You can say what you want about Chipotle’s food, but whoever put together the legalese on the back of their gift cards has a pretty good sense of humor.
Consumerist reader Sara Jo happened to give the back of her Chipotle gift card the once-over and noticed a few quality gems:
* “Please refrain from eating this card.”
* “You can try to use it some place else, but it won’t be accepted and they will probably laugh at you.”
* “Chipotle is not responsible for for unauthorized use of this card — namely someone other than the right owner using it to score a burrito.”
While we’re not fans of gift cards in general, we’re glad at least someone made reading the back of the card worthwhile.
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They probably put the standard legalese on the back and then realized they had more space, so decided to fun it up a bit. Too bad their food is as funny as the card…
Blasphemy. Chipotle is delicious.
I prefer Moe’s, but Chipotle is good too.
Moe’s is pretty disgusting, especially when compared to Chipotle.
I like the salsa bar at Moe’s, but their burritos are bland compared to the flavor explosion that is Chipotle.
When it comes to fast food I think Chipotle is better then a lot of the burger joints.
I make my own Chipotle at home.
Ha! Funny. Although I did buy my wife the recipe for the barbacoa from topsecretrecipes for Christmas one year (he “reverse engineers” restaurant foods- that particular one was so much work- she hasn’t made it- we just go enjoy Chipotle’s burritos!)
Me too.
I worked for them for several years, so no reverse engineering required.
MMMM barbacoa burritos
MMMM veggie crunchy tacos
Me too.
I worked for them for several years, so no reverse engineering required.
MMMM barbacoa burritos
MMMM veggie crunchy tacos
sorry, my computer must have hiccuped…
too much rum in the eggnog
Wait… what? Chipotle not good? It’s certainly the best chain Tex-Mex I’ve ever stuffed down my gullet, and believe me, I’ve eaten a LOT of Tex-Mex (and plain ol’, actually authentic Mex) food, both chain and non-chain, in my life. It’s essentially the Tex-Mex equivalent of Five Guys, and if you don’t like Five Guys, you routinely strangle kittens and have hate sex with unicorns, and that’s all I have to say on that score.
You’ve obviously never had Willy’s Mexicana Grill
Now that they can no longer charge fees, they needed something to replace the fee structure copy, that use to dominate the backs of gift cards.
Chipotle, IIRC, has never charged a fee of any kind for its gift cards.
Most of the places I associate with using this type of humor tend to have better customer service. Just my take.
Maybe your standards are just unattainable, hmm?
… unattainable except they seem to get it often enough to make an association between humor and good customer service?
Reading comprehension, or did you just see a female icon and decide to be a shit?
I don’t know how it is at your chipoltle, but the one I always go to has EXCELLENT service… we used to eat there weakly at my old job, and the rare time anyone had a complaint about their meal, they replaced it and gave them a coupon for a free meal next time, no questions asked. The cherry on top is when we convinced someone who hadn’t been there before to come with us… the manager overheard us discussing the menu with him, and when it was his turn to pay, they told him it was no charge, just in case he found out he didn’t like it.
I had an odd issue with my iPhone app taking my order, charging my card on file, but the store never got the order and my husband ended up re-ordering there and paying cash. It was a couple of weeks later before I figured it out, and by then I had no receipt. I told the manager what happened- she gave me one of these cards and apologized.
And the veggie burrito bowls are awesome!
Because plain English and a little humor can communicate a point just as well as, if not better than, complicated legalese.
Have you never read their cups?
Their cups are the best.
I love Chipotle. Their burritos are one of my favorite guilty pleasures. That and a Baconator.
I was craving a Chipotle burrito before and now I want one even more! hmmm…. I may need to take a detour on my way home tonight.
Hell of a lot more understandable than the text on the back of any gift or bank cards I’ve read lately.
Qdoba > Chipotle
I had Qdoba once. It was awful.
Indeed, a poor man’s Chipotle at best.
Hey, for those of us whose nearest Chipotle is 40 mintues away, you take what you can get.
Both are better than Desert Moon, though.
Seconded. I will never go back. (They weep over the loss of my occasional five bucks.)
