Fast food joints are known for...well, fast food and not much else. It's no surprise that an industry solely focused on getting its product into your mouth as fast as possible could attract employees and clientele who are less than stellar. These experiences, however, are a little bit more outrageous than the typical wrong order or slow wait time.
So That’s Why They Call It A McDouble!
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“I got sick on a s—ty McDonald’s ‘chicken’ sandwich, and while I was in the bathroom purging my mistake, my car was stolen from the parking lot.”
That’ll Put A Damper On The Work Day
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“I worked at McDonald’s a while ago. Some kids stole something from a nearby store and were chased by the cops into our parking lot. They ended up getting cornered into our drive thru. One of them had been shot earlier in the chase after he fired a gun at the police. We watched him on our cameras get out of the car, fall to the ground, and die while the paramedics tried to help him. S— was rough.”
Keep An Eye On The Tomatoes…
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“Chipotle hands down. This wasn’t really Chipotle’s fault, rather an individual employee of Chipotle.
This girl I was seeing and I went to Chipotle after class. She got a burrito and I got nachos. Everything was fine until I went to wake her up the next morning and she literally looked like she was dead. Took her to the ER and they admitted her immediately. She ended up spending almost a week in the hospital and almost died. Turns out, someone poisoned the tomatoes and caused half a dozen people to get deathly sick. Luckily, nobody died.
Needless to say, I haven’t been back.”
Someone Needs To Report Them
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“I once dropped my order at McDonald’s and the fries went flying all over the floor, under tables, etc. A couple of little kids around 5 years old, both filthy, instantly started snatching them up and eating them. It then became apparent that their parents hadn’t bothered to order any food for their kids, just themselves.”
Alas, Poor Tiffany
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“So, I used to go to this Taco Bell down the street from my high school after finishing band practice with my friends. We went enough times that the drive through lady named Tiffany would be ecstatic to see us and give us free s—. She called us ‘baby’ every time we went through, it was great.
I bet you’re wondering how could any of this be bad? Well, the story takes a turn for the worst very quickly. So we do the usual Taco Bell run and order the same thing, get the same free stuff. We get to the window and Tiffany is all smiles when her manager comes up to us and asks to see the receipt. We are kinda deer in the headlight and Tiff is nervous, so the manager grabs the receipt and asks why we are getting free food and drinks in addition to our one quesadilla.
Tiff just kinda looks down and mumbles while the manager berates her on giving people free food, then fires her. She began crying and pleading for the job, saying she needed it for her son, but the manager threw her out and gave us our order, the one quesadilla of course, and said he would be keeping an eye on us.”
Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary
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“First, a tiny bit of background. My wife was not just lactose intolerant but got earth shattering cramps, horrendous smelling diarrhea and felt like she was on fire if she got just a little bit of any kind of dairy.
Well, she went to a McDonald’s right across the street from her crappy retail job and ordered a McDouble with no cheese, like she did about three times a week because it was cheap and close and she had very short lunch breaks at said crappy retail job. Well, she gets back to her work and noticed cheese on her burger…so she has to go all the way back over there and walks into the restaurant and asks to have it replaced.
The manager comes over and asks what’s wrong, when she said she ordered it without cheese and they put cheese on it he responded with a flippant ‘So?’ Now this manager was not some just-out-of-high-school kid he had to be in his 30’s so you would think somewhere along the lines he had grown up, but I guess not. She explains to him she is allergic to cheese and needs one without cheese…So he hands the sandwich back to the grill area and they scrape the cheese off rewrap it and try to give it back to her.
She watches them do this because he was too far away for her to stop them before he got back to the counter and then trying to be polite as possible explains she cannot eat a sandwich that has had melted cheese scraped off of it BECAUSE SHE IS FREAKING ALLERGIC YOU STUPID WASTE OF HUMAN FLESH.
So he huffs and gives her more attitude and rolls his eyes and angrily throws the sandwich away and asks the grill to make a new one, she gets it, asks him if he is sure it doesn’t have cheese on it, he says yes and she leaves without checking it…Gets back to work opens up the bag and guess what she finds on her d— sandwich. Two slices of cheese.
So she gets permission from her boss since now she has already burned like 35 minutes to get a stupid sandwich from across the street and she normally only gets a 30-minute break, walks back over there and the manager sees her coming and asks her, ‘Now what?’
