Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in Arlington

I cannot say enough bad things about my latest visit. I don't know what the character limit is, but buckle up, I might reach it with this one. First, the voice over the speaker in DRIVE THRU was not overly rude, but not pleasant... not even neutral... if anything it leaned towards rude. Once the order was placed, we pulled forward. There was a car in front of us, but they eventually moved. When we got to the window, we paid (exactly $16.00 was the total, how cool) the tone didn't change much between the speaker and the window. Leaning towards rude, but also somewhat rushed ... the lady overall seemed upset and stressed. She disappeared from view for quite some time but eventually reappeared with a bag of food. Handed it to me and we pulled off. Our wait time, if I had to guess, was just under, but nearly 10 minutes from order to recieved. The lady at the window APPEARED to be the only person in the store... but I was told later, she wasn't.

I opened the bag to find 2 medium tots that were really under cooked and two "balls" of foil that were supposed to be burritos. There was a poorly wrapped "burrito" inside that ... looked... like a ball, not a burrito. (For reference, another review posted has an image that looks similar to what we got... I did not get a photo... this thing was smaller than his smartphone, mine was actually a little smaller)

My son didn't eat his tots or drink his milk, tots were undercooked, and he said the milk tasted spoiled. He did say his burrito flavor was decent... not good, just decent.

My burrito was nasty, oddly it tasted "watery"... as weird as that sounds. Couldn't eat it. My Tots were undercooked also, but edible in my opinion, barely... so I ate them.

So much wrong with this visit that I decided to call the customer service number on my receipt... oops. The tone and level of concern were noticeably poor. The person just didn't seem concerned, even slightly... the only thing she offered was to have the store contact me. I refused that offer... obviously if the person was the only employee in the store, that would be who calls me, right? I would be complaining TO the person I was complaining ABOUT.... what sense does that make??? The call with customer service ended but the rep wouldn't release the call... there is a survey at the end, and I wanted to do the survey, it became clear they were hoping I would just hang up... I stuck it out, and left a poor rating on the survey.

A few hours later, I get a Call FROM THE STORE... the lady I spoke to said she was the "general manager" named Rosa. Rosa sounded a lot like Drive thru lady.... but maybe coincidence. Reluctantly, I went ahead and explained my issues to "Rosa" Rosa tells me that she is sorry for the issues I had, but went on to say that the tone issue with drive thru lady may have been because "English is not her first language". I clarified that her English was perfectly fine, the WORDS she spoke were all proper, her tone was the issue. I went on to describe being able say "have a nice day" in such a tone that sounds like you wish the opposite. I added tone could also be used to tell a person "go to hell" in such a way that they actually look forward to that trip.

Rosa didn't seem all that interested.

I explained the issue with the food, itself.... most of it is in my trash can... the burrito (mine) was sorta cold, smaller than normal and rolled like a ball, not burrito. The tots (both) were undercooked. And the possibly spoiled milk.

She said that the cook just rolls them that way, but the portions were accurate... I disagree... and she would check her milk for spoilage. I don't remember if she addressed the undercooked tots or not, honestly. But she did say that she would speak with drive thru lady about her tones or attitude.

At this point, I happened to glance at the receipt again... and asked "who is Jennifer?" Because that was the name on my receipt. She said, Jennifer was drive thru lady. Well, I found the character limit.... can't...

I was so disappointed with my last visit and visits prior that I will no longer be returning to this location. I miss the morning managers that used to work at this location. The afternoon and evening crew can never seem to get anything right and lack the care of taking initiative in fixing their mistakes. Yesterday I showed up after work, just before the end of happy hour, for the $0.50 vanilla cake cone. I had to repeat this to my order taker 04 times before someone else had asked me to repeat myself and it STILL came out wrong!! So not worth the time to argue it because it was just an ice cream but letting the carhop know that it was wrong and they should all pay attention more (knowing the afternoon crowd likes to spend time playing around due to prior visits), she offered no remorse nor offered to exchange the cone. Instead, she waited for my money so she could walk away without offering my change or any word of manners! Change is always offered no matter the amount! Make your employees learn the acronym of BLAST.

Update: Decided I’ll give this sonic a chance again since it has been a while, but I still leave disappointed. I order two small drinks at 4:43pm and left at 4:56 without my drinks because more than 10 minutes is a ridiculous wait time for two drinks. I especially did not like hearing the managers, michael’s, snide remarks when carhoping to the vehicle next to mine. I suggest hiring new employees for...

I asked the lady that brought our food for ketchup, waited a while, she took out 2 orders and still never came back. I pushed the button asked for ketchup, guy apparently didn't hear me? So when she brings the 3rd order out I get out of the car and tell her I'm still waiting for catch up. She raises her voice saying she's busy she's the only one. I said you have taken 3 orders out, there's one car here, you aren't that busy? Regardless can I get the ketchup. She goes in side and I can see her messing with the food being prepared. So I open the door and say can I get the ketchup so I can go? She shoves it in my hand. So I'm like what the hell? I'm trying to be patient but you are blatantly ignoring me, she starts telling at me, so I do admit I yelled back at her while the male employee standing there speechless starts telling me to leave lol. Which of course I was trying to do. This is not the first time staff member i I have experienced at this location but I will not be back. You need to review the tapes as management and see the staff you have representing your store. To be cursed at and put through this over trying to get my order AS A PAYING...