Sonic Drive-In — Restaurant in Zebulon

Worst experience EVER!!! Ordered via the Sonic App (for the first time), hubby was already out so he was going to pick it up. NOPE!! Apparently, if you order through the Sonic App you have to 'Check In', so they know you are there. I was not aware of this. When I discovered it, I attempted to call over a dozen times before anyone answered the phone. Yes it was lunch time; I mean it was like 12:20 pm, on a Saturday!! Hubby pressed the magic red button and told them what was going on... Instead of listening, the attendant continuously informed him he would need to check in. Eventually, they understood what was being said, then the attendant stated she had found the order and turned off the speaker!! I was able to speak with the manager, Crystal. I wasn't happy about the situation and she didn't seem too happy either. She told me, I needed to call back after lunch, they couldn't find the order (mind you, this was after the attendant told hubby she had found it & it was now in the history on the app account). That they were doing the best they could in the middle of a pandemic. But they could not find my order and I would need to call back later. Mind you now, I had already paid for my order, $20.97! Then not-so-friendly Crystal proceeded to hang up on me! Second call that was actually answered, they still were not listening, I had to say my name at least 10 times! Still unable to find the order.... And not-so-friendly Crystal doubled down and hung up on me again!!! By this time I was boiling! Third call that was actually answered, they found the order at 12:47... But hubby had already left. I asked for a refund. Not-so-friendly Crystal states that it will be refunded in 2-3 business days, tells me to have a wonderful day, and in her true fashion, HANGS UP ON ME FOR THE THIRD TIME!! While I was attempting to ask for a confirmation #! So, this all started on May 16, 2020, I called Sonic back on the following Thursday, 4 business days post refund since, there had been NO REFUND! Left my name & #, no call back. Called again today. They keep giving me the run-around. Called Sonic Corp, the rep was SUPER FRIENDLY and now its going to be 7-10 more business days until I get the refund.... SMH.... People work hard for their money, at least the ones I know do. What if that was all the money I had... it would have been Roman Noodles for us all week!! *ONLY giving 1 star because I had already typed all this & I wasn't about to not post it! Needless to say we will definitely not be going back to that Sonic! Hopefully, not-so-friendly Crystal had a wonderful...

Yuck. Sonic used to have a weird sweet taste and I didn’t come here for a while because I wasn’t about to wait more than 5 minutes for someone to take my order when I was one of 3 customers there, and then I tried again today and they promptly took my order, but the burger tastes like grilled dog food that was then frozen and then microwaved right after I ordered it. I will not say that it was beef either. I taste 40% lab created beef substitute and 60% jellyfish filler and 110% disgusting. I really expect nothing less than garbage like this that has no nutritional value or taste from the fast food poison and carcinogen dealers that used to be restaurants that sold cheap but real food without more filler than meat or artificial ingredients. These places don’t sell real food so they aren’t restaurants. Stay away from places like this if you don’t want to die before your chain smoking uncle that has stage 4 cancer. EDIT IN RESPONSE TO THE REPLY FROM THE BUSINESS

Sonic has replied just as expected. They gave me a link to contact the franchisee instead of taking responsibility for the changes they made to the quality of the food they ship to the franchises. They want me to call them for some reason, I guess so I get frustrated from dealing with some call center employee that can't do anything and wouldn't if they could. If they want me to advise them on how to prevent future negative reviews, they need to pay me. It’s not my job to tell them that bad food and bad service equals negative reviews. If they can't figure that out, maybe it’s time to throw in the towel and quit before they fail and are remembered as the restaurant that was so worried about saving a few cents that they stopped selling food approved for human consumption.

This tells me one of two things.

They think I am stupid enough to contact the guy that just sells what they say he has to sell about the garbage they make him sell.

They themselves are stupid and don't know what to do when they get called out in a review instead of the location that the review is...

I am a Sonic fan and enjoyed eating at Sonic before we moved near this one. I have given this Sonic several tries and almost everytime has been well below par with the rare exception of normal service.

I have waited 30 minutes to get 2 drink and 2 blasts. I placed the order on the app and checked in. After 20 minutes of sitting I hit the button and the guy who answered told me "you gon have ta wait". I let it slide and said maybe they were short handed.

I gave Sonic another shot and after a few weeks placed another order on the app. When I arrived I checked in. After waiting 20 minutes they brought my food out. I had some faith that my order was right but I was glad I checked. The only thing right about my order was the fries. I walked up to the window where I was met with some confusion and another 15 minutes of waiting to get my food.

I decided this Sonic was not for me. After several weeks of not stopping by sonic on my way home I decided to give them another shot.

No surprise, at least this time I didn't wait very long. I arrived and got my food fairly quickly. They read my order back to me and I thought "wow my order must be right". I got home and should of remembered my previous experiences. My wife was missing her food. Since I made it home I wasn't going to drive back for a hotdog.

I have eaten at plenty of Sonics and to date this is the only one that is consistently terrible.

On the upside the food I do get always taste fine and is warm. The strawberry limeade is also great. Sonic as a company normally pulls a 5 star review but this particular sonic is not one to model other stores after.

If you do go here go through drive thru, it seems to be a smoother process. Still not fast but in my few trips the drive thru is the only one that keeps me waiting less than 10 minutes and has given me the correct order...