Special orders at fast food joints.

[Mr Pickles]

Do you guys make special orders at fast food places often? I wonder how much it goes down? I can't do it. I don't care if its even BK where they tell me to have it my way, I'm not going to waste the time of a system designed to be as standard as possible. I used to not like pickles on my burgers. I love them now, but my grandparents (I grew up with them) would tell me to just order regular and take them off. So I did and now its a peeve of mine. Its a waste of time for them to do custom orders and it slows everyone down.

There is a huge stack of regular double cheeseburgers there for a reason. One of them will be mine, like pickles or not. You can probably use this question to answer many other questions about the preferences of people and how picky they are.

 

[clamum]

I order no onions if the burger comes with it, but I suppose I could take them off. But I assume the people making the food are intelligent enough to read "no onions" and not put the fucking things on there.

Only other special order I do is no Big Mac sauce.

 

[xanis]

I rarely ever special order. I just get the regular thing and take off what I don't like.

 

[KeithTalent]

No cucumbers/pickles. Seriously.

KT

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Some people will do it just because they think it guarantees them a fresh burger rather than one that's been under a heat lamp. Other people won't do it because they think it increases the odds that some kid hates special orders and will spit in the burger while making it.

I don't just because it's not worth the time or effort and they too often get it wrong. Ask for no tomatoes and extra pickles and you get no pickles and extra ketchup instead. I just let them make a nice standard burger so as not to tax their brainpower and then I pluck off the tomatoes myself.

 

[meltdown75]

legend has it that you can say "Mac It Up" at McD's around here and they will make your burger with Big Mac toppings.

ATOT wasn't happy with me when i mentioned that though.

"WTF IT'S A BURGER WITH BLAH BLAH BLAH ON IT, IT'S NOT SPECIAL, DIAF I HATE YOU"

pretty much sums up the response i got.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
legend has it that you can say "Mac It Up" at McD's around here and they will make your burger with Big Mac toppings.

ATOT wasn't happy with me when i mentioned that though.

"WTF IT'S A BURGER WITH BLAH BLAH BLAH ON IT, IT'S NOT SPECIAL, DIAF I HATE YOU"

pretty much sums up the response i got.

Haha, I remember that thread. :laugh:

KT

 

[HannibalX]

I never do. These places are built for speed and making a special order just slows things down.

If you want a custom sammich then go to a real sammich shop.

Besides, burgers that have had the chance to sit under a heat lamp for five-ten minutes sort of bond and become a solid peice of tasty goodness a hastily assembled and non-rested burger just can't offer.

 

[duragezic]

I do on occasion. I had to vote yes as it was the only match, but I agree with you.

Really the only thing I get a special order for is Nacho Bellgrandes from Taco Bell without those beans. God I don't know how anyone can stand eating them, much less liking them. Once they slop that pile of shit on the nachos, it is a bit difficult to remove, so that's why I special order them.

Stuff like removing pickles, lettuce, onions, tomatoe etc is so simple that I don't special order for that (tho I like them all anyway). Other reason I might special order is if I didn't want some special sauce on there that sucked.

 

[rasczak]

everytime my wife and I go to In n Out, she special orders a number PLAIN, no pickles, onions or tomatoes. Usually because of her order i have to wait an extra ten minutes.

 

[Anubis]

yes i get extra pickles on burgers if i order them

 

[dbk]

whopper ketchup and cheese only?

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
Some people will do it just because they think it guarantees them a fresh burger rather than one that's been under a heat lamp

Hey, I'm some people!
McDonalds plain hamburgers and cheeseburgers are actually pretty good if you get them 'plain' or ketchup only.

 

[Linflas]

Burger King and Wendys yes, they are set up to give you what you want. McDonalds no, I just deal with whatever comes on the sandwich.

 

[nakedfrog]

"Only ketchup"
I didn't know it could possibly annoy anyone that I ordered my food in a non-standard fashion. That will make each burger from here on slightly tastier.

How is it a "waste of time" for them to do custom orders? I'm paying for the damned sandwich, let me decide what's on it. It's a waste of your time to take the pickles off (for example), why not have the person who is being paid to make the sandwich just not put them on in the first place? Not to mention that if those pickles then went in the trash, that's the biggest waste of all.

 

[coldmeat]

I like to stick to just Harvey's where they make the burger in front of you and you tell them exactly what you want. If I go to McDonalds I get a bunch of their little burgers that only come with ketchup mustard onions and pickles. They are the best thing on their menu.

 

[AntiFreze]

If you always order it special, even something you dont care about, then it pretty much garauntees a fresh item. They aren't going to grab it out of a hotbox, or a warmer and toss it to you. You'll have to await a bit, but it will be fresh.

and to the people who say you are wasting their time... we know where you sit in the world.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
"Only ketchup"
I didn't know it could possibly annoy anyone that I ordered my food in a non-standard fashion. That will make each burger from here on slightly tastier.