99% of the people I introduce to Chipotle do not go back to Qdoba. Still disappointed in that 1% failure rate…
I used to prefer Chipotle over Qdoba, but now I think they’re both great. The only issue I have with Qdoba is they don’t pack the burrito correctly. I like it separated like they do at Chipotle. Of course, the last few times I’ve been to Chipotle, they’ve also just crammed all the ingredients together. The steak at Chipotle is miles above what they serve at Qdoba. But, I usually get chicken at Qdoba, and they make the burritos much larger than the local Chipotle. It sucks, b/c I remember the days I lived in Denver before the 2 chains were national, and the burritos were much bigger.
Pancheros>Q’doba>Chipolte
Chipotle for burritos
Qdoba for nachos
Pancheros for quesadillas
I disagree.. I prefer Moes out of any of them but Chipotle is much better than Qdoba
Ewww, Moe’s has decent quesadillas but their chicken is flavorless, their chips are ‘meh’ , and their salsas all lack the deliciousness of Chipotle.
Sure makes up for the moralizing BS plastered on every brown bag and store.
What moralizing? The fact that Chipotle advertises that its chicken, beef, and pork are free range and hormone free? That’s awesome, in my book.
Some people think if you’re not jumping up and down screaming PAVE THE EARTH that you’re a goldanged hippie.
I bought Chipotle stock on the day of its IPO @ $44 a share. I foolishly sold all of it when it hit $100 —- it’s now at $257. DAMMIT
As as lawyer who actually reads the fine print on stuff like this (I can’t help it, okay?) I heartily approve.
Humorous text like this is printed on all their stuff (cups, napkins, etc)…
First time using a camera with a flash?
It’s kind of hard to get a good angle on stuff like that. I have to take pictures of inspection sheets and it is hard to get it not looking like that.
You turn off the flash and use illumination from the sides.
For my work I can’t bring illumination no electricity. It’s not practical. Gotta use a flash.
I’m not sure about the person here. I know I just have a camera and nothing else usable.
For my work I can’t bring illumination no electricity. It’s not practical. Gotta use a flash.
I’m not sure about the person here. I know I just have a camera and nothing else usable.
That was me, and it was my phone camera. The print wouldn’t come out clearly without the flash. Sorry about that. The only word that’s actually obscured is “rightful”.
For the record, I got the gift card because if you bought a $25 card you got a free burrito bowl (gluten-free food! Hooray!).
So, I’m not going to be a jerk and give it as a gift; I’m going to use it myself, which I think is acceptable.
Chipotle is tasty, but not all that healthy in their normal burrito format. Yes, you can make it somewhat healthy by not including a 300 calorie wrap, but that would lose all the fun of a chipotle burrito.
I do like their approach to health and i appreciate their humour, but their sizing is a bit obese.
It counts as two meals for me. No one is making you eat the entire burrito in one sitting. I prefer the burrito bowls anyway.
Agreed… I used to go their all the time at my old job… I’d eat breakfast before work, go to work about 3:00 (This was retail, so I worked afternoon/evening shifts), and eat Chipotle on my lunch break, and I was good for the day.
Maybe it’s because I eat the vegetarian burritos, and maybe it’s because I stay away from guacamole, but I can eat a Chipotle burrito for lunch and still be hungry afterward. (This is coming from a guy who’s 6’1″ and 185 lbs.)
Compare a burrito at Chipotle to any fast-food meal. It has a few more calories, but: It contains ingredients from all the food groups. It is not overly processed. The ingredients are humanely and/or organically grown. The price is similar, or just a bit higher. And last, but not least, it tastes a lot better.
For the calorie counters: Get water with lemon or diet pop. Then it will have fewer calories than a McDonalds meal with a sugary drink.
I always get a veggie bowl, with no cheese or sour cream (okay, if I’m feeling splurgy, I get the cheese), and eat half of it. Eaten that way, it works out to a reasonably healthy meal, it’s absolutely delicious, and runs me about $3 for a lunch or dinner. All in all, not a bad deal.
I will say what I want about Chipotle’s food.
