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42 Crazy Things Customers Said At A Drive-Through That They Didn’t Think The Employee Could Hear
How many times have you gone through a drive-through, placed your order and then merrily continued the conversation that you were having before you were rudely interrupted? Maybe you were discussing work, your relationship, the latest family gossip. Or perhaps you muttered something under your breath about the shoddy service or the long queue.
Be warned: the following listicle might have you rethinking your drive-through choices, or maybe even whispering when you have to make your way to the "next window" again. If you think the man/woman inside the building can't hear your embarrassing life story, think again.
Someone asked, "People who work at a drive through window, what are some things that you’ve overheard on the headset that customers don’t know you heard?" and the tea was piping hot. No less than 1,500 response came flying in, almost as quick as your fast food order.
Bored Panda has put together the best of them. From cringeworthy comments made by drivers, to a girl who was heard enjoying enjoying a bit of "manual magic" courtesy of her boyfriend, many of these might provide enough motivation to roll up all the windows and shut your trap next time you're at the drive-through.
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#1
Was taking an order for a college aged couple, they ordered a couple happy meals. After I told them their total, I heard the girl yell excitedly, "WE'RE GETTING TOYS!!" and they pull up and she has the biggest genuine excited grin on her face.
Honestly made my day, it was super cute.
Some of life's strangest experiences happen when you least expect them. Like that time I went through a KFC drive-through (as in Kentucky Fried Chicken) only to be told, "Sorry, we're out of chicken." Wait. What? Or that other time I ordered a medium meal and was asked, "Would you like that extra medium?" Huh.
Drive-throughs have been around a lot longer than many of us might realize. The first one popped up in the United States during the 1930s. But it was a bit different to what we know today...
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#2
A lady pulled up and started saying how she hates coming here because the drive though person is always an idiot and never gets her order right. And how McDonald’s only hires idiots.
I greeted her with “hello mam, sorry for your past experiences but not all of us are idiots, and in fact we all can hear you on the headsets as soon as you pull up”
She drove off.
#3
Kind of a backwards example but one time I was having a tough day and my roommate and I went to grab food from this local diner's drive thru. She wanted to get food from somewhere else so I just got a burger and fries. After a bunch of driving around she finally decided she wanted food from there, so we went back, and I got a shake and she got fries, and then after we'd already ordered I said to her how I honestly wanted more fries but 1) I shouldn't spend any more money and 2) we'd already finished the order, and 3) the drive thru guy was gonna hardcore judge me, especially since we'd already been through the drive thru in the last 30 minutes.
When we pulled up to the window, the guy gave us our food and then gave me some fries, said, "No judgment, it's on the house," and winked at me. It was super nice but also I cringed of embarrassment and that was the day I learned they can hear you even when you don't think they can.
"These establishments offered simple menus and served customers who could stay in their cars and be served by carhops," reports Top Grill Roadhouse. "Drive-ins became popular gathering spots, where families could enjoy a meal while experiencing the novelty of dining from the comfort of their vehicles."
Soon, drive-throughs had evolved to cater for car-crazy people, and very busy families.
"The true birth of the fast-food roadhouse can be attributed to the establishment of the first fast food chains," notes the site. "In the 1940s and 1950s, entrepreneurs like the McDonald brothers, Richard and Maurice, and others introduced innovative systems and streamlined processes to deliver food quickly and efficiently."
#4
When I was working a drive-through window I was more worried that the customer would overhear what I was saying about them. One time I called a guy an idiot under my breath (wasn't holding down the talk button) and he pulled up to the window to pay and it was my pastor.
#5
Worked at a McDonald's, most memorable one was a woman who got a call after she placed an order and burst out crying.
person in her passenger side asks: "what's wrong?"
she responds, window still down: "my dad just passed away."
taking her payment was extremely uncomfortable.
#6
A couple had a full on boxing match at the speaker. I just said "let me know when you're ready to order" as I heard the punches land on each other's faces while they yelled at each other.then they ordered like they didn't just go Rocky vs Drago.....