How is it a "waste of time" for them to do custom orders? I'm paying for the damned sandwich, let me decide what's on it. It's a waste of your time to take the pickles off (for example), why not have the person who is being paid to make the sandwich just not put them on in the first place? Not to mention that if those pickles then went in the trash, that's the biggest waste of all.

At a place like McDonalds it is not a waste of their time, it is a waste of the time of the people behind you in line unless they do the "pull forward" thing.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: clamum
I order no onions if the burger comes with it, but I suppose I could take them off. But I assume the people making the food are intelligent enough to read "no onions" and not put the fucking things on there.

Only other special order I do is no Big Mac sauce.

Back when I used to work at McDonalds, I think I may've forgotten to do it a time or two. Sometimes you simply have so many orders coming through and you literally are handed a bun on a wrapper to assemble and sometimes the special order thing would get lost/separated from the sammich. Good employees would use a tray that we had and place the sticker+paper on the tray and put the wrapper+bun on the tray too so they all stayed together. In these situations, you literally do not read the screen and just make whatever's in front of you, so no special thing = no special things done.

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
Some people will do it just because they think it guarantees them a fresh burger rather than one that's been under a heat lamp. Other people won't do it because they think it increases the odds that some kid hates special orders and will spit in the burger while making it.

It's actually best to order fries with no salt if you want fresh fries.

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
How is it a "waste of time" for them to do custom orders? I'm paying for the damned sandwich, let me decide what's on it. It's a waste of your time to take the pickles off (for example), why not have the person who is being paid to make the sandwich just not put them on in the first place? Not to mention that if those pickles then went in the trash, that's the biggest waste of all.

It usually doesn't take any longer for a competent employee to make a sammich special rather than normal. Hell, for a newer employee, it's probably easier to make a sammich plain than normal as they may not have all of the toppings memorized yet. Also an "only ketchup" or "only pickles" is just as easy to do since it lists it right there.

People that get up to the register and still have no idea what they want are much worse than a customizer could ever be.

EDIT:

It seems people are assuming that they always have sammiches premade which is not true at all times. Typically during lunch rush they will have extras available in the holding tray, but very rarely do you see them have this unless someone accidentally made an extra or they're expecting a rush. Sammiches also do not take long to assemble... 20-30 seconds at the longest and orders go up once you push the buttons, so chances are they're almost done by the time your transaction is complete. This includes bun toasting time.

 

[Baked]

I eat everything.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: Linflas

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
"Only ketchup"
I didn't know it could possibly annoy anyone that I ordered my food in a non-standard fashion. That will make each burger from here on slightly tastier.

How is it a "waste of time" for them to do custom orders? I'm paying for the damned sandwich, let me decide what's on it. It's a waste of your time to take the pickles off (for example), why not have the person who is being paid to make the sandwich just not put them on in the first place? Not to mention that if those pickles then went in the trash, that's the biggest waste of all.

At a place like McDonalds it is not a waste of their time, it is a waste of the time of the people behind you in line unless they do the "pull forward" thing.

I didn't see any references to this being at a drive-through... but either way, how much longer could it possibly take for them to NOT put something on a sandwich, or add something else?
AFAIK, they did away with having completely pre-made burgers sitting there awaiting distribution years ago.

 

[legoman666]

I order my burgers plain with no bun. They probably hate me. Plain because thats how I like them, and no bun because I'm "allergic" to wheat.

 

[Lamont Burns]

Eff special orders. Even normal style you only get what you order about 80% of the time. Complicating matters only lowers that %. At work whenever I run out for food, anyone that piggy backs on my order can't special order, either. 100% of the time it's women.

"Can I get that with no cheese but with extra pickles?"
"NO!"

 

[AntiFreze]

I worked at fazoli's in college, and I actually loved getting special orders. I would personally take them in the kitchen and make them about 5x better (make sure there are plenty of toppings etc.) It was a break from the mundane, but then again, I loved when it got busy and I was wipping up pastas in under 30 seconds. Fazoli's quality, but I enjoyed it

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: Linflas

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
"Only ketchup"
I didn't know it could possibly annoy anyone that I ordered my food in a non-standard fashion. That will make each burger from here on slightly tastier.

How is it a "waste of time" for them to do custom orders? I'm paying for the damned sandwich, let me decide what's on it. It's a waste of your time to take the pickles off (for example), why not have the person who is being paid to make the sandwich just not put them on in the first place? Not to mention that if those pickles then went in the trash, that's the biggest waste of all.

At a place like McDonalds it is not a waste of their time, it is a waste of the time of the people behind you in line unless they do the "pull forward" thing.

I didn't see any references to this being at a drive-through... but either way, how much longer could it possibly take for them to NOT put something on a sandwich, or add something else?
AFAIK, they did away with having completely pre-made burgers sitting there awaiting distribution years ago.

Maybe they did but for some reason special orders seem to throw McDonalds for a loop whereas Wendy's, Hardee's, or Burger King seem to handle them without flinching. Maybe an ex McD's employee can explain why they seem to have such an issue with special orders, it makes no sense to me.