I work at a drive-thru coffee shop, and when at the window, I am eye-level with raised trucks, meaning I am a fair distance above smaller cars.

The distance, paired with the fact that there’s a speaker playing behind me and milk steaming directly next to me, can make it hard to hear some parts of someone’s order, so I read it out to them several times. 

A guest pulls up to my window in a smaller vehicle while all the sounds are happening.

Me: “Good afternoon! What can I get started for ya?”

Customer: *Facing away from me.* “Can I get a twenty [quiet] latte [garbled].”

Me: “I heard you say a twenty-ounce latte, did I hear you say quad shot?”

Customer: “Flat.”

Me: “Got it, a twenty-ounce latte steamed flat, is three shots of espresso alright?”

Customer: “It’s a quad. Quad means four.” *Holds up four fingers.*

Me: “…Yes, sir, I’ll have that right out for you.”

I’m going through the Taco Bell drive-through and handed them my American Express Hilton Honors card to pay. Basically, the more I use it, the more hotel points I get.

Employee: *Sincerely.* “Are you the owner of Hilton Hotels?”

Me: *Taken aback.* “No.”

Employee: “Are you in the family?”

Naïve me is thinking she knew what kind of card it was referring to the ‘Hilton honors family’, and that maybe she was a member too.

Me: “Yeah.”

Employee: “Woooow! REALLY? Is Paris, like, your sister?!”

So that’s how my local Taco Bell now thinks that I am an heir to the Hilton family.

Me: “Do you have side salads?”

Employee: “What?”

Me: “Side salads. Do you sell them here?

Employee: “No. What kind of salad do you want?”

I couldn’t see any salads on the menu.

Me: “I don’t know, what kind do you have?”

She lists the types of salads.

Employee: “…and side salads.”

Me: “…okay, I’ll take a side salad.”

Employee: “What kind of dressing?”

Me: “Do you have vinaigrette?”

Employee: “No, we have Italian and ranch.”

Me: “Okay, Italian.”

I pull around to the window where a different person is working. I get my bag and check inside. They gave me thousand island dressing. At this point, I was so flustered that I didn’t even remember what I asked for.

Me: “Excuse me, I got the wrong dressing.”

Window Employee: “Okay, what kind did you want?”

Me: “Whatever your lightest dressing is would be fine.”

Window Employee: “Vinaigrette okay?”

For a second, I legitimately thought I was being punked.

It’s a mid-week short shift for me, and I’m covering the back window of the drive-thru. We’re slammed (odd for this time of the week and year) and have both lanes of our drive-thru packed.

I’m taking orders as I can, with a trio of front employees also taking orders as much as possible. Mostly from lane one. At one point, lane two beeps, but shortly stops beeping. I assume someone up front got it. 

After the rest of the cars clear, I look up at my camera feed and think I see a car in lane two (the camera can’t see the lane very well), and I answer.

Me: “Thank you for choosing McDonald’s. Have you been helped yet?”

Customer: *Shouting.* “NO! I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR TWENTY MINUTES, AND I WAS HERE BEFORE ALL THOSE PEOPLE!”

He was not waiting that long.

Me: *Taken aback slightly.* “I’m sorry about that, sir. I was unaware of that. Are you going to be using the mobile app?”

Customer: *Still shouting.* “NO! I’M NEVER USING THE GOD D*** APP! JUST GIVE ME A BIG MAC MEAL! AND A QUARTER POUNDER WITH CHEESE MEAL!”

Me: “And your drinks?”

Customer: *Slightly less mad.* “Coke with one. And I don’t know, Dr Pepper with the other.”

Me: “Anything else?”

Customer: “No!”

Me: “Alright, your total is [total] at the first window. Thank you.”

My McDonald’s is right off a major interstate, though our area is so small we likely wouldn’t be able to keep one open without it. Because of this, we park 75%-90% of orders when we’re busy. That’s inevitably what happened here. One of the sandwiches we ordered was made fresh to order, and it takes about seven minutes to cook the meat.

Less than five minutes later (this was relayed to me afterwards, though I could hear *something* from the back window), apparently the guy stormed back in and started yelling at my manager about how “this always happens” and “I waited twenty minutes for my order to be taken”. 

While I am unsure of the aftermath of that (besides the fact that he spent so long shouting at the manager that he got his food before he was done), I checked after he left. One of my coworkers up front *did* get lane two, but got no response. So he thought no one was there.

This isn’t unusual. Sometimes people pull around the building by using lane two if it’s empty. Or someone with a trailer or longer vehicle will set it off again when pulling around.

Late one night at a certain Kentucky-themed restaurant, an older woman came to the drive-thru.

Woman: “I want these items separately!”

She then proceeded to list multiple items that come in a combo, as well as the sides and drinks.

Me: “Ma’am, just so you know, it will be cheaper if we put these in a combo.”

Woman: “I don’t want your stupid combos!”

Manager: *Hopping on.* “Ma’am, I’m a manager, and my employee is right. You’ll save a lot of money if you put them in combos.”

Woman: “STOP TRYING TO UPSELL ME COMBOS! I WANT THESE ITEMS AND NOTHING ELSE! NO ADD ONS, NO COMBOS. JUST! THESE! ITEMS!”

Manager: “The combos don’t add anything other than what you ordered; they’re the same things, just cheaper.”

Customer: “I DON’T CARE!”

Manager: “Very well, we’ll have your total at the window.”

Manager to me, off the headset: “I’d better handle her at the window. I have the feeling she’s going to Vesuvius all over everything. Everybody, don’t start building the order yet.”

Sure enough, once she pulls up to the window…

Woman: “What the h*** did you upcharge me for?! This price is ridiculous! You’re trying to scam me!”

Manager: “We were trying to do the opposite, actually. We could have combined–”

Woman: “LIAR! SCAMMER! I’M NOT PAYING FOR THIS!”

Manager: “Then you’re not getting your food.”

The woman lost her mind, screaming incoherently and honking her horn. When the manager simply shut the window and walked away, she proceeded to gun the accelerator and peeled out, leaving nothing but the smell of burned rubber behind her. 

We all just shrugged and continued with the rest of our closing shift. The next several cars behind her were incredibly nice to us.