According to the National Museum of American History, the first In-N-Out Burger drive-thru opened in California in 1948. "Customers received sheets of butcher paper to protect their laps while eating in their cars," it reveals. "Soon, printed 'lap mats' were a regular feature of the chain."
It was the McDonald brothers who changed the face of drive-throughs with their revolutionary Speedee Service System, which was implemented in their San Bernardino, California restaurant. It focused on mass production, standardization, and fast service, cutting down the time that customers had to wait for their food.
"The success of this concept led to the opening of the first McDonald's franchise in 1955, marking the beginning of a fast-food empire," the museum's site notes.
#7
I used to be a drive thru bank teller and this woman drop 1 hundred dollar bill from her withdrawal envelope inside her car. She accused me of stealing. and while I rechecked my drawer, she call me a racial slur that came to her country to steal from Americans bc she tought the microphone was off. My manager overheard the while interaction. Well, by time the woman came into the bank screaming, her younger son came running after her bc he found the bill underneath the driver's seat. My manager closed her bank account and told her to not come back.
#8
My customer service voice sounds very happy but is very much fake, and has lead to a lot of interesting customer experiences. One time, I did my whole introductory shpiel that you have to do in the Starbucks drive thru, and the lady mumble about me being way too loud and happy, so I just asked her what she said even louder and happier. She didn’t repeat her remark and just ordered that time. I also had multiple incidents where people are like “wow, somebody’s had a lot of coffee” and one incident when somebody said that I responded with, “oh no man this is just my customer service voice which is very much fake”. Starbucks drive thru is one hell of an interesting place.
#9
Guy came to the Wendy’s I worked at and got in an argument with his wife about if we served tater tots or not. After a few minutes I butted in and told him we didn’t serve tater tots. He told me they were on our screen and he was “gonna get them tots!”
He was looking at the chicken nuggets.
Nowadays, between 40% and 70% of fast-food customers use drive-throughs, with drive-through lanes generating roughly 60% to 70% of total sales for major quick-service chains like McDonald's.
What many might not know is that the person taking your order at McDonald's can actually hear you from the second your vehicle pulls up to the speaker.
"The way that McDonald's drive-thru communication system works is that there is a sensor in the drive-thru lane that is triggered when you drive over it. This issues a beep in the employee's headset and immediately starts transmitting audio from your end," explains the Tasting Table site. "On the employee's side, they have control over whether or not to transmit audio. This enables them to talk to other customers or restaurant staff without needlessly bombarding you with all of that excess information."
#10
I was working drive and I had a customer pull up to the speaker and then order. Then afterwards she didn’t pull up to the window. And I can still hear what she says even tho I’m not taking her order. She then started having a loud phone conversation and started talking about how was cheating on her boyfriend. I gave her a little time and then said “you can pull up mam”.
#11
A girl was in the middle of ordering when her boyfriend called her, he was breaking up with her as well as confessing he had been cheating on her (her car put the call through the speakers), I couldn’t comp her order but I did tell the person at the other window to give her a free ice cream of her choosing. I’m surprised she didn’t just pull out of line.
#12
Most if not all of Starbucks drive thrus have a camera, so we can see you. We can see when you flip us off, we can see when your doing something you shouldn’t be. We can see the faces and hateful glares you make. And more importantly we can see when you and your SO are for some reason trying to get it on in the DT lane. Like y’all can’t wait and pull into the parking lot for that?
According to a survey conducted by Drive Research, on average, Americans spend $148 on fast food each month.
"Fast food establishments are known for their convenience and accessibility, making them an attractive option for individuals with busy lifestyles or those seeking a quick meal solution," explains the Drive Research site. "The relative affordability of many fast food items, when compared to dining at sit-down restaurants, may also contribute to this monthly spending average."
#13
One time we had a person sit in the lane for seven minutes having an argument with the other person in the car over their divorce. Stuff can get weird.
