i like taco bell. i probably shouldn’t, since i worked there for many years in high school and college, but i do. since i’m a vegetarian, i order everything with beans instead of meat, and one of my favorites is the baja chalupa with no baja sauce. i just don’t like baja sauce. does that sound strange to anyone?

apparantly it does to the employees at our lovely taco bell. last sunday, joe and i stopped by on our way to his parents’ house. we wanted to go through the drive-thru, but after waiting at the order box for 10 minutes, we decided no one was going to take our order. as we drove through to park, we saw the employee working the drive-thru just standing there. nice. we went inside, and i ordered my usual baja chalupa, beans instead of meat, no cheese and no baja sauce.

the woman at the register just stared at me and then said, “why would you order that?”

um . . . because i like it?

she rolled her eyes at me and sighed *quite* loudly. i guess i can understand. i mean, who would want to have to wait on customers at a restaurant?

and, of course, my order was messed up, and we had to go back in to get it fixed.

today, i hit the taco bell drive thru for a quick lunch. i was a little nervous after sunday’s visit, but i decided to try again. i ordered my chalupa, and the woman taking my order laughed at me. yes, people, she LAUGHED at me. she laughed so hard, in fact, that i had to repeat the rest of my order THREE TIMES because she couldn’t hear me.

and, again, my order was messed up. when i went inside, i saw the woman who took my order was a manager. now, let me just say, that as a former taco bell employee, i know a little bit about customer service. i know that you are to be nice to every customer, even irate customers, because you don’t want anything to reflect badly on yourself or the restaurant. if i had pulled any of this crap, my butt would have been fired so fast i wouldn’t have had time to walk out the door. so, i was a little surprised to see that a manager had laughed at my order.

ten minutes later, a girl finally came over to me and said, “what do you want?”

oh, i don’t know, maybe my food made correctly.

i explained it to her and showed her the receipt. she told the man on the line, and two minutes later he was waving my messed up order around saying, “what is this? what is this? i have a chalupa in my hand, but i don’t know what it is!”

so much drama. i couldn’t even make a story like this up. it’s just absurd. five minutes later, i got my chalupa. the employee shoved it into my hand and said, “here.”

the girl standing next to me said that every time she goes to taco bell her order is messed up too. it’s not that hard. take it from someone who’s made every item under the sun. all you have to do is read the screen. when it says no cheese or no baja sauce, you don’t put cheese or baja sauce on. it’s that simple.

i was pretty irate when i left, so i promptly called 1-800-taco bell. i’ve never lodged a complaint before, but i decided enough was enough. all the employees at this store are always so angry, but there is no need to take it out on the customers. i gave the customer service rep my information, and the district manager should be calling me within three business days.

i can’t wait. heads are going to roll. hell hath no fury like a scorned woman . . . especially one who’s pmsing. 🙂