My experience yesterday left me really upset. I pulled up to the window after placing a mobile order and was immediately met with an employee who seemed clearly irritated. They asked, “Are you paying cash or card?” I said, “Oh, I actually have a mobile order.” They replied, in the same irritated tone, “Well, we can’t get to our mobile orders right now.”
I asked, “What should I do?” They sighed and said, “Well… you can either cancel your order or you can wait 15–20 minutes.” The last time I tried to cancel a mobile order, the app wouldn’t let me, so I told them, “I thought you couldn’t cancel mobile orders after placing them.” They responded, again sounding irritated, “Yes you can… in the app.”
I was from out of town and really just needed to grab some food and get back on the road, so I asked, “So you can’t take any orders right now?” They said no—which confused me, because why ask “cash or card” if no orders could be taken?
Even though I was met with irritation from the start, I stayed calm and responded kindly, saying, “Okay, well I’m really sorry if I frustrated you, but I hope you have a great rest of your day.”
When I drove away, I tried to cancel the order, but the app notified me that it had already been processed and couldn’t be canceled. So I went back to the window and was met again with, “Cash or card?” I explained, “Sorry, it’s me again. You said I could cancel my order, but the app says it’s already been processed, so I just wanted to know where I should wait.”
They told me, “You can pull forward and wait if you want.” What confused me further was that the person in front of me had just received their order, so clearly some orders were still being made.
When I reached the window, I heard the employees talking about me, but I stayed calm and showed them the error message I was getting. They asked, “Well, what did you have?” It was just a hamburger, so I told them. They replied, “Just the sandwich?” They went to make it and brought it out shortly after.
It was my mistake for forgetting to mention my modifications, so I’m not upset about the food. What really bothered me was being met with such irritation and attitude from the very beginning when I had given no reason for it. I completely understand that food service can be stressful, I’ve worked in it, and I would have been understanding had someone simply said, kindly, “I apologize, our system is down and it will be about 15–20 minutes.” Instead, I felt the frustration was taken out on me, even though I had no way of knowing what was going on.