Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in Louisville

I've been to this Sonic a total of 3 times. The first time was over a year ago and I was less than impressed with the service time (nearly 15 minutes to get ONE slush) even though I was 4th back when I ordered.

The other two visits were on the same day, about an hour apart. After finishing a few errands I pulled up to one of the drive-ups, pushed the red button, and the voice said "Sorry, our system is down and we can't take orders.". Meanwhile cars seemed to be going through the drive-thru pretty regularly. I shrugged and drove away.

(At this point I have to challenge the whole "We can't take orders because our system is down" philosophy that exists in just about every fast food venue in town. All told I spent over 11 years in fast food in the past. If the registers went down you have a fail-safe, tried-and-true solution to take orders and that is the (apparently) antiquated practice of writing the order down. "But wait, it won't be on the screen!". "No it won't, but it's on this piece of paper. Now let's take care of the customer. You know, the reason you have a job!")

About 45 minutes later my wife called and was told that the system was back up, so we made our way there (We live in J-town, so it's not too far). We pulled up to one of the drive-ups, perused the menu to figure out what we wanted, and pushed the red button. The screen updated to "Red Button activated. We'll be right with you" (or something similar). We waited and no "we'll be right with you" took place. At all. For over 10 minutes. (12, actually), not one single acknowledgement that we had pushed the red button. Crickets.

Determined to get a cranberry slush and a corn dog we drove to the drive-thru and ordered there. After I placed my order I asked the voice on the drive thru speaker if the drive-ups were working because we sat for over 10 minutes and got no response. The voice's response was "Yes, it's working, but we only have one headset and the drive-thru orders get taken care of first".

I'm not kidding. The voice on the speaker was actually telling me that Sonic, which is KNOWN for it's drive-up order taking and delivery, places emphasis on drive-thru customers. I hardly believe this is the case, as Sonic stakes their reputation on that novel approach.

When we placed our order we were the 4th car back from the delivery window. In another odd turn of events the two cars between us and the window had their food brought out to their cars and they drove away, making us the second car back from the window. Once we got to the window it was a fast transaction, but it still took over 10 minutes.

Let's see. If you're not addressing orders at the drive-ups, that means that there are probably one or two personnel that are still on the clock...but at the same time delivery times at the ONE place you're taking orders is well over ten minutes. Mathematics and formulas and algorithms may not be my strong suit, but even I can figure out that if you're focusing your service solely at the drive-thru customer, it should be going A LOT faster than it took us with the amount of staff they had on hand.

I don't know if it's management (or a lack thereof), but there is definitely room for improvement at...

If you're looking for a place where the ice cream machine is broken (just like good ol' Micky D's), or the workers hate their job so much they give you attitude in drive-thru just for pulling up, then proceed get your order wrong TWICE (with no apology on both instances), then this is the place to go! I placed an order for a Bacon Cheeseburger Toaster combo (plain with no toppings, or condiments) and a medium cookie dough blast. Nothing fancy, nor too hard. Guy in the drive thru, says "Got it. Plain #4 with a CD blast." I drive up and while waiting the guy tells me the ice cream us down, which is no big deal. A woman comes up, then proceed to give me my total, (which included the blast). I politely correct her, (telling her what the guy told me) and then she gets all pissy about it, all while re-reading my order (including the plain Bacon Cheeseburger Toaster). She corrects the total, I pay, and about to drive off, but before doing so I check my bag/ order, just to be sure. Sure enough the sandwich isn't plain, nor did they give a receipt. I turn around and go back through drive-thru, tell them what happened, where I'm met by the same "PO" girl, who denies my order being wrong (after reading it to me as "plain #4" 5 mins ago. She tells me to drive forward, and park and she'll bring it out. Through this entire process I'm not mad, upset, screaming, nor showing any ill-will. My window is down and I see her bringing it out, so I reach my hand out to meet her half way.....she instead throws at me, where as I narrowly catch the bag and walks back inside. She does check to see if I "caught" her throw, nor glance back at me. Not even a sorry for your wait/our mistake, she just storms off. I have no reason to bash someone, or a place, but this was a bit ridiculous. Again I'm not mad or upset. I just grab my food and I'm happy to have it. I then check my food again and this is what I got. Though its my fault for not checking entirely, as that it was dark, and all I cared about was that the sandwich didnt have toppings, or condiments. Got home and this is what I found (the photo I attached to this post). The bread wasnt toasted, nor was there bacon.Jokes aside, as that fast food resturants were designed for this purpose....but if this was the case I could of gone to Walmart, brought a pound of beef, cheese and white bread and made this myself. I'd dare not go back for a THIRD time, or I truly will scream, shout, and have ill-will towards them. Long story. I whined up giving my food to a neighbor (who took a bite before I could snap a photo) and maybe I can write it off as a "donation" on my taxes, lol. But really, like I said up top. I'd strictly avoid this Sonic, unless you have time to kill in drive thru (30-45 mins guve or take) like wrong order(s) in your bag, or in some odd fashion, you love "pissed off" workers yelling at you for their mistake. Whichever, go at...

We arrived at the restaurant and checked in at a stall. We waited for at least 15 minutes with no update from any staff, just the status of “in the kitchen” on the menu board. After about 15 minutes of waiting, we hit the red button to try to speak to someone to make sure they saw we were checked in and waiting. After waiting a few minutes for a response, someone finally said “please go to the drive through, our stalls are closed.” There were no signs or any other indication that the stalls were not to be used. We got in the drive through and had to wait another 20-25 minutes to even get to talk to someone. Other cars in line were just pulling away and eventually someone in the line went to the doors to see what was happening. She came back to her car and said “you might as well leave, they say they aren’t taking any more orders.” We pulled up to the window and they wouldn’t open it to even talk to us at first. When they finally did we, explained we’d already paid on the app and that we had been waiting almost an hour, and the manager said “did you check in”? and we told him we had. He said they’d never seen anyone check in. We asked for a refund and they said no, our food was already ready, it was sitting right by the till and probably had been for at least 45 minutes. The blasts were melted and the mozz sticks were cold. We asked the boy at the window if we could have a refund since the food had clearly been sitting there, and he said it was up to the manager,so we asked him to ask. He came back and said his manager told him we’d have to do it on the app. We told him we had looked and could not find a way, could his manager please show us how to do it. The manager came to the window and said, “all you have to do is call the number on the app and tell them you didn’t get your food it’s not that big of a deal.” So now we’ve wasted $12 and an hour and have melted ice cream...