Not In Receipt Of A Helpful Attitude

I go through a fast-food drive-through, place my order at the speaker, and pull up to the window to pay. I ask for a receipt – something I always do – but this time, the employee says the printer is out of paper and they haven’t had a chance to swap it yet. I tell them that I’m OK waiting, but by the time my food is ready, the paper still hasn’t been swapped out.

I look in my bag as I’m rolling away from the window, and immediately notice that I’m missing an item. I drive around the restaurant and find a regular parking space, and go inside to ask for my item.

Cashier: “Welcome to [Restaurant], what can I get for you today?”

Me: “I just went through the drive-through, and I’m missing [Item].”

Cashier: “I’m sorry to hear that. Do you have a receipt?”

Me: “I asked for one, but I was told that the printer was out of paper.”

Cashier: “Unfortunately, without a receipt, there’s nothing I can do for you.”

Me: “Is there a manager I can speak with, please?”

It took a few minutes of arguing, as politely as I could, with the manager to convince them that I had in fact ordered the item. No matter what I said, the only thing the manager would tell me was that “without a receipt, I can’t prove that I ordered [item], so he can’t just take my word for it”.

I finally threatened to call corporate and report the restaurant since it was their own fault I hadn’t received a receipt, even though I had asked for one. The manager finally grabbed (item) off the serving window, which had clearly been sitting there the entire time, and handed it to me with a less-than-sincere “There. Are you happy now?”

I still sent in a complaint to Corporate when I got home, but I doubt anything will happen. The only explanation I can think of is that the manager, and probably other employees, were running a scam to get themselves free food by stealing items from people’s orders and then not giving a receipt so they either had to leave without their item or pay for a new one.

I have never left a drive-through without a receipt since this incident, just to make sure I don’t run into this kind of situation again.