Thank you, Wendy’s. Quality Is, Indeed, Your Recipe.

The Scene: A Wendy’s Drive-Thru, Lunchtime on a Work Day.

A couple makes the decision to stop off for a quick lunch on their way back to work. They have 45 minutes. Plenty of time to order $50 worth of food for 2 people and get home before the lunch hour ends! After five minutes in line, they discover they cannot change the delivery mode to “pick up inside” and are stuck in line. The app displays a happy Frosty dancing on the screen announcing that “We have your order! Now all we need is YOU!”

We join them after they waited 15 minutes in the drive-thru to pick up their mobile order and arrive at the order board.

Me: Hi. Picking up an order. Number 123

Them: I do not have a record of that order.

Me: I have an app confirmation with number 123

Them: 349?

Me: Nope. 123.

Them: You sure you got the right location?

Me: Is there another location on Sesame Street?

Them: No.

Me: Okay, then you should have it because the app with the name that’s on your building says you do.

Them: We don’t. Sorry.

Me: I’ve been waiting in line 15 minutes to hear you don’t have it the order that was confirmed you have.

Them: I don’t know what to tell you.

Me: I’m doing to drive around and show you my order.

Them: Whatever.

Me: (at window) Here is the order on the company app saying the company has our order.

Manager Them: That’s a corporate app.

Me: You say that like it means something to me.

Manager: We’re a franchise. Sometimes the app doesn’t work.

Me: That does not make sense to me as the customer who used a company app to buy a product from the company in whatever financial architecture that takes. You see that there is a price and items purchased. And purchased from your franchise.

Manager: We can do nothing about that because we don’t have the order. You can park and come inside and order.

Me: But I already did. Look. Right here on my phone.

Manager: We have no record of payment or the order for our crew.

Me: Look at the shiny phone with your company logo.

Manager: You say that like it means something to me.

Me: Touche. Hey. Wacky idea. How about you do something to fix the problem and get me the product now that I am 20 minutes into my lunch hour getting.

Manager: Sorry. You can cancel the order or wait around in case it comes in.

Me: I’m showing you an app with what I paid to spend 20 minutes to get. Another wacky idea: how about you fill the order and I get on with my life? You can take the problem up with corporate because none of this right now is my problem or fault.

Manager: I can’t do that. We’re a franchise.

Me: I have already accepted that this order is ridiculously expensive and I could have just made a PBJ at home. On top of that, I waited behind 4 cars for an unreasonable amount of time. You’re paid for this time. I’m not. Just give me the order. The cost of losing this order is very low compared to losing business long term.

Manager: Those sounded like words, but…let me repeat the words I spoke earlier but louder and with more contempt.

Me: It’s okay. I’ll contact your franchise owner and speak the language of retail manager and human resource professional.

Manager: (speaks in Ancient Contempt)

Me: Okay then. Bye.

And scene. After 40 minutes, the couple gets home, unfed, and just in time to go back to into the workday. The app never charged for the meal but never reset from its happy Frosty dancing with joy over the lost order.

We are encouraged to use apps to cut down our order time. Every time I’ve had a problem with the app, the restaurant (regardless of the chain) hides behind some technical firewall to blame “corporate” or “third party” tech. We get the same nonsense from DoorDash and GrubHub. If the delivery doesn’t show up, goes to the wrong house, or is cold because it took a tour of the city in the back of some dude’s car, “corporate” says to complain to the restaurant or just get my money back.

I get that DD and GH are just third party service providers, but they suck when they fail. They compound their own failures by making customers do more work to resolve something they screwed up. In this example at Wendy’s, the crew could have simply verified the information on the app, provided the items, and dealt with their problem internally. Instead, they choose inaction and terrible customer service.

In my experience as a retail manager for many years and in my capacity as an HR professional, that conduct is unacceptable. You work to provide customer solutions within your power. You explain if there is a good reason why an obvious solution is not possible and extend any courtesy to make it right. To choose inaction and disrespect by saying “Well you can just cancel your order” is incompetence, at least on its face.

This incident (which happened yesterday) is just one example of why some people believe food service and “menial” workers do not deserve a living wage. They point to moments of perceived (or real) powerlessness or incompetence to say that they have no skills or intelligence when the reality is that corporate systems and rules would likely punish those employees for serving me a meal they couldn’t track in their failed system than thank the employee for prioritizing making things right with the customer.

I don’t know what the case was here, but it needs to stop if the class-culture war over living wages is to move forward. It also needs to stop because I’m tired of being sold on apps that companies can’t seem to get to work right even after years of use and millions of transactions. Like the ice cream machine at McDonald’s…just fix the damn thing already!