Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in Mission Viejo

On 04/21/25 I placed an online order for pickup later on the same day, at 430pm. I arrived at 433pm and parked in a stall. Notified the employee that I was there to pick up an online order and gave them my name. I patiently waited, and waited, and waited. After seeing several other cars had come and gone, I pressed the call button at 453pm to check on my order. The person who responded asked what order I wanted to placed. I explained I was still waiting for my online order and she said it would be right out. After 5 more minutes of waiting, I still did not have my order. I pressed the call button for the 3rd time and again, I was greeted with someone asking what I would like to order. This time I explained I have been waiting for over 20 minutes for my online order and that if it wasn't ready, to just cancel it and refund my money. The girl asked what I ordered and I told her and she just said "ok." So I asked - does that mean you're not going to make my order? She said no and that it would be right out. A couple more minutes passed and someone finally came to my car, but still with no food. The employee asked to see my order, which I had on my phone, so I showed it to her. She said the problem is that they can't seem to find my order. She took a picture of my order on my phone and walked back in. After about a minute, she came out with my bag of food. I was finally able to leave at 405pm -- over 30 minutes from when I scheduled my order to be picked up. It was extremely aggravating and such a waste of my time. Not once did any employee tell me they were having problems finding my order until I followed up on it for the 3rd time. That is some of the worst customer service Ive ever experienced at a fast food restaurant.

I also submitted this to Sonic's customer support the same day it happened and never...

I can understand fast food and especially sonic can be very understaffed at times and the workers suffer from it and that bleeds over to customer service. I've been going to this sonic on a semi weekly basis for around a year maybe and around similar times/days as well and I have noticed this happening frequently with long lines in the drive thru and parking stalls occupied as well around peak hours. The service does often become naturally slower from this and the line for drive thru can be irritating as well. But the workers typically do a pretty good job of handling the pile up of cars and cater to everyone accordingly. However, this past week I have encountered the most inconsiderate, uninterested, young lady working the drive thru. Had to ask if anyone was there at the drive thru ordering menu, she got the order wrong, rushed thru the exchange, made the item poorly, I asked for another spoon once as I handed her my card, didn't get it ok maybe she didn't hear, ask again as she hands back my card and she acts like she didn't hear closing the window and starting on the next order. I can understand it's sonic and it's a cheap job, but this has been the only experience at sonic I've ever had with a worker as blatantly rude to the customer that I've seen. No other fast food location or instance at this sonic can I recall receiving this type of poor, lazy, uninterested service from a worker. It's a real shame that I've had such good service from this location for so long, yet 1 worker had to ruin it for them all. I don't know if she's new or just picking up an extra shift as I've never seen this young Asian woman in her 20's working before and it could have been a one time lapse in work ethic, but for now this sonic gets...

This location needs corporate and/or independent owner attention very badly. I visited last night and parked in a car port (their main area of business) and waited for more than 10 minutes with the red light flashing for someone to take our order. After 10 minutes had passed, someone came on to say that "orders are only being taken at the drive thru" and hung up. There was a long line at the drive thru and almost all car ports were full...including large families who were waiting to feed kids. There needed to be a sign or an employee telling people NOT to use the car ports and waste their time! We got in the drive thru line and the scene when we got to the front was abysmal. It was absolutely filthy inside...if we hadn't already paid, we would have left and were grossed out while eating our food. There was standing water on the floor from spills of liquid and ice cream (as well as trash and other food debris) and all surfaces were disgusting. The employees were 0% engaged and were obviously struggling and were past caring about customer service or cleanliness. Multiple car accidents almost happened in the drive thru line since people in the car ports had to back out and get in line. My order is almost always wrong when I visit (100% wrong in the times that I've ordered on DoorDash), and the fries are always old. I have given this location a lot of business over time, but have finally visited for my last time after seeing the inside from the drive thru. I will give my business to In-N-Out now unless this location gets back in shape. I fear that, if a health inspector visited, they would absolutely not pass and be...