#fastfood
JolliGirl
KFC in Valencia Spain
My name is Dave. I’ve worked in some form of customer service/support my entire adult life.
Today, I ordered from a drive-through at a favorite fast food lunch spot of mine. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with extra pickles and fries - the same thing I order every time I go there. (The guy usually working the window knows my name now)
I don’t typically check if my order is correct in the car, because:
1) Fast food joints are usually graded on how long each car sits at the window, so the less time I can spend there, the better for their scores.
2) It’s rude to hold up the people behind me who are waiting for their food too. If I have a problem, I’ll pull around, park, and go in to have it fixed like a not-lazy, responsible adult.
So I get back to my desk at work and discover that my order is wrong. I received a (rather sloppily made, unfortunately) chicken sandwich. I checked my receipt, which was correct - my actual order. Now, I only have a half-hour lunch, so I don’t necessarily have time to go back to the restaurant to have it fixed.
What did I do? Did I drive back, march indignantly back into the store and demand better service? Did I call the store and complain to the manager, hoping for a free meal on my next visit? Did I ask the people working hard to produce the food I chose to purchase, “How hard is it to do your job,” assuming that just because it’s a place that hires high-schoolers it MUST be an easy job?
No. I ate my sandwich.
Was the meal I ordered slightly more expensive than the one I received? Probably. But I ate my sandwich.
Is a couple bucks really worth making someone feel bad, who probably already doesn’t feel great about their job, who’s probably already been chewed out today by someone else? No.
The people at my choice lunch restaurant are human beings. Human beings are incredible creatures, and they are capable of amazing things. Every now and then, they make mistakes. And that’s fine. I’m not going to get bent out of shape about it.
And neither should you.