I really think sometimes that they need to pay more attention to how fast food restaurants are run. I was at a Harvey's a few months back, late at night, around 8pm. For those unfamiliar with how they operate, it's similar to a Subway, they prepare your hamburger in front of you, so the condiments are all sitting in bowls behind a plastic screen. Anyways, since it was late at night the girl had to go into the back to grill the hamburgers. The other person working at the time was dealing with drive-thru traffic.
As we stood there waiting for the hamburgers to be cooked (the server was still in the kitchen), we noticed that there were fruit flies and one great big black fly crawling all over the condiments which were exposed to the surrounding environment. Now, fruit flies generally don't transmit diseases, so it wasn't a big concern to us - except it was gross and disgusting to see. After the girl came back with the hamburgers and buns, we pointed out to her that the condiments were covered with flies, in the order of 20-30 I imagine. The conversation went like this:
US: Are you aware that there are masses of flies crawling over the tomatoes and pickles?
HER: Our management doesn't allow us to spray the area.
US: You might want to throw away the top pieces in each bowl then.
HER: We can't, they don't let us throw food out.
US: Fine, no pickles or tomatoes please.
Since it was late, and I had a midterm next day that I needed to study for, we just paid, ate and left. I emailed Harvey's customer service the next day, and remarkably the manager at the location called the next day. After playing telephone tag for a while, we got in contact and he said that he had gone to have a look at the problem and saw it himself; then said he had called in a pest control specialist and they would review the health protocols for the restaurant.
I was impressed by the quick response time, but I feel that they should probably train their staff to show a bit more initiative in dealing with problems, instead of just shunning customers. Sometimes I think that perhaps due to the volume of traffic that goes through their restuarants in one day, they believe that since it's only an average of perhaps $10-15 been spent,you're not worth that much to them if you don't come back. Needless to say I haven't gone back there since, and don't plan to.
I'm appalled to hear about what happened to your daughter, you did the right thing confronting the manager, and he should be disciplined for how he behaved.
) to some piece of crap plastic is devastating. Just shows you that danger lurks anywhere at anytime. Glad she's okay. Don't let up until that >EXPLETIVE DELETED< is closed down!
