Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in Texas

Common theme among these reviews, and it stuns me that this is still a problem after fifteen YEARS of this being the authentic Sonic experience:

Tonight, my very simple, 3-item order took 25 minutes to get to me after I paid the extortionate pricing. It took 16 minutes to get the drink, and the rest of the time to get the actual food.

I was one of two cars there.

Not sure if y’all know this, but it doesn’t actually take 16 minutes to fill a cup. Nor, in fact, does it take 9 to 25 minutes to heat up premade chicken. Sonic’s slogan is not “America’s drivethrough,” it’s “sorry for the wait,” always said with the kind of robotic cadence that only comes with years of dedicated practice toward saying those words. It’s probably in the employee onboarding process: “Alright, so, you’re gonna want to finish the chicken in two minutes, then wait for twenty minutes doing actually nothing, not even checking your phone or chatting with your coworker - do literally nothing. Then, you bust out the, ‘Sorry for the wait’,” as if that excuses their laziness.

I don’t throw around the word “laziness” lightly - I respect a lot of fast food workers. But Sonic staff are made of something else. It’s brand-specific lethargy. It’s fascinating, it should be studied. Go to any Sonic in the United States, and there’s an 80% chance you’ll experience it.

One time, it took fifteen minutes to get the same order, and I buzzed in saying, “hey, I’ve been waiting fifteen minutes,” and the guy added a single pack of salt to the order. Cute. I’m clearly in the wrong for being salty. Especially when, immediately after I reminded them to do their jobs, they somehow magically were able to get my order instantaneously. Almost like…they had my order made ten minutes ago, completely forgot about me somehow, and were just sitting around doing literally nothing.

Finally lost my patience this time after they finally got my order and am officially boycotting Sonic for the rest of my life. And you should, too! Have higher standards, people! Chic-fil-a has chicken bites that don’t cost $48, and you get it the second you drive up to the window.

Respect yourself and your time - don’t waste those precious minutes on...

Missed the mark today. Had to split my order because the app can't customize my meal, but I can't get 1/2 price drinks without ordering via the app, and I pay with gpay.

This alone is not the restaurants fault but the brand, and I'm used to it. What happened following was more problematic.

In-stall order comes out first, 2 burgers and 2 random ice cream drinks I didn't order. Let the carhop know, they take back the drinks. Out comes the carhop with remaining food, but missing drinks I actually ordered, goes back in, comes out with those drinks. No receipt, they had the card for my in-stall order and carhop couldn't answer if they used it for both or just the in-stall order since the online order should have been prepaid. Then I see the order is missing from the app, that suggests they used the physical card, but somehow no receipt. While waiting some random order kept popping up on the stall display... Some stuff be going crazy.

Add to all this, the customized burgers were not made correctly. Because of this random order on the screen, I couldn't see what they entered, no receipt means no idea if they placed the order wrong or made it wrong.

Lastly I try to call the restaurant to report the issue and calls go to corporate, I'm not driving all the way back to have a conversation or holding 15 minutes for customer service voice to do nothing but send them a message.

Here's a suggestion sonic, let us reach the restaurant or make sure your customer service hold time is less than a call to my credit...

I gave one star, but wish I could give zero. I went to order only two basic shakes, paid for them, and waited for my food to be brought per usual at a sonic drive in. I waited for 20 minutes before someone came out and told me that they ran out of ice cream and a coworker was going to get more. I’m a decently patient person... But why couldn’t I have been made aware that they were out before paying? I waited an additional 20 minutes before they came out and told me that they don’t have the flavor I requested, banana. I politely asked for a refund on the banana shake then waited for my vanilla one to be brought. The employee went back inside and yelled to her coworker how I requested a refund. When I got home with the vanilla shake, it hadn’t even been blended... it was literal ice cream straight from their machine with whip slapped on top to make the cup appear as if it was fine and filled to the line... not even close... Terrible experience, terrible customer service, and inability to properly “hand spin” a shake, per what they advertise. Heavily displeased with my experience. I’ll be spending the extra minutes to drive to a further...