Employee morale was low before we even ordered in an empty drive thru line around 5PM. It was not…read moretheir pleasure, but everyone has those days. I get that.
I even conceded the size of my drink and fries would be a surprise, as she didn't ask before pushing us to pay.
I was too hungry to care and usually love surprises, but not the ones this experience continued to offer.
At the window, we were given our drinks, told that fries weren't ready, and to park and wait for both them and our meal.
We did just that.
As we pull up, a parked and waiting customer is flagging down the food runner to fix an error. She might as well have used a red flag that we unfortunately ignored.
Imagine our, well, surprise, when only our food comes out soon after.
No fries or utensils for the grilled nuggets.
We wave down the poor runner, tell her about the fries (priorities), and she asks for the sticker on the bag to confirm with the kitchen.
I rip off the sticker for her.
You can have my patience, but you can't have my food. I'm no longer confident in the chain of custody for my precious cargo when the impromptu fry delivery service is procuring everything but their namesake.
She's gone for long minutes.
Multiple cars pull into parking spots and leave with their miraculously accurate bounty.
The runner returns. She's wary.
A small, grease stained bag, is clenched in her fist.
It's a hostage exchange.
She's been told to check in our bag, that I wouldn't give her, to ensure that we don't already have fries.
Like we're enacting some great fry heist and are manipulating our way through various Chick-fil-A locations.
Honestly? If we were, we'd be awful thieves to just leave them in the bag, but whatever.
We show her the barren bag.
She approves.
Doesn't even notice the mountain of waffle fries, haplessly gathered in the backseat from all of our successful heists. /j
It was insulting nonetheless to have to pass a test to receive the food we paid for, when everyone else left visibly successful and unquestioned.
She does the handover.
We get the fries.
They're all the crappy, tiny ones, as if all that time was spent meticulously picking the worst, just for us.
It felt purposeful, strange, and made our visit to consume God's chicken completely lose its luster.
I've worked in customer service all my life and was as understanding as I could be in a situation that made no sense.
Don't know what is going on at this location, but it was admittedly a less than pleasurable experience.