A lot of fast food restaurants have awnings over their windows at drive-thru to keep both the customers and cashiers from getting wet. Unfortunately, ours is not one of them. It was raining here today (did you guess that already?)... It was not the it's-raining-so-hard-it's-awesome rain, nor was it the almost-not-there drizzle... It was the annoying, cold, can't-make-up-my-mind-about-being-heavy-or-misty rain. The kind of rain that usually requires people to use their wipers. The kind of rain people still go out to get tacos in.
Now don't get me wrong, I think it's very important to use your wipers whilst driving in the rain, but when you're sitting in the drive-thru I don't really see the necessity for it. Not only are you not driving when you're waiting to get your food, but it makes things a lot more difficult for your cashier. It's a bit like an obstacle course... a water obstacle course (a wabstacle course?). First we have to dodge the drops dripping from our drive-thru window. Then once we've made it past that, we have to either duck the drops that your wipers are throwing at us, or get hit in the face by them. So we'll stick our hand out, and then pull it back in a little to dodge the wipers, then stick it out again, then pull it back in again to dodge the wipers, then stick it out again, etc. etc... We're not teasing you by trying to hand you your food and then pull it away, we're trying to stay as dry as possible. The wiper thing is one of my biggest peeves. Especially when you can clearly see we're trying not to get hit by them and you still leave them on, even as we look at you with pleading eyes. That's just cruel, guys.
Another thing people like to do when it's raining is to only open their window just enough to get a hand and a wrist out the window. This doesn't make sense to me, because you're going to have to open your window further in a minute anyways because there is no way your twelve tacos are going to fit through that tiny slit. Just sayin'. It would make it go faster if you just opened your window that far the first time, instead of taking 2 minutes to contort your arm, and then make us lean half way out the window. It's not like we want to get wet either, especially since we have to stay at work for the next five hours.
My restaurant is pretty strict on the temperature control of foods. All cold foods must be kept under 40 degrees, and all hot foods kept at least at 165. (that sounds really hot, but by the time you actually eat it, it's cooled off a little.) Now, when you pick up food at our store and have to drive 20 or 30 minutes home, it's going to have cooled down quite a bit. You can't really blame us for that. If you had wanted it hot, you should've eaten it in the dining room. Even if it's late night and the dining room is closed, we don't mind if you sit in our parking lot for ten or fifteen minutes to eat your food, honest!
Yesterday, a customer called me a couple minutes after we closed and told me that he had been through about 10 minutes earlier to get food. He claimed that his ride home was only 10 or 15 minutes, and that when he went to eat his food, it was ice cold. He relayed his order to me, and being as we hadn't had so many cars, I actually remembered it. He did not come through ten minutes before we closed, it was probably more like fifteen or twenty. I tried to ask him what time his receipt said (to call his bluff), but apparently he left it in the car. I then tried to explain to the man our standards for keeping our foods warm (even at night) which would make it impossible for his food to be ice cold, but he kept on insisting that it was. Possibly the most aggravating thing he said was, "I don't know how this happened." Yea, me neither... BECAUSE IT DIDN'T. He just wanted some free food. Unfortunately it worked.
After another minute or so of talking I conceded. Short of flat out calling him a liar, the only thing I could do was tell him to bring his receipt in and we would replace his order.
