This is fast food, not Let's Make A Deal

[foodservicesucks]

My location has a special, 3 chili cheese dogs for $7.99 (it's an amusement park, that's considered a good deal). These chili cheese dogs are usually $2.99 each, so the guest is saving almost a dollar. It's also cheaper than buying three plain hot dogs or three hot dogs with just chili or cheese, but we aren't allowed to substitute those for the chili cheese dogs (prevents food waste, and the nuances of our contract with the company that we're a franchise of apparently prevents us from substituting them). People argue about this ALL THE TIME.

Guest: "Can I get the 3 chili cheese dog deal, but two of them with no cheese?
Me: "No, that would be one chili cheese dog and two hot dogs with cheese. The deal is only valid for three chili cheese dogs."
Guest: "But it's cheaper for you!"
Me: "I know, but we can't do that since it's a different menu item." (this is how we're told to explain it to them.)

I understand why they want them rung up that way, but arguing with me isn't going to help their case. As a bonus, people commonly think that it comes with fries or a drink. It doesn't, and the menu doesn't say anything that implies that it comes with either of those. If they asked before they paid I'd tell them, but they always ask when their food comes out. Which, of course, is too late.

I hate people.

[underemployeed]

Question, can I get my chilli or cheese on the side? kind of crappy for someone who is lactose intolerant to have to pay more and not give the cheese to someone who isn't in the same order.

I get your following orders, but basically, whoever made the rules is an idiot and needs to consider how many more they would make happy. As I know many places will do the "No you really want a Chili Cheese dog, hold the cheeese because it saves you money" Of course it up the the owner to make the call. (although if they allowed subs, idk if it would make your job harder)

[BeenThereDoneThat]

I agree with underemployeed...the customers have a somewhat legitimate gripe but taking it out on you is pointless. Most people should know from their own experiences as the person behind the counter/phone/whatever how dumb corporate policies can be.

[Legal Eagle]

I can understand no substittutions but unless the dogs come prepackaged with cheese & chilli preloaded then thats an incredibly boneheaded move by corporate.

[underemployeed]

Yea I usually tell people "I'm just following orders!"
sc:.... "The nazis were just following orders too!!!!

Wow, points for originality because wow just wow. Few times I have went "I'm Jewish!"
sc: "Oh sorry"

At that point I go, WOW they really do think we nazis

(Actually, my old co joked ONCE about welcome to X the new Riech of customer service because of some of the policy changes employees had to deal with and believe me we made sure the store was clear before cracking those jokes)

[Dave1982]

Folks, some of the replies here are veering far too close into "failing to see the suck" territory for my comfort. FSS didn't post this so people could chime in with how much they think that policy is stupid. Let's focus on the sucky customer aspects, ok?

The offer is for 3 chili cheese dogs. It's not for cheese dogs, chili dogs, or plain hot dogs. It's for chili cheese dogs. It's THAT simple, and FSS can't do anything to change it. People arguing about that it are sucky.

[Laund-o-rama Mama]

I agree it's sucky, plus it's you having to explain it over and over and over. Not fun.

And really?? Godwin's Law at the hot dog place?? Some people really need to get some perspective!

[Captain Trips]

Perhaps this is more of a MiM post than sucky customer? After all, it's not the customer's fault that this management policy sucks. And who would expect a customer to know that you don't do "substitutions" like that? (Substitution? How is it a substitution when it's actually a deletion! See? I can play word games, too.)

Seems to me that your management is losing out on profit potential! Charging for chili and cheese, and not having to provide those items? It's like found money!

[Mr Hero]

Yea I usually tell people "I'm just following orders!"
sc:.... "The nazis were just following orders too!!!!

Is this a Clerks reference?

[bainsidhe]

If I were a customer, I'd be annoyed too, but it does make sense. There's a reason why McDs used to (don't know if they still do) require kids parties to have one type of burger and toppings. It's one thing to make 30 identical burgers, quite another to have 10 variances. About 15 years ago, Hardee's ran a deal with hamburgers for 25 cents. But you HAD to have a regular burger with regular toppings. We made dozens at a time and couldn't pause to make specials.

[AquaGirl]

Evn if the policy isn't the customers fault, they can help getting upset with the employee for following policy.

[Mr Hero]

If I were a customer, I'd be annoyed too, but it does make sense. There's a reason why McDs used to (don't know if they still do) require kids parties to have one type of burger and toppings. It's one thing to make 30 identical burgers, quite another to have 10 variances. About 15 years ago, Hardee's ran a deal with hamburgers for 25 cents. But you HAD to have a regular burger with regular toppings. We made dozens at a time and couldn't pause to make specials.

Thanks for the added perspective. I never saw it from this point of view. Makes more sense now as special orders would slow down production.

[foodservicesucks]

Question, can I get my chilli or cheese on the side? kind of crappy for someone who is lactose intolerant to have to pay more and not give the cheese to someone who isn't in the same order.

I get your following orders, but basically, whoever made the rules is an idiot and needs to consider how many more they would make happy. As I know many places will do the "No you really want a Chili Cheese dog, hold the cheeese because it saves you money" Of course it up the the owner to make the call. (although if they allowed subs, idk if it would make your job harder)

If someone was lactose intolerant, I'd probably get it put in that way, as long as you were nice about it. There's 3 reasons we usually don't:
1. Food waste- even if we tell the person making food that one doesn't have cheese/one doesn't have chili, nearly always they end up making three chili cheese dogs. Our registers don't provide an easy way to add extra comments to what shows up on the order screen, so it's easy to make a mistake.
2. Having to go explain that it's really not a 3 deal, it's [whatever the guest wants] really slows down our lines since I have to stop taking orders and go explain what the order actually is.
3. Our contract with the company that we're a franchise of says that we can't offer a special without their permission. Apparently, changing the special makes it a different special, so it technically violates our contract. (there's a lot of other lovely clauses in that contract: for example, we are not allowed to close our stand early, even if staying open makes us lose money)

I try to be reasonable if I can, but if we're really busy and your only reason is the price difference, I really can't do it.

(and btw, it actually is a substitution- a chili cheese dog gets one hot dog in the bun, a plain hot dog or a hot dog with cheese gets two hot dogs in the bun. This is because our hot dogs are smaller than a typical hot dog.)

[Mr Hero]

This is because our hot dogs are smaller than a typical hot dog.)

But I'm sure your company makes up for this by driving really big trucks with loud engines.

[EricKei]

But I'm sure your company makes up for this by driving really big trucks with loud engines.

*snerk* I'm so glad I'm just dunking cookies in my milk here instead of actually drinking it >_> Narrowly avoided a Rule 1 violation here.