#14
A mom got out of her car and began wrestling her children in the back seat. The dad just said “We need a moment.”.
#15
*talking about me* “Geez, she sounds like Minnie Mouse. Someone take the helium away from that kid”.
Drive Research's team also found that women are more likely than men to use a drive-through.
"Our fast food consumption survey found that 53% of females prefer to go through the drive-thru when purchasing fast food, while only 26% of males use the drive-thru," they noted, adding that one possible explanation for this difference could be related to convenience and time management.
#16
I worked at Tim Hortons when I was young. A person pulled up, gave their order and then rang a bell. It was a bicycle bell. Dude was pushing a grocery cart that had a bell attached to it. I had to deny him food because my manager told me to.
He walked inside and made a big scene about it then left with his 10-pack of Timbits. It was a weird experience.
#17
Was listening in while someone was listening to a sermon and was like " Amen, hallelujah preach it preacher!".
#18
Long ago, in a faraway land, I worked for Taco Bell on weekends. I was working the drive thru window at 2 am. Some guys with severe munchies, order at the screen about $30 worth of food. After I give them the total, one of the guys tells the other , he thought it would be funny to throw his drink into the employee’s face at the window . I waited until I got the money and gave the food and change but not the drinks. When they asked for the drinks. A few guys in our crew went to the window, and suggested they didn’t need the drinks because they would hate if one of them had a drink accidentally thrown in his face. The looks on their faces when they realized the whole crew heard them on the headsets and speakers in the kitchen. They left without drinks. It’s nice when your coworkers have your back.
"Females may, on average, have busier schedules due to a variety of responsibilities, such as work, household chores, childcare, or other commitments," adds the research team. "As a result, they may be more inclined to opt for the convenience of a drive-thru, which offers a quicker and more efficient way to obtain meals."
But there could be another reason: staying in the car, especially at night, is simply safer. If you're opting to use a drive-through, just remember that you never know who is listening into your conversation!
#20
I used to work at Star Bucks and some mom was yelling at her kid who I thought must have been a teenager because of her voice and all of the cussing. She pulls up and her kid is like 6 years old. I heard it all.
#21
My daughter just got her first job and is working a drive through. When I read her this question she scoffed and said, “people blowing their noses.”.
#22
Worked at a 24hr Panda Express. I got the pleasure of taking the order of a group of women coming back from a late night bridal party. All I could hear besides the quiet DD ordering was the girl in the passenger side throwing up into a plastic bag. It was...fun.
#23
First, you all should know, you are heard from the moment you drive up to the mic until you leave.
My boss took an order for 4 high school girls one morning. She hears them say “Wow, she was a jerk” and my boss says “you know, I can still hear you ladies. When you get up here to the window, just keep driving because we’re not going to be serving you today”.
The car full of girls goes slowly by the window with 4 girls flipping off the staff watching at the closed window and we all just waved g’bye.
#24
A few years ago in MA: Some hicks having a long argument about nuking North Korea and whether they'd nuke us first.
That and the drunk lady yelling at her dog in the backseat of her car, before and after she got arrested.
#25
Sooo many parents yelling at their kids to "make up their minds." Also once had a guy ask for "Jail-a-peen-os" on his sandwich, I started laughing, and he got super mad and demanded to talk to my manager
EDIT: I feel like I should clarify. Jail-a-peen-o man was an old redneck in the middle of Missouri. So it was funny not only because of the pronunciation but because of the Southern/Midwest accent. I also didn't mean to laugh at him, both me and my coworker forgot our headsets were on, my coworker said it the same way he did and I laughed, and when he pulled up to the window, that is when he asked to see our manager.
#26
Used to work at a mcDonalds, overhears a woman verbally bashing the passenger who was a male. It was definitely odd to overhear and made even less sense to my 16 year old brain because socially women are never seen as aggressors and it was just a shock.
