Rally's — Restaurant in Jackson

Let me be blunt: this was, without exaggeration, one of the worst fast food experiences I’ve had in years—and I’m saying that as someone who’s not only a native Philadelphian who grew up with Checkers/Rally’s, but as a former Restaurant General Manager who knows what good service and operational standards look like.

What I received today wasn’t just disappointing. It was a complete dereliction of basic fast food fundamentals.

Let’s start with the order. A simple request: one spicy chicken sandwich, one large fry. Not a complicated combination by any stretch of the imagination. And yet, what I was handed was a lukewarm sandwich with all the zest and spice of a wet paper towel. If this sandwich had any heat, it must’ve clocked out before I picked it up. The fries? Cold. Stale. Freezer-burnt, even. The kind of fries that taste like they’ve been sitting under a heat lamp that gave up hours ago. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were scraped from the bottom of a tray no one bothered to clean.

But poor food can sometimes be forgiven if the service makes up for it. Unfortunately, what I witnessed behind the counter was a performance of unprofessionalism that would’ve gotten any of my former crew members written up on the spot. Staff were too busy cracking jokes and trash-talking—not just casually, but loudly and incessantly—to notice or care that they were actively failing their customers. The most concerning part? The apparent ringleader of this circus was the manager on duty. Instead of leading, they were the loudest, most chaotic presence on the floor.

When leadership sets the tone with immaturity and disorganization, what hope is there for the rest of the crew?

To be clear, I’ve worked in rough neighborhoods. I know the grind. I’ve run shifts in high-volume stores under pressure most people couldn’t handle. But that’s no excuse for poor standards, half-cooked food, and a staff so disengaged they make DMV employees look inspired.

The truth is: some of the best service I’ve ever had came from stores in the heart of Philly—deep in neighborhoods people love to look down on. But they showed up, they hustled, and they took pride in getting it right. That’s clearly not the case here.

So to this Rally’s team, and especially the manager on duty: step it up. Get serious. Because this wasn’t fast food. This was fast failure. And next time I’ll take my appetite—and my money—somewhere that understands both quality...

I recently placed a mobile order at this location expecting the process to be faster—you know, the whole reason mobile ordering exists. Instead, I got what felt like a customer service prank.

Let me break this down for you:

⸻

🚗 Me: • Used your app like a civilized human. • Waited behind exactly one car in the drive-thru. • Gave my name at the speaker. • Pulled up to the window ready to grab my order and go.

🙃 Your employee: • Confirmed my name. • Held my food in her hand. • Told me to park my car and come inside to get it. • Then proceeded to hand me that same bag when I walked in… five feet from the drive-thru window.

——-

🍟 The Fry-Point Breakdown: • The food was ready. • I was at the pickup window. • There was zero line. • The bag was in her hand. • I was still forced to get out of my car and walk inside for absolutely no reason.

If this is an actual company policy, it’s absurd. If it’s just a rogue employee making up rules for no reason, that’s worse. Either way, it felt like deliberate inconvenience. Especially when I’ve been there countless times before and have never been told I had to come in.

I used your app to save time, not to be power-tripped into a needlessly frustrating detour. If this is how you treat mobile customers, why even offer mobile ordering?

Just seemed like a weird flex to exercise what little power working at...

Worst service I have ever seen at a fast food restaurant. In line in front of me was an employee ordering his lunch that had so many substitutions and additions it took twice as long to order as the person in front of him. When I was finally able to order the cashier stopped in the middle of my order, right after I handed my money to pay for the order, to wait on someone in the drive-thru. When he came back to the counter I had to ask for my change, apparently he forgot that he was holding my cash in his hand. After getting my receipt I was standing off to side waiting and the two people that ordered got their food fairly quickly and I heard three more people place orders from the drive-thru. I figured that my food would be up fairly soon but instead a total of four cars in the drive-thru were served and left. At this point I got fed up with waiting and just left. If I had stayed I'm not sure how much longer I would have had to wait to actually get my food since I heard someone in back say that they were still waiting on my burger. I know that fast food places have to balance the counter and drive-thru but it was like they just stopped worrying about the counter after they served their employee.

It will be a very long time before I will go back to...