Fast Food Slowly Becoming A Joke

Having never been big on fast food, I have never been to a certain chain. My roommate is craving something from there and I have no plans, so I decide, why not try it?

The place is clean, with only one off-duty employee in the place and one car in the drive-thru. My roommate knows what she wants and instantly orders. While she does so, I read the menu and decide on something simple. As she steps to a side, I step forward… and the cashier walks off to start filling ice in the lobby. Okay, maybe he just doesn’t want it to melt all over the counter. Then, he takes the bucket back and starts going through his checklist of cleaning. I am still standing at the counter. No one is in the drive-thru now. The off-duty employee and my roommate are standing at the end of the counter waiting for food.

The manager walks up and the off-duty employee coughs and points toward me. The manager doesn’t take the hint, so he speaks up and says, “Hey, you have someone waiting to order.”

The manager yells for the cashier to come up from the back and starts my order. I ask for a #5 small combo, no mayo. I think this is a fairly simple order. I am wrong.

It takes four tries to get it entered right. I should just walk out, because the cashier does. My roommate has finished eating now. I still don’t even have a soda cup. I get handed a bag with cold fries. Nothing else.

I call the manager over. Thankfully, I have the receipt. He takes the cold fries. A few moments later, I have a burger: bun, burger, extra mayo, no cheese, no bacon — no anything but enough mayo to drown a rat. Those fries? They are even colder now. And the cup is still sitting somewhere under the counter. I look at it, look at the manager, and shake my head. He looks at the receipt and says, “Oh, I’ll fix it,” and takes the bun and starts scraping mayo off it into the trash.

My roommate is now laughing her head off. The off-duty employee is looking embarrassed and disgusted. I tell the manager not to bother, and to just refund it as I have lost my appetite. He says he will have to charge me for the soda, and my roomie, the off-duty employee, and I all ask him, “What soda? I never got a cup!” He assures me the charge has been reversed, no trouble.

The next day, on a whim, I check with the bank. Not only has he not refunded me, he has charged me a second time. I tell the bank to refuse payment as it is fraudulent. I find out the district manager’s name and number and explain what happened. He takes my name and info. I mail him a copy of the information from the bank and a copy of the receipt.

A week later, they have a “now hiring” sign up as we go past. Today, I received a handwritten note of apology and coupons for free meals, but I think I will give them to my roommate.