Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in Winder

I normally don’t write bad reviews but I felt I needed to right now. I just went to this location with the intention of buying my food with a gift card I just got for Christmas. I go to this sonic all the time and I enjoy the food, but I wasn’t able to today. Nowhere is it advertised that this location is not accepting gift cards, so when I placed my order and tried to use it at the machine you park at, it didn’t work so I figured the person bringing my food would help out. All this girl said, with attitude might I add, was “we don’t accept gift cards” and when I told her it was my only form of payment she said, again with attitude, “I don’t know what to tell you” so she then took my gift card after I told her multiple times it is my only form of payment and tried it inside and when she came back my food, which she originally had when she first came out, was no longer with her and my card was given back to me. So then I tried to use it on the app and it also didn’t work. Like I said before, not being able to use gift cards is not advertised anywhere at this location or on the app, yet all I was told was “i don’t know what to tell you” and that I can’t have my food instead of having decent customer service, like they advertise they use. My intention was not to try and swindle them into free food, but when my only form of payment isn’t working and it’s not my fault, I should still be able to receive my dinner. I believe the name of the girl was Val or something like that. I get she doesn’t make the rules but the least you could do is make the customer less upset and give me my food. Because it isn’t an issue with the food, I’ll still be returning to this location, especially since I don’t deal with the workers for more than 30 seconds, but since this isn’t the first time I’ve had an issue with the customer service here, or shall I say lack there of, I felt I genuinely needed to write this review. If there could be 0 stars I’d do...

We have always had issues with this location giving us cold/greasy food but we still come back because it’s conveniently located near our house and we enjoy the drink selection. Today we had an experience that had made us decide to never return to this location. The food was okay, warm and what we ordered. But we got 2 large blue powerades and one of them was significantly lighter than the other. We noticed this when we got home (we live around the corner) and my husband tasted it and said it tasted like water. My husband took the drink with the receipt back up to sonic to ask for a replacement that wasn’t watered down and his experience was completely ridiculous. He parked in a spot and pressed the button and let them know he had just been there and his drink wasn’t right and he needed a replacement. He waited 10 minutes and nobody came out so he got out of the car and stopped a carhop girl and told her the same thing and showed her the drink and she replied that it was a blue Powerade and he told her she could try it if she wanted but it’s not blue Powerade. She then literally just walked away from my husband and he stood there and watched her bring food out to 4 other cars until he finally assumed he must have been brushed off as unimportant and he left the drink on the sidewalk and came home. My husband feels this was related to his race and that if I went to get the replacement (I am white. He’s black) that I would have had no issue. I hate to think this is accurate but I have never heard of any restaurant not being willing to fix a drink that is incorrect. And the way this girl walked away from him and said nothing and then helped multiple other people while glancing over at him periodically was ridiculous. We will never spend money at this location again. The disrespect my husband encountered over a simple drink replacement was something unforgivable and no one in our family will go here again...

I have been here a few times in the last couple weeks. I showed up at the drive thru for just a drink last week and was told it was going to be a few minutes. I was fine with that even though there was only one car in the parked area to order. I waited for about five minutes before they came back to take my order. The woman on that day was very nice. Fast forward to today when I show up again just for a drink and was immediately told it would be at least a five minute wait. There was only one vehicle at the window when I arrived. I waited eight minutes and nobody ever came back on the speaker. I leave and run an errand and come back about fifteen minutes later and try again. There were two vehicles parked waiting for their order. This time I'm told it would be a few minutes. I wait for another five minutes and they still haven't come back on the speaker. I said hello and the woman comes back and says it will be a few minutes again. I advise her this was my second time there this morning and still having to wait a long time for someone to take my order (they weren't busy with a lot of people either time). She informs that she is the only one working. At this point I feel bad that she's doing all she can by herself and I was snippy with her. A total of nine minutes goes by this time before she comes on the speaker to take my order. When I get to the window I apologize for getting snippy with her and I appreciate all she's doing and especially by herself. Her response was "Yeah usually I just tell people to go somewhere else". What?!?! I think it's a shame for people to act that way when someone was trying to be understanding and even apologized. Very bad...