One more day at He- Bell

[ralizon]

This is my first post, heck its my first time stepping out of the shadows... I works for a taco shop and I live in a college town so when our particular college team has a game at home you always know what kind of night its going to be...

So I will set this up, our closing manager was unable to close this particular evening so he set one of the trainers in his position, this is fine, as the closing crew everyone that is on there can basically run the store, we all know what needs to be done and we can take care of anything but the paperwork... we're, as I like to believe, the heart and soul of the restaurant...

At about 2-ish am we got hit with the usual drunk rush which though unpleasant can be dealt with and is not often bad to the point at which I wish to drag someone out of their car and slowly dip them into our fryer. tonight we had an exception...

FC-This is me, THE Fat kid, as I have worked very hard to be recognized as.
AMIC- The lady placed in charge of the shift who really didn't deserve this crap tonight
SC- Well I am sure you can guess.

Over the headset (order takers and food makers on drive through have to wear them)

SC: I would like... (15$ worth of the cheapest most irritating food you make here)
AMIC: Okay... (Clarifies, makes sure everything is right) I'll see you at the window.
SC: The last time I was in here you guys messed up on this combo that I ordered... can I get it for free?
(Its our policy to remake this stuff even if we are fairly certain they are lying... with three branches in the same town we could be picking up their slack, and its not that bad either)
AMIC: Yeah sure, (off the headset) hey, fat kid I don't know how to do this can you help?
FC: NP (trundles over make sure everything is in order on the comp)
AMIC: (back on the headset) Alright does that look alright for you? (Price now being 5$ cheaper)
SC: yup

when they get to the window and are handed their food its is a completely different story.

We had two new people this night, and of the people on shift who knew what they are doing and can field issues that don't officially need a manager or can try to send them the right way, i am the biggest. Being heavy set broad f build and surely looking I present a chalenge to people wishing us an unpleasant evening.

As it turns out they wanted the entire meal for free, and that they had talked with someone who had not given them a name, and who fit the description of someone no longer working here... Or our cleaning captain who has absolutely nothing to do with any food based decisions... Long story short (I know... too late!) we can promo more than five dollars without a managers permission, who was not available, the one who is normally awake at 2AM IN THE FREAKIN' MORNING!!! was not answering his phone and they were demanding we call them to get permission.
In the end,since the food had been handed out before this whole ordeal had even started the AMIC just told them to have a good evening and closed the window...

This is when they laid on the horn for a moment to ask for SAUCE! These people had been sitting in our window for 7 minutes, and refusing to move... This is seven times (at least) the maximum target time for someone to be at our window.

About two hours later someone who sounded very similar called, angrily, demanding the number for our corporate office...

Long Night... Thats all I can say.

Sorry for the long rant just had to tell someone who would understand, and I figgured who better than the loving community of sometimes-I-could-just-choke-a-customer-with-a-rolled-up-tortilla, I mean Customers Suck.

[Megg]

As a fellow employee of the Hell, I can sympathize. People are retarded. We had a customer come in demanding his order be remade because we messed it up so badly. He was all pissy, which I am usually good at taking those guys down a notch. I asked him what was wrong, and when he came in. He told me, to which I asked, are you sure you came here and not to the other store? (We are franchised, our owner owns 5 stores in our area, 2 in our town.) He was sure, and the people were so rude, and he had never had such a bad experience.

We remade the food, because we give food to damn near anyone, and as MiC, I was given the duty of giving it to him. I apologized again for his bad experience, and happened to mention that on the day in question, and actually for that entire month, our dining room had been closed for a month, and there was no way he could have purchased said meal at our store. It was okay, though, as we were owned by the same man as the other store, and as a company, our rule was just to keep the customers happy. I thanked him for bringing the problem to our attention, and smiled big and brightly at him as he turned interesting colors and left the store.

Even the store manager was laughing her ass off, because I was never anything but friendly and polite as I pretty much called this guy an idiot and an asshole.

One thing I love about customer service, if you say it the right way, and always with a smile, you really can say just about anything.


ETA:

This is when they laid on the horn for a moment to ask for SAUCE! These people had been sitting in our window for 7 minutes, and refusing to move... This is seven times (at least) the maximum target time for someone to be at our window.

This is why, if it beeps even once after the window is closed, I open it, and ask "Is everything okay? Did you need something?" People like to eat at our window. I hate it.
Those customers of yours would have gotten my full kill em with kindness treatment, and that's never pretty. I have also been known to call the cops on people.

I am sorry for you to have to deal with that crap. Thank dog we close at 1 on weekends.

[jnd4rusty]

I work at a taco joint that is not the Bell, our owner has four stores in our community. Our policy basically says if the mistake happened the same day, we will generally take care of it, of course we use discretion. For example, a few years ago we had a person calling from a hotel (at all our establishments) who said they had come in earlier in the day and order such things like quesas, six packs, apple grandes and only got three burritos. Each time they call and I was working I would tell them "no dice", because how in the hell could you drive away and not realize that you were missing three quesas and a six pack. The packaging alone is quite obvious!! If it happened the day before or the previous week, I tell them that there is not much I can do for them, I may offer a free potatoe or a drink but that is all.

I refuse to give away our profits for stupid things. If we miss a cup of cheese, I will replace the cup of cheese as credit for the next visit, if the customer is nice when they call I will even throw in a potatoe or a drink for free. If they are asses, I replace just what was missing. Of course we get really anal people who want their whole meal replaced because we for got a cup of cheese, because their poor kids can't eat potatoes without cheese. My favorite is someone expecting us to replace their whole order because we forgot their hot sauce. I mean get real!! I want to tell them that there is a grocery store across the street, but I could get into trouble for that. I am grooming good customers, one at a time though.

Everytime I get a phone call and the customer is nice about the problem, I will throw in something free, as I previously stated, and I will also inform the customer that I am giving them extra because they are nice about the situationl. You would not believe the responses I get!! The customers are just gushing with gratitude and you know it will make them think the next time a mistake happens and they feel like they want to sound off. They will remember the positive response from me because of their positive attitude and maybe there will be one less SC for some unfortunate soul to deal with.

[ralizon]

This is why, if it beeps even once after the window is closed, I open it, and ask "Is everything okay? Did you need something?" People like to eat at our window. I hate it.
Those customers of yours would have gotten my full kill em with kindness treatment, and that's never pretty. I have also been known to call the cops on people.

That's usually my plan, but when you have seven cars behind them, and all they are doing is repeating the same line over and over, it loses its effectiveness, especially once the alcohol has kicked in to the fullest extent. I'm fairly certain I went to school with one of them, and if I am correct she was the type of person you have to wonder how they even learned to speak let alone coherently.

The fact that they sat and argued about the price as if i would magically go away when they had the food, and it ended the same way as if they had just driven off is the part that steams me.