My wife asked to speak to a different manager, who didn’t give her any attitude, apologized, personally made her a new one opened it in front of her to verify there was no cheese on it and refunded her meal as well. My wife of course got both managers’ names and their store number.
We then proceeded to report the entire story to McDonald’s corporate with a glowing review for manager B who handled it correctly and a very condemning retelling of the crappy service manager A gave her.
We got some gift cards from corporate and the owner of that particular franchise verified the story with manager B. Manager A’s employment was terminated. They asked my wife to come tell her story at an employee meeting, but she declined.”
Fries And A Little Bit Extra…
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“Burger King drive-thru.
Worked late one night, so I decided to pick up dinner on the way home. I was starving so as I drove off with the food, I reached in the bag, grabbed some fries and shoved them in my mouth. Immediately, I felt a sharp pain and something move around my mouth. I started gagging and had to pull over along side the road. Tried to vomit but couldn’t. Spit out some blood and what looked like twigs. Looked at one closely and realized it was a roach leg. So…I guess I grabbed an unsuspecting roach that was chilling in my fries and put it in my mouth. The thing freaked out when I bit it, so it ran straight down to my stomach.
Not cool.”
Clonked, I Say!
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“I went into a Roy Rogers restaurant once. I paid for a burger and fries. I expected there would be a cook in a kitchen somewhere who would then make a burger for me to eat, but instead I was shown a rack of stuff made a few days ago sitting under red lamps.
I took one and unwrapped it. The dried up meat patty slipped out and clonked on the counter. Clonked! I looked up at the cashier and they just stared back at me. I put it back on its stale bun.
There were other people in the restaurant. They were all eating this stuff like some kind of weird zombie twilight zone. How did these people not know there were other fast food joints, equally accessible off the highway, where for the same money, a person will actually cook the meat right then and there and serve it to you, and include things like vegetables?! I even saw one eat a french fry, which broke off like a pretzel stick in their mouth. Madness.
That was the first and last time I entered a Roy Rogers.”
Going A Little Overboard
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“I was in the drive-through at Chick-Fil-A once. This was a few weeks after they’d done something controversial (I can’t remember if they’d first come out with their anti-gay speech or donated to a religious cause or something) but this was when a bunch of religious people in my state were going to Chick-Fil-A to show their support and a bunch of other people were boycotting them for their controversial (/hateful) views. Anyway, the car ahead of me rolled down his window and just started absolutely berating the girl at the drive-thru. Like screaming at her and calling her the scum of the earth for working at a corporation like Chick-Fil-A and a bunch of other nasty names. Saying that she was personally enacting a hate crime and stuff by working there. He then threw a drink at the window (hitting the glass/wall but not her directly) and then drove away.
When I pulled up, she was just standing there frozen and red-faced and crying. She was like 16-years-old. I asked her if she was okay and she just kind of nodded and walked away before I could say anything else…I don’t agree with Chick-Fil-A’s views, but I was appalled that some random dude could freak out on a defenseless teenager who just needed a low-wage job? It just sucked to witness.”
All This Over Some Mac Sauce And Gloves?
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“I went into McDonald’s at 3 am after a party to have fries and a flurry. Cost about $3-$4 all around.
Anyway, as I’m waiting for my food some man comes in, he was rattled. He demanded that the employees remake his whole meal of three cheeseburgers with mac sauce, four McChickens and two large fries simply because they forgot mac sauce on one of the burgers.
Between his rage and threats to hop the counter and ‘beat the s— out of everyone,’ they obliged.
It has been nearly five minutes now, and I have not yet received my fries and ice cream and I feel uncomfortable standing beside this man, but what can one do. Then, he notices something. He notices that a kid working with the food (he assumes his food) is working without wearing gloves. He demands the kid come up front and face him. At this point, I’m absorbed by what may happen, but annoyed that the man is such a jerk.
When the kid comes to the counter to talk to the red-faced, fists-clenched man, he gets real nervous. The man tells the kid it’s illegal to handle food without wearing gloves, and that if he doesn’t fix this right now he’ll call the cops.
At this point, I want to tell this man he’s being ridiculous. I have worked for three restaurants and have never heard of this bogus ‘law’. But I just want my fries, and it’s been nearly ten minutes now.
