Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[zyrs]

I can see losing patience with having to continually repeat yourself.

Me too.  I think NewMommy handled it just fine.  She said "Please pay attention", not "Open your ears, you cloth-eared twit". 

I'm reminded of when my husband and I went through the Wendy's drive-thru a few years ago.    I'm not sure if Wendy's still does this, but back then their biggest drink was called a Biggie.  My husband ordered one, but the employee repeating back the order kept changing the size.  "So, you want a small?"  "No, a Biggie, please."  "Was that a medium drink?"  "NO.  I'd like a Biggie, please."  "What size was that, again?"  Finally, my normally very even-tempered husband roared "A BIGGIE!  I WANT A BIGGIE DRINK!", and I started giggling helplessly because he sounded like a toddler having a tantrum.

In honor of your husband - Fast Food 

[Diane AKA Traska]

Me:  No.  Please pay attention.  It's a Number 5 with a small Diet Coke.

I am generally pretty blunt and even I found this to be rude.  I don't go through a drive through often but I often enough to know the sound system is not crystal clear.  I just don't see what purpose the bolded had other than to shame or stress someone working for minimum wage.

You then have to take as a given that the sound system is flawed enough to garble "five" until it resembles "eight", yet "please pay attention" comes through just fine.

[Yvaine]

Me:  No.  Please pay attention.  It's a Number 5 with a small Diet Coke.

I am generally pretty blunt and even I found this to be rude.  I don't go through a drive through often but I often enough to know the sound system is not crystal clear.  I just don't see what purpose the bolded had other than to shame or stress someone working for minimum wage.

You then have to take as a given that the sound system is flawed enough to garble "five" until it resembles "eight", yet "please pay attention" comes through just fine.

It's absolutely plausible, actually. It's not so much that the sound system is all horrible every moment, but that it cuts in and out.

[#1aunt]

I think what also makes me laugh is the Chik-Fil-A is the only fast food place in town that I've seen with such a sign.  Which means the other places haven't had a problem with this so makes me wonder if the one who seems to have a problem getting this concept only ever eats at Chik-Fil-A?

Who knows, but it struck me as kind of funny.

The Chik-Fil-A near me has a similar sign, but it's because if people turn into the first entrance to the parking lot as they come off the main street they'd have to do a multi-point turn to get into the drive-thru lane, and the huge "Exit Only" signs weren't solving the problem.  Having the sign there let's people know they'll need to drive around the building to get in the line (which, of course, there almost always is).

[Piratelvr1121]

Not the case with this one.   The way the shopping center is set up, there's a long line of stores (strip mall) with a grocery store on one end and a Hobby Lobby at the other and perpendicular to this line of stores is a Lowe's.  And there are two entrances to this whole shopping set up, one by the Lowe's, the other between the Martins (grocery store) and the Sam's Club. 

So it's like this.

Sam's club      Martins               liquor store ----(stores I can't remember cause I don't shop in them)---Cici's Pizza---Japanese Steak House---Hobby Lobby. 
----------------------------------------------Then you have the usual lane for driving right in front of the stores----------------------------------------------------------------

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               


Then another lane for driving
-------------------[        ]-------------------------[    ] -------------------[         ]-----------------[        ]--------------[         ]-------------------------------------------------------------

                      Chik Fil A                            Bank                   Boston Market              Taco Bell               Wendy's (I think I'm missing a fast food place but you get the idea)

All of the entrances and exits for the fast food places point towards the strip mall, you cannot get to them from the main road.

Not the best illustration but I'm sure you get the idea.  And because the entrance is the exit,  You drive in, go around the building and then come out the same way you went in.

[CharlieBraun]

Lots of fast food stories...should they have their own thread?

[Browyn]

I almost always make a change or two to the standard order, so I prefer to go inside rather than the drive through.

That said, the drive through sound TODAY is a lot better than it used to be when I first started driving, back in the mid-1970s.  Much better.  Trust me on this.

But I have noticed the same "lack of either attention or retention" when I go inside. 

"I'd like a number five, no pickles, no mustard, no onion; onion rings instead of fries; a diet soda; and I'm eating here.  They type in the number 5 and ask if I want it "here" or "to go".  I remind them that it is "here".  I noticed that only two punches had been made, so I reminded them that I didn't want mustard, onions, or pickles on the sandwich and that I wanted onion rings instead of fries (raw onion I can't handle - cooked onion I can, especially with a little catsup).  Then I got asked about my soda (no change) and the diet soda (not all places are self serve drinks - they do still control the cups, even if you fill it yourself).

For something that I order three or four times a month (weekly "treat" for myself) - I end up spending 3x to 5x (or longer) in line than anyone making a standard order or even upsizing the drink & fries.  I also get handed a bag of food a lot instead of a tray, but that might be on the person making the order up while the counter person is taking more orders (depends on the exact store I'm in).

It's as if the person taking the order either has no short term memory or is using all their attention to find the buttons on the cash register for the next step that they don't recall anything of what I said after "number 5" and have to ask me the next question on the script to figure out which button to push.  There are a couple of places that I eat at often enough that I don't have to repeat myself - but I don't eat lunch out every day, so no one business is going to be seeing me as a "regular" enough to know my order before I open my mouth.

Not since the one pizza place when Ambrosia Hino was three, anyway.

If you always order the same thing maybe it would be helpful if you type it out and print a copy to bring with you each time?  You could hand it to the counter staff so they could enter from it without having to repeat it so they can enter it in the registers preferred order.

