JEW Make the Call -- Hostile Fast Food Worker Edition

[Dan Druff]

The good news was that I got home safely without Juan stabbing me in the parking lot.

I was also not going back to this place again. But what just happened there? Should I attempt to report this interaction to management? Definitely Juan acted inappropriate in several ways, both during the order and with the onimous "I'll see you tomorrow sir" both in and outside the restaurant, but should I bother reporting this hothead young man?

I decided that it was just too weird and too jarring to just let go. I called the place shortly after getting home, and the shift manager answered. We'll call her Maria. Remember, she looked around 35, and was Hispanic like Juan. Both spoke good English and were probably raised in the US.

I told her about the follow-out at the end, and reiterated how frustrated I was with the hostile interaction with Juan at the counter.

Maria responded, "Actually, as soon as that happened at the counter, I talked to Juan and made sure he didn't follow you out. I was very clear to him that he couldn't do that. When he spoke to you outside, he was bringing a shake to a customer waiting from the drive through," she explained.



So this place is so ghetto that she has to warn employees not to follow customers out of the restaurant?!

"I made sure he had that shake in his hand before he went out," she continued. "It was for your protection and everyone's protection. So I was looking out for you."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing!

I asked her, "Why is this guy working here if you have to make sure he doesn't follow customers outside after they're unhappy with him?"

She said, "I was just making sure. I told him he couldn't go outside until you were gone, unless he had to bring food out there. I made sure he had that shake in his hand before he stepped out the door. I didn't know he would say anything to you."

Umm... okay? That's not much of an answer.

I then pivoted back to our initial interaction at the counter, and why she was seemingly defending his rude behavior at the time.

"Why were you defending him when I asked for you at the restaurant?", I inquired. "He abandoned the order midway and started cleaning again, leaving me standing there by myself. I've never had that occur before in my life. I wasn't even hesitating for more than a few seconds. How can you defend that? How can you defend how rude he was to me?"

"Well, I was listening to the whole thing as it happened," she said. "He never said the words 'Hurry up, I need to get back to cleaning', so there's not much I can do about it."

I replied, "But he DID get back to cleaning. You saw it! Right in the middle of my order. And you defended it as multitasking, which you know isn't what was going on. Why are you trying so hard to make excuses for him?"

She couldn't give me a straight answer. The entire conversation involved her trying to downplay the entire situation, and trying to make it sound like the guy abandoning the register to start sweeping in the middle of my order was totally standard.

I gave up and told Maria that "something strange is going on here", and that I would be calling the store manager the next day. She said she understood, and we ended the call.


CONTINUED NEXT POST

[Dan Druff]

I realized that I had one other problem. I had just bought $100 worth of gift cards from the place, on my previous visit. This was because they had a special where you got 25% extra in gift cards during that limited time promotion, so I got $125 worth of cards for $100. I had not used any yet, and had forgotten them when I went to this ill-fated visit, so all of the gift cards were still untouched.

But I didn't want to go back to the place, for obvious reasons. Would they let me return them and get my $100 BACK? So now I really was committed to see this through with management and/or ownership.

I called and spoke to the manager the next day. I had not remembered meeting her before, but she was a middle-aged sounding Hispanic woman, who also didn't sound American born. We will call her Rosa. Rosa was fairly nice and made more sense than Maria, but my interaction with her was still not very satisfying.

Rosa told me that they "already had problems with Juan being rude to customers", and "would have fired him weeks ago if we didn't have such a hard time getting workers now." Okay, that I believed. However, amazingly she said she wasn't sure if they were going to fire him! "We just don't have enough people here. We are very shorthanded. I will talk to my managers about what to do about Juan, but I will make sure he stays away from you when you come in next."

I said that I fully understood about the worker shortage, and completely believed her, but questioned how they could continue employing a guy like this, especially one who follows customers out of the restaurant, and also was enough of a threat to where the shift manager had to keep tabs on him.

"We had noticed he wasn't doing his part cleaning, so we told him he needs to clean when no customers are there, or we would have to let him go," explained Rosa. "I think he took that too seriously. He wasn't supposed to leave customers standing there, or to abandon them in the middle of the order. He misunderstood."

I said that even ignoring the rude exchange at the counter, the following me out and saying he'd "see me tomorrow" should be grounds enough to fire him, along with the fact that even Maria knew he was a threat to customers.