By now the whole restaurant is on hold to deal with this man, and I overhear some people sitting at a table say, ‘Let’s get out of here before I kick that guy’s a–.’ After all, it’s McDonald’s, what were you expecting? Superior quality?
He demands they re-remake his food because of the whole glove issue, and I was about to say something when someone in the kitchen calls the cops because that whole situation needed to be defused.
By now, I decide my food is a lost cause. I leave without getting my money back.
This happened almost a year ago. A few weeks back, I was at Denny’s and had another encounter with the same, unstable man.”
To Be Fair, The Two Sound NOTHING Alike
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“McDonald’s. 1 am.
I pulled up to the window and ordered:
‘A McDouble, a McChicken, and a large fry.’ Easy peasy. I drive up to pay and the woman working there hands me a McDouble, a McChicken, and a large black coffee. ‘Large black coffee?’ I asked.
‘Yes,’ she replied.
‘I ordered a large fry, actually.’
‘No, you ordered a large black coffee.’
‘I’m pretty sure I ordered a large fry.’
‘Nope, you ordered a coffee.’
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘Yes, you did, sir.’
‘Fine. Just give me the coffee.’
Being non-confrontational, I pull out of the drive-thru and drive back into the line to order my d— large fry. When I get up the window, I make sure to clearly and loudly enunciate. ‘Yes, I would like a LARGE FRY. A LARGE FRY. FRENCH FRY. LARGE.’ I get up to the pickup window for the 2nd time and the same woman hands me YET ANOTHER large black coffee.
‘I definitely ordered a large fry.’
‘No you ordered a large black coffee.’
‘No, I ordered a large fry.’
‘You said black coffee.’
‘No I didn’t!’
‘Yes you did.’
‘Why would I drive all the way around and go through the drive-thru again and order a black coffee that, again, I don’t want?’
So after two round trips through the drive-thru, I finally got my large fry. Along with two large, black coffees. At 1 am.”
She Just Couldn’t Hold It In
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“This was back when Burger King introduced their sweet potato fries and I was super f—ing excited to go and try them after work. I left work and drove to the Burger King, parked, and noticed a woman enter before me in a dress that was way too small for her. Whatever. I get in line behind this woman, who lets out the worst fart ever. I take several step backs and make eye contact with the cashier whose expression is like, ‘That was the loudest fart ever and I can’t say anything.’
Anyway, the fart subsides, I order my fries and burger and sit down to start on my delicious sweet potato fries. As I am putting the first fry in my mouth, I notice out of the corner of my eye the fart monster lady squatting four feet away from me. I turn just as she pulls aside her dress and underwear and starts s—ting on the floor while sort of crab walking out the door. She leaves a path of turds in her wake as I sit frozen unable to process what is happening.
I turn and look towards the counter and the cashier I had made eye contact with earlier is frozen as well, unable to move. I turn and watch the woman disappear into her SUV just as a young woman walks in. I notice she is wearing flip flops and is making poo footprints as she gets to the counter. She mentions it smells in here and the guy at the counter just sighs and I get the f— out of there, abandoning my entire meal. I have not eaten at a Burger King since.”
Road Trip Turned Sour
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“Driving from the Oregon coast to Seattle with a hungry family.
We don’t eat fast food, but traffic had been terrible and we knew we were in for a loooong ride, longer than normal. So we pull into a roadside Burger King because it’s the only thing to be found for miles that my wife would agree to eat.
Because of the traffic and lack of options, the place is packed. Tables are dirty, people aren’t cleaning up their trash, workers are in a foul mood. We eat as quickly as possible and GTFO of there.
About half an hour later, I have to pull over because I’m totally nauseous and about to blow out the back end. Luckily I found a bathroom, wife resumes driving because I can barely hold my head up. I throw up in my empty cup of tea along the way.
It starts bucketing rain.
An hour in, one of my kids throws up in the car. The other completely s—s himself, and throws up too shortly after. I am too sick/weak to do much about it and my wife is doing her best just to drive us home. The car reeks of vomit and diarrhea.
We’re about an hour from Seattle and my wife hurriedly rolls her window down and hurls. We’re going 55 down the highway, she’s driving, leaning her head out the window in bucketing rain, water is streaming down her face, the kids are crying from the wind and the cold and the vomit and the s—.
We pull over and I resume driving while she occasionally pukes out the window.
