Chick father in law - no way.....

[Star*]

I'm brining this here because I want to be sure that before I write corporate about what I went through? I'm not being out of line. I don't feel that I am, and neither do most of the girls I work with. However I'll explain and let cooler heads prevail. Meaning people that are not involved whatsoever, and some of you work in fast food industry.

Yesterday our group (as per nearly every day) ordered breakfast/lunch and someone goes to get it. Sometimes it's a few people sometimes it's a lot. I've never done a large run, but I'm highly organized and made it easy for myself. Took the list, put your money in an envelope, put your card in an envelope and some orders got called in early. Then went to the Chick XX XX store. They were not busy at 9:am.

I would place one order, pay, then ask for whatever sauce to go with that order. Put the change in the envelope or swiped the card, put that in the envelope. Trust me it was NOT a nightmare for the cashier. I asked that the order for each be put into ONE bag. I asked for ONE bag for the sauces, condiments, napkins. I got the orders, drinks and made two trips to the car. I had about 12 orders. When I got back to the center? I started to open the bags and there were sandwhiches, in with breakfast, there were fries in with yogurt, there were ----well suffice to say I had to put everyones orders together and I don't know the menu but I made it work. I HATE to handle food. HATE IT. But the last two orders were missing....and the last one was mine - and it was cold, messedup.....so I drove back to the restaurant. I was angry....but cool.

Got there, and asked the girl if she would just do the orders over since A> I had to come back, and my food was cold - waffle fries suck when they are cold, and so do chicken strips,,,,,and the other girls parfait was 1/2 melted. Her biscuit was misisng, and my fruit cup was not in the bag. The manager came out and handed me a fruit cup, and said the only thing I was missing now was a fruit cup. I said "Well what I was hoping for, was to have the whole order redone, since the fries were cold and the strips were cold, and her biscuit was missing.." and handed her the bag. She said "NO maam...you got what you ordered, I can't help it you had to come back here.....Ill only replace the missing items.: I said "Really? After we come here and order all this? And I showed her all the list.....and I had to come all the way back down here because the orders were wrong? I mean they were really messed up and bagged out of order. It took me a long time to put whose food with who." She said in a really disgusted voice "I bagged those myself." I said "Look lady I would not LIE about it - THE food in that bag is what was left over......and THIS is whats missing, and OUR orders are cold." She REFUSED to fix them....and Said "I'll give you the biscuit and the fruit cup..."

THEN she said "WHEN YOU GUYS come here I guess we'll start writing your names on the bags (like children)" ......After that she walked off WITH attitude....so I just reached over the counter grabbed my cold food and said - could you just heat it up? She said NO....then said "OH i'll replace it----it'll be 10 minutes. I said forget it I've wasted an hour with this already.....and she nver said thanks or anything......and she managed to keep my receipts..

SO.....I got back.....and talked to another girl who one time didn't get her polynesian sauce and got comped for an entire MEAL......I said well I had my uniform on and I represented the entire center so I couldn't be my normal self.

But I'm not happy at all......and I want comped.....As far as an apology.......she can kiss my kamoo a moo a.

Am I wrong? I can take it if I am - I just don't think I am.

 

[busywend]

No. You are not wrong. She is. Or at least she is not about customer service AT ALL!

 

[1905]

Call the corporate office. Talk to a real person. Have a smile in your voice, tell them you always go there for lunch and I garantee you will have your entire lunch replaced, or a gift card will be sent to you. This happened to me once at Boston Market. I paid for my family meal and had to wait 20 minutes for the chicken. THEN after 20 minutes they started to fill orders that came in after mine. Whatever, I complained to the manager and she said,..."THIS IS NOT FAST FOOD RESTAURANT- YOU HAVE TO WAIT" ...um no, this is totally a fast food restaurant and whatever happened to the manager saying she was sorry? I called the corporate office who could not have been kinder. They mailed me a free family meal for 4.

 

[susiestar]

No way would I tolerate this with-o a call to corporate. Don't just call the customer service line. Go to one of the business databases and find out the CEO and call his office. I almost always get better service this way. in my opinion they should give you a free meal just for organizing things the way you did. You gave each order in a logical, orderly fashion, wanted each order kept separate, and they messed it all up.

First, the person was out of line. Her attitude is all wrong for her position. I am willing to bet you do NOT get the service our Chick-father in law-A gives. Partly that is because this manager is poisoning the crew -she is hiring people who think the way she does and she rewards that behavior. And that is the problem.

Second, it costs them very little to remake the order. Esp as you only wanted a few things and wanted it done because they took so long to get this logical, easy to handle order together. I have worked in many restaurants and a customer organized the way you are? Would have us kissing her feet and comping a LOT of food with most orders. Just because you handle things well and in an organized manner.