"As I said, we may not be able to fire him because we cannot replace him easily. But maybe we will, I have to talk to my bosses," Rosa replied.

I then asked about getting the gift cards refunded.

"I don't have the power to do that," said Rosa. "Again I need to talk to my bosses."

I asked why the general manager of the location didn't have power to refund gift cards just recently purchased, given this situation, and she said that she simply wasn't authorized. This was probably correct, by the way. The recent model for chain places is to install a low paid monkey as a general manager, strip them of any real authority, and leave the actual decision making to the district manager.

I asked if there was video of the incident. She said there was, but "I don't have the password to view the video. Again I have to talk to my bosses."




She promised a call back within 2 days. I waited a week and didn't hear from her. I called back, and she wasn't in. I left a message, no call back. Shit. I tried to ask for the name and number of the district manager, and the employee on the phone said he wasn't allowed to give it. I didn't identify who I was or why I was asking for the info, so they weren't holding it back from just me. It just seemed that the district manager wanted to be insulated from typical customer complaints. Ugh.

CONTINUED NEXT POST

[Dan Druff]

I wondered how I would get the district manager's name and number. I tried calling another location nearby, and I was told the same thing -- that the district manager's name and number were confidential, but I could leave my name and number, and the message would be passed on. I declined, and instead decided to seek this out on my own.

I googled the restaurant and its location, and found a newspaper article showing its grand opening. One of the pictures from the article featured a middle-aged, middle-eastern-looking man pasting decals on the window. The caption named him, and said he was manager of the West Los Angeles location.

(The pic below isn't him, but this guy looks similar, so good enough...)



I wondered to myself, "Why would a guy managing the West LA location come all the way up from there just to paste decals on the window? I wonder if he's the district manager, as well."

The article mentioned that this was the 6th location in southern California by this particular owner, who was also pictured. He also looked middle-eastern. I then deduced that the guy putting on the decals was probably the manager for all of their stores, and worked directly under the owner. I googled his name, and actually found he had responded to some bad Yelp reviews of the West LA location. In those responses, he gave his phone number and told the unhappy customers to call him. Bingo! I'll name him "Asad" for this story.

I called the number, and reached Asad on the first try. He indicated that, yes, he was both the store manager for the West LA location, as well as the district manager for all of the southern California units.

I told him the entire story, from start to finish.

I could tell he was legitimately appalled and pissed off, and he started into a rant about how frustrated he was.

"First off, I want to apologize to you. There's no way any of this should have happened," he said. "And you have no idea how much money we put into this new location. Like, whatever you think it probably was, it's more than that. And it gets me really angry to hear this is what is going on there, because I've been wondering why business isn't very good over there, and I think I have my answer. I believe you, but at the same time I am shocked at this story."

Okay! It sounded like I got exactly the response I was looking for!

Asad told me that he would check the cameras, which had both sound and video, and held several weeks worth of footage. He said he would speak to Juan, Maria (the shift manager who tried to cover for Juan), and Rosa (the manager), as well as interview other employees present to find out what they saw.

"I can tell you that if my investigation reveals that even 10% of what you said is true, Juan is gone. No question. And I might have to terminate Maria if she had any complicity in this, though this surprises me because I like her and she's done a good job so far. But if I have to do it, I'll do it."

I asked him about Rosa's weak handling of the situation, and the claim that she might not fire Juan over this.

"That also surprises me," said Asad. "Rosa is a smart woman. She's very good at her job. Hard for me to believe she would let him still work there after this, but I am going to find out. I'm also bothered that Rosa did not call me about this. She knows she's supposed to do that. This is a big deal, and this is the first I'm hearing of it."

I told him that he was hard to track down, and that nobody would give me his information. "I don't know why they were doing that. It's not a secret. As you saw, I post my number on Yelp for everyone to see!"

Seemed like a good time to bring up the gift card situation. I explained it, and he seemed evasive about refunding me.

"We really want to make this right and keep your business," said Asad. "Please, let me handle this, I'll call you back, and I'll even give you a meal on me," he responded.

"I appreciate that," I replied. "However, I really don't feel comfortable eating there, even if you let both Juan and Maria go. Maybe their friends still work there. I don't know. I'm sure you understand. I just would like to get these cards refunded, and maybe after 6 months, I'll give it another shot."