Worst road trip ever. Worst fast food experience ever. I have not eaten at a Burger King since, and this happened 12 years ago.”
Was It Really Worth It?
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“I ordered a McRib when after a few bites I realized it was cold. Opened it and the meat was completely raw. I complained and they checked it and said they would give me and my friends any meal we wanted for free. I was 15, so that was brilliant. They kept the raw McRib and I had awful food poisoning for nearly two weeks. I don’t agree with this sue everyone culture, but I think I would have been justified if I wasn’t paid off with a few free burgers.”
The Most Depressing Meal Ever
“Earlier last year, I was traveling through eastern TN, and we decided to hit up this local KFC favorite that toted an all-you-can-eat buffet.
The sheer novelty of an all-you-can-eat buffet overrode my common sense, so my traveling partner and I went there for dinner. It may have been, hands down, the most depressing meal I’ve ever eaten.
The chicken was lukewarm at best. Everything kind of had this greasy film over it. The ‘vegetables’ clearly were pulled out of a cheap can and more or less were nothing more than a medium for butter sauce. The mashed potatoes were clumpy and dry like they had been sitting out for a week.
They only gave us three cheap paper plates and would not supply more if asked. I thought that was weird for an all-you-can-eat buffet, but it didn’t matter because, after a second round, I had enough. I just had an awful feeling sitting in my stomach that felt like grease and sadness.
What was worse were the people around us. The place was packed with what seemed to be locals sitting around eating a very standard weekday meal. Their bodies reflected that. Never in my life have I seen so many morbidly obese families. Children only the age of 10 were easily three times my weight.
We returned to our hostel and I ended up puking everything over that evening. I didn’t stop vomiting until I tasted my oatmeal from earlier that morning. Then I was fine.”
Oh, So NOW You’re Paying Attention!
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“My worst experience would have been at a Burger King. A little boy had a pool noodle, and was slapping it wildly against the floor while screaming, ‘YA YA YA!’ to the rhythm of the slapping. His parents were completely ignoring him.
The person in front of me asked an employee if they could get him to stop, but apparently the employees can’t do s— if he’s just being noisy. Unless he actually hits or interferes with someone else, they can’t do anything. The manager probably could’ve, but apparently they didn’t want to kick out a paying customer, even if that customer was driving others away, so they didn’t step forward. I’ve worked for bosses like that, and I feel sorry for those poor employees.
So, of course, one of the other customers told the kid himself to quiet down, and his mother immediately starts paying attention. ‘Don’t you f—ing tell my son what to do! Who the f— do you think you are?! I should call the f—ing cops on you!’
All the while as she screamed and added to everyone’s headaches, the cries of, ‘YA YA YA!’ and the slaps of a pool noodle on restaurant floor (which I learned that day make a curious ‘Thwang’ sound that echoes in your ears instead of the dull ‘Thwap’ I expected) continued.
I changed my order from dine-in to take out and got out as soon as I had my food. The screaming and noodling was still going as I was on my way out.”
Maybe Give It One More Try To Make Sure
“I got some Wendy’s chili once, about 12 years ago and s— bloody diarrhea. My thought was, no way Wendy’s chili did this. I went to the doctor and got checked out, he gave me a clean bill of health. Had Wendy’s chili about a year later and again, I s— bloody diarrhea. So…as best I can figure…Wendy’s chili makes me s— blood.”
That’s Not Water…
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“There used to be a KFC just outside of downtown Napa, California. It was located within walking distance of a pet supply store that was happy to let customers brings their dogs, cats, goldfish, or whatever else with them while they did their shopping. Unfortunately, the proximity of these two businesses meant that some people would occasionally try to have their pets accompany them for lunch…and although the management frowned on that, they didn’t do very much to curb the behavior, either.
On the day in question, I had stopped into the restaurant for what I hoped would be a quick meal before a job interview. It wasn’t the smartest detour, I’ll admit…but to be entirely honest, the smell from outside the establishment had attracted me. Unfortunately, the moment that I walked through the front door, I was hit by an almost debilitating wave of nausea as the thick, pungent stench of wet dog filled my nostrils. It was almost enough to make me turn around and leave, but I (foolishly) decided that since I’d already made it inside, I should still get something to eat.
