Jenn patronizes what is possibly one of the fastest Burger King drive-thrus on record. That doesn’t mean the fast food joint serves customers food quickly. She says its workers game the drive-thru timer system by asking people to pull off to the side after they order and wait to be served.
The practice is widespread and not specific to Burger King, but Jenn’s Whopper factory seems like a particularly egregious offender.
She writes:
Today I stopped by my local Burger King store number #[redacted]. I usually try to avoid this particular BK as they have a habit of asking cars going through the drive thru, to pull over to the front to wait for their order. However, my brother wanted some food so I went through the drive thru. The problem started when I reached the window to pay and receive my food. The worker ignored me for a few moments and then without even opening the window, asked me to pull around to the front for my order. I tried to let her know I hadn’t paid yet, but she wasn’t facing me, so I pulled around to the front. When I got there, 3 other cars were waiting for their orders and had parked in between 2 lanes, on the side of the curb, etc. All are places you’re not supposed to park. The last time I had to pull around, there were so many cars trying to move in and out or wait on the side for their order, that a car almost hit me.For today’s order, a worker came out after a few minutes and asked me for my receipt, to which I told him I never received one. He seemed to be listening to his headset and then said I didn’t pay for my food and simply stood there silent. I explained to him that the other worker had asked me to pull around without taking any payment and that I could pay now. He stayed silent until I asked him how much the total was and I gave him some cash. It wasn’t until after I had left that I realized the worker who took my payment never gave me my change, which while it wasn’t much, was still something.
It’s likely that the BK workers are trying to beat the timer, but by asking me to pull around to the front, even when there’s no one else in the drive thru, I feel like there’s no point in even using it. It’s certainly not convenient for me to order then have to pull around to try to find parking and then do a back and forth with the worker. In addition, if I were paying with a credit card, how do I know the worker won’t be copying down my card number on his walk back to the restaurant? At least when I actually pay through the drive thru, I can see the card the entire time. Overall, bad service and poor policies will keep me from making this Burger King a regular stop.
What do you suspect your drive-thrus of doing to cheat their timer systems?
Previously: Burger King Drive-Thru Workers Try To Cheat The Timer System
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I work at a Culver’s Drive-Thru 6 or 7 days a week. Calling a drive-thru worker a “GED Candidate” is highly offensive, fyi. I’m a sophomore in college right now, and only work during the summer and my long breaks to help chip away at tuition costs. Surprisingly enough, you’ll find this in most cases your typical fast food worker is only there temporarily, trying to fund a higher education.
That said- at a Culver’s, a “good time” is anything under 4 minutes. Then again, you’re usually paying a little more, and getting a better quality meal.
If they make you pay first you should not leave the drive through without your food.
I had this happen to me almost every time I went to Burger King in Durham NC. I always thought it was I ordered veggie burgers which presumably took longer to cook but apparently this happens to everyone? Silly Burger King!
This story again?
How much would you want to bet that the “timer goal” is some unrealistic number that was compiled by suits that have never worked the front lines of a fast food joint in their lives. I would also bet that the same suits lower that timer goal every few months without making any changes in the processes to warrant a lower handle time. I know these tactics since I have worked with the “timer-goal-setting suits” with a different company for several years.
Reasons I will ask you to pull out of line:
Also, over those headsets many words sound the same: fries and Sprite or Icee, Hi-C and Iced tea are the most screwed up orders. Please enunciate French fries etc, and please don’t lie to me that the screen wasn’t working, you just couldn’t be bothered to stop talking on the phone and pay attention.
I follow a simple strategy: I don’t pull forward. I remember the look on the girl’s face the first time I told her “no.” I ordered a ham and Egg Biscuit from BK that morning (No hash browns or drink), and I told her that if i was going to wait, I would make sure that they would have the time to have everybody else’s order ready when they pulled up.
I also have the courtesy to go inside if I’m ordering more than two meals during a peak time.
Ex Fast Food Slave here,
What I truly don’t get is why haven’t they figured out that when your slow at night, and your numbers for the day suck, just have someone drive around a few times till the average handle time is back in the green? Thats what we would do to fix our times.
Also, the system is designed that if you blow one car’s time, use that time to get all the cars behind it ready to go, so you only have one car’s time thats shitty, and can bang out the other cars, negating the effect of the long ass car.
Also when getting money from the customer, ask them if they need any condiments, shaves more time there. Its possible to meet the metrics, you just gotta know how and when to work the system.
… wow. Never, ever have I seen a drivethru operated this way. I would flat-out REFUSE to leave the window, until I had my food in hand. What are they going to do, after all … call the police, and complain “our customer won’t leave without being given the food they’ve paid for” …??
there’s a jack in the box i used to go to, but i’d only go really late at night. the guy who worked there was nice and always gave a dog-cookie to my shiba (@_tar0_). sometimes it was just him + 1 other person when i’d get there. after paying, he’d tell me about the timer and ask me to back up and then pull forward. it wasn’t inconvenient to do, so i did it almost every time i was there.
however, if i was in a situation more resembling the OP’s (pull forward, weird payment, line of cars waiting for food but not in line), i can’t imagine i would have gone back.
