Taco Bell — Restaurant in New Haven

This is by far one of the worst jobs I’ve ever had. None of the upper management had any actual management skills. I found myself training myself and others even when I didn’t know what to do myself.

It seems as if everyone here lacks any sort of common sense and everyone has a bad attitude and angers quickly at the slightest inconvenience.

They complain when they have to actually work and let orders pile up and take it out on the customers and their fellow staff members when simply doing your job whenever an order came up would’ve solved so many problems.

They have so many inconsistent rules such as spinning cars. When I first started working there everyone was telling cars to circle around again including upper management and one day out of the blue we’re getting yelled at for spinning cars when we weren’t told ahead of time that we weren’t suppose to do that anyone.

To make things even worse we had a new general manager who was not only new to that location but to Taco Bell as a whole come and started off aggressive letting everyone know that she wasn’t there to make friends which is fair since it’s work, but telling everyone they weren’t going to like her from the beginning isn’t something you do to build a good work environment.

From then on not only did she mess up orders (which is normal for people starting off), but she had the audacity to yell at and call people derogatory names when SHE messed up orders and blamed other people.

If you actually care about eating good food I would not eat here as they cook too much food in the morning and just erase the time on the food to make it seem fresher than it actually is.

For anyone who doesn’t understand that, essentially if you order at 6pm the food has been sitting in a heating cabinet since like 10am (for example) because they cooked too much and they don’t want to throw it out so they act as if it hasn’t reached its 4 hour expiration date. (After you cook the food you have 4 hours to use it or it’s considered expired)

They treat this place like it’s some high school club and constantly complain about every small thing especially towards the hourly managers blaming them for every little thing that goes wrong.

They’re more focused on getting surveys than they are with anything else and it’s gotten to the point where they threaten employees and their jobs if they don’t push surveys as if they can magically get everyone to do the surveys simply by asking.

Since they love surveys so much this is my survey towards that restaurant as a whole.

Id call this place a joke but honestly, nothing about what happens...

I wish I they had a section for negative stars ⭐️ zero with the experience I endured at this particular store on 12/17/23. The story is far too long for this staff to still be employed, I’m wondering what standards have changed since I worked there with james lymon as the district manager? Customer service must not be a factor.. AT ALL! So, I walk into an empty store with one customer inquiring about two items he’d been waiting for 45 min for! Instead of using customer service skills, he was told by a young (sista ) black you want your F ing money back!? That was interesting because I later found out she was a manager🤨. To speed this thing up no one ever asked me can they help me, instead pretended to be so busy doing absolutely nothing! As I watched another young lady stuffing her face meeting eye to eye with me doing nothing about the disrespect that was occurring.. The environment was hostile, less than professional so I didn’t feel comfortable asking about my Dash deliveries that were ticking outta time. As I shouldn’t even have to ask. MS STUFF HER FACE ( Hispanic), came from behind the counter and my dash delivery bag disappeared! As I was the only person in the lobby, the one disrespected customer had left and didn’t leave with it. I personify professionalism as I’ve worked in plenty professional settings. I ask the young lady she almost immediately got Belligerent , on her phone narrating the situation to whoever was on the phone, calling me outta my name, even told me to get the F outta the store, but it gets worse. She used NEW HAVEN POLICE DEPARTMENT as a weapon against me by calling the cops on me. Then they realized despite my color I was an upstanding, professional person . And that I should step outside 🤨 so that my Big RED hard to lose DASH bag TO suddenly re appear. Upon arrival the police were ready to do damage. But being that I know how to personify professionalism I was able to handle the situation without him even talking to them.. That speaks volume to the whole situation. 1800 number got me a free meal! Very much appreciated thanks Tammela. It’s shocking, beyond me and a crying shame that these individual are still employed as I still see them. Worse experience EVER EVERYONE is entitled to a bad day. But one shouldn’t have to convince a cop after the crime was committed against me! There’s even more but I gotta...

20220913 update: Previous issues noted below in #1 are very old and have been resolved / not experienced in a while. The current staff and management is doing a great job. Adding a star to 4.

Still leaving off 1 star because of the excessive charges for adding /swapping almost anything in an item. A small charge for some things would be reasonable but not what is currently charged. FWIW, this is usual for almost all Taco Bell locations.

3/5 stars

In general, I like Taco Bell. This location is hit or miss.

1. When I can go inside to order, the staff is friendly and usually gets my order right on the first try and most everything is fine. At night after the dining area is closed and I have to go to the drive-thru is a different story. They rarely understand what I'm asking for on the first try and sometimes not on the second try and don't bother asking them for customization. The burritos even seem to be wrapped a little more sloppy for the drive-thru, so I've learned to be careful so they don't fall apart.

2. Prices vary from location to location. This location seems to be the most expensive in the area that I go to, especially if you add things to your menu items. This is of course at any time of day, drive-thru or not. A nickel here, a dime there, often more... it all adds up.

Both issues are not a new problem, as I have experienced them here for a few years. I only go back once in awhile to see if things have improved, when it's the only Taco Bell on my...