Worst Food Service Experiences

[chibi-master]

Okay, so today my class went on a field trip. We ate lunch at Dairy Queen's and that's where this thread idea came from.

See, the trouble started when I ordered my food. I ordered a cheeseburger and a [I]medium[/I] chocolate sundae. The bill came up to $3.26, which was weird because both items were in the $2.99 area. I ignored it and sat down anyway. Then I checked my receipt. The lady taking orders at the cash register had put me down for the combo meal. This would have been fine except for the fact that the sundaes in the combo meal are all [I]small[/I], not medium. I ignored it and decided to make due. That is, until the sundae arrived... It was positively [I]miniscule[/I]!!! A five year old wouldn't have been satisfied! But I let it slip...

Then my friend sat down with me and told me that on [I]her[/I] receipt, she had apparently been charged for fries that she didn't order, nor did she want. This isn't the worst part, though. You see, after charging her for fries she didn't order, said fries were not delivered until about 15 minutes after she had finished the rest of her food. This only happened because one of the employees said, "Ooohhh...you had fries??? Okay, hold on..." and brought her some fries.

So now I ask you, what are some of your worst food service experiences?

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[color=#9933ff][font=monotype corsiva][size=4]First off I didn't even know we had [B]Dairy Queen's[/B] up north. I've yet to see one up here.

Second Oh man, the food service experiances... *sigh* Well you're not in fast food because you're the sharpest knife in the drawer, you're there to make money.

Okay my worst ever Fast Food experiance was probably at the [B]Tim Horton's[/B] near my daughter's babysitter. I'd stopped in there to get well... something and the one lady at the counter was actually over near the sandwhiches chatting on the phone. I stood over at the cash register and probably said excuse me four times before the girl- a bit younger than me wearing a lip ring which is a no no in food service- finally looks up and says in a very rude tone that I should shut up and be more patient. I told her I hope that after I call her manager she gets a lesson in customer service and then use my mobile to call the store manager's number.

To make the story better the guy calls me back a few days later, not because of my complaint but because I'd put in an application at that [B]Tim Horton's[/B] and they want to interview me. I said thanks, but no thanks because there's a good chance that if I worked at that location I may have to work with that girl again and I could end up punching her.:animeswea

Another bad experiance was also at a Tim Horton's, I was between assignments and trying to get some lunch. I stood in line for like ten minutes before the idiot at the cash register finally tells me that he doesn't know how to work the credit card thing and even if he did it wasn't working today.

Yeah I guess I should just stay away from [B]Tim Horton's[/B], but damn it all if they don't make good coffee.[/color][/font][/size]

[Raiha]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]My ex boyfriend and I went to a certain pancake place that shall remain nameless. (Ihop in the Bay Area)

I received my crepes without the lingonberry butter and berries. My hot chooclate had no whipped cream. Half an hour later my ex's pancakes arrived. Without his bacon or hashbrowns. His pancakes that were meant for him went to the couple sitting across from us who showed up about fifteen minutes after we did.

The water was never refilled and the syrups were empty. Then on the bill we were charged for the plate of pancakes twice. I found the manager and scorched his ears off. After he refused to give us our meal for free.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[nezzyjean]

I've worked in fast food before, so generally, I am pretty understanding of minor slip ups and the occasional rude dispositions of employees. However, the other night I ordered some tomato slices, scrambled eggs, and toast from waffle house to-go.

It wasn't quite ready yet by the time I went to pick it up, so I stood patiently by the counter watching this raspy talking, dirty looking old lady prepare my food. When she started slicing up my tomatos I noticed, to my horror, that she wasn't wearing gloves. Then she grips them completely with her bare hands to pick them up and toss them on my plate, then proceeds to butter up my toast with her bare, grubby old fingers.

I probably should have said something, but I couldn't bring myself to make a fuss, so I just paid for my food and threw it out when I got home. It was under 5 dollars anyway so I figured it wasn't worth it..but still pretty disgusting, huh?

[Raiha]

[INDENT][COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]With that, you snap a picture of the offense, then you send it to the health board of inspectors and get their butts shut down. That's so a violation in so many ways.[/FONT][/COLOR][/INDENT]

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[quote name='Raiha'][INDENT][COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]With that, you snap a picture of the offense, then you send it to the health board of inspectors and get their butts shut down. That's so a violation in so many ways.[/FONT][/COLOR][/INDENT][/QUOTE]

[color=#9933ff][font=monotype corsiva][size=4]Okay everyone mark this date down because I'm agreeing with Raiha. :o The Department of health has a lot of guidelines and one of the biggest is that any food service employee or worker who comes into contact with food has to wear gloves at all times.

