Word to the Wise

Written on May 23rd in Uncategorized

If you’re really craving Taco Bell, stay away from the one across from Cubs on Knoxville. A few weeks ago, I pulled up during the lunch hour. After waiting for several cars in front of me to place their order, I pulled up to the intercom. “How are you?”, “Fine thank you.” “Go ahead with your order” “I’d like two soft shell tacos and a medium diet” “Two hard shell tacos and medium coke?” “No, two soft shell tacos and a medium diet” ” Two hard shell tacis and a medium coke?” “No. Two-soft-shell-tacos and a med-ium diet!” “YOU DO NOT NEED TO YELL AT ME!” “Excuse me?” “YOU DO NOT NEED TO YELL AT ME. CONTINUE WITH YOUR ORDER.” Considering that I’m a woman in my thirties who was just “reprimanded” by a Taco Bell employee, hell no. “You have a great day” as I pulled away without completing my order. I was BOILING. Really, I don’t think a single person can attest to me yelling at anyone, let alone someone in the service industry. Ninety-nine percent of the time everyone asks me “Huh? What? Sorry, I couldn’t hear you” I’m not a shy person, I just don’t always feel the need for EVERYONE to hear my conversation. Everyone in my extended family growing up had hearing aids or hearing issues. EVERYONE got to hear when Angie had to go to the bathroom or every embarrasing situation imaginable. There were no secrets. It’s simply not in my nature to scream at a stranger and THAT pissed me off.
I got home and told Rob the story. He said that he had been their one afternoon and had to bang on the drive-thru window because no one answered him at the intercom. So, another friend was relaying her ‘horrible fast-food service’ experience with me the other day. I recounted my blood-boiling Taco Bell experience to her. She asked, “The one on Knoxville?” I affirmed and she said, “Yeah, they must have something wrong with their speaker because the EXACT same thing happened to me. She told me I didn’t need to yell and I told her she needed to fix her headset before someone really yelled at her.” Why couldn’t I have thought of that?

5 Comments In Response To “Word to the Wise”

  1. 1
    Brick said:
    May 24th, 2007 at

    Yeah, fast food can be a challenge sometimes. I try to avoid it when I’m in a bad mood — almost every time I go to a fast food joint, some want-wit employee does something to piss me off. Usually, it involves forgetting part of my order, which I inevitably discover only after I’ve driven away from the window.

    Your Taco Bell story is particularly troublesome. I love the Bell and generally need a fix once or twice per month. I guess I’ll try to avoid the Knoxville store and hit the one on Sterling. Thanks for the Word. Perhaps some one should let them know about the bad speaker.

    - Brick

  2. 2
    diane vespa said:
    May 24th, 2007 at

    All Taco Bells are that way. I think its in their company mission statement.

  3. 3
    PeoriaIllinoisan said:
    May 24th, 2007 at

    Oh no, Diane, ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt great one of the kids spilled syrrrrp on the keyboarrd the one on Sterling has very good service.

    Great storie, Angie. I knew it was going to be bad when they asked “How are you?”. I’m not much into making conversation through a drive-up speaker.

  4. 4
    RomanII said:
    May 26th, 2007 at

    Angie: just drop a note to the manager, the longer we let these dropouts handle the process, the longer we will get bad service. Seems like most of the microphones at these places do not work well-but that is no excuse for the impoliteness. Ever notice how many tmes you receive your food without the simplest of thanks?

  5. 5
    britt said:
    May 28th, 2007 at

    you should go in and yell at them….like you think you’re still in the drive thru. that’ll teach em.

    what’s funny is that there’s this super rude taco bell and mostly all the rest are all “hi how are you?” before you order.

    (that STILL throws me off)

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