She Demanded a Full Breakdown of Why Her Drive-Thru Order Came to Exactly $19.73—Then Stared in Silence When the Worker Neutralized Her Outrage with a Single Word
Pexels/Reddit
It’s always awkward when customers try to complain about things you have no control over.
That’s where this drive-thru worker found himself when a woman questioned the total for her order.
At first, he thought she might’ve spotted a mistake, so he read everything back to her.
But the order was right. What the woman wanted was for him to agree with her that the price was ridiculous.
After handling similar complaints in the past and getting nowhere, he tried a different approach this time.
Keep reading to see what he said.
I didn’t know how to respond to a customer complaining about the price, so I just said “ok”
A lady places an order in my drive-thru. After she’s all done ordering, I do my usual, “Perfect, your total will be $19.73 at the window,” and she pulls up.
I open the window to cash her out, greet her, and repeat the total. She says, sounding confused, “$19.73? Really?”
So I read the entire order out loud to her to confirm that the items were all correct, then repeated the total. She says, “$19 is ridiculous for what I ordered, don’t you think?”
Knowing that his empathetic responses have never worked in the past, he tried something different.
At this point, I kinda short-circuited. I’ve had customers complain about prices before, and I’ve tried many things to say in response.
“Well, I don’t make the prices.” “Everything’s going up.” “Yeah, I feel you, but unfortunately, that is the price.”
Nothing I’ve ever said has gotten anything but a negative response, so this time I decided there’s no point trying.
I looked her in the eyes and just said, “Okay.”
Fortunately, she didn’t have anything else to say.
Her facial expression looked puzzled, but she handed me her card, and I ran it. Then I just proceeded with fulfilling the order as usual, and she didn’t have anything bad to say after that.
But please, guys, I’ve been in service for 4 years. Please tell me what makes customers think that A) I have ANY control whatsoever over the prices or the ability to change them, and B) that complaining to employees about prices will affect anything?
Also, any better responses to price-related complaints than “Okay?”
Nice! He shut that down effortlessly.
Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit feel about what happened here.
This is an excellent approach.
This is so true!
That was a mic drop.
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If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who decides to mute her boss’s number after he insists on calling her at home after hours.
Sometimes, they just want to be heard.
At least he wasn’t rude to the customer.
It’s fine to think your food costs too much, but what’s the person at the window supposed to do?
They can’t change the prices, and agreeing with you won’t make the total any lower.
So if a short answer keeps things moving without an argument, there’s no need to overthink it.
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