[MommyPenguin]

Our Chick-Fil-A could use a sign like that!  I don't quite know how to describe it, but you have to go what seems like a lot farther around the building than the usual.  I think it's because you have to go halfway around the building before you can enter the drive-through, and then you have to circle the whole building *in* the drive-through.

However, it's a pretty awesome Chick-Fil-A.  They get a *huge* lunchtime crowd.  So they actually have employees who go outside and go car to car, taking orders and your money/credit card, then taking it to the drive-through, handing it to the cashier, being handed bags from employees inside, and taking them to the cars.  So while the drive-in can have thirty cars in line, the service is at least twice as fast per car as any fast food place I've ever been.  It's pretty awesome.  Also, they often send a cow out to entertain people while they wait, and to bring in traffic from the main road. 

[Kaora]

Our paper is giving me a brain hurt.  Each time I've checked on a car accident, we've had a mysterious Plymouth Saturn as the culprit.

The latest is a 2006 Plymouth Saturn.  The other was 2010.  And so many more.

Extra bonus: the 2010 turned out to be a Ford F-150.  In a completely different color the described.  Like, it was reported orange and turned out to be Robin's Egg Blue.

Ow. x_x

And now my brain hurts too!

The story hasn't been updated with the accurate info of the car, so I wish I could say what it was.  Being a reporter's daughter, and having helped take notes for my reporter mum, I can tell you its all about the little details.  Miss them, you get a sloppily done, article full of misinformation.

Actually know the guy who wrote the story, too, through my mum (same paper.)  It's a small town, after all...

[sevenday]

Sidebar on the fast food stories.  I realize that there's a lot of ambient noise that interferes with understanding what people say sometimes.  This has happened to me so many times I really, really have to wonder.  Note for the story, I'm deaf, and while I do speak fairly clearly, it's not perfect of course.  I'll walk into McDonalds for my weekly treat and order "two hamburgers."  90% of the time, no problem.  Other times, somehow they translate it as "two number twos."  I tried to walk through it phonetically, but I still can't figure out how people are getting that out of "two hamburgers."  I gently correct them and they go  "oh sorry" and fix it with no problems, but still!

[athersgeo]

Brain-hurty no.1:
If your restaurant has nothing available other than bottled drinks, don't you think putting up a sign at the start of the DT might be a good idea, instead of getting pissy when customers cycle through the normal drinks options because at 7am they can't quite wrap their brains around a coffee place NOT HAVING ANY COFFEE.

Brain-hurty no.2:
I know DT speakers and whatnot aren't necessarily that great, but how in the WORLD does "Large Diet Coke" come out as "Large Latte"? And, even better question, why is it only one person who hears it that way when every other DT order taker in the building hears it correctly?!!

Brain-hurty no.3:
If I ask for a large diet coke and a sausage bagel, do not, for the love of peanuts, charge me for a bagel meal. Bonus stupid points if you do this when it's a face-to-face transaction. Triple bonus stupid points if you then get pissy about issuing my refund.


(No, these didn't all happen on the same day - thankfully!)

[Luci]

You have pretty much summed up why I never go through a  drive through. That and having to reach out the car window and juggle stuff.

I did go to the bank drive through when our son was in the child seat on the back of my bicycle, but even then only to the window closest to the cashier.

I presume you are talking about a couple of different establishments if one only has bottle drinks.

[Giggity]

Could the fast-food stories be on another thread, please?

[Hmmmmm]

I think what also makes me laugh is the Chik-Fil-A is the only fast food place in town that I've seen with such a sign.  Which means the other places haven't had a problem with this so makes me wonder if the one who seems to have a problem getting this concept only ever eats at Chik-Fil-A?

Who knows, but it struck me as kind of funny.

If the Chik-Fil-A is like the one near my office they are saying the line wraps around the building.  At lunch this ones drive through line actually wraps twice around the building and they are trying to let clients know to not try cutting in from one of the other parking lot entrances.  But it is odd wording.

[siamesecat2965]

Discussion with my boss this am. BG: My job is to gather filings posted on a certain government website that relates to our industry, save, upload, and link them. I then distribute them, as we all summarize different issues. end BG

My boss is big on consitency and uniformity, and sometimes a lot of the filings are either similar, or identical to prior ones, which means all I have to do is use the same summary, but change the date, people met with, and link. I had one today which was similar, but not the same, but related to the same original document. So I pulled up a prior summary, simply to see how we started it off. But the actual summary of the doc was for the current doc. However, I inadvertantly linked the prior doc, rather than the new one.

So bossman sends me an email, asking if this doc really is new, since the link is to an older one. I said oops, no, sorry, here's the correct link, use this one. No need to say the summary is accurate; had it been wroing, I would have corrected that as well.

Apparetnly he didnt' get it as he comes over the my desk, and asks me about it. I said "the summary is correct, I just linked the wrong doc, as I pulled the old summary to see how we began it, so it was the same as the prior one"  He still didn't get it since he asked if the summary needed to be changed, and told me that the first doc was 9 pages, and this was only 4, so they were NOT the same. Please note I never said they were, but they related to the same original doc, and I wanted to make the FIRST SENTENCE the same, but the rest reflected what the current doc actually said. 

He does that all the time, he can't be bothered to listen carefully, and then doesn't understand what you're saying, so assumes YOU are the one who's wrong.