by Crystal Eschbaugh

Created on: August 22, 2009   Last Updated: August 23, 2009

No Such Thing as Fast Food

What was supposed to be a quick drive-thru visit to a local fast food restaurant turned into a 45 minute nerve wracking nightmare that has left a bad taste in this reporter's mouth.

Eager to use money saving coupons I purchased the day before from a local Little League fundraiser, my family and I headed to the fast food restaurant feeling great about helping the little ones. We were feeling thrifty about the buy one, get one free deal we were about to get for the whole family.

Instead of the smiling voice I pictured in my mind, we were greeted by, A buy one, get one free coupon?! You'll have to pull up! I was taken aback. Evidently this order taker was not as enthusiastic about helping the little leaguers as I was. Meanwhile, the kids were thankfully, completely oblivious. Their minds were solely focused on their tummies.

I pulled up to the window and placed my order to the sound of inconvenienced sighs coming from the drive-thru speaker. The order, un-complex in my opinion, had to be repeated to the order taker twice, along with the coupon information.

My family and I confidently moved on to the next window, where I reported the rudeness of the order taker to the next employee. To her credit, she did immediately notify her manager who came to the window, listened to my complaint, and assured me that she would talk to her employee. We were asked, very nicely, to pull up and wait for our order.

Several minutes later, our order arrived at our window and we drove away. The kids were pleased and all was right in the world, so I thought. A gut feeling told me to check the order

The order I had so carefully repeated twice was incorrect, fouled up, fubar'ed. Luckily, the discovery was made before we left the parking lot. As I was doubling back thru the parking lot, I wondered why, the price was so high; after all, we had buy one, get one free coupons from the little leaguers!

Feeling inconvenienced at this point, I went into the restaurant and notified the same manager I had just spoken to. She was to my shock and chagrin, unsympathetic, un-apologetic, and displayed no empathy whatsoever. She gladly took back the fouled up order, which I mistakenly thought maybe she would let us keep for our inconvenience, along with the receipt, and refunded my money. She then ever so frigidly, informed me I would have to get back in line and re-order my fouled up order?!

I decided I'd be better off not further aggravating my various medical conditions and took one for the team, the team being little leaguers I originally sought to support. I left the restaurant empty handed, and somehow came up $7.00 short! I had no food to feed my hungry teens. So much for being thrifty, and trying to help out the little ones

I did place a call to the General Manager when I finally got home who promised a free meal to the family. Sounds great! I have been waiting for that free meal since last year!

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