#27
Worked at Mcd's for 3 years. Funniest I'd heard was a guy asking the passenger what he could get for a Big Mac. Worst, had to listen to a women list off std's her doctor told her she had and what treatments to get, literally begged the grill team to hurry and move the line.
#28
Once had the opposite happen. My friend and I worked at fast food place and friend randomly asked "whatever happened to Chelsea Lastname?" No ill intent, we just hadn't hung out with her in forever. Then from the drive thru window we hear a man roar "What about Chelsea Lastname??!" Yep, her dad was at the window.
#29
I'm not the worker, but the customer. My mom drove my sister and I to a Steak N Shake drive through, and it was super busy. We didn't have to wait long to get to the speaker to order though. Once we got there, the woman over the speaker said "Hi, welcome to steak n shake." She didn't ask for our order, or tell us to wait a bit, just that. We were waiting for at least 15 minutes before my sister and I were super impatient and tired, so we kept saying in a tired voice "Hi, welcome to steak n shake, how may I take your order?" We were tired and thought this was funny, and plus we were just hoping if we said it over and over again soon the person over the speaker would ask for our order. After a few minutes of all of us doing this and laughing, (my mom wasn't doing it, but she was laughing along), we hear the woman on the other end very angrily ask us, "Are you mocking me?" All three of us just sat there, because none of us knew that she could still hear us, and because how do you explain to someone that we were just laughing at ourselves? Since we hesitated, she asked again. "I said, are you guys mocking me??" This time louder and angrier. My mom and I both said in a very pathetic tone "No, we were laughing at our own jokes." The lady scoffed at us, and didn't say anything else. We felt terrible that she thought we were mocking her when in reality we were just tired and stupid. So we drove off without ordering, and got food somewhere else like dogs with their tail in between their legs.
#30
I ran a fast food place during the graveyard shift for almost ten years, but don't operate a drive through anymore.
1. A phone call where the women was upset that she received crabs from the person she was talking to. We interrupted her and she just left out of shame.
2. Verbal mistreatement usually aimed at children or a spouse. There is a line between a parent being frustrated at a kid and the things I have heard. I remember a poor kid who was so upset over the driver screaming at them to pick something to eat that the only thing the kid could manage to do was cry. The kitchen was used to yelling, but the tone and volume of the driver made everyone stop and listen in shock and anger. The driver was still screaming at the kid as they sped off without ordering.
3. Two women planning to attack me when I came out with their remakes. The buns were originally too toasted.
4. Large truck engine sounds. Speakers are usually tall enough to catch only the engine sounds of a large truck trying to order. Nothing else can be heard except for the occasional snippet of human speech almost completely drowned out by a constant, incredibily painful, piercing white noise blaring directly into the ear. The sigh of annoyance from the driver is usually crystal clear as soon as they turn off the vehicle though.
At least with the company that I worked for, as soon as a drive through person talks to a customer via speaker, any following conversation can be heard via kitchen speakers, for all staff to hear and depending on how loud, some of the customers dining inside can hear too. Even if the employee puts the customer on hold, everything can be heard.
#31
I wasn't taking the orders but I use to work at McDonalds making the food in the back so I had a headset so I could start working on orders as soon as people would place em.
I heard a lot of yelling, a lot of terrible music, but the one that I recall standing out was someone who ordered their food "To Go", like, what's the alternative? Ya gonna eat it in the drive through?
Ace 9 minutes ago
I'm not familiar enough with drive-throughs, but in principal there could easily be a difference. Fish and Chip shops in the UK are by definition take-away only, but will offer "open or wrapped", i.e. to eat as you walk down the street with it or in your car, or wrapped up to keep it warmer, and from spilling, to take it home and eat there.
#32
Quietly to himself,
"I'm going to regret this"
Into mic,
"Uhh, I'll have a Double-down and that's it.".
#33
Used to work at a Burger King. While working drive-thru I heard two women arguing and asking each other where the tacos on the menu were. This went on for about 3 minutes before one of them said, "Oh this isn't Jack in the box" and promptly left without taking their order.
