Sometimes Being Courteous Feeds You a Shit Sandwich
I've been trying to eat better, what with my surgery and all, so that I can have some energy and get better. So I decided this morning to hit Burger King before work. That's Burger King #12976 on Bench Road, for those keeping score (not that anyone is). So I get their cheesy bacon wraps because they sound good, some "hash browns" (tater tots) and cheesy tots with some coffee. I head into work. On the way, I pop a tot in my mouth and find that it's sour. Same with the "hash browns". Same with the browns inside of my cheesy wrap. Since I've tasted oil as it's starting to go rancid, I know the taste. It needs to be changed out. It's one of those inevitabilities of fast food. I know, I worked fast food.
So I get to work and call, hoping that too many other people's breakfast won't be ruined. I'm not sure who I spoke to, but when I told her that they needed to change the oil, she began arguing with me that it was new oil and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I can understand her hesitation to admit that the oil was going rancid in our sue-happy nation, but I was making a courtesy call. I wasn't demanding money back or a fresh order. I just didn't want other people's breakfasts to be ruined like mine. It was my one little good deed that we all often do but never think about.
But she argues with me about the oil. I can even picture her motioning to the other staff to change the oil--though I have no real proof of this; I just like the image in my head. If she had said something like "It is on our checklist and I'll make sure that it's done. Thank you." I would have been happy. Instead I get the run-around for being nice. I wasn't going to show up with a news crew and start a Chili finger situation. I was even over being irritated about my ruined breakfast until I talked to the employee.
So what of it? What's the moral of this tale? Don't eat at Burger King? Not really. I've eaten there a ton of times over the years and rarely gotten the wrong order (and then usually it was because of a new employee learning the ropes) or had a problem. I just needed to vent in hopes that someday when that employee is in the drive-through at McDonalds and gets some fries out of oil about to turn, she doesn't get hassled for a courtesy call. Then I'll be able to call the burger wars not on taste or price or selection, but on common customer courtesy. Because the Burger King that I called sure as hell doesn't understand their customers or courtesy.
