Taco Bell — Restaurant in Summerville

VERY UNPROFESSIONAL MANAGER THREW A COMPLETE GROWN-UP TANTRUM (no joke)!!!

We were here (N. Main St. Summerville store) on 3/23/21 around 8:30pm. We waited nearly 12 mins. to move up the line to pick up our food. I asked the manager on duty why the person holding up the line at the pickup window wasn't asked to pull aside to the parking area. She said she was busy cooking so she couldn't go outside the building to deal with that customer's problem. (So instead she tried to figure out what was going on with this person's order while 15 cars waited 12 mins in line without moving an inch!) One would think there'd be at least another employee who could go to the parking area to see how to help this customer holding up the line, but she claimed otherwise. Then she started screaming at me because I dared question why they held up the line; rudely offered to just give me back my money (implying she didn't want my business); and said she didn't need customers taking out their frustrations on her. (She's obviously had it with customers complaining today. Ummm, you ARE the manager, right?) We actually ended up in a screaming match! She slammed the window hard a couple of times. I asked for my receipt (so I could complete the survey). She screamed, "You wanna receipt? There you go! There's your receipt! Have. A. Nice. Day! (very sarcastically)" as she shoves a receipt in my hand, slams the window again, & continues to yell telling her employees how she's sick of customers taking it out on her and blah...blah...blah...blah. We could hear everything she was saying from the car. IT WAS A FULL-ON GROWN-UP TANTRUM!!! Unbelievable! (My kids threw tantrums, too -- back when they were 2 years old.) Oh, and yeah, she conveniently gave me the wrong receipt, and with the store # torn off. But it's not that hard to find the store number online. Bottom line: this is simply unacceptable behavior from an adult, no less a manager who's supposed to be trained to deal with frustrated customers.

TO THE OWNER: I hope you're paying attention. Please review your store videos to check this interaction if you must, but this manager needs management/customer service training...in addition to ANGER management training.

We've been at this Taco Bell countless times over the past six years. The wait has always varied, but even the longer waits have been tolerable especially when the employee greets you with, "Thank you for your patience. We apologize for the wait." And we've actually had many good experiences here with very nice staff...until tonight. Honestly, if the manager simply said something about perhaps being short-staffed followed by a quick apology for the very long wait, I think this situation could have easily been defused. Instead, she escalated the situation by immediately getting defensive in response to my question, and started raising her voice. At one point, I actually yelled for her to stop screaming at me. I thought she was going to jump out of that pick-up window! ADULT TANTRUM like I've never seen before! Disgraceful!

TO THE MANAGER: I'm sorry if you were having a really bad day, but don't go ballistic if your customers ask a valid question that you perhaps interpret as challenging your authority. If you had merely acknowledged my frustration, I would have been the one apologizing for even bringing it up. You've set a very bad example for your staff, all of whom witnessed you throw a tantrum on a customer. It would have been a good teaching moment, but you blew it! You're supposed to be the adult in charge, but you proved otherwise. HOW did you even become a...

Will never be returning to a Taco Bell in Charleston ever again. We went to another location on old trolley road. We walk into a crime scene the windows were busted out and boarded up. There was construction all over the floor and it’s was hotter than the 90 degree humidity outside. So we went to this location on North Main. This location was just as big of a fiasco.The lobby was a mess sticky tables and floors. The ceiling was leaking. It smelled like a toilet. We ordered at the kiosk. They started to hand us our drinks and let us know there was no ice. Okay, we weren’t happy but that’s okay. We sip the drinks and all of the sodas are pure syrup it was disgusting. They give me the last drink which was suppose to be a purple lemonade and the girl hands me the drink smirking. The syrup in the lemonade had clearly ran out because it was literally clear and tasted like water. We decided we will go somewhere else and ask for a refund. The girl upfront is counting the register telling us we will have to wait till she’s done. Mean while there was a man in the back screaming and throwing a temper tantrum that “he can not do this” and “he’s about to go home” were are waiting there for 5-10 mins just staring at this girl who was is still counting the register. And she finally decides she will acknowledge us and asks if we paid cash or card. We paid card. We wanted a refund on our card. She relays this information to the man in the back who was losing his mind. Who was also apparently the manager. He spent another 5-10 mins calling who I assume is the general manager of this place. He walked up to the girls register that she was counting doesn’t say anything and just hands us cash out the register. When we paid with card. We left because the workers here are hostile and we didn’t feel like spending our dinner time being mistreated by Taco Bell workers. At some point this is just poor leadership...

The food is what you would expect for taco bell but the customer service was absolutely horrible. I had only barley had gotten a third of the food I ordered to begin with. The staff was rude and unprofessional when I asked kindly about the missing parts of my order and they also kept ignoring me. They were rude, and they kept trying to tell me I did not pay for the rest of it when I had the online conformation that showed I did because it was all ordered together. I told them calmly they needed to look back on their end of the order. I also showed proof before they looked again on their end. They saw I was correct and was upset that I was. The woman who had to help fix the problem was like okay so all this is what you claim you paid for. They all had snotty attitude. They still were rude/passive aggressive, but I got the rest of my order after going back and fourth with them. When they finally got everything they put it in one huge bag that ripped they saw it did and ignored it. I held the bag in an off position to not drop it due to the huge tear. I also did not receive any of the sauces I requested so I had to grab my own sauces for a big huge entire order. The order was for work, and it was for a lot of people. I shouldn't have to tell someone how to do their job nor should I have to do the other part of their job. They are lazy people who work here, and do not put in effort.

I've worked in customer service and as a waitress before. The behavior they all exhibited was completely unacceptable, and brings shame to the food/bev industry. It does not matter if you work fast food or in a restaurant, that behavior is completely unacceptable. Even when I've had rude customers I would have never spoken to them the way this staff did to me. I was not rude to them, and it was uncalled for. Do not be surprised if you have the same experience from this taco...