Gave me and my coworkers a good chuckle.
Note: this was years before BK had tacos, why do I live in a world where I have to clarify that?
#34
There were two homeless people fighting in the Parking lot. Some guy rolled up to the speaker with two kids in the back and I hear him say "Do you guys want to watch them fight?... Ok I'll go thru and get the food you guys stay here." I was watching on the security camera as this man let's out 2 kids, around 6 & 8 years old, so they could stand by the dumpster and watch two drunk guys beat each other with bricks.
#35
Several times we'd hear someone speaking in a different language for a few moments (which is annoying as a drive-thru worker, in any language--the timer starts the second a car pulls up to the speaker, no matter how long the customer takes to order) and then finally, after a minute or two, we'd hear a child's voice finally start ordering in English.
A lot of parents hadn't learned English well enough to feel confident ordering food, so they'd have their kids do it. This could be difficult depending on the age of the child, but I always admired it.
#36
Okay I work at chickfila and I didn’t *hear* this but one time I was outside taking orders on an iPad and this old lady came through (prob 60 years old)
She had her phone on her lap with the font HUGE and I’m nosy soooo I looked at it
The last text she received said “easy there tiger you know I have back problems” and no, I have not recovered.
#37
A woman was talking to her passengers, children perhaps? And we heard sounds of children.
When she pulled up, got her shakes, and left, the drive thru person said there was no children in the car.
#39
As a customer, the chick-fil-a always had really really hot window workers. I rolled through with a friend and after putting in the order looked to my friend and said, "I recognize her voice, she's smoking hot". We rolled up to pay and sure enough it was one of the smoking hot ones and right after she handed me my card, "Oh thank you" all exaggerated. Clearly she took it positively but I get really embarrassed as my friend started audibly laughing at me.
#40
I didn't work there long and it was a few years ago. Saturday night at about 12am and a taxi pulls up with a load of drunk lads in the back. I'd just turned my head away to get the drinks and I hear one of the lads say "do you think she thought I was Madonna" in a genuine, drunk voice. He must have been nearly 20st and black, he did not look like Madonna.
#41
One time a bee got in a customers car when they were at the speaker and we could hear them screaming. It was pretty funny.
#42
We don't serve hash browns after 10:30 am at the Mcdonalds that I work at, and I have heard loads of people silently say after I take there order how it was stupid. There is one moment were a lady had to wait to get to the first window because we "forgot" her hash brown. when someone orders a breakfeast meal after the time we put in a small fry instead, but she really wanted her hash brown, so she stood there at the first window for four minutes holding up the line. We gave her a hashbrown after a 4 minute wait to make a fresh one a total of eight minutes for one hash brown.
TL:DR Lady got mad we didn't give her a hash brown even though we couldn't at the time, and halted the line for eight minutes.
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Phantom Phoenix 11 minutes ago (edited)
I scored a free dessert for a friend! We live in different states & were on the phone as she went through a Hungry Jack's (Burger King renamed in Australia) drive-through and gave her order. I thought she was using headphones and jokingly said, "And an Orio McFlurry (a Macca's item)... I was on speaker. The guy in HJ's heard me and added their version (Storm Oreo) to the order. When my friend got to the window, she explained, laughing and a bit embarrassed. He removed it from the order so that she wasn't charged for it, but as he'd already made it, he gave it to her anyway.
Phantom Phoenix 11 minutes ago (edited)
I scored a free dessert for a friend! We live in different states & were on the phone as she went through a Hungry Jack's (Burger King renamed in Australia) drive-through and gave her order. I thought she was using headphones and jokingly said, "And an Orio McFlurry (a Macca's item)... I was on speaker. The guy in HJ's heard me and added their version (Storm Oreo) to the order. When my friend got to the window, she explained, laughing and a bit embarrassed. He removed it from the order so that she wasn't charged for it, but as he'd already made it, he gave it to her anyway.
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