Something in the air?

What is it with the fast food joints on Wallisville Rd.?  Is it so hard to hear an order, repeat the order correctly, and then get the correct food and drink in the bag?  To be fair, it may not just be Wallisville Rd. that has bad air these days.  There seems to be a rash of foul ups that happen between the order window and the delivery window.

• Serving cole slaw without a fork or spoon.
• Substituting diet Dr. Pepper for diet Coke.
• Substituting the wrong kind and amount of chicken pieces.

And the list could go on.  It's not a new or unusual thing at all to get a messed-up order through a fast food window.  Indeed, it's practically the new "normal" that the bag that comes through the window will have something missing or substituted for what was ordered.

In response, I have developed a strategy to deal with it.  If it's not too badly messed up or I'm in too much of a hurry to warrant a return to the restaurant, I check the receipt for a phone number.  Sometimes I'm home already, sometimes I call from wherever I've stopped to dine (Mama and I "picnic" in the car a lot these days), but as soon as possible I call the restaurant and ask to speak to the manager.  I provide the ticket number and explain what I ordered versus what I received.  I comment on the server, praising courtesy, detailing rudeness.  Often the manager wants to "do something" for me--give me a coupon or something.  These are largely useless to me, so I make a big point of saying that I don't want anything extra, I just want the service that I paid for--every time I go to that restaurant.  I ask him/her to please have a word with the staff about the quality of service and what customers are buying when they come to the restaurant.  They usually agree very quickly.

What matters to me in this is that fast food restaurants not be excused from providing a basic level of service:  take the order respectfully, repeat it back to the customer clearly, check to make sure that the order listed on the receipt is the actual order in the bag, check to see if the customer has extra requests for napkins or condiments before closing the window in his/her face.  It's not rocket science, and we pay plenty to get this level of service.  Failure needs to be reported to the person who is ultimately responsible:  the manager.  Repeated failure needs to be proclaimed a little more strongly--in places like this blog and rating sites that allow the community to comment on quality and service.

I'm not trying to cost anyone his/her job here.  I am not trying to put anyone out of business.  I just get fed up with paying for something and getting ripped off, which is exactly what is happening.