When I worked at Taco Bell Time Of Service was a bid deal and the minimum wage worker bees did care. You didn’t get a cash incentive, but you would get yelled at if your TOS got too high. There was no drive through sensor though, TOS was calculated based on how long the order was up in the register rather than by how long a car was in the drive through. We would game the system by clearing orders off of the register before we gave the customer their food. As long as you could remember what a customer ordered without looking at the register there wasn’t really a downside.
My favourite thing to do when Burger King does this to me in my hometown is to just simply pull forward about ten feet and stop there, blocking everyone behind me from accessing the windows. This unfortunately aggravates the people behind me, but I take comfort in the fact that now people working inside have to put up with three angry cars behind me.
For the record, the only thing I ever order at Burger King is a double whopper. This should take about five seconds to complete, and it usually does, once I stop in a manner that blocks the entire drive-through from working properly. BAM. An employee is suddenly running out the side door with my burger, looking flustered.
I just act like an idiot and shrug and say “SORRY! YOU JUST SAID TO PULL UP, PLEASE, YOU DIDN’T SAY WHERE. SO I STOPPED BY THE DOOR SO I COULD GET MY FOOD
DDDDDDDDD” Meanwhile people behind me are honking and cursing and the cheat-the-timer system has failed, utterly and completely. (Please note that the bed of my truck is usually completely blocking the drive-through window while all of this is happening, and I turn up my music and pretend to be blissfully unaware of the manager yelling from the window for me to move).
Wow, you sound like a total asshole. Did you tease the retards in middle school too? Yeesh.
You sir, are my hero.
I can’t say I blame the employees for doing this. I guarantee they’re being micromanaged by corporate to be as fast as possible. They most likely get bitched at regularly if it takes more than 90 seconds to get an order ready. I HATE shit like that. I work at Auto Zone & we get punished with weekly 6 am meetings, which consist of literally NOTHING but being reamed out for an hour by the manager, if our ‘percentages’ are too low. Basically if we do not FORCE customers to purchase enough impulse-buy bullshit at the checkouts, we suck & we are terrible, lazy employees. They call it the “checkout challenge”, and we are required to push whatever weekly item they put out on every customer. I call it the “bane of my existence”. I hate my job. I have a high school diploma & numerous skills & qualifications, yet this is the only job I could find.
Wow, that turned from a comment on the story into me bitching about my job, sorry O_o
Um, I think every fast food drive-through chain does this. Honestly, I don’t see the problem because I’d just as soon they move the car in front of me if I’m behind someone who’s going to have to wait for food.
I think you witnessed theft. It involves waiting for a big order of whoppers and fries and your small order. They never put your order in the system so they cannot collect the money at the window. When you pull around the worker comes out for your money so you pay him. They pretend the big order customer checked his order and was short a burger and fry, which they will bring out and give to you. Either way your order never went through the system as a purchase so BK isn’t expecting to see cash in the drawer for it. A worker just stole $5.00 and everyone got their food so corporate won’t get angry letters. They will see a few orders were messed up but that’s par for the course so no red flags will be raised. They can probably do this once or twice a shift if they are having everyone pull aside.
Yeah, they are trying to beat a timer. The store is rated and scored on wait times. The scores are used locally, at the corporate level, and by QSR industry research outfits who publish these things as a ranking, comparing all the similar restaurants against each other.
The cheap and easy way to get a high score is to cheat. Send the cars to the parking lot. Keep the line moving and with fast wait times. Win.
My local Wendys does this all the time and proudly sports some local-level wall plaques testifying to their speed of service. They’re not supposed to cheat, but results are results people. How you get them is not important.
There are times when restaurants really do run out of fries and things and ask you to move rather than wait. I am OK with that on one level (I’m always in the car behind, it seems, so yes, get out of my way with your damn special order), but but but all the major chains have modeling showing them exactly what items are likely to be needed at any given time so there’s not a LOT of excuse for running out of fries or something else pretty common. They should expect demand and be prepared.
If it’s used wisely the “pull ahead” system benefits everyone. Piling people up just doesn’t work. Having a separate order taker and money collector/deliverer during peak hours is the reason many fast food joints have two windows. Its a pity they believe that overworking one person to save an additional minimum wage payment during these times as it just leads mistakes.
Placing the bucket over the sensor or driving a car around sure sounds stupid. 300 cars went through your drive through, yet only 200 placed an order….and if its tied to the register it still doesn’t start the clock until someone orders something. Only the “pull ahead” makes sense.