Third, customer is ALWAYS right. You do not tell a customer they are wrong unless they are screaming obscenities. Period. This manager needs either serious retraining and some antidepressants or whatever medication will make her able to handle her life, or she needs a new job where she does not dealw ith the public. Period.

Normall Chick XXXX is a good corporation. They care about employees, have great scholarship programs, and treat employees well. Decent hours, no work on Sundays or religious holidays, and they are HUGE supporters of schools and churches and community groups. Make SURE that you can list community groups who are unhappy because their members are not treated well with this type of behavior. ANY group your coworkers belongs to or has a child in is one of the groups that is affected.

They WILL listen. This is a HUGE problem in the eyes of the company. While they are a franchise, the corporate culture is supposed to be the same for the most part and the parent co HATES these complaints.

I am sorry you had such shoddy treatment.

 

[Hound dog]

Call corporate, have a nice chat. I hope you took note of her name tag even though you were so hot under the collar.

I don't like to eat there but I sometimes find myself there when out with easy child and sister in law. I've seen them literally bogged down with customers and manage to get the order right and hot.

Orders get messed up. It happens. But when a customer makes a special trip back to complain, a manager is not supposed to cop an attitude and get downright rude. They're supposed to make it right. You didn't ask for a free meal, you asked to have the order filled with hot food and what you ordered and paid for.

 

[AnnieO]

I'm with Susie, call the CEO. LOL the names have been all over the press lately. Last night mother in law took us to a nice restaurant (nice, but not crazy expensive). They got the SAUCE on husband's shrimp wrong (none, he ordered them with)... They replaced the shrimp. So we got 10 instead of 5. Yeah.

 

[Hopeless]

Call corporate. My lunch gang went to a sit down place and our service was horrible. I sent an email to corporate to let them know the issues with this particular location so they could train their staff on servicing the customers. They sent us a $50 gift card and apology letter. When I say sent, they sent the General Manager to my house to personally apologize.

 

[Calamity Jane]

Star, you capitulated to the point where you would've been happy if they just warmed up the darn food...and they didn't do that! NO WAY are you wrong. Particularly since the mgr. admitted she bagged the orders, so she bagged them incorrectly. She should have been gracious - she has no excuse.

 

[susiestar]

CJ has an excellent point. This mgr flat out admitted she messed it up and then got in your face over this??? When you backed down, even though you brought in a HUGE order? She still was rude and in my opinion aggressive verbally? This is a HUGE NO NO in customer service. Most restaurants I worked in would immediately fire an employee if a customer complained and was treated that way. I had to do it a few times, and I witnessed it happening in other restaurants. As in, customer talks to manager, manager talks to employee. Employee cops a 'tude, employee is told to turn in uniform (if one is worn) because they do not work there anymore.

ALL that the mgr had to do would be to give you a gracious apology and five bucks, retail price, worth of food. for this you would have left happy. You even asked for her to just heat up your food. She refused and was verbally aggressive to you. MAJOR problem. I dont care how tired a manager is. If you cannot be polite to customers, even crazy ones which Star wasn't, then you don't need the job. Period. There is no other way to see this if you have worked in restaurants. I have seen some seriously crazy customers and no way would they have been treated like that. EVER.

Considering that most restaurants keep food cost to 27% or less, the food seh refused to give you or heat up would have cost the store maybe a buck twenty five. I guess her job isn't worth even that to her, given her behavior.

be sure to total up the entire amt of all the orders so you can tell corporate and the franchise owner how much you will NOT be spending there over the next days/weeks/months. Cause that is going to HURT. Esp in this economy!

 

[witzend]

Well, I am going with "don't eat at Chik-father in law-A", but it has nothing to do with your food being cold.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Well... it's been a few years since I've done the group take-out thing, but...

I always need a special order.
It was my turn to make the run.
Like you, not at rush hour.

They put the whole thing together, and... as they were passing my order over from the kitchen to the cashier... the "custom" part of it fell on the floor.

The manager was called.
Took one look and said...

"We have to re-do your custom order. If you don't mind waiting for your part, we will also re-do the entire order so all of it is fresh.... and the entire order is on the house."

The rest of the group would NOT believe it that I came back with both their money and their food... But THAT was customer service.

 

[DammitJanet]

Like Witz, I wont eat at Chick father in law A but it isnt because of its food, its their CEO and his idiotic personal ideals which he decided he would make public. Good idea fool. I wouldnt eat there if it was the only fast food place in town. I am also boycotting Cracker Barrel for the same reason. I havent eaten there once.

