Like The Onions, This Complaint Has Layers

An older woman comes driving in to give an order. Our location doesn’t have a speaker due to neighborhood ordnance, so all the orders in drive-thru are taken face to face.

Customer: “Double cheeseburger without onions.”

I ring it in, complete her order, and send her on her way. About five minutes after she picks up her food, she comes back through the drive-thru.

Customer: “They put onions on my burger!”

I apologize and print her up a duplicate receipt to confirm to her and myself that I rang it in without onions.

Me: “If you go up to the front window and tell the manager, they’ll replace the burger for free, made correctly, but I can’t do anything about it back here.”

She did so, and they gave her a brand-new burger and an apology. I thought that was the end of the situation, but boy, was I wrong. She called the state government on me, by name, demanding I be fired! I was told that she called the food safety department, the chamber of commerce, and the governor’s office.

The franchise owner called to say that it turned out that she is allergic to onions, and she straight up accused me of deliberately ringing her sandwich in wrong and trying to poison her and then printing up a false duplicate receipt of her order to make her look like a liar. Keep in mind that I read the receipt back to her and she confirmed it was her order.

I didn’t get along with the manager who was working at the time, but even he was like, “That’s complete crap. It wasn’t even [My Name]’s mistake — it was the kitchens — and we fixed it for her.”

The franchise owner was told by whichever branch of the state government called them that the customer had demanded that I be fired. I wasn’t — I wasn’t even written up — but I did stop wearing my name tag at work when I could get away with it.