Complaint Review: burger king

I work at Gig Harbor Burger King, and while the quality of our food is great, our drive thru cashiers are SO dishonest it makes me sick. We usually have 2 people in the drive thru: one to take orders on the headset and one to collect money at the window.

One week while working headset, I noticed my co-worker on window was collecting an awful lot of "tips." At first I was happy, because she was going to split this money with me, and I have received legit tips before, but I became uneasy when she was getting $3+ tips several times in a shift. That didn't seem right. I asked her how she was doing it and she later confessed to me that she was collecting money, counting the change, and then holding it in her hand while chatting excessively with the customer then giving them their order and telling them enthusiastically to have a great day. And lots of customers were becoming side tracked by her conversation and would just drive away when she handed them their food and dismissed them. A couple would remember and say "you never gave me my change." Then she would say "oh, I'm sorry!" and give it over as it was still in her hand anyway. I immediately quit splitting these "tips" with her and felt confident she would be caught when enough customers returned for their change. Then she would have to give them the money she owed them and her drawer would be obviously short, right? WRONG. No one caught on! I didn't tell because the girl's boyfriend's best friend was a manager and we had used to be friends and I figured she'd get caught on her own without me having to nark.

I didn't like the idea of so many customers getting cheated out of their change. What if they were later discovering the missing money but didn't bother to call it in. What if instead we lost a lot of business because customers didn't want to return? Income would drop, and then the store wouldn't be able to afford to pay staff, so hours would get cut back. I didn't want to lose my hours, so I changed positions with her and worked the window while she took orders; hoping this would stop the problem. It only got worse.
Now she started cashing in on an error in the register system. When we take an order, 2 receipts print out. One from the register that piles up on the floor and goes in the trash, and the other prints out 1/2 way across the restaurant for the person bagging the order to tape onto your bag and use as a guide to tell them what to put in your bag. But sometimes, customers get to the window and say, "can you add this to my order?" so we recall the order and add something and the total changes. (A manager's key is required to take something off the order as that would lower the amount needing to be collected and cashiers could pocket the difference between the original total and the lowered total.)

Recall orders do not reprint receipts except for on the running tape off the register which gets thrown away. Unfortunately, we discovered you CAN lower the price with a recall transaction without needing a manager key: Give them a 10% senior discount. So now when orders came thru for $20+, she would recall the order and pocket $2+.

Then she got even worse and wouldn't ring in drinks, pies, salads, fries--anything she could grab and get out the window without anyone noticing. It became stressful to work with her because she was constantly telling me "order number 26 is really 3.22 not 2.15 and here is their salad, and in between 27 and 28 is a car that just wanted a and pie and 2 milkshakes so I didn't ring it in and..." and I had to remember real totals and what I was supposed to be adding to orders and whose drinks were whose and my manager was yelling at me for having so many drinks on the counter when no drinks were rang in and going too slow because I could hardly keep track of real totals and whose was what... I didn't want to work with her anymore.

So I asked the other girl to trade positions. This pissed off the thief because the other girl was very slow and couldn't remember the scam order very well. None of us wanted to work with the thief. She was walking out with $60+ a night and we were leaving frazzled.

She would ask me to drive thru the drive thru so she could hand me the extra money out of the till and got pissed when I wouldn't. Her manager friend told her there was no tape in the camera on us, so she started taking the money out of the till and hiding it under the mat on the counter or in a cup in the window holding straws. Then at the end of her shift she would take the straws out of the cup, put them in a new cup, put a lid in the old cup, shove a straw in it and walk out as if the cup had her free employee soda in it instead of all the money she just stole from the manager.

I firmly believed God (or "karma") would get her in the end. She kept using the stolen money to make her car payment. Then she got into a horrific car accident and miscarried her baby. She only had liability insurance on her car, so she had to pay out of pocket for all of the damages. The same week she fixed the damage, she hit a dog that rolled over the [new] hood of her car (denting it) and cracked her [new] windshield. She had to pay out of pocket to fix those again too. Several members of her family got seriously ill, some died. She was following a truck on the freeway and some debris fell out from his load, and she blew out 3 tires. Everyone at work felt so sorry for all of her seemed misfortune. I believe God thought if she wanted to steal money to try to get ahead on her car payments he would give her more car problems than anyone deserved.

