So, what is the deal with small town...

...customer service?

My job requires me to travel both throughout the state of Texas and the school districts in the Panhandle of Texas (the 65 that Region 16 ESC serve). Here recently I've been traveling to some of Region 16 districts and anyone who knows me know that I like to have tea after lunch. I'm addicted to tea - I admit it! :)

So, a couple of weeks ago I had gone to a district and went by the Dairy Queen (NOTE: this Dairy Queen was not in the town where I went - it was on my way home...). I pull into the drive through. There is a truck at the window and I pull up to the place to place my order. I sit - and I sit - and I sit. No one comes on and asks me to hold a second or anything. Finally I see someone at the window and they hand the gentlemen in the truck a drink. So, I'm thinking...okay...my turn is soon. They don't leave. Here in another few minutes, another drink. Again, thinking my turn is coming. Another car drives up behind me so I know I'm stuck at this point, but still believing my turn will be soon. But still - I wait and wait and wait. Then I see the lady at the window give both people in the car an ice-cream cone. The driver finally hands her money. YEAH! Surly it's my turn now, right (this entire process probably took about 20 minutes...and I'm not stretching the truth!). Nope - the car still does not move. At this point the guy behind me leaves, but I'm still thinking it's got to be soon so I don't move. Bad mistake! Finally I see the lady give the gentlemen his change. At this point another car has driven up behind me.

The truck finally drives off so I think my turn has finally come. I wait by the speaker expecting someone to finally come and take my order. I wait and I wait, though not very long at this point. It has become very obvious to me that this Dairy Queen is not big on customer service. I drive up to the window and peer in. There is one lady taking orders and one lady doing all of the cooking. At this point I do feel a little sympathy because I understand being the only; however, I see her wait on three people while I'm at the window - two that came in while I was sitting there! At this point I'm even wondering if she sees me. The car is still behind me at this point so the only choice I have is to drive forward. Yes - I still want to order, though at this point I may have had time to drive back to Amarillo. I decide to go inside.

I drive around and park. I walk in and the lady is helping someone in front of me (the car that was behind me has now pulled into the window). She finishes with the gentlemen in front of me and turns to wait on the drive-through window! She doesn't even acknowledge I'm there!!! What is up with that?!? I am not kidding that I was there for probably about 30 minutes. Yes - I probably should have turned and walked away, but I just kept thinking, it'll happen soon - it'll be my turn soon.

After waiting on the car that was behind me, she finally HAD to wait on me. She didn't hardly even talk and at this point I am SO annoyed, but am trying not to take it out on her, so I jokingly said something about having been in front of the people she just waited on. It missed her entirely. I just got my goods and walked out the door.

I should have left a long time before, but I didn't, but there is still no excuse for lack of customer service. It's probably because it's a small town and that Dairy Queen is the only gig in town (yes - being very stereotypical here) and they don't have to have customer service, but come on people! 30 minutes!

So...then comes today. My co-workers and I go to another small town to do some training (it's an in-service day for many of our teachers in the Region). We finish the training and decide we want a drink from Sonic before heading back to Amarillo. I'm driving. I pull into one of the stalls (I decide to do that as opposed to going through the drive-through) and place our order. They are busy (I will give them that) so it took a minute to respond. We ordered (all Route 44's) one Coke, two diet cokes with lime (except they were out of lime so those became just two regular diet cokes), one diet coke with cherry and lime (again - out of lime, so just a diet cherry coke), one diet sprit, and one tea (yes...that would be mine).

We place our order and deal with the money (it's $7.00 even) and then we wait (see a pattern here...). We wait and we wait and we wait. Oh - did I mention that we needed to get one of the people in the car back to Amarillo to make a flight? After about 15 minutes (again - not stretching the truth...), I beep back in (we haven't seen hide nor hair of anyone bringing out stuff to anyone else either). I ask how long it's going to be. The guy says he's not sure because they had like 50 orders come in. I mention the fact we need to get back to Amarillo and he asks what we ordered. I said 6 drinks. He said he'd see what he could do. We wait another 5 minutes. The guy in the car next to me has also beeped in and asked when his order would be delivered (he was there before we were...not looking good for us!). He had already paid so he wasn't very happy at all.

At this point, the car decides to go down to Allsups (at least this Sonic isn't the only gig in town). We take a vote about whether to call the guy back and let him know and we make the decision to call him back and let him know. I beep him a third time and we wait and wait. After about 5 minutes, we decide to leave. Yes - I know very bad, but we had already been there about 20 minutes and couldn't wait much longer!

This all could mean one or two things - I'm bad luck (which is very possible) or small town=bad customer service at Sonic and Dairy Queen. Very strange that it all happened within two weeks, though...