Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in Maryland

I never write bad reviews as I work in service myself and know how difficult this industry can be and I consider myself especially graceful and patient but the experience I had here tonight was bad and unprofessional enough that I needed to express it.

I placed an order for one cold brew coffee and one shake. No food items or special requests. After 30 minutes of waiting, I saw my screen go black and since it had been so long, I called to check in with staff about my order. He replied that they are short staffed and that the screen was broken but they'd bring it out as soon as they could.

30 more minutes passed and I truly needed to leave at this point. I called once more and the same staff member told me "we are really busy right now." I asked if he had an ETA and he said he did not followed my a long awkward pause. Finally I began canceling my order and he hung up on me! I called once again to cancel and he said "give me a minute" and hung up again.

After 15 more minutes he still had not updated me or cancelled the order. I had to spend more time and effort to dispute the card charge to my bank.

I never received my 2 drinks, wasted an hour and a half without drive time (I had gone out of my way to come here because I love sonic) and created additional work for myself as well to backtrack and call my bank.

I am hoping that someone with some pull sees this and offers the younger sounding staff some resources to help them succeed in good customer service, prioritizing and overall service.

It should be noted that the restaurant was not particularly busy and I didn't arrived at peak...

I don't know whether this Sonic deserves a 3.5 out of 5 or a 4 out of 5. I love the food- the menu is huge and everything is cheap, especially because there is literally always some kind of deal going on. I come here all the time with my friends even though it's out of the way for me because it's so much fun. But the service here is terrible. Never drive away from the drive-through without checking everything in your bag. 9/10 times they will mess up at least one thing in your order. They forget the condiments, or forget the straws, or give you a "medium" instead of a "mini" milkshake, or forget to put the syrup in your fountain drink so that you just have fizzy water. If you pull in to a spot be prepared to wait a while for them to answer after you press the button. On this visit I tried the new pretzel twist with cheese sauce- no pic b/c I ate it too fast. It is better than Auntie Anne's- its super buttery with not too much salt. I love it. I'm craving it now. But the cheese sauce is not cheese- it tastes like a cheese-flavored mayonnaise- but I don't mind it (I love mayonnaise). We also got the boneless wings, which are literally the same thing as popcorn chicken but just covered in sauce, b/c on Thursday nights they are buy one get one. Those are a fave too. Sometimes you even get a bonus wing (7 instead of 6!) I come here all the time especially in the summer, but I always come prepared to wait and to have to...

Arrived an hour before close and pulled into a spot. Reviewed the menu to see what unnecessary indulgence we would enjoy. Hit the big red button and waited...for about 3mins which, felt like an eternity. An aloof voice then bluntly stated, "We're sorry but, we're only serving drive thru at this time." The length of time to hear such a message and the disregard of any sincerity in the announcement made me audibly 'sigh' as in the time it took to get that response from the big red button, 3 cars had pulled into the drive thru, now ahead of us. We decide to go ahead and get in line in the drive thru because we weren't going to let this ruin the "fun" of a Sonic run. After the expected wait for our turn to order, the person working the drive thru was the same as the voice from the big red button or, they have the same lack enthusiasm and concern in their voice. Once we're at the window to pay and get our food, the abrupt, uncaring frankness of the transaction continued. We got our food, the order was correct but, the experience just made me feel like I don't need to go to this location again...