Do you pull up or stay put when a fast food restaurant asks you to pull up because they don't have your order?

Question

This absolutely infuriates me. I refuse to do it. I don't understand why they think it's o.k. to serve the customer after me first when I've been waiting patiently for my turn?

Any comments?

Answer 1

I know it can be frusterating. However, we do it to ensure our drive thru times * a big part of our job*, and so that other customers don't have to wait. For your order, maybe they were waiting on fries, or on red meat or whatever ect. But they  have people who ordered  shakes, coffee, pop ect behind you. I have to say it infuriates me when people refuse to pull ahead, none of the employyes like it, and we try to prevent it, but sometimes thats close to impossible. for example  we have a "coffee lady" who come in and orders a LOT of coffee, take all of what we have * 4 pots plus a decaff- she takes it all*   anyone who orders coffee is waiting:( we try to tell ppl if there will be a wait and what they are waiting on, but that's not always possible.  it will take the same amount of time on your food in you pull ahead, so i dont see the problem. If we have people who refuse to pull, then  we either hand them their money back, and tell them to have a nice day  or we start running orders out to the cars behind her/him.  I mean we understand you have been waiting, but so have the people behind you. why make them wait even more?

Answer 2

I imagine the only time they do that is when you have a large or complicated order, and the person behind you only ordered like a milkshake or something.

If you order something that takes longer to cook, do you really expect everyone behind you with simpler, smaller orders to wait for you?  That's rude to everyone else and inefficient for the workers.  That makes no sense.  Your order is gonna take the same amount of time no matter what, that's selfish to make everyone else wait.  It's not like they asked you to pull up because they want to make everyone else's food first, they ask you to pull forward because your food is going to take longer to prepare for whatever reason and you'll be blocking the drive-thru.

Answer 3

Get over it! Maybe you ordered something that was not ready and had to be fried. Everybody has to suffer because of you not moving? If you can't deal with the drive thru just go in!

Answer 4

lol  It may be that the item you've ordered has to be made special (like if you add or omit ingredients), or that they just don't have any ready. If the car or 2 behind you have to wait for your food to be done, then THEIR food will be cold. How would you feel if you got cold fries just because the person in front of you had to have their burger with extra mayo and refused to pull forward?

You know, you could always just go inside, but the same thing happens. They take your order, then you step to the side and wait for your food while they take the next person's order.

Answer 5

I think the  courteous thing to do is to pull up and park where you are visible. This enables those behind you to place their orders as well. Usually, a worker will bring your order to your car. If unsure, ask  where the best place to park would be and will someone bring your order out. Courtesy is the best policy. Hope this helps.

Answer 6

u might have oredered to much or they forgot

Answer 7

I work in fast food, and I will tell you exactly why they ask you to pull up. You will probably be even more infuriated when I tell you this, but you wanted to know the answer, and this is the REAL one. None of the other answerers hit the spot.

The reason they tell you to pull up is because of drive-thru times. Each order goes into the computer system as it is rung up, and there's a timer counting seconds right below it. When the drive-thru is very busy, they pull customers because they may be waiting a bit longer on your order than the one behind you. Even if it's just 2 burgers, they will save a couple seconds if the car behind you only ordered a drink. There's a possibility they could have run out of meat for the burgers. Not very professional, I know, but don't expect much from fast food.

When a car pays for their order at the first window in a 2-window drive-thru, the order on the screen flashes "Paid." When the car drives up and the order is handed out, the person who gives you the order hits a button to stop the timer and erase the order. However, most places cheat and hit the button before the food is handed out, to make their times look better. By pulling your car, the line moves up and another customer can pay and more orders can be erased off the screen...even though not all of them are handed out yet.

I hope you understood that, I tried my best. Just remember that the restaurant can refuse you service at any time for any reason, so if you refuse to pull up, you may not be able to visit the restaurant again.

Answer 8

go to another restaurant. but first double your order. they do that because they dont want to hire extra staff.

Answer 9

I work in fast food.  Unfortunately we have to ask people to pull forward sometimes.

As hard as we try to keep up sometimes we run out of food i.e fries, nuggets.  

If you have an order of fries and are waiting on fresh ones but the customer behind you only ordered a coke we will ask you to pull forward so we can give the customer their drink the only thing they ordered.  We do to keep things flowing and try to get as many customers served as possible.

You are right.  You shouldn't have to wait that long to get your order but is it really fair to make everyone wait just for you to get your order if theirs is already prepared?

I'm sorry you had to wait so long!!!   I hope I have given you some insight onto what goes on.  We don't like telling people to pull forward anymore than you like getting told to do it.

Also I would pull up.  I would understand that mine isn't ready for what ever reason.  I'd hate for someone else behind me to get held up just because of me.

Answer 10

It is what it is and that's not saying much and that's why I absolutely refuse to eat at anymore fast food restaurants. The service and the food are bad and I have absolutely no expectation that I will have a good experience. And I can eat for the same money at a little bistro and have a much more pleasant dining experience.

Once and a while I'll take my niece or nephew to McDonald's and I just brace myself for a terrible experience with awful staff and awful food. And I'm never disappointed because I already knew it would be totally awful.

Answer 11

first off a fast food restaurant doesnt speak so it cant ask you to do anything if it does then i'd run hehehe

secondly, i assume different orders have different preparation times as well as popular items may be already prepared whereas less ordered items you may have to wait while it is being prepared so if the order placed by the person behind you is ready then why should they have to wait ??

Answer 12

Quit being a pain to everyone and just go with the flow. You're not going to get your food any faster by blocking the line.

You've probably eaten a lot of snot and other gross things that get put in your food by the fast-food workers you're trying to impress with your attitude.

Answer 13

It's really very simple. Let's say you ordered a Crispy Chicken...there is a three-mintue wait on Crispy and no one behind you ordered Crispy. You are going to be waiting three mintues whether or not you pull ahead. If you pull ahead, they can get two or three more cars out before your order is ready. No one's going to stop serving other customers until your food is ready. They shouldn't, however, be doing for any other reason, like trying to cheat on service times.