I hardly ever go to fast food joints and eat inside. I usually go get the food and bring it back home or to work. So I have a lot of experience with drive through lanes at most of the fast food places. After yet another sub-par experience at a drive through tonight, I finally decided to write something about it.
The Drive Through Bill Of Rights
All customers are entitled to have the following from the fast food place:
- Their order read back to them (unless there’s an electronic display of the order)
- Clear sounding audio from the drive-up speaker
- A native English speaker or someone without a heavy accent taking the order
- A napkin, spoon, knife, or fork without having to ask for it
- A drink cup not overfilled so that when you put the straw in, it comes out the straw hole
- Your food or drink inside the wrapper or cup, not dripping on the container
- Your order prepared the way you ask, and fulfilled correctly
- Speedy service (anything over 90 seconds from when you are asked to pull forward is excessive)
- The amount owed given to you before you pull up to the payment window
- The contents of a “large” item to be of greater quantity than the contents of a “small” or “medium” item
- If you’re asked to pull around because they’re cooking something (e.g. fries), then they should wait until that item is ready before packaging the other items
As a corollary, customers should give other customers in line the following considerations:
- No more than 2 feet between cars; if you can parallel park between your car and the car in front of you, pull up
- Pay attention; don’t make the folks behind you wait while you fiddle around when you should be pulling forward
- Know what you want when you get to the speaker
- Have the money ready when you get to the window
- No more than two separate orders per car
I’m sure there are more. Leave me a comment if you have any and I’ll add them as an update to this post.
[Note: I originally posted this on December 18, 2006]