IT’S AWESOME. And I want to eat it.
While store specific gift cards are never really great, they are never as lame as the fee loaded prepaid gift card.
Jack in the Box does something similar on their legal page:
“Jack in the Box Inc. does not warrant or make any representations regarding the use of the material contained in this site in terms of its correctness, accuracy, reliability, or otherwise. The material in this site could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors, in fact, no matter how many times Patti, Brian and Vikki read through it, there are probably a number of misspellings or things we didn’t mean to say, or probably should have said differently, so we will definitely be making changes and updates every time Jack has a better idea.”
I love Jack’s sly humor too.
Why dis their food? It’s awesome. It’s pretty much the only FF we eat.
There’s always somebody who, on hearing that [thing] is popular and well-liked, will try to establish themselves as a brilliant individualist by insisting that [thing] sucks.
I mean, “I’ve eaten at Chipotle and I really don’t care for their food because…..” is one thing.
Love the food, hate the atmosphere.
Who can hate the delightfully adobo- marinated atmosphere of Chipotle? Seriously, though, we don’t usually eat at Chipotle. We usually get everything to go. Our Chipotle is about 10 minutes away.
Dammit, now I want Chipotle and the closest one is 45 minutes away! *cries*
You can say what you want about Chipotle’s food
Um, I’ll say they’re the best. I friggin’ love Chipotle
In a similar vein, check out these guy’s user guides, starting at about page 5 (caution: audio tech-talk here but still goofy enough for general enjoyment):
http://www.atiaudio.com/files/pdf/MMA400&800&XLR,%20MLA400&800&XLR%20Inst%20Bk.pdf
Some excerpts:
“Each unit dissipates approximately 20 watts and is ventilated through slots in the rear panel. We have absolutely no idea how many MMAs you can stack up in a rack before the solder melts, but we will be happy to sell you enough to find out.”
“We have taken heroic measures to keep RF pickup out of your amplifier. This heroism includes … a nice enclosure which will keep rain and snow off the circuit boards…. If you have a decent ground system and still have RF problems, give us a call and we will hold a telephone prayer meeting.”
“The fanning strips are Kulka part number 649A22 and extras are available at exorbitant prices from our Parts and Accessories Department. Kulka sells them cheaper, but they have a six-month lead-time, which isn’t going to do you any good when you have to be operating
by Thursday and somebody threw out the original strips with the packing material.”
(And they make excellent equipment, BTW.)
Ha ha that’s funny! Now I like them even more.
I like the burrito bowls. If you go easy on the cheese and rice it’s a pretty good meal, and they give you enough for another lunch the next day.
Obviously, they are making fun of the people who; 1. Tried to eat the card, 2. Tried to use the card somewhere else, and 3. Gave it to someone else while drunk, who used it.
This is fairly standard for Chipotle. They do the same with the wording on their cups & wrappers. Love their fax order form too. In big letters it states: “1985 called. They want their fax machine back.” Then under that it gives both the online order website and the fax number.
Something’s wrong here. An entire Chipotle thread without a claim (erroneously) that they are still owned by McDonalds? My faith in commenters has been shattered.
this is what passes for humor for liars, er, lawyers.
i took a shit this morning that’s funnier than this or any lawyer.
Chipotle effing rocks. I gained about 20 pounds eating three burritos a week in 2005 and am now relapsing. I must calibrate the correct burrito -> salad conversion. Oh, their barbacoa. So much nom.
With regards to their customer relations: I forget his title, but some of my fellow Chipotle freaks probably know of Joe Stupp. I sent him a laudatory email around the same time his company’s burritos were giving me Dunlop disease and he sent me gift cards for ten free burritos – and a personalized response.
If you’re snooty about authenticity you have probably only had one or two really authentic experiences and want the world to know about them. I’ve eaten electric-blue quesadillas hand-pounded on a comal by Mazahua women at the foot of a volcano, chickens I just killed on my grandma’s farm in Belarus, and Papaya King. All were magnificent. Chipotle is magnificent in a different yet equally valid way. Maybe fast/cheap food is the authentically American food?