However as to your issue, drive by the store and get the number that is listed on the drive through window to call if you have complaints. Start with calling them. That should get you some relief. After you call them I would also look up the corporate headquarters and write to them but I wouldnt expect much from them seeing how stupid they are. I think you might get more relief from the franchise owner. I dont hold out much hope from corporate.

I had a horrible experience one time with Shoney's because it took them forever to take my order then get my order to me and I was only one of 3 people in the restaurant. I called their general manager over the area we live in and the next thing I knew I had 3 gift certificates in the mail for free meals for 2 that included a dinner, drinks and dessert. I have even received gift cards for calling McDonald's and other fast food joints when I call and report that their workers are doing a good job! One worker gave me back a dollar when I over paid him and I got his name and reported him for being so trustworthy. He told me he got a raise the next time I saw him and I got a gift card for 10 bucks...lol.

Honestly I dont understand your experience. It is absurd. If calling the franchise folks dont give you any satisfaction I would write a letter to the editor and let people know about what happened. Also from now on, call your orders in ahead of time. If they wont take them that way, tell them you will take your business elsewhere. Im sure the Chinese place down the street would be more than happy to comply.

 

[Lothlorien]

I would definitely ask for the manager and explain what happened. Give him/her a chance to rectify.

You inconvenienced the little snotbag for doing her job. Don't you love that? I went to a local deli/grocery place here in town. It's mom-pop owned. I wanted deli meat sliced....it's not cheap there, but was convenient. Kid was rolling his eyes and huffing and puffing and didn't slice the stuff properly. In this economy, you should be happy I'm coming here...it means you have a job!

 

[BusynMember]

Corporate for sure. I would have asked for her supervisor while I was there, actually. I'm sure that's not how they are taught to treat customers.

Unfortunately, some people think they should get a medal for working at a low paying facility and she may be one of them.

 

[donna723]

You're darned right that you have a valid complaint! How horrible that this woman feels free to treat customers that way! Is she the chicken version of Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi"?

I'm at least sixty miles from the closest Chik father in law A so it's not like I'm tempted to go there too often but they already made me mad over their recent escapades so I'll happily add them to my "boycott list". They will be right at home on my little list, along with Subway and Nike ... they know what they did!

 

[HaoZi]

Did you get her name? You need to talk to the top boss at her store (just because she's A manager doesn't mean she's the top boss there) AND place a call to corporate.

 

[DammitJanet]

Im telling you Corporate isnt going to give one potter's damn. Go to the Regional Manager who owns the Franchise in your area. These stores are all franchise stores and the owner of the franchise is who you need to go to. That is who can give you the most help. They are the ones who dont want any bad publicity. The head of corporate obviously doesnt care about publicity...good or bad its all good to him.

Donna, I have got to ask, what did Subway do? I dont have many other sub shops in my area other than one mom and pop and they are expensive as all get out. We lost our Quizno's.

 

[HaoZi]

If it works like it does where I work (different place, same type of work), a call to corporate hotline would let her boss know she's doing things wrong (because she might not know exactly who to talk to at that store as top boss, corporate will let the franchise owner know) and let them know something is going wrong in that store. Most stores have to adhere to certain corporate standards, corporate or franchise owned, and corporate still is able to comp Star for the meal, too.

 

[Star*]

I'm not really caring for a comped meal.......I ate the one I paid for....It was cold. What peaved me was the condescending attitude and the lack of willingness to meet me 1/2 way and the "OH NO SEE I AM SO RIGHT HERE" attitude when (and not that it matters if the group spends loads or a buck there) attitude. If she had to deal with the people I deal with every day she'd be out of a job in less time than it took to say "Welcome to ..."

I guess that's the part that irks me. 1.) They are kind of controversial but I respect THEM for standing on their own principals/ideals because this is America where you can be as wrong as you like....and you still have a voice. 2.) JOBS are so hard to come by these days - WOULDN"T YOU THINK.....customer service would be a MAJOR contributor in trying to keep customers ESPECIALLY if you worked at a highly controversial fast food restaurant or any restaurant? Makes me want to call that guy that grades restaurants undercover. GAW. 3.) If I hadn't been in uniform? I would have leveled her playing field. And I would not have been non confrontational - because mouth paying for COLD JUNK that isn't worth $6.98 to begin with in a place that I don't want to eat at is NOT my cup of tea. But it was MY TURN to make a food run. I voted WAFFLE house.....mostly beacuse the food is better, they don't (can't say because it's politically motivated but you know what) but based on the fact that the #1 commandment is love one another..... and I like to say WAFFLEs.

I guess I'll call corporate. Drat....

 

[donna723]

Janet, both Subway and Nike are supporters of Michael Vick, the one who tortured and viciously killed countless pit bulls in his dog fighting operations. I will never ever give either company one red cent of my business!