/sigh (Very long, and VERY ranty)

[KitterCat]

Off topic;

Mongo Skruddgemire
Or my local Starbucks which had the barista plead, cajole, persuade and all but offer to perform fellatio in order to buy the Spiced Chai Latte that was on special instead of the coffee I wanted.

I don’t want to sound sick, but if you could tell me which Starbucks your frequenting, I’ve got a couple of friends who could use such services. They might even buy the coffee.

On topic,

Yes I understand a lot of what your dealing with is Tone of voice, we’ve all heard words like “hello” spoken with venom, but lets face it drive through speakers suck. Some of the new ones are ok, but even then the customer has to deal with suckie employees, after all SC’s have to work somewhere to.

As to companies requiring employees to up sell products or have really cute names for sizes. I hate it. I’ve actually stopped going to Starbucks because of it. I don’t need the drink of the month/week/day. I just want a medium coffee with sugar and cream. No not tall, venit or what ever other term your calling your sizes. Medium. Its in the middle of small and large.

[CiggyStoreClerk]

I have one thing to say, and it's about your display picture.

Eeeee! Repo!

Just saw the movie about a month ago, totally awesome.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

As to companies requiring employees to up sell products or have really cute names for sizes. I hate it. I’ve actually stopped going to Starbucks because of it. I don’t need the drink of the month/week/day. I just want a medium coffee with sugar and cream. No not tall, venit or what ever other term your calling your sizes. Medium. Its in the middle of small and large.

Me, too. That's really the main reason I don't got to Starbucks. I'm not learning a new language to order a damn cuppa joe. I have no idea what the cutesy names mean and I have no clue how to even order.

If a place's menu is so confusing that ordering a cup of coffee seems to be a herculean task, something is wrong. Bad wrong.

[Andara Bledin]

The implication here being that if I were to run into you at your store and I simply say "no" (and how does one say "no", a one syllable word of two letters, in any fashion other than curtly?

Oh, there are lots and lots of ways you can say "no" and some of them are rude and some of them aren't.

There are worlds of inflection that can be infused into even a single syllable.

Even a short, I-don't-have-time-to-deal-with-anything-but-getting-my-coffee "no" can be polite.

I'll usually stretch my own response to a whopping two or three syllables and say "no thanks" or "not today" when I have people try to upsell me. I've never actually had anyone get rude or snotty with me for it.

Also, all these comments about drive through intercoms confuses me, too. Around here, I've only encountered one crappy drive through speaker in the last 5 years. The only other place where it's an issue actually turned theirs off and has you drive up, or comes out to take orders. *shrug*

^-.-^

[mandaliz8704]

I usually just say "No, thanks though.." but the No gets kind of stretched out into more of a "Naaawwww."

[Broomjockey]

So with the poor quality of the intercom systems, trying to listen to the customer who is running at a yelling pitch to cut through the sounds of the wind and the engines in front and behind, how does one accurately tell the belligerence level of the person trying to order.

I think you're not giving enough credit where it's due. When you're constantly at that speaker box, you CAN tell what's going on. You CAN tell tone. And then there's the whole "interrupting" or "saying thank you" stuff. I get that this annoys you, but you're trying to find persecution where none exists.

[mikoyan29]

I feel for the position you're put in, but ever since certain golden arch drive thrus started putting recorded spiels on, I have trouble telling the difference between the recording and the real person. Recordings can be ignored with impunity, but then there's no clue for the customer as to when someone on the other end of that speaker is ready to take the order. *sigh* Management shlubs should be forced to go through this process themselves -- from both ends! -- before they insist on making it a policy.

But those big wigs make too much money to visit drive thrus... they have personal assistants to go for them. In this case it's

I hate those pre-recorded spiels because it sounds like someone is ready to take my order. And then I hear, "Can you repeat that please?". I would like to know what ****ing rocket scientist thought that would be a good idea? I would like to know so that I can put him in a chair and play that for him for about 3 hours. (Apologies to Edward Beach and his rage towards the Submarine designer).

[rerant]

Me, too. That's really the main reason I don't got to Starbucks. I'm not learning a new language to order a damn cuppa joe. I have no idea what the cutesy names mean and I have no clue how to even order.