Times to legitimately use the pull ahead system is a long cook time order (complex or chicken), or a tiny order (e.g. drink only would get pissed if they wait 5 minutes+). Beyond that stacking people three deep just doesn’t help since now instead of passing the order out the window you have to walk out there. In this case the order deliverer sat there trying to hear and remember another order, wouldn’t be able to provide the price etc. That brings up another practice that you don’t notice as much…ringing you up only once you reach the window. “Pull up I’ll give you the price at the window”, which means they have time to cook the food, bag it and reduce their overall wait time… kind of a pain for a person paying with cash.
The first thing to do:
Say, “No thanks, I’ll wait here.”
The second thing to do:
Ask them, “Are you trying to cheat your internal timer?”
The third thing to do:
Get the number for their district/regional office to complain. Very often, you will end up with massive handfuls of free food coupons, which then hurt the store’s bottom line when you redeem them.
From experience, I can tell you that nothing freaks them out more than option 1. They’ll usually call the manager over which gives you a chance to repeat your response, possibly coupling it with a conjured anti-social tendency such as autism, bipolar disorder, ADHD, Tourettes or your choice of any other disorder to inflict on those that want to pad their numbers.
The places that do this on a serial basis are those that most need to have as many bad timers forced on them as possible.. Otherwise, the system fails because they are never forced to change.
Oh, there is also option 4: Let them know you have already spoken to their district/regional office before about this kind of poor service, and you will not hesitate to do so again…. combined with getting the manager-on-duty’s name.
I’ve had drive-thru operators ask me to do this at the Burger King in downtown Detroit and Jack-in-the-Box in Eureka, CA. After the first time, I caught on and have refused ever since.
This happened to me at a Taco Bell once, first time they asked me to back up and pull forward. I did it, the next time I went there I asked why. When they refused to give me a straight answer I just didn’t move. They weren’t happy but I got my food faster.
You know, you can refuse. In places where it’s dangerous because of cross-traffic or what have you, we refuse.
Eat healthier
You should see the wait times at Whataburger in Texas at least 15 minutes in the drive thru.
The stores are judged by their timing. It determines their hours, sales goals, bonuses, everything. If they can be fast they can hire more employees and get you your food faster. It’s all a numbers game. As long as you get your food (bleh), there should be no problem here.
dont forget having someone just drive thru the drive thru a few times just for the express purpose off driving the timer down .lol!!!! i hated working fast food .
“Ma’am, would you mind parking over there? We will bring your food out momentarily.”
“mmm, nah, I’m kinda in a hurry and it will take forever if I wait over there. I’ll just wait here. Thanks, tho!! *smile*”
ALSO, I usually go in, anyways. Like Joe Peschi said, “YOU ALWAYS GET F^
Or maybe it’s because they have the order ready for the person behind you and your order takes longer?
It’s not “cheating” the timer if this condoned at the corporate level of most fast food places. And it is, to a limited extent. Asking everyone to pull forward is unacceptable, however asking one or two people to pull forward is acceptable. The official policy of the fast food place I worked at when I was younger was that any order that would take longer than 90 seconds to complete had to be parked. Of course, it was also expected that this would happen relatively infrequently.
Additionally, asking someone to pull forward even if nobody is behind them is acceptable. It has nothing to do with “cheating the timer”. There are ways to do that don’t involve having the customer pull forward. It often doesn’t occur the way it is supposed to, so I can understand the frustration. In theory, having someone pull forward was supposed to be an opportunity to provide better service to those that had to wait. You know – making absolutely sure that you had all the sauces you might want, refilling drinks if someone has waited long enough to finish their drink, and we would often give free ice cream to the kids if their parents approved. It also has something to do with the time – it does save a couple of seconds if someone does appear behind you waiting for you to pull forward. I know that it often doesn’t happen this way, but this is the theory behind the process. It’s basically supposed to be a “carhop-like” service if your order is taking awhile to cook.
I spent way too much time in fast food as a teenager, but there are some interesting things to note. First is that a corporate store location almost always has at least two or three more employees around the clock doing mundane tasks like just making fries, for example. A corporate location is usually the model of efficiency, as the goal isn’t usually to make a profit, but just to run the place until they can get someone to take over the franchise. A franchised location has to cut corners if they are to actually make a profit – that’s when you end up with two or three employees doing the job of five or six employees. The idea basically is that fast food service will never be fantastic in most situations; there are just too few employees to guarantee fast times and the margins are too razor-thin to often hire more employees. There are the exceptions though: the corporate locations as I mentioned, continuously high-volume locations, and corporate “inspection” time of a franchised location.
I found that when I complain to their corporate website, I am oft rewarded with coupons for freebies and improvements in store performance, which is a win-win-win, since the chain also keeps its customers.
I didn’t realize how widespread this problem was until reading this discussion. While enjoying a delicious sandwich in the parking lot of a local Burger King, I observed someone making at least a dozen or so trips through the drive-thru while there were no other customers. I went inside to investigate and it turns out the manager was doing the driving, and was up front about the timer. Rather than risk food poisoning on my next visit, I didn’t make an issue of it. The management is wrong for cheating, but corporate is also wrong for using such a stupid system that can be gamed so easily.