5.24.2010

Dear Taco Bell...

Those that know me somewhat well know that I am hooked on Taco Bell - I consider it to be one of my "comfort foods" and it's our default fast food place of choice (which is kind of ironic, considering after a bad experience with it in Jr. High, I refused to eat there until my 2nd or 3rd year in college, around the time I met my long-term roommate, whom I've mentioned before).

Fortunately, there's a Taco Bell 2 miles down the road (remember my rollerblading trek the other day? Yeah, it's just across the street from Sonic). The other nearest Taco Bell is probably at least 10 minutes away, while this one is less than 5.

Unfortunately though, this Taco Bell has THE WORST drive-thru staff I have experienced with a fast food chain.
http://www.diningfail.com/wp-content/uploads/tacobellfail.png
Now we frequent this particular Taco Bell at least once a week (sometimes twice), usually after 10pm on weekend night. But after the 5 time in 1 month that they've messed up our order, I've honestly lost track at how many times we've either had to call them up or drive back to have them correct it - I know we're well over 6 times now.

This ranges from completely leaving out entire food items (cough*nachos*cough), leaving out an item's topping/sauce (ie: nacho cheese for nachos, sour cream for taquitos), giving us the wrong type of item (ie: steak instead of chicken, a completely different burrito than the one ordered) and even giving us an item we didn't even order!

True story - all the above have happened since the beginning of March.

Oh and we always ask for no ice with our drink because 1) it's coming from the fountain, it's already cold enough and 2) they put way too much ice in to begin with so you're only getting half the amount of beverage you ordered. One time, the guy put ice in it and we handed it back, saying we requested no ice. Rather than apologize, the guy just sighed and was all "Ugh, you guys make us waste so much money on pop..." implying that it was our fault he didn't listen and had to pour out the drink. He's lucky I didn't go off on the fact that 90% of the time they screw up our order and we waste money on gas to drive back so they can fix it.

The latest incident?

We were hungry, not a lot of places are open at 2am on a Monday morning, but Taco Bell's open til 3am so we decided to drive over there. Hubby orders a burrito, I order chicken taquitos with sour cream and an order of nachos. I'll give the guy props for being so peppy and energetic at 2am, but still... we get our order an despite the fact that I ALWAYS ask him to wait for me to check the order before pulling out, hubby pulls out anyway (mom trained me from the time I was little to always check the order before leaving the drive thru, hubby worked/managed several Wendy's for 3 years and hated when cars took their time leaving the drive thru so he got in the habit of never waiting). Before we can leave the parking lot, I notice they forgot the sour cream. Hubby doesn't see it as a big deal so he starts driving and doesn't turn around until I point out the things are dry and that's why they include a dipping sauce with them. So we go back, get the sour cream (they give us 2 to compensate) and go home to eat.

I open up the taquitos and... that doesn't look like chicken dripping out of them. Hubby takes a bit - they're steak. I don't eat steak from Taco Bell because, well, it's Taco Bell - I don't trust their steak or their "fish" - I stick to either the beef and the chicken.

Is it sad that I'm shocked and surprised the few rare times they've actually gotten our order right? That can't be good, can it?

And we've complained - I've filled out the corporate online survey on the back of the receipt so many times, citing errors with our order and the time they messed up our order 4 visits in a row I up and complained directly to the manager in person - she was pretty shocked and I noticed them being more on top of things the next few times we went... but lately they've gotten lax again.

It's getting ridiculous and I don't see why we should have to travel twice as far and burn twice as much gas to go to a different location when we have one right down the street. Like I said, hubby managed several different Wendy's locations for like 3 years and I've worked with taking food orders and getting them to people quickly and correctly as well working concessions at the movie theater - it's really NOT THAT HARD A JOB TO DO!

No comments:

Post a Comment

What's your thoughts?