If a place's menu is so confusing that ordering a cup of coffee seems to be a herculean task, something is wrong. Bad wrong.

I never order with the silly names. It's pointless and I know the barista knows what I'm asking for.
Even when I myself was a barista I would know that venti=large (where I worked we only went by small, medium, large).
Although i've had a couple starbucks baristas stand there and look at me with this expectant gaze just waiting for me to say "venti".
I just repeat "large".
Although I'm a very infrequent starbucks patron - their coffee tastes burnt all the time but I do like the occassional pumkin spice latte. And the travel mugs are great. The lids make it possible to actually drink my hot coffee/tea without burning myself like a lot of other travel mugs.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, you know, you're right. It does taste a little burnt. I thought it was just me...I make french press at home, with heavy cream, and I thought I was just ruined for anything else. It's not as good as what I make at home, at least to my taste.

[jackfaire]

were on your phone talking to whoever the hell you think is so #@$# important at the time (note: I don't care if you have Oprah, Obama, and Tyra Banks on conference call, HANG UP THE @$# PHONE WHEN YOU'RE IN A DRIVE-THRU!!!!),

Oh god yes please for the love of god either order your food or do business with me. Customers will call in to discuss their bill then while I am trying to explain something to them I hear, "Just a second" and they start ordering a bloody hamburger! This is annoying and wasting time I could be using to talk to customers who were ready when they called in.

The implication here being that if I were to run into you at your store and I simply say "no" (and how does one say "no", a one syllable word of two letters, in any fashion other than curtly?

Simple you be polite and say, "No thank you" No thank you is the polite way of declining anything saying No is curt because it is rude.

Like EvilEmpryss said, a lot of the spiels are recorded nowadays and its quite awkward to know what to do.

I mean who wants to talk back to a machine? or do you not say anything and wait for the person to say something thus sometimes taking a decent amount of awkward silence wasting time?

as drive through workers that have recorded spiels, what do you guys prefer people to do?

When I was working drive thru I preferred people to do what I was doing which was ignore it. I pretended it didn't exist and the best customers did the same it was an annoying "time saving device" that would especially confuse people when it was recorded by my female shift manager and I am male.

[friendofjimmyk]

During my brief return to the restaurant industry over the summer, I encountered upselling nightmares.

Granted, it was a sit-down restaurant, but I am even less inclined to push stuff on people when they come out to dine away from home.

Where I worked, it was "push alcohol!" We were prodded, pushed, conjoled, forced, yelled at, berated, and belittled for low alcohol sales. Somewhere in corporate restuarant headquarters, they determined that in order to make it through this recession, we MUST sell alcohol.

I would offer a beverage from the bar to a table as part of my opening spiel...if they said no...that was the end of it. I was NOT going to offer them a sample of our frozen drinks, I was NOT going to offer alcohol AGAIN when their food hit the table. They said, no!

Well, the district asshat even pulled us aside one day and bragged about how he made servers cry over their low bar sales. Ooooo...I really wanted him to say something to me. I was totally in a place where the job helped me, but was not needed. I had a few things I could say to make him cry. No penis havin...

Anyway, I digress...

The one point the asshat made was that we shouldn't be making moral judgments about people. There is no moral judgment - if they say no, where's the judgment. Okay, so maybe I didn't offer it at lunch time or after church on Sundays, because that's just a no-brainer...if they want alcohol...they know there's a bar...they'll freakin' ask!

[rageaholic]

Sorry, but suggestive selling is a pet peave of mine. I know management makes you do it, but it doesn't mean I have to buy what you are selling when I already know what I want.

While I will not stoop down to the SC level and give you a hard time, my mind is made up. I don't know what kind of suggestive selling your store employs, but when I am asked again and again if I want a rewards card when I just want to get my stuff and go, I get annoyed. That's when you're giving me a hard time.

I will not say nasty things to the clerk who's doing the suggestive selling, but I will say "no" curtly. And if management wants them to keep bugging when the customer has already said "no", than they need to be hit by a clue by four. Just because management is telling clerks to be persistant, doesn't mean I should not let it bother me just because they are doing their job.

*end rant*

It does sound like you have some real winners though. Customers expect free things, and those who can't part with their cell phones for just one minute to take their order. How do some of these people get by?