Sonic drive-in service, employee safety concerns

Sonic drive-in service, employee safety concerns

Sonic Drive in: Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia 9:00 p.m., July 21st, 2005 I drove my mother to our nearest Sonic, because she wanted to try the new "cookie dough blast".

When we got there it was pretty busy, but it is summer time and to be expected. I parked in front of the drive-thru window, and a few minutes later I ordered. I ordered 2 corn dogs, 1 peanut butter sundae, and 1 cookie dough blast. While we waited, which seemed to be a long wait for 4 items, we noticed that the drive-thru was speeding along at a pretty constant pace compared to the "park and eat". Also, we noticed one of the servers, a thin brunette haired young girl, was wearing very tight, very short shorts. I am a 23 year old college student, and I thought that it was a little inappropriate for her to be wearing skin tight, tan colored, "boy-cut" shorts. The other server, a thin red haired young girl, was dressed more appropriately in jeans, and the uniform shirt. My mother and I noticed, and commented ALOT on how the red haired server was literally doing 3 times the work as the other girl.. so we waited, and waited, and finally our server, the red haired young lady, brought out a bag to us, it was the corn dogs;

but the sundae, and blast were missing. our server told us that the ice cream machine was not working properly, but that she would bring out the rest of our order when it was up and running right. I paid for the entire bill, and told her that the wait was not a problem... well, 45 minutes went by, the entire time we saw our server serving an entire parking lot full of customers ON HER OWN, the other server stayed in the air-conditioned building, and would every once in a while walk out with a tray full of food to a car, and then gingerly walk back into the building and disappear for another 15-20 minutes. My mother and I figured that for every 8-9 customers that our server served, the other server, the brunette, would've only served one. the drive-thru would get completely full, and then slow down, and then pick-up again... parking lot customers were getting restless, and a few of them (that ordered ice creams) would complain, and get refunds and leave. yet all the while the drive-thru ran relatively smooth (even with ice cream orders). customers came and went, while my mother and I waited patiently in our car. I got fed up when I saw 3 different drive-thru customers, and 2 different park and eat customers (that arrived AFTER we had already been waiting for a while) received their sonic blasts, and sundaes while my mother and I had been waiting in our hot car for almost an hour!!! I pushed the button, and asked for a refund, the man who answered told me that he would send out the manager. the manager came out with our original reciept, we explained that we did recieve the corn dogs, but not the rest of our order, it was 10:22 p.m. the manager told me that she was going to go "yell" at our server..... I found that to be a VERY inappropriate response, and as a customer I don't want to hear that kind of talk. Secondly, I KNEW that though it might have been our server's fault for forgetting, it was NOT her fault that she was exhausted, frustrated, sweating, and above all OVER WORKED!!! I told the manager, that it wasn't her fault, and that I didn't want her to yell at our server, the manager says, "well, I'll just yell at her a little" and then she walks away (that comment made me feel uncomfortable, the reason why my mother and I waited in the car so patiently for an hour was because we felt so bad for our server, who was doing the work of 3 servers)... she comes back maybe less then 4 minutes later with our server, whom at this point had been working for one full hour in hot, humid weather, running to and from cars, and never once did she rest, or drink any water... That is a hazard to a person's health, over heating can cause many problems, and possibly even death... the back of her shirt was damp with perspiration; her hair was wet, her face red from the heat, and It was obviously very visible that she was on the verge of heat exhaustion. I calmly, and politely explained to her that she never brought the rest of the order. the manager, told her the amount of money in which we were due. my mother didn't want the full amount back, she did pay for the corn dogs that we recieved earlier, which by-the-way were luke warm, but she did want the money back for the items that we paid for but never received. the manager told our server to stay by us (the customers) while she went back into the building to figure out the difference of the amount, the manager made a comment like, "stay here and take a little break" to which the server replied "can I take a break? I need it.... and I haven't had one yet." the manager replied to the server with, " I MIIIGHT give you a smoke break" (in a very angry/rude tone)...

And then the manager went inside, our server collasped into a crouch on the ground by my car door, and she started apologizing profusely,( inbetween breathing heavy, and wiping the sweat from her forehead, and neck, also it was noticable that her shoulders, and back were hurting her.... I told her not to worry about the mistake, and that my mother and I had witnessed that she was doing too much, and over working herself. the manager came on over the 'call button' and told our server the amount that we were owed, and then apologized once more.. our server then gave us the correct amount, and apologized once more, and said "have a good night.. " we pulled out and left the sonic parking lot around 10:30 pm. we went to Wendy's and bought two, big size frosty's with absolutely NO WAIT, or problems... I wasn't angry at our server for forgetting, it was OBVIOUS that she was over worked, and heat exhausted.. which by-the-way 'loss of concentration' and ' difficulty to focus' IS a symptom of heat exhaustion... though, I WAS upset about how the manager chose to treat this young girl, WHO for the last HOURr was doing MORE work than ANY of the other employees working!! I felt sorry for the server, and to be honest a little concerned for her well-being, I was sure that at any moment she would pass out.. As a customer, I believe that Sonic needs to have a better system when it comes to taking, and serving orders.. I do believe that Sonic needs to CARE MORE about their employee's well being, and health, if our server had more help from additional co-workers and was able to slow down, and cool down in the building, then she wouldn't have been over heated, therefore she wouldn't have been prone to forget, lose focus, or make mistakes... As a customer I do not want to see a human being working in those situations, or in those kinds of conditions. If Sonic only cares about profit, not their employees, then essentially they're not caring about their customers, and I will not be a customer to a company who does not value their employee's safety!!! In the past, Sonic has given poor service, but at least it was human error, not an error brought on by a stressed, over worked, life threatening situation.. -Outraged LOST Sonic customer in Georgia Click this link to e-mail the message author: Email User

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I worked for Sonic for six and a half years and can not tell you how much this rings true to me. There were times we worked for over a month without air conditioning in the Texas summer because it just wasn't in the budget to have it fixed. Carhops spend hours scampering around between hot, running cars, often for long periods without breaks. These carhops often make only "waitress pay" - $2.15 an hour here in Texas! Even worse, managers often times expect the carhops to deal with infuriated customers, leaving them to take verbal, and sometimes even physical abuse. Sonic really needs to get a clue and step up the game, or soon they will find themselves with no customers, and no employees.

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That is unbelievable! I'm glad you posted this complaint, as there are way too many businesses taking advantage of young employees and putting them in these life threatening situations. If you don't mind I'd like to include this in a compiled list of complaints from myself and others to send to Sonic directly.