She told me she got caught one day by a manger walking to her locker with $60 cash in her hand. The manager caught her and asked hr what she was doing. She said a customer had forgotten their change and she was coming to find him (the manager) to give it to him. She was nervous because she wasn't sure if the manager believed her. He counted down her till and it was way over (including the $60). The one day I came to work and noticed the pen we keep in the window cup for straws kept being left out on the counter. It was annoying me so I went to put it away, but the cup was gone. I asked aloud what happened to the cup? But no one answered; the thief gave me look that said 'don't ask'. 20 minutes later I asked again, I heard the thief say to the manager, "See, I told you." That made me nervous. When business picked up, the manager told the thief to work window while I took orders. The thief asked for a new till. The manager said she had just brought a new till at the beginning of the shift and only I had touched it so why did she want a new one? The thief had her back to me so I dont know whether she mouthed something or if her look said it all, but the manager said "oh yeah" and changed the till over. I became nervous as this was odd behavior.

I later found out the thief had left money in the window cup one night and the next morning the store owner had supposedly decided the cup was "in the way" and we weren't allowed to keep it there anymore. At first I was overjoyed, I thought the thief had finally got caught, but then it appeared like she was trying to frame me! I immediately went to the other girl who had worked my position and also knew the thief was stealing. She said she had never taken the money either and would back me up if I was accused.
The thief became mean to me and would spread rumors about me at work.

One day she was being extremely mean for no apparent reason. I told the manager at 1:30 I was about to lose my cool and punch the girl. She asked what had happened to us (we had used to be friends) and I told her I was sick of the girl creating such a hostile work environment for me, spreading lies about me stealing when she was the one actually doing it (yes, I finally told) and being so cruel to me.

Around 3, the manager told me to work drive thru with the thief. I told the thief I was supposed to help her so she needed to give me the headset so I wouldn't have to touch her till. She refused my help and physically shoved me aside with her body and snatched cups out of my hand before I could fill drinks. I told the manager the thief refused my help and she became annoyed and stopped bagging orders to change the till over so I could work window since the other girl refused give up the headset. While she was in the office counting the till, I had to work front counter, window and bag orders. The thief told me not to bag her orders; she wanted to do them herself. I told her no and continued to do my job. She became pissed off and took off the headset, threw it on the counter and said "that's it I quit." And stomped out towards the door, past a cook that was returning from his break. I told her she needed to tell a manager as I was not her boss.

Then I picked up the headset and worked all the positions. She had messed up the customer's order at the window and he sounded frustrated from having to deal with her. I told him, I didn't know what had happened, the girl who took his order just took off the headset, said she quit and left, so I was willing to retake his order to get it right. He laughed and we got it sorted out; she had shorted him a kid meal. So I called the order back to the cooks, and started bagging it.

The cook who had just got back from his break asked me what was wrong with the other girl; I shrugged. We could all hear her yelling at the incoming manager (coming to relieve the manager counting down the till). Then she stormed back in and demanded the headset back. I gave it to her. She tried to collect from the guy at window, but I already had. He told her I was helping him. This aggravated her. She asked me where I was at. I told her just to take the next order and I would finish helping the 1st customer. She ignored me and started pouring his drinks; I told her he already had his drinks. She looked in his car, and then told me he already had all of his order and asked what was I getting. I told her no, he didn't have all of his order, she had messed it up and I was trying to fix it. She looked in the trash and asked me, "If it was messed up, where's his recall ticket?" I hadn't recalled the order or charged the man the 2.48 for the kids meal she had shorted him feeling he probably deserved it free for having to put up with the thief's attitude and her having messed up his order (I am authorized to do this).

