you want to do is find out who owns that franchise and write them a strongly worded letter. Sounds to me like poor management and not a problem of the KFC stores as a whole as I have been to many that are clean but service is always slow in my opinion.

Anyhow, you should have given up after the third time. Three times a charm ya know.

< go ahead and rant but I still think that bad service, poor restaurant conditions after three times is enough for me to stay far, far away. >

7

Sounds to me like this place needs a Mystery Shopper. Sheesh. I’ve quit going to another fried chicken franchise because of the general sloppiness of the employees.

8

The fault is yours. You shouldn’t go into a restaurant anywhere near closing time and expect service. The employees are busy cleaning up so they can leave just as the clock strikes closing time.

Hmm. My sarcasm meter just exploded.

9

I’ve never actually eaten at a KFC. The only fried chicken I’ve eaten has been chicken nuggets (hmmm nuggets left by little birdies) and chicken filets. (Sure that looks right)

Hey at least the KFC you’re talking about seems much better run that all of the Popeye’s I’ve ever been in.
mmmm spicy chicken sammich…

10

I can relate, DoperChic. The KFC by the bowling center we frequent has always been courteous, prompt and clean. But the one by my house? Uh-uh.

The last time I went there, around 6:30 PM, it was crowded. That was OK, I’ve waited before. I was around third or fourth in line, inside. I got to the counter, and was informed it would be a 10 min wait for chicken. OK, no problem. I paid my money, and sat down to wait. As I looked around, I noticed nobody was eating. EVERYbody was waiting for chicken to go. We waited, and waited, and waited some more. A few people got served with the first batch of chicken. More waiting. More people queueing up in line. There was a guy there that actually called up the 800 number to report bad service. He handed his phone out to several of us and we reported the store! I finally got my chicken after about 30 minutes. (I know, I know, I should have got my money back and gone elsewhere, but has someone mentioned - that KFC jones can’t be fulfilled any other way.) Anyway, I get home. The chicken was fine, but the mashed potatoes were like soup, and the gravy was brown water. Neither was cooked long enough! It was disgusting. I’ve never gone back to that store! I learned my lesson.

11

Drove back from a concert one night and was absolutely starving. Pulled into the local ABC :wink: and it was remarkably empty. Yay! No need to wait. This is good, methinks. Hah! Gave the order to the waitress, and as she was pulling it together, putting the bag on the counter and whatnot, guess what marched across the counter? Ants.

I looked at her; she looked at me, we both looked down at the crocodile line before us and do you know what she did? Took her bare hands and squished them, then flicked them floorwards.

I left of course, but not with the food. :eek:

12

Write a serious letter to their HO.

Maybe you’ll get some coupons for free foond in the mail. :slight_smile:

BTW - If it really bothers you, write their HO. I was serious. Don’t bother with the store manager… just go over his/her head.

13

Mmmmm… Free foond…

:slight_smile:

14

Right on bernse!

Why not just go behind the counter and start serving food? I wonder how many customers you could do? You could always call back and ask how to use the cash register. :smiley:

15

An hour before close is PLENTY of time to expect service. I had a Taco Bell experience like that before. Place was so ghetto I was actually SCARED waiting for my food. Write and call corporate headquarters non-stop.

Oh, and shut-up Sauron…

16

Holy shit- my sarcasm meter exploded too…lol!

Anyhoo, that’s the rub- it’s not just fast food, it’s KFC, and when you crave it, MAN you gotta have it. I love the story about no chicken being ready. Yeah, imagine working at KFC and expecting people to actully walk in and order some chicken? Unheard of!

Zette

17

Huh. I was in a place that sells chicken fingers and the place was deserted. I mean, there were no employees, anywhere, to be seen. All of a sudden the refrigerater (sp?) door opens (it’s one of those big-assed walk in units) and every employee in the store (none seemingly over 25) tumbles out, some of them coughing, with a big ball of smoke rolling out of the fridge.

The look on their faces when they saw me was beautiful. Never in my life will I ever cause that much uncertainty.

I ordered my food, asked for it to be cooked fresh. Of course, they were chillin’ and had no problem with that, so everything went fine for I, too, remember what is was like being 17 and having one of those “cool” jobs…

18

My daughter works at KFC and I can assure you that complaining - loudly and often - to HQ is the way to go.

Even if the store is a franchise, it still has to maintain the standards laid down by HQ in the franchise agreement.

While sometimes you might have to wait for food to be cooked (the staff are not supposed to cook huge amounts “on spec” as the holding times are quite short and any food past its holding time has to be discarded), there is no excuse for you not being advised of any delay when you order, and certainly no excuse for the food being cold.

All of the Tricon fast food chains (KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut) use mystery shoppers, and the checklist is extensive.

When you complain, include as much detail as possible. My guess is that such a badly run store would score really badly on the CHARMS checklist in other areas (there isn’t, for instance, supposed to be any rubbish in the carpark).

Just one plea from the minimum wage earners like my daughter who work in these stores - please don’t come in 5 minutes before closing, order something which has to be cooked specially for you, and then choose to dine-in. They aren’t allowed to clean the public areas while you’re still there, and at that time of night finishing work an hour late can make their getting home a real problem.

19

:slight_smile:

20

Well, like gatopescado and swampbear said, getting a jonse for KFC is not something I tend to take lightly. I’m the type of person where when I crave something, I not only crave it for a few days. No, I’m much more likely to crave it for a few months. And my cravings get baaaaddd. I’ve been known to order the same exact thing at the same exact restaurant 2-3 times a week for months.

But here’s the thing - they weren’t cleaning up. When the kid was asked to clean, he then proceeded to complain about it!

If I were in that situation where people were reporting the store * before* getting their food, I’d be afraid, very afraid. You see, I, as previously mentioned, work in a restaurant. In KFC, as with most other restaurants, you cannot see everything that could be done to your food. It is a running joke in my restaurant that the customer shouldn’t piss us off, because they don’t know what could be done to their food. Of course we would never do anything, it’s just the idea that if we wanted to, we could. The same principle applied to your situation, unfortunately. I could totally see the employees getting pissed off enough at you all for reporting them that they’d do something to your food. Personally, I would’ve waited until after I got my order to call anyone to gripe about it.

Ewww!! Gross!!

I sent in a complaint through their website www.kfc.com. I’m going to give it a few days and see where that get’s me. If I don’t get anywhere, then I’ll write a nice little letter to the address supplied on the website.

The one time where I mentioned cleaning an hour before closing, I had already been there for a few hours. The place was relatively quiet as compared to my school apartment, so I’d go there a lot to eat dinner and study.