I'd've made a fuss loud enough to get the manager. Or I'd go out to my car and come back with a pair of surgical gloves from the box I keep in my car. Yes I would so do that![/color][/font][/size]

[Drizzt Do'urden]

[quote name='nezzyjean']I've worked in fast food before, so generally, I am pretty understanding of minor slip ups and the occasional rude dispositions of employees. [/quote]

I'm with you on that, I think that with most jobs its easy to gain empathy for those minor slip ups, though I will never tolerate a rude employee.

That's where my worst experience comes in, though admittingly I didn't help matters. I was at the drive thru of a local Burger King, it was during Lunch hours and they were understandably busy.

I overlooked the hurriedness of the speaker boy, and even the rush rush of the girl at the food window telling me my Chicken sandwich wasn't ready, and to pull around (told me to pull around not asked).

Then as i sat there with my girlfriend at the time, I was appauled as my bad appeared in the drivers side window and was on my lap before I had a chance to raise my hands, or even to look up at the girl. So now I'm aggetated beyond belief, but I still keep my "Oh i've been there" and "Oh kids these days" mindset.

That is until I unwrap my chicken to ensure it's made the way I'd like, and find that it was taken out of the deep fryer at least a whole minute to early. It was very much undercooked, and very much disgusting.

And I snapped, I marched my unhappy behind into the crowded restaurant. Pushed past the crowd and proceeded to raise hell. I had both managers and both drive thru employees (one young girl in tears) in the lobby arguing who was in the wrong.

It started with an order, ended with a fired manager and free food for a week. (Gotta love the justice system)

[Lunar]

[COLOR="Blue"]Hmm.....the worst had to be when I was like 10. We went to Arby's that day and you know I was like really wanting a burger. :animeswea Well, anyways, when I got the burger, I lifted up one of the buns to add ketchup and stuff and the patty actually had a white dust on it. That freaked me out...and til this day I still don't like eating there. :animedepr[/COLOR]

[chibi-master]

When I was in Florida, we stopped at a McDonalds for breakfast. Yeah, I know, I'm not so special with a McDonals story, but...URGH!:animedepr Okay, my Dad ordered a Deluxe Breakfast thing or something. It came with a biscuit. So when he opened the box thing it came in, he looked at the biscuit and said, "Well, what do you know? There's a hair or something on my biscuit. Good thing I don't eat those anyway!"

".......Dad, I think that's a bug's leg.......," I replied. Now that I think about it, I should've taken a picture.....

[Aaryanna]

[COLOR="DarkGreen"][FONT="Tahoma"]Well when I went out to lunch with my sister and my mom, the waiter kept forgetting to bring out part of my sister's order. We must have reminded him like six times and yet he kept forgetting. It worked out in the end though. The waiter wrote something on our ticket and her meal ended up being free. Plus she finally got what he forgot in a take home box. [/FONT][/COLOR]

[Vicky]

[size=1]I don't do fast food anymore. My brother once got a burger from McDonalds and it was dripping with fat, literally. That was about three years ago and I won't go in McDonalds, Burger King or even KFC even when I'm trashed and starving. I hate it.

To be fair I've never had bad service experience because if I go out for a meal either it's with my family and we go to posh places and they pay, or it's with my girlfriend who's a chef anyway so knows where to go.

Pizza hut is good and Subway, though. Mostly because they're the victims of an old scam we used to pull. If you order your pizza from Pizza Hut (this doesn't work everywhere if they have gates on the back) and say you're leaving for a cigarette after awhile, don't come back. After about an hour you go round the back and your pizza should be thrown away, still in the box and all clean like, so you can get it for free. Doesn't work if you have to pay first though. And for Subway, you go in coughing your guts up and ask for a drink of water. They'll give you water in a Subway cup. Go out and throw the water away; go to the next Subway up the street and refill your cup with orange (free refills all day). Works sometimes, doesn't work always.