(I had no plans upon ever returning, but I wanted to make it seem like my business wasn't lost forever, so I'd get better cooperation regarding the gift cards.)

Asad continued to repeat that "there won't be a problem again" and "none of our other employees would take this out on you", but he finally relented and agreed he would refund the gift cards if his investigation revealed that all or part of my story was true.

"I believe you. I fully believe you," he said. "But give me a week to investigate. I'll call you back."

I gave it a week, but no call back. Crap. Another week passed. No call back. I called Asad, got his voice mail, and left a message. Still no call back.

Finally, the following week, I tried again, and Asad answered his phone.


CONCLUDED NEXT PART, WITH POLL

[Dan Druff]

"I'm sorry for not getting back you," said Asad. "I investigated this, came to a conclusion, and then got sick and forgot to call you back once I got better. I apologize."

I thought this "getting sick" was probably bullshit, and he likely just didn't want to call me back because he didn't want me exchanging the gift cards BACK for cash, and then never setting foot in the place again! But I feigned acceptance of the excuse, and asked him what the investigation revealed.

"You were totally correct," he said. "Every part of what you told me checked out, upon my viewing of the video, and interviewing of employees."



I will finish the story later. In the meantime, I would like you to vote on what happened to Juan, Maria, and Rosa as a result of this incident. I got the entire story of the situation, as well as the results of what action was taken. I'll reveal that later, but I'll tell you in advance that there was more to this story than met the eye.

JEW MAKE THE CALL!

[Small_Banana]

I bet the Arab district manager was cursing you out after he hung up with you. "That cheap mother fucking Jew" in Arabic.

[limitles]

I wondered how I would get the district manager's name and number. I tried calling another location nearby, and I was told the same thing -- that the district manager's name and number were confidential, but I could leave my name and number, and the message would be passed on. I declined, and instead decided to seek this out on my own.

I googled the restaurant and its location, and found a newspaper article showing its grand opening. One of the pictures from the article featured a middle-aged, middle-eastern-looking man pasting decals on the window. The caption named him, and said he was manager of the West Los Angeles location.

(The pic below isn't him, but this guy looks similar, so good enough...)

I wondered to myself, "Why would a guy managing the West LA location come all the way up from there just to paste decals on the window? I wonder if he's the district manager, as well."

The article mentioned that this was the 6th location in southern California by this particular owner, who was also pictured. He also looked middle-eastern. I then deduced that the guy putting on the decals was probably the manager for all of their stores, and worked directly under the owner. I googled his name, and actually found he had responded to some bad Yelp reviews of the West LA location. In those responses, he gave his phone number and told the unhappy customers to call him. Bingo! I'll name him "Asad" for this story.

I called the number, and reached Asad on the first try. He indicated that, yes, he was both the store manager for the West LA location, as well as the district manager for all of the southern California units.

I told him the entire story, from start to finish.

Broken clocks are right twice a day so don't pat yourself on the back too often.

IMO, needing a page to justify one's actions is telling. Jaime

[FRANKRIZZO]

Karen Nathan type Axel post reminded me. Whatever happened to her. Will read anyway. Read all, disturbing he would follow you out and goad you. Hard to find workers for fast food. I go to mcdonalds every once in a while always a new crew. So bussy they recunstruced take out to include another take out window. Don't have to go to side parking lot and wait anymore. Always a new crew when I go there.

[dwai]

Karen Nathan type Axel post reminded me. Whatever happened to her. Will read anyway. Read all, disturbing he would follow you out and goad you. Hard to find workers for fast food. I go to mcdonalds every once in a while always a new crew. So bussy they recunstruced take out to include another take out window. Don't have to go to side parking lot and wait anymore. Always a new crew when I go there.

so bussy eh?

[Dan Druff]

Karen Nathan type Axel post reminded me. Whatever happened to her. Will read anyway. Read all, disturbing he would follow you out and goad you. Hard to find workers for fast food. I go to mcdonalds every once in a while always a new crew. So bussy they recunstruced take out to include another take out window. Don't have to go to side parking lot and wait anymore. Always a new crew when I go there.

Karen Nathan is on my Vegas Casino Talk forum as "Tasha" and still posts there actively.

[RichardBrodiesCombover.]

Druff, those people spit in your food.