Tips for Going Through the Drive-Thru

Everyone has a story about being ripped off when going through a fast food restaurant drive-thru, so I decided to write up all my tips both as a past employee drive thru attendant and as a customer.

Turn off your radio, get off your cell phone and stop talking to who ever may be in the car at the time. Doing these things is very important to both you and the attendant. It's hard to hear through the speaker as it is having these distractions going only makes things worse.

If you want hot fresh food, order it your way. Example of this, ask for no ketchup or extra onions. This will insure your sandwich is fresh.

When you go through the drive-thru, be sure to speak as clearly as possible. Don't shout, yell or attempt to deafen the person listening to your order, this only makes them mad and you could end up regretting it.

While waiting for the drive thru attendant to take your order, don't cough or say "Excuse me." Doing so may irritate the attendant as they may be in the middle of taking care of the customer before you. Most will ask you to please wait a moment while they take care of this, but sometimes there isn't time to do it.

After you feel your order is complete, for fast food restaurants that don't have the display screen or it's not on or working, ask them to confirm the order. Be sure to pay close attention to what they repeat so you are 100% sure you ordered everything; they heard it and you should receive it.

If you have trouble hearing what the attendant is saying, or someone else in the car is being distracting, when you go to pay for your order ask for a confirmation again.

Now doing all the above doesn't guarantee you will get what you ordered. After you pay for your items you need to check everything you have been given before you drive off. This can be very hard depending on how many bags and items you ordered. But it's easy to remember it this way. Remember how many sandwiches you ordered, count those when you get the bag, same with fries.

If you are ordering a lot of items it's good to have another person in the car to speed up checking the items in the bag. Do not pull away without checking your bag. You can pull forward though so the next person can get their order.

If you get home and discover you are indeed missing an item or two, the fast food restaurant's phone number is always printed upon the receipt that's been placed in the bag or taped to the bag.

Always remember what Joe Pesci says in Lethal Weapon 2, "They ______ you at the drive-thru!" So don't be too upset or shocked if it happens to you.