Taco Bell Stories Aplenty

The last two days at work have been rather enjoyable. And I can think of only two words to describe why: Happy Hour. I...uhh...oh wait. Wrong job. What I meant to say was: Crazy Customers. That's right. Those two little words can make the difference between a fun day at work and a boring day at work for me. Anyone can be a normal customer at a drive-thru restaurant. But few customers are actually worthy of earning the title of "Crazy Customer", for it takes a special type of person to be able to set dignity aside and make a fool out of himself for my entertainment. And if they are lucky, they are bestowed the honor of having their story immortalized into eternal blogdom. And now, enough with the formalities, lets get to the stories!!!


Taco Bell Story #1 - "Clueless"

I am at the first window, collecting the money for an order. A truck pulls up to the menu, and Miguel takes his order at the second window. As I finish giving the change for the first order, I look out the window and see the truck stopped about 5 feet farther than he should have been. The driver is yelling his order at the speaker which is several feet to his left. Then, amazingly, when Miguel reads his order back, the man cannot hear Miguel very well, probably because the speaker is pointed at his rear tire.

So after Miguel repeats his order in vain, the man pulls up to my window, and asks me to repeat his order. So I comply, and the following conversation begins between us...

Note: The words in parenthesis are the thoughts which are going through my mind as this conversation progresses.

Him: Can I add a drink?
(No.)
Me: Sure.
Him: Iced tea?
(Here we go...)
Me: We only have Raspberry iced tea, is that ok?
Him: Oh, is that flavored?
(It's uhh...raspberry flavored. Duh?)
Me: Yeah...
Him: Oh, well give me a Diet then.
(Because you're a pansy?)
Me: Ok. It's $11.14.
Him: *Starts to drive away to the second window*
(Oh good, he's leaving, I...wait a second...)
Me: *Yells* You pay here!!

At this point, he had already driven forward about 5 feet or so. He tried to back up, but another truck had already placed an order and was behind him on his tail. So he sat in his truck for 20 seconds or so getting his money out, and finally opened his door, walked over to my window, and said...

Him: Here's $11.05. Keep the change.
(Gee, I'd love to, if you had given me more than the actual amount you owe!!!)
Me: Uhh...Ok, whatever.

At that point, I really didn't care about losing 9 cents. It was a small price to pay to get him out of my drive-thru.


Taco Bell Story #2 - "Listening Skills"

Again, Miguel was taking an order at the second window, and when the customer seemed to be done with his order, Miguel asked:

Miguel: Anything to drink?
Customer: No, just a medium Pepsi.


Taco Bell Story #3 - "Nice Try"

Last Friday, Miguel was joking around with me and he asked if I wanted to join the army since one of our former employees left to do just that a few months ago. I said, "No, that's ok," and he laughed and stopped asking me shortly thereafter.

Later on in the night, business was slow, so I was talking with Miguel to pass the time, and into the dining room come three army guys dressed in their military attire. Miguel and I just looked at each other and laughed. Miguel made some comment like, "They're here for you!"

To make things easier, these three guys will be called Guy 1, Guy 2, and Guy 3.

So I take Guy 1's order while trying not to laugh too much, and sure enough, as soon as he finishes, he looks at my name tag and says:

Guy 1: So Sean, you ever thought of joining the army?
Me: *In a casual, nonchalant tone of voice* No, not really.

When I said that, Guy 2 burst into laughter. Guy 1 looked back at Guy 2 and gave him an incredibly menacing look as if to say, "Shut up! My commanding officer says I need 4 more recruits or else I'll be a test subject for an army experiment entitled "The Human Pincushion".

Guy 2, recoiling from the look Guy 1 gave him, replied, "What? That was funny!"

They didn't ask me if I wanted to join the army anymore after that. Lucky them.


Taco Bell Story #4 - "An Odd Fellow"

This time, I'm taking orders at the second window, and another cashier, Tony, is collecting money at the first window. I take a man's order, he pays, and comes to the second window. He is a fairly regular customer, and is quite eccentric and loud. His wife/girlfriend is sitting in the passenger seat, and is usually with him when they come through the drive-thru. I give him his food, he asks for more sauce, I give him more sauce, and he asks me what my name is. I tell him my name is Sean, he gives me some generic compliment, and takes off.

A couple of hours later, I am still taking orders at the second window. I take a man's order, but I cannot see who it is. When he is done ordering, the man says:

Man: Hey Sean.
Me: *confused* What's up?
Man: Hey, you're doing a great job, keep up the good work.
Me: Uhh, thanks...

I have no idea who it is, so I go over to the first window thinking it's one of my friends, and see that it's the same guy as before. I greet him by saying:

Me: Back already?
Him: Yeah, I brought my other girlfriend.

So being the curious person that I am, I looked in the truck at the person sitting in the passenger seat, and saw someone different than the lady who was there 2 hours ago. In fact, he looked quite different than before.

Now, I realize that the driver was most likely joking, and I thought it was pretty funny that he had just called another man his girlfriend, and that the "girlfriend" guy had a rather nervous expression on his face when he heard his "friend" call him that. So I went with it.

Me: Oh! She's quite a looker!

Both of them laughed at that one, and I was so deafened by my own wit that I didn't really hear what he said in response to that, but drawing from my past experiences of taking that guy's orders and talking with him, I'm pretty sure I didn't miss too much. At least he didn't ask for more sauce the second time around, because I forgot my tire iron at home. (If you get this joke, congratulations! You are a Sean's Random Humor Veteran! If you don't get it, looks like you've got some studying to do before the big test that's coming up...that's right, you don't think that this blog is all fun and games, do you?)