In general, I love Taco Bell. It is one of my favorite fast food restaurants to eat at. But tonight, this particular location just really irked my nerves! Here`s what happened and why I will specifically go out my way to go to another location or better yet, just an outright different restaurant to eat at from now on.
LOCATION: 6711 Airline Dr, Metairie, LAÂ 70003-5115
PHONE: (504) 733-0780
On this particular evening we decided to dine in. Parked the car, entered the restaurant, yada yada yada. I had to use the restroom so I told the boyfriend what I wanted so he could place my order in for me. Gosh, If I could have waited til we were finished, I would have! The bathroom experience just started my frustration with them for the evening!
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Stall #1 displaying how it makes it difficult to get in & out the stall. As it appears to be simple, the placement of how the door opens along with the toilet placement actually makes it a rather tight and uncomfortable squeeze. |
I entered in the restroom, ok not so bad. There`s 2 stalls to choose from. Stall #1 (normal size stall) and Stall #2 (handicapped stall) as we shall call them. I go to stall #1 first. There is urine all over the seat and the toilet paper hanging out of the little paper holder thing. Okay, skip that, let me check out stall #2. This one had the same issue but much worse. Eww! So I went ahead to stall #1 and dealt the best that I could. Well not only was the mess disgusting considering I thought these places had staff to check these every hour or so to ensure they were at least decent, but I had to squeeze to fit into the stall! For those who know me personally know I am a small petite woman. For those who don`t know me, I am 4`11 and roughly 96-98 LBs to give you a general idea on my size. So a bit smaller than the average American. See the problem is, the stall door opened into the bathroom stall, which in itself was extremely small. In fact, I was quite disturbed with how small it was, I took a picture with my phone to show to everyone. Because if I have trouble getting in and out of the stall being as small as I am, I can only imaging the average American trying to get in and out, and that`s not to come off as rude, but as a fact. The handicapped stall was bigger, but not by much, as in a wheelchair wouldn`t have fit through the door for anyone who sits in one.
So of course after dealing with a not so pleasant experience with the restroom I head out to hopefully enjoy my dinner. Wrong again. As we`re waiting for our order to be ready, they handed us the cups that come with the meals so we could get our drinks. Got the drinks filled, went for the lids and oh there were none that fit the large size cups, which is what came with our order. Okay, maybe they just ran out and didn`t notice? Went to the counter, waited about 10 minutes before anyone even came up to acknowledge that we were there. Mind you, this was not a busy time. Only a few other people were there, maybe one other waiting for an order, with a kitchen full of staff, so not short handed either. Asked for a lid for the cups. Oh, they were conveniently out, yet couldn`t make mention of that when making an order. No apology, nothing. Just an "Oh we don`t have any." Couldn`t you have said something during my order? Or even apologize and offer me a smaller cup with fitting lids and a partial refund for the drink difference? Something?? Okay, it may not be THAT serious, but their whole attitude of things is just horrible. I`m sure you`re getting what I mean. And all this is before I was getting a nasty attitude look.
So we`re sitting at a table waiting for our order. After about 20-30 minutes of waiting in a NON BUSY restaurant, we FINALLY get it. Sit down and notice they messed up our order. Now this is the second time within the past 2 weeks we ate at this particular location. The last time the waiting was just as horrible and they kept messing up EVERYBODY`S order. Literally, every person who was in there during our dining time had some sort of mess up. Well at least last time it was just a one time mix up with our order and someone else`s who was waiting in there at the time. Hey, stuff like that happens. But both times, the female woman handling the situation had a nasty attitude like some how it was the customers fault and not theirs.
Anyhow, this time we had to go up THREE different times for our order. When we first noticed the order was messed up, this is when we noticed we weren`t even given a receipt for the order. This was paid for with a debit/credit card so of course we want our receipt. Had to wait a nice 5-10 minutes before they would give that to us after asking for it. The food was half cold and falling out the wrapping. They didn`t put everything in the normal soft taco, as in they didn`t put in the lettuce, etc. It just had meat and cheese. Then they messed up the boyfriends taco how he had requested it. And then we noticed they had even left off one of the extra tacos that come with the meals. I had actually gotten one of the $5 box meals... well I guess they ran out of boxes because it wasn`t even placed in a box. The boyfriend had a Mexican Pizza with his order and I guess they ran out of those covers too because there was no top cover to it. Really?!?
If I had to guess why orders are always getting messed up there, it`s probably because they erase the orders off the monitors to tell you what the customer ordered quickly and before the meal is prepared and finished to make them look better. I never worked in fast food, always retail, but from what I`ve been told by others who work in the fast food field is that they are supposed to keep the orders up on the monitor until the order is complete and given to the customer then clear it off. How exactly true that is or it how it works, I couldn`t tell you. But if that is the case, that explains it.Â
So let`s sum this up: Extremely small bathroom stalls geared towards walking skeletons, No lids for drinks, No boxes for meals, No covers for Mexican Pizza, Extremely Slow service with small amount of customers and a kitchen full of workers and bad attitudes. Second experience in 2 weeks. I guess you could say I just had it! I haven`t been so frustrated with a dinning experience or any customer service experience in quite some time and I sure wasn`t expecting this from Taco Bell. I mean the workers could care less about customer service or friendliness, but I guess that`s to be expected these days. No one seems to value customer service. Nobody was ranting and raving at the workers. There`s no reason for this to happen ALL the time. Everyone makes mistakes, no business is perfect, but when this is how the business is turning out... it`s time to say something. So if you`re wanting Taco Bell and you`re around the New Orleans/Metairie area, skip out on this location or you`ll be left highly disappointed!
Oh yea, I forgot to mention. The store manager was also there. Said nothing. Did nothing. So obviously she wasn`t too much help on that part before anyone asks why not speak to the store manager. So as I said, definitely don`t go to this location if you`re in town!
**This was not a paid review. All expenses were out of pocket.