My first mistake – if you don’t count my continued presence in the restaurant – was looking for the source of the smell. I wound up making eye contact with a large woman sitting near the front counter, who was alternating between dropping ice cubes down various parts of her clothing and pouring small amounts of water onto the floor. These puddles were being consumed by an equally large dog of indeterminate breed that looked as though it had recently been in a fight with a particularly irate landfill.
My second mistake was mentioning the unpleasant aroma to the girl who took my order. Although she expressed sympathy (and told me that the manager had already been informed), my complaint was overheard by the woman who was responsible for the odorous beast.
‘Heh?!’ she yelled, sounding rather like a creaky hinge. ‘What’d you say about my dog?!’ When I didn’t respond, the woman shouted again, ‘Heh?! Heh?! I’m talking to you! You got a problem with my dog?’
Seeing no other alternative, I turned to face the woman. ‘He doesn’t smell very nice,’ I said.
‘Heh?!’ the woman replied, ‘You got a problem with how he smells?’ Before I could think of a response, the woman hurled her half-full cup at me, thoroughly drenching my suit. Furthermore, it turned out that she hadn’t been sharing water with the canine, but rather some kind of clear soda.
I wound up having to rush away for a change of clothes before I could complain to the manager, and when I returned later on that afternoon, I was told (by another employee) that I was too late to report anything. That was the last time I visited that particular KFC.
The smell, incidentally, was still lingering when I left.”
If Drinking At The Counter Is Wrong, I Don’t Want To Be Right
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“Decided to have lunch one day at McDonald’s and had a pretty normal transaction with the workers there, so nothing bad on their side. They punched my order in and I got my drink before the fries and burger so, this being a hot summer day, I decided to take a small sip of my drink.
Big mistake apparently on my part because the older lady next to me waiting for her order had decided that what I have done was the rudest gesture in the world.
Her: ‘Argh, how DARE you! That’s just so rude, so rude of you to do.’
Me: ‘…What?’
Her: ‘Drinking at the counter, just so rude. So rude! Get away from me! Just get away!’
She then shoved my tray away from her tray. Granted there was nothing on my tray, but I was still surprised that she would just shove it away from her tray.
All of this because my younger teen self took a small sip of his drink.”
Wendy’s: Who Needs Dignity?
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“One time at Wendy’s, I ordered their new Wendy’s burger and, within my first bite, started pulling out this long, really frizzy hair that was stuck underneath the cheese and between my two front teeth. It was super gross.
I went over to the manager with the burger in hand, expecting at least to have them grill up a new hairless burger, and he said, ‘The person who made your burger, well, she’s bald, that hair just came from a wig, it’s fine,’ as the person who cooked it looked absolutely humiliated. The manager refused to give me a refund.
I ultimately wound up calling Wendy’s corporate about the incident, they were very nice and gave me a $25 gift certificate…that was only valid at the Wendy’s that gave me a hairy burger with a manager that belittled their customer. If I had a bit more dignity, I probably wouldn’t have ever come back to that location after that incident, but at the same time, if I had any dignity I probably wouldn’t be getting my lunch at Wendy’s either.”
How Hard Is It To Make A Quesadilla?
“I live near a very Chipotle-like restaurant. There’s two issues with this place:
First, they have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a quesadilla is. When I say I want a quesadilla, I imagine something flat in which the primary component is cheese. What they give you is just a burrito with slightly more cheese than usual. When you order a quesadilla here, you order it with the same fillings (meat, beans, rice, etc.) that you would get in a burrito.
Second, they will not give you a burrito (which, as I explained, is interchangeable with quesadilla here) that is smaller than usual. If you’re skipping one of the main ingredients, they just pile more of something else in to make up for it. I don’t do meat, so if I’m lucky, they’ll add in proportional amounts of extra rice and beans to compensate, though once or twice they’ve just added a ton of rice, which is really not good.
So, I went in hoping for a plain cheese quesadilla, with a little pico in it for flavor. But they don’t understand the concept of a flat quesadilla, they only do burritos. So what does this guy do? He just scoops pico into that thing until it’s the size of a regular burrito/quesadilla and gives me that. I was speechless. The next time I went, I tried to avoid that issue by asking for just a plain cheese quesadilla, so he just rolled it up like a really tiny burrito- cheese is apparently the one thing they won’t just go crazy with to get it up to size, but they still refuse to make quesadillas flat.”
