Dear Burger King

Sometimes, the lowest of low customer service is worth writing about. It can be so bad that it just leaves you shaking your head. Today was one of those days in the Burger King Kingdom:

My 9-year-old absolutely loves Burger King burgers so I told him I would pick up 3 plain burgers for him.  I drove into the drive-thru, hoping it wouldn’t be like last time where the place was just flat-out closed due to only 1 employee showing up for work that day.

“Our drive-thru is broken. You’ll have to come inside,” I heard a young female voice say to me.

‘Broken?’ I thought. ‘What? The window won’t open or something?’

The intercom obviously worked and if I had to come in that means a register works so I’m trying to understand how a drive-thru can be “broken”. My son was craving Burger King so had it not been for him, I would have left. Probably what most of the staff banked on.

As I entered, the faces of the 3 people in line told me everything I needed to know. They held various things like dipping cups and sodas in their hands with  defeated looks on their faces. Despite being prime lunch time, there wasn’t 1 person in the dining area. I went up to the 1 girl taking orders. She was dressed in an I HEART GAP sweatshirt, a completely appropriate uniform.

Just then, 2 female employees shuffled out of the hallway. One had a bucket and a rag. The other had nothing. The fact that 3 people were waiting in line did not faze them in the least bit. In normal world, one would put 2 and 2 together, drop your cleaning supplies, wash your hands and pitch in. Not these 2. After they put away the bucket and rag their next move was to grab a broom and slowly walk to the empty dining room. By now my anger was beginning to register. Especially since my 3 plain burgers sat on a warming tray while Gap girl took yet another order.

I had visions of saying “fuck it”, hopping over the counter, grabbing my burgers then hopping back over the counter to leave but I wasn’t going to be that person today. After making several passive-aggressive looks down at my watch while huffing, she finally realized my burgers just might be ready. She slowly grabbed a bag, grabbed my burgers and put them inside.

“Why was your drive-thru broken?” I asked. I had to understand how a drive-thru could be broken.

“We don’t have a lot of people working today and most of the people are new. This is my second day,” she explained as if this was a completely reasonable explanation.

I looked at her in complete bewilderment. I had so many questions. Not enough employees yet 2 of them were pretty much doing nothing during what’s supposed to be the busiest time of the day? Also, do they not teach how to run a drive-thru when your trained? Who’s in charge here? A ferret?

As I walked outside with my burgers, I started talking to myself, shaking my head. I didn’t care now that people looked at me funny. They would be me in approximately 10 minutes. I wrote a comment to Burger King about an hour ago on their contact form and big shock….that didn’t work. I then wrote a message to Burger King via Facebook and awaiting a response. WTF?

GOD SAVE THE KING!