That's why I only like Pizza Hut and Subway =).[/size]

[DeathKnight]

[quote name='ChibiHorsewoman'][color=#9933ff][font=monotype corsiva][size=4]
Second Oh man, the food service experiances... *sigh* Well you're not in fast food because you're the sharpest knife in the drawer, you're there to make money.[/color][/font][/size][/QUOTE]

[color=crimson]As a man of reasonable intelligence and an ex-Wendy's worker I'd have to disagree with this stereotype. There are intelligent people who work in food service and hold conversations about philosophy in the break room while all you grotty little consumers come to get your saturated fats and sugars. [/color]

[xxxscenekidxxx]

[quote name='chibi-master']When I was in Florida, we stopped at a McDonalds for breakfast. Yeah, I know, I'm not so special with a McDonals story, but...URGH!:animedepr Okay, my Dad ordered a Deluxe Breakfast thing or something. It came with a biscuit. So when he opened the box thing it came in, he looked at the biscuit and said, "Well, what do you know? There's a hair or something on my biscuit. Good thing I don't eat those anyway!"

".......Dad, I think that's a bug's leg.......," I replied. Now that I think about it, I should've taken a picture.....[/QUOTE]

erk... mcdonalds are so disgusting... one time i went there n when i sat down something fell on the table... it was a cockroach i looked up at the ceiling (i don't know why) to find 3 of then hangin out up there... it was so gross... oh! and they dont serve burgers and fries till noon or so!!! not that i would want to eat there after the cockroach insedence... :sick:

[Sara]

[size=1]My bad food service experiences have almost exclusively been the result of inconsiderate customers, rather than the staff.[/size]

[chibi-master]

[quote name='Sara'][size=1]My bad food service experiences have almost exclusively been the result of inconsiderate customers, rather than the staff.[/size][/QUOTE]

Which reminds me that on the same day as the the hair/bug leg incident, at the same McDonalds, there was a kid peeing in the bushes of the play area...:animedepr

[Hyperninja1]

One day, me and dad went to a pizza place called Godfathers. So the lady told us to sit at a table but we nearly waited for about 15 minutes. Afterwards the waiter was saying to us "Oh are you just waiting for a pick up or something" and basically we told her no and then we order.

But that wasnt the worst, it was when I order a salad with ranch with NO olives a coke and two pizza slices and what did I get!? Salad with olives (alergic to olives), no coke and only one pizza slice. Then my dad litterally snaps out with one of those things like "OBJECTION!!!" thing becuase our reciept was the things we had ordered but haven't gotten.

Thank goodness those waitress was fired or quit or something or else i would've Shooda woop their butts If I were to receive a bad service in that same place AGAIN.

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[quote name='DeathKnight'][color=crimson]As a man of reasonable intelligence and an ex-Wendy's worker I'd have to disagree with this stereotype. There are intelligent people who work in food service and hold conversations about philosophy in the break room while all you grotty little consumers come to get your saturated fats and sugars. [/color][/QUOTE]

[color=#9933ff][font=monotype corsiva][size=4]I've worked at Wendy's and McDonalds. Most of the people there were about as deep as the fryers. As for intelligence, my supervisor at McDonald's couldn't quite figure out that since I was pregnant I had a heightened sense of smell and had to pee a lot. I also worked with a 40 something who tried to start stuff with me and then at Wendy's I won't even go there.

Yes I'm sure there are some smart people in fast food such as my cousin who worked at Subway (which btw is another brain trust- I worked there for like 2 weeks) but for the most part you've got a lot of high school and college kids. And then the adults... well I'm just biased I guess[/color][/font][/size]

[Sara]

[quote name='ChibiHorsewoman'][color=#9933ff][font=monotype corsiva][size=4]And then the adults... well I'm just biased I guess[/color][/font][/size][/QUOTE][size=1]. . . Sounds like it, yeah. [/size]

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[quote name='Sara'][size=1]. . . Sounds like it, yeah. [/size][/QUOTE]

[color=#9933ff][font=monotype corsiva][size=4]Well at least I'm able to admit it.:catgirl:

Okay I don't know why it is but all my bad food experiances seem to happen at McDonald's. Two weeks ago I'd gone to the one on Hudson Ave (okay none of you know where that is) with my daughter and we'd ordered chicken nuggets drinks and fries. Then waited about fifteen minutes for our stuff while two customers after me got their orders and I was told that they didn't put the orders in consecitive order. :animesigh Then when I finally got my food the fries were cold and they'd forgotten the dipping sauce. I was just too aggrivated to deal with anything else but the sauce. I'd just had a root canal for sobbing out loud! I did not want to wait another fifteen minutes for some fresh fries. So instead I counted my losses and just took my daughter to the museum. But seriously I don't even wait that long at Bill Gray's.[/color][/font][/size]

[xxxscenekidxxx]

