Taco Bell — Restaurant in Vero Beach

Due to a storm, Vero schools were closed earlier this week, so I wasn't surprised when my daughter called me at work at 11-ish and asked if I'd bring home lunch for her and my son. Taco Bell was their choice. I thought "Sounds good, I'll pick it up and we'll have lunch together". I went through the drive-thru and ordered five items. When I got to the window I asked the girl for mild sauce, at which point she took a couple of steps into the restaurant and said "mild sauce" to someone - or anyone, maybe - so I know she heard me. I left the window and pulled around to the front of the store facing Rt. 60, stopped and looked, no mild sauce. Annoyed. So I pulled up in front and ran in thinking I'd just scoop some up from the bins, but the place was packed, and the bins where they keep the sauces and other things were all 100% empty. So I guess now you have to go to the window and ask for mild sauce, which might be easy if the place isn't packed. I couldn't get the attention of the lady behind the counter for a minute or two, during which time I was becoming more annoyed, but then I got her attention and she gave me a handful.

Drove home (10 mins), my son's Chalupas were missing. Now I'm really annoyed. So I gave him my tacos. I tried calling the restaurant, it rang about 10 times and then I got a busy signal. I looked on the bag for the receipt thinking it would be stapled or taped there, but no. Went out to see if it had fallen off in the car, but not there either, so I wasn't given a receipt.

They'll take my word for it I thought, surely the register will show it, it was less than 30 minutes ago. Back to the restaurant. No hope of sharing lunch with my kids, and I needed to get back to work. But I wanted my money back, the whole $28.01. It wasn't just the frustration, it was the lost opportunity to hang with my kids. It was the wasted time driving back to the restaurant. It was me being an annoyed customer and expecting that they would want to make a fairly painless overture to smooth my ruffled feathers.

Spoke with the shift manager, she offered me a free combo. No I said, I want my money back. Can't do it she said, that would have to come from the store manager, she'll be in tomorrow, can you come back then? I thought, you have inconvenienced me, ruined my lunch with my kids, and wasted my time as I have to drive back over here if I want anything done about it, because I can't call, because you don't answer the phone! And now you want to waste more of my time? Another 30 minutes to drive there and deal with it tomorrow? It's 5.7 miles from my house to there, so round trip is 11, two round trips is 22. At 57.5¢/mile (IRS value for actual cost to drive a vehicle - probably less than the real cost), that's $12.65 just in vehicle expense, on top of the $28.01 that I might get back if I make my case to the store manager.

I said "let me give you my number, please have her call me". That was a couple of days ago. She hasn't called.

I'm a business owner. Believe me we make mistakes. We try to minimize them, but humans are human, we screw up. So that's not the issue here. I don't have a problem with people making mistakes. The issue is, when you screw up, make it right. Not just "Sorry!", but actually make it right as best you can, even if there's some expense involved. The pain of absorbing the cost to make it right helps you internalize the lesson. The last thing I'd ask an aggrieved customer to do is to jump through a bunch of hoops in order for me to make it right. And argue about it with them. We spent $28, what's the profit on that? If we do that once every month or two, then they make up the $28 pretty quick. If they alienate me to the point that I spend 30 minutes writing a negative Google review, and I never go back, what's the cost then? So...

I have gave this place multiple attempts before leaving this review but I have to say it, this is the absolute worst Taco Bell I’ve ever been to and has the worst service of any fast food restaurant I’ve ever been to. Ive worked in restaurants in every position from dishwasher to general manager and generally mistakes and the occasional one off night are normal but this location is having the worst night every night.

They don’t get our order right no matter how many times it’s confirmed with them and says exactly what we ordered on the screen and when we inevitably have to come back through, they treat us like garbage and act like we’re lying. For example tonight we came through and they forgot 3 of our tacos so we go back through and the man in the drive through takes the bag from us, rummages through it with his dirty bare hands as if he still thinks we’re lying, then throws together 3 COLD tacos that look like they were made by a mental patient. Upon getting our bag back half of our tacos were sitting open and tossed around in the bag. We also borderline beg for enough sauce each time and he will hand us 3-4 packets for 10 tacos then when asked for more will give us 1-2 more with more attitude than should be humanly possible.

One positive thing I can say about this location is that a lot of our negative experiences have been directly related to the man working the drive through, which each time has been the same, heavy set white man who obviously hates himself and everyone around him and while this location clearly has very deep rooted issues we believe that getting rid of him should be the first order of business in turning things around, until then we won’t...

Hadn't eaten at this Taco Bell in a while so I decided to try it. It was prime time lunch time so the parking lot was full. The inside was nice in appearance and my order was taken promptly. The girl at the front gave me my drink so I could prepare to wait. It honestly wasn't that busy. There were a lot of people there but most of them were already eating. I think there were maybe 3 orders ahead of mine with people waiting. I decided to sit and watch while I waited. The girl at the front counter was a diligent worker. She took orders and when she had a moment, she grabbed a rag and cleaned off tables. The staff in the back looked a little lean. They weren't standing around though, they were also moving swiftly. I think they just needed another person. I waited over 15 minutes for my 3 taco supremes. This is why I gave 4 stars instead of 5. It's supposed to be "fast" food which may be a relative term but I don't believe this experience was. Tasty? Yes it was. I was actually contemplating eating another taco after scarfing down the first 3 in about 9 seconds due to extreme hunger from being on standby for so long but I couldn't bear the thought of waiting another 15 minutes. For me the experience was ok because I could spare the extra time but I saw some workers constantly checking the time while they were waiting (possibly concerned about getting back to work or maybe just keeping in touch with their Twitter posse). I'm chalking up the slow experience due to prime time lunch. Next time I'll choose a less intensive time and possibly adjust my...