January 10, 2005
Death by words
The McDonald's order-taker who "spoke" to me last night was unintelligible. "Hi, welumm to mah-onal" and then either "just a moment please" or "can I take your order please?" My best guess was the former, even though when articulated the two statements don't sound alike at all, plus the usually present but absent in this case interrogative-inflection, so I waited. And waited. And began to doubt my decision, for perhaps the vocally-challenged person taking my order was waiting on me, and wouldn't have the initiative to prompt me again if I didn't come forth with a food or beverage request. I feared a stalemate lasting the entire night.
Man found dead in McDonald's drive-thru early Monday morning. Cause of death appears to be exposure, likely due to the dreaded ordering stalemate. Usually the highly trained order-taking personnel are able to rectify such a potentially fatal situation long before closing time. However, this particular McDonald's recently switched to being open 24-hours a day, and the employee's shift didn't end until 5 in the morning, by which time it was too late for the victim. It is unknown whether the victim's family will be bringing a 64.7 million dollar lawsuit agains the evil corporation.
Who's brilliant management decision was it to put the person least likely to be understand in front of the microphone?
Comments
I met up with her at window #2, which reminds me of another problem: I couldn't understand my total when it was read to me over the speaker, and when I was told it in person. I paid with exact change what I believed was the total, and she didn't reject my payment, so I guess I heard correctly. I just wish she spoke correctly. No, it's not her fault; I wish the McDonald's manager had placed her in a more appropriate position.
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at 10 January 2005 14:34 (-06:00)
Did you ever meet up with said individual at Window #1? If so, were they as deft of speech there as well?