Generally speaking, I've always had fast and good service from this Wendy's. That is until today, 3/12/12. Going through the drive through is generally easy and they are always polite and sometimes engaging. Today, A nice lady was taking the order and then was cut off by a male voice who began to take over the order taking process. This would not normally be a concern, but the process was abrupt and the male then started to enter the order incorrectly (according to the order screen). I called out that the order was incorrect and that the prev lady was handling the service just fine, including repeating back the order to ensure it was correct (which it was at the time). The male voice then told me that they took the order process over as the female was not at the computer to input the order. Now, this isn't an issue and I fully understand the need to have the person who is next to a computer be the one to take or input the order. the problem I have is with the transition and the fact that the order was then input incorrectly.
As I was done with my order and feedback, feeling that the issue had been addressed and dropped, I proceed to the pay/pickup window. That's when I saw a man leaning out of the window in an (in my opinion) aggressive fashion. The man turned out to be the male voice and is also ( I was to learn) a manager for this facility. The manager was curt in his attempt to tell me how rude I was and disrespectful in telling him how I felt about the order taking issues while at the order speaker box. Now, I'm sure that I could have reacted in a better way, but having someone treat me like that when I'm in my car with two small children, only wanting to have my order and leave, well let's just say that the experience didn't make me happy.
The manager, Sergio, was loud, angry, rude, abrupt, disrespectful, obtuse and evasive when asked for another manager or the franchise owner's contact info. The manager didn't like that I told him how I felt about the order box transition process and was further infuriated when I told him that his level of customer service and current conduct was unacceptable and didn't reflect on his status as a manager.
The manager then told me to leave with out offering to table the issue and give me my food. As I was also ordering food for my children, I choose to stand my ground and demand that I be allowed to pay and take my order. I further reminded the manager, Sergio, that the entire ordeal was taking up valuable time and money for this establishment and also holding up the customer's behind me; this only added fuel to the fire with this person as they didn't seem to like being told about how to manage or conduct themselves as the manager.
Now, I long ago realized that there is no such thing as "the customer is always right". As I have spent years in retail, food service and other customer service environments, I have come to understand that no customer is always right, but the customer is still number one. With out the customer, there would be no job to pay the manager, employees or the business owner. So, I am left feeling like the owners of this particular Wendy's must not have many options for quality management or they, themselves, don't seem to care about the overall quality of customer service of their business. I would prefer that the case be the former and certainly hope that it's not the later.
The worst part of the whole experience is the food. I had asked for no tomatoes on my food. I am allergic to them and can not eat anything that even comes into contact with tomatoes. The food for my kids was fine, but mine wasn't edible as there was a tomato on the burger making. As I wasn't able to return to the Wendy's, parenting duties take precedence, I had to throw the whole thing away.
Suffice it to say that the whole experience will not be forgotten and will be reported to Wendy's corp and the owner's of the particular restaurant! read more