drainedOn the way home from work tonight I went through the Wendy's drive-thru, ordered some food for Jess and got myself the good old number nine, chicken nuggets. Once I get home I sit down, chat with Jess for a moment and unload the food, I opened my nugget box to a wee bit of a surprise....
Notice that odd little protrusion sticking out of the top of the nugget? Have another look...
It's hard to tell, seeing as these pics were taken with a camera phone, but what you are looking at is a DAMN CHICKEN FEATHER!!!!! It was actually stuck in the nugget and had gone through a fryer (the feather was all greasy and a bit hardened).
Yeah, I'm officially one of those people who find a little piece of inedible chicken in their nuggets. And ya know what? That isn't even the crazy part of this little story. So after doing some inspecting and letting Jess have a look we came to the conclusion I need to call up Wendy's and get a refund for my combo, which you would think is pretty reasonable. The phone call with the manager on duty went something like this....
Me: Hello, am I speaking with a manager?
Her: Ugh, yes....
Me: *Lays out the story above*
Her: Ummm, you found a what?
Me: Yeah, it's crazy I know, but I promise you I'm not pranking you or anything, I really found a feather sticking out of my chicken nugget.
Her: I don't see how that's possible.
Me: Well I'm looking at it right now, and it's not like there was a feather laying on top of it or anything (thinking of the 4 'tiels we have at this point), the feather is still in the nugget, just still sticking out.
Her: Can you bring it out here for me to see?
Me: Yeah no problem, but I will be wanting something to make up for this, it's not really acceptable to have this in my food.
(At this point there is several seconds of silence, and I'm wondering if she thinks I am just pranking her and hung up on me)
Her: Yeah I don't really see how there could be a feather in there, I mean it's not like anyone here is wearing feathers.
(Yes, she really said that.)
Me: Ummm, I'm not saying this came from an employee, I'm saying that something went wrong in the chicken being processed and the feather was left still IN the chicken.
Her: (Sounded very annoyed by me at this point) Well I can replace your order or get you a sandwich or something.
Me: Yeah well my appetite has kind of been killed by finding this, I'm only really interested in a full refund.
Her: I just don't see how something like that could possibly happen.
Me: Look, is there a head manager I can speak with?
Her: No, I'm the only manager here right now, look if you want you can come out here, just bring the nugget and go through the drive-thru and I'll have a look at it and see what I can do, is that okay? (She really made the "okay" sound snotty as hell.)
Me: Yeah fine, I'll be out there shortly
At this point I'm just pissed, I mean I see her being skeptical, it's not like shit like this happens every day and lord knows I've never actually met someone who's found something like this in their food, but still! How does she not at least say she's sorry. No worries though right? Once she actually see's this she will realize I'm not messing with her and give me a refund and say she's sorry. So, I get out there, which I should mention is on the other fucking end of town and speak with her, I won't break it down like I did above, however here is the long and short of what happened. I didn't go in the drive-thru because I know the only reason she wanted me to do that was to avoid customers seeing, well fuck that. First this girl couldn't have been more than 19, which is waaay to young IMO to be a manager, but that's neither here nor there. So you would think she would inspect the nugget and realize that I'm not fucking with her and this is very real. I expected to hear, "I'm so sorry about this sir! Here is your refund", right? Nope. I got this instead, "Well I can't give you a refund, it's against store policy, but I can replace your meal". Okay, now I'm getting really mad at this bitch. "Look I'm not too interested in eating here right now, or really ever again, all I want is my whopping $4.59 back and I'll leave." After some more back and forth and her insisting it's not possible to have a refund she calls her manager, who doesn't answer his phone, of course. She tells me I can come back tomorrow and speak to him if I want, and I tell her that I guess I have no choice. At this point she starts explaining to me how it's not their fault, seeing as they aren't the ones that actually make the nuggets. I tell her yes, I understand you don't slaughter chickens in your back room, but at some point an employee should have noticed this and thrown it away, it never should have made it to my plate. She gives me some bullshit excuse about how when they get so busy they can't be expected to notice these things. Fucking hell! She actually said the words "It's not our fault."
I mean I can't believe someone would be so argumentative and rude to a paying customer with such an obviously legit complaint. So the offending nugget is still in my possession, and tomorrow before work I'm going in to speak with the general manager. Honestly I don't even give a shit about the nugget anymore, fuck it. What I want now is to hear someone say "I'm sorry." and to get a refund. Had she simply apologized for that happening and given me my refund all would be well and I would have a new weird ass story to tell, now they have one pissed off customer on their hands.
Just so you know, he used to work as a manager in fast food, so he's not at all attempting to be the atypical entitlement customer. He just knows bad service when he sees it. He would have gotten fired in 2 seconds flat if he had done something like that at his old job.