I gave the man his food, he drove away, and then I pulled the next receipt to bag the next drive thru order. She got mad because she had told me she would bag her own drive orders (while doing headset and window and leaving me with nothing to do- its my job to bag the orders while the manager is gone- that would be too much to expect of one person otherwise; especially while the other person has nothing to do) She said, "Ooooh, you don't want to do this. You dont know who you're messing with. I have so much dirt on you!" I didnt feel threatened as I didn't feel any "dirt" existed for anyone to have on me. I just said,"Whatever. I'm going to do my job." She became enraged that she couldn't ruffle me and yelled that she knew I was a s**t and was sleeping with (named a person). All the cooks looked up. I shrugged and ignored her while still doing my job. It wasn't true. Then she yelled really loud that she knew I had (named an STD). I was grossed out and caught off guard. That wasn't true either, but I was stunned she would YELL something so gross. She could tell she had upset me and this added fuel to her fire. Then she remarked that at least if she had kids she would take care of them.
I am a single mom in my third trimester of pregnancy with 2 toddlers already. I work really excruciatingly hard to support my kids. I couldnt help it. I snapped. After having to endure another 1 1/2 hours of verbal abuse from this co-worker after I'd already told the manager there was a problem between us earlier at 1:30, it was too much for me. The manager counting the tills in the back walked up to see what the yelling was about just in time to hear me shoot back that maybe if the thief knew how to drive she could have some kids. Immature, yes, but I'd endured a lot. The other manager came up and sent us both home. As I walked to my car, the thief shouted to me, "Have fun losing your job after I talk to your boss!" I called the manager back that night and apologized for what part I had played in the incident. He accepted my apology and said I wasnt fired. But suddenly I wasn't on the next days schedules anymore. When I asked why, I was told the other girl and I weren't allowed to work together anymore. Fine, but why did she get all the hours? She's in high school and I have two kids. She started the whole thing! And the cook who had witnessed her behavior told me he had told the manager he had seen the girl trying to pick a fight with me and how long I had resisted.

I wrote the store manager a letter explaining what had happened and asking for more hours or at least an explanation as why all my hours had got cut (while the other girl retained all of hers). No response. My last paycheck was less than $150 for half of the month. Could you support two kids on that?

Please help me! Were you shorted in our drive thru? Please tell Phil, the store owner! Have you received rude treatment or had your order messed up? Please tell Phil, the store owner! Did you not have a receipt taped to your bag, or did the receipt not match the amount you paid? Please tell Phil, the store owner! I don't know why no one's come forward yet, but I literally watched this girl walk out the door with $90 scammed off the manager from customers! This affects you too. Less income means we can't lower prices, or run sales as long as some other stores, and there is not enough profit for the store to cover wages for our honest, courteous, hard-working employees and we have to run on smaller crews, making waits longer too! Please, if anything is fishy, call Phil 253 853 6902.

the exact same thing happened to me at Wendy's. I cannot begin to explain how angry it makes you when someone reaches in their pocket to hand you back YOUR change. Accidents happen but had these people not been commiting outright theft the money would have been in the register not their pocket. We did call and were told no management was available, I really believe that. I am happy to hear yours got fired, it was well deserved

Not all drive thru cashiers are scam artists. In fact only a small majority are. Yes, it will happen so you need to be aware of how much you give the cashier and how much your change is. I have worked as a manager in several fash food restaurants and all I can say to you is if it had happened in my store the cashier and the manager would never be seen there again, either. In fact I have had employees arrested for stealing.

Not to make excuses, but most fast food workers make minimum wage and will try just about anything to "supplement" their income. As a customer you need to be aware of this and take precautions.

Please any time something like this happens to you, inform the manager or the owners so they can address the problem. I'm sure the owner you talked to was happy to find out about this problem so he could resolve it. It costs a lot of money for the business owner, not only do they lose the sales and the food but they also lose customers.

A true manager is interested in pleasing all the customers not just the ones that complain.
:)