[quote name='chibi-master']Which reminds me that on the same day as the the hair/bug leg incident, at the same McDonalds, there was a kid peeing in the bushes of the play area...:animedepr[/QUOTE]

lol im sorry, but that makes me laugh :animeswea

[quote name='Raiha'][INDENT][COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]With that, you snap a picture of the offense, then you send it to the health board of inspectors and get their butts shut down. That's so a violation in so many ways.[/FONT][/COLOR][/INDENT][/QUOTE]

i did not know that you could do that :catgirl:

[Japan]

This made me laugh. [URL="http://cep.mcdonalds.com/qualityfood/insideourkitchens.jsp"]McDonalds worker on the website making food with no gloves.[/URL]

[Pumpkin]

[size=1][font=tahoma]My ex-bf used to work for wendy's so I went in there to eat a lot. Not that I really have anything against fast food, (I love Taco Bell, I'm not even going to lie! STEAK GORDITAS! :] ) and ordered something like one of those stackers. There was a fatty fly in it, thank god I didn't eat it, but it was pretty gross.

Nasty. And then they tried to say that it was edible and nutritional. Okay maybe not. But that would have been pretty interesting story. [/size][/font]

[PiroMunkie]

[size=1]For the record, wearing gloves is [i]not[/i] required when handling food, and wearing gloves is really no different than working with your bare hands.

I used to work in food service and we were required to wash and sanitize our hands about every 30 minutes or when switching to certain tasks.

Interestingly enough you do pretty much the same thing when wearing gloves. You have to wash your hands before putting them on. You can only wear one pair for so long, and you need to dispose of them or change them if you switch to other certain tasks.

In either case, people can and will forget or neglect to take the proper precautionary measures when it comes to food safety. That person handling your food may be wearing gloves, and sure it probably makes you feel a little more secure, but you have no idea if he just finished doing some cleaning while wearing those same gloves, working with raw meats/poultry, collecting cash, or just simply hasn't taken them off in a long time.

I've worked both with gloves and without. From an employee perspective, gloves not only usually make it harder to work with your hands, but they take [i]way[/i] longer to change out than simply washing and sanitizing. They're pretty much there to create a sense of comfort for the customer.

Subway is probably the best at this. They change and dispose their gloves right in front of you. I think even their handwashing sinks are within sight.


More on topic, the worst fast food experiences are the ones you don't know happen to you. Yes you, the customer. Don't aggravate the people who handle your food. I've personally never done anything in that regard, but I know someone who has done it on a variety of occasions. I'm pretty sure a messed up order pales in comparison.[/size]

[Gavin]

[SIZE="1"]Seems I've come off pretty lucky compared to most people when it comes to fast-food restaraunts, the worst I've ever experienced with has been cold fries and even then they replaced them when I brought it up with no issue.

That said the world food service experiences I've ever had have all come from the same restaurant over on the west coast my family goes to when we're visiting relatives. First time I ate there I found a large sliver of broken glass in my salad (as a child you're more so thinking "Oh cool" rather than "Where's my ****ing lawyer?!").

Second time a couple of years later under new management my steak which I'd ordered as well-done (and I never under-emphasise the term) was still red in the middle for which I received a curt apology from the waiter and a 10 minute delay while another piece was cooked as the rest of my meal was left as is and went cold while I was waiting.

Final time around and new management yet again my food arrived twenty minutes later than the rest of the family's (despite my brother ordering the same damn thing), received neither an explanation nor an apology and my drink order was ignored until I called the waiter over twice. Being utterly livid I asked to see the manager, explained as calmly as I could my displeasure at the service before stating I expected some form of recompense. His offer was that I would receive a 25% discount on the meal and my response was that he go have intercourse with himself.

By far the most irritating thing however is my mother insists we eat in that place every time we take out relatives out to dinner because the food and service is so good. :animesigh[/SIZE]

[Sabrina]

[FONT="Tahoma"]Ironically, my worst food experiences are usually from my own cooking. I love to try out new dishes and sometimes, I mess up on the instructions. One time, I misread the amount of hot spices to put into a dish. I put twice the amount it called for. It totally unbalanced the rest of the flavors and I had to toss the entire thing into the trash. o_O

One time, I misread how long to bake something and set the timer for too long. It took the smell of something burning for me to realize I had messed up. It was a type of oven fried chicken and when I rescued it from the oven, it was too scorched to eat. I had to open up all the windows to let the smoke out and then disconnect the fire alarm while it did so. [/FONT]