I work in fast food usually on the counter but tonight I was doing the drive thru order taker. It’s about 11:30 at night and a few of the events at local bars have let out so it’s unexpectedly busy. We’ve just had another rush and all our frozen drinks are in defrost (not working) so I’ve been telling people that order them that their not available and most of them just get coke instead. Then there’s this customer.
Me: “Hello, what can I get for you tonight?”
Customer: “Frozen coke”
Me: “I’m sorry, our frozen drinks aren’t working at the moment.”
Customer: “Well, what can you do?”
Me, thinking frozen drinks are only $1 maybe they just wanted to buy something cheap: “Our hamburgers are also only $1 right now if you like one of those.”
Customer: “But is it a frozen coke”
Me: “No, frozen drinks aren’t working sorry. But you could get a milkshake for $2 instead.”
Customer: “But is it frozen coke though.”
Me: “I’m sorry we can’t do frozen coke.”
Customer: “We only can here for a frozen coke.”
Me: “I’m sorry then, there’s nothing I can do.”
Customer: “Well now we have to wait for 5 minutes for nothing. What are supposed to do. Can we get a normal coke for the same price.”
Me: “Sorry, I’m not allowed to do that.”
Customer: “Well if we can’t get anything what are we supposed to do.”
Me: “You’ll just have to leave the drive thru.”
Customer: “There’s a car behind, we only came here for a frozen coke, we don’t want to wait 5 minutes for the other cars, why can’t you just give us a normal coke for $1.”
Me: “I’m sorry, I can’t do that. You’ll just have to wait, I’m sorry there’s nothing I can do.”
Customer: “Why can we just get a normal coke for $1, we’ll have to wait ages for…”
At this point the other person on the headsets must have told my manager what’s happening because she comes to my defense.
Manager: “We can’t change to prices, we aren’t allowed, if you’re not ordering anything you’ll need to move forward so we can take the next car’s order.”
Manager, to me on headset: “Close the window and ignore them when they get there, come get me if they leave the car or yell at you or anything.”
So I close the window take the next order and start getting more cups and things for counter while waiting for them to clear drive thru, I don’t know if they would have gotten violent but I didn’t want to be there to find out.

I have been working at this chain for a few years, so I am quite proficient at my job and am usually commended on my customer service.

I am on the dinner shift taking orders for drive-thru. As it is a busy night, they have rostered enough people on so that I can just take orders and I have a coworker next to me taking the money. There is already a long line of cars waiting to have their orders taken.

This particular fast food chain has timers for how long it takes from the customer arriving at the speaker box to when they pull out of the drive-thru. These will vary slightly depending on the length of your drive-thru. Our particular store has a three-minute timer that we are supposed to meet consistently to stay in the green.

Me: “Hi, welcome to [Restaurant]. Please place your order.”

The customer is in a van and is taking orders from various people in the car. Any time when it sounds as if she has finished her order, I ask:

Me: “Is there anything else I can get for you today?”

I have my managers talking over my headset, giving me updates on the timer, as they have cleared all of the drive-thru customers before her. The timer is over five minutes, and the line of cars is blocking most of the small car park. As we have two speaker boxes, one behind the other, the managers have already taken the order for the car stuck behind her, which is a singular meal.

This whole time, I have been as polite as possible and not said anything rude, but all of us in the store are getting frustrated, wishing she had come into the store to order. Around the seven-minute mark, I ask her:

Me: “Is that all tonight?”

Customer: “Yes.”

Finally! There is an audible sigh of relief from everyone listening in on the headset.

Customer: “For my second order…”

We do allow split orders in the drive-thru, though only usually two per car.

This order didn’t take quite as long, but I politely tried to hurry her along as she was well over the timer and had ruined our times for the night. We are ranked against all the stores in the country, and occasionally, the managers will offer free meals if we don’t go over the time on any cars.

She finally pulled up to the window at about the ten-minute mark. I was taking the next customer’s order and my frustrated coworker, who has less patience than I, was still polite but quite short with her trying to hurry her through the drive-thru.

After she finally left, my manager came down to tell me that she had complained about me, saying I was rude and rushing her through her order. Fortunately, my managers know I am always polite and listened to the whole conversation on the headset.

I am ordering fast food in my local shopping mall’s food court, happily waiting to receive my order, when the following catches my attention.

A previous customer has ordered and stood off to the side while they wait for their food. Where they are standing, they are actually in front of the next food place’s counter.

A staff member comes to the counter, calls out an order number, and glances around to see who is coming to collect it. I see the person raise their hand, but they don’t step forward to collect their food. When the staff member doesn’t notice this, they start waving.

Because they’re essentially standing in front of a different food place, the staff member hasn’t seen them and calls out the number again. At this point, the person actually starts clapping their hands to get the staff member’s attention, apparently expecting to have the staff member bring the food to them, rather than walking over to the collection point, which is all of a few metres away.

Talk about being lazy.

Since getting hit by health crisis layoffs while my wife was on leave caring for our newborn, takeout and delivery food are luxuries we use sparingly. We still live in a complex with a fairly affluent population because our landlord prefers we stay and pay some rent rather than the expensive reletting process.

We order delivery on [Popular Platform] and the order total is above $50; the order proceeds as normal until the items are picked up. Then, the tracking seems to look like the driver is weaving all across the opposite end of town. That’s no big deal as it usually means they have other orders to deliver. However, after waiting half an hour beyond the expected arrival, I have a chat with customer service.

Me: “This is regarding [Order Number].”

Customer Service: “One moment, please.”

They do an ID verification.

Customer Service: “It looks like the item has been delivered.”

Me: “Delivered? To whom? Nobody has been to our door and no food has been left at the gate.”

Customer Service: “The driver has marked the food delivered, so it has been. Your card will be charged. I will not be doing any refunds at the moment for you.”

Me: “If you can tell me when the person came to our door, I can check to see if someone stole the food off our steps as we have cameras.”

Customer Service: “Well, they were at [Suburb twenty minutes away] where they picked up the parcel, and then they drove to [Suburb even further away] where they marked the item—”

Me: “Please check my verified address against the suburb the item was last seen in and check how far apart they are.”

Customer Service: “Erm, it looks like the driver has been stationary for a while. Let me call them.”

When they return:

Customer Service: “I don’t know how to say this… It looks like the driver marked your item delivered, started their break, and they were in the process of eating your food when they decided they needed a beer to go along with it and just drove home. How about I ask the restaurant to remake the dish? They will deliver it as soon as they finish eating.”

Me: “So, your solution is for someone who admits to being drunk on the clock to drive across town to pick up the food and drive to my home. I’ll be reporting you for your tone earlier accusing me of just making up a complaint, and now for covering for a drunk driver.”

Australian notes are all plastic , so when you work behind a bar or in hospitality they can sometimes get stuck together if they’re wet, one day I had this old cranky guy bark his beer order at me and then he hands me a $50 note. His change was $40+ so 2 $20’s & some coins. I pull out what I thought was 2 $20’s out of the register and was counting it in my hand before giving him his change. I had only grabbed 1 $20 & as I was pressing no sale on the register he proceeded to call me a thieving bitch, scum and other derogatory comments. We also have some pretty strict drinking laws and our pub policy was if we cut you off then you’re instantly kicked out. Well guess who was the scum bitch after all.