Complaint: Burger King Pick ʼn Pay Hyper, Brackenfell

Good morning

I trust that you are well.

I am sending this email to express my utter dismay regarding my recent visit to Burger King Brackenfell Hyper the afternoon of Tuesday,16 December.

The manager at the time, who wrote down her name as Thobeka, is aware that I am lodging this complaint and was not at all concerned about it.

My parents are visiting from Parys. I thought it well to spoil them with a quick meal at Burger King. The nearest branch was the one at Pick ʼn Pay Hyper. Brackenfell.

Firstly, we were met with a queue , which is understandable, taken into account that it is the festive season. For exactly the same the same reason, I was astounded upon discovering that only one cashier was open. After not moving an inch for very long, I requested to see the management to determine the cause for the problem.

A young, unfriendly woman made her way, eventually, to the front, very nonchalant, first finishing whatever she was busy with.

She abruptly told me that only one cash register was operational and that Burger King was aware of it and that they have no control over the situation.

After a long time we placed our order. Then we waited... I counted 9 staff members in the kitchen of which two were on their cell phones at the back of the kitchen.

Again, I asked why so many clients were waiting for so long. I was ignored.

In the meanwhile, a furious woman stormed into the restaurant, and wanted to know why she was waiting and waiting at the Drive Through without anyone assisting her. I suppose the telephonic messages that the two staff members were busy with (right at the back of the kitchen), were matters of life and death, preventing them to tend to the Drive Through.

Eventually, we received our food. Despite saying we were dining in, we received our food in takeaway packaging.

There was an extra portion of chips in the bag. We then tasted that there was no salt on the food. I asked for salt. I was given a quarter-full chips sleeve of salt. I then discovered there were no condiments included. Again, I asked for condiments. I was told there was no ketchup and was handed a squeezy bottle with tomato sauce. I then saw there was no mayonnaise. Again, I asked for mayonnaise. Again I was told they ran out of mayonnaise.

We were poured horrible mayo in a colddrink cup.

Another customer, waiting in front, who had 5 takeaway colddrinks, asked for a punnet to carry the colddrinks. They were out of stock, they he was told. Nobody even offered to help him carry the 5 colddrinks.

Customers waiting in front started getting impatient and asked for assistance and for their orders to be sped up.

By that time, I told the manager that it was totally unacceptable that there was no stock and, again I was told that it was not their fault that they were waiting on deliveries.

Then, my parents started eating their hamburgers. The meat was hard and obviously overdone. I suppose that the staff were careful with the tomato sauce's stock because there was a mere teas****ful on each burger, but I had no energy to deal with the unfriendly staff once more.

My appetite was also lost and I wanted to leave the restaurant as soon as possible and thought I'd eat my burger at home.

It is important to mention that I get an allergic reaction when eating pickles and, like always, requested no pickles or onions on my burger.

I double-checked the receipt and saw it was noted that no pickles or onions should be on the one burger.

I also made sure that there were no pickles or onions on the burger. I saw that there were luckily crosses drawn across the onion and pickle pictures on the burger's wrapper. How wrong was I to assume that the indication on the wrapper does not necessarily mean that those ingredients were not on the ordered food. At home, I discovered pickles and onions on my burger, which I was unable to consume, due to my allergy.

Lastly, I wish to also mention the state of the restaurant's cleanliness. The floor at the soda fountain was dirty, sticky and colddrink spots were also all over the floor. Tables had not been swept for long.

I would like Burger King to take note of this terrible experience and wish to get feedback from at least an area manager who, presumably, should be held accountable for all stores he serves.

I also decided to post this complaint on HeloPeter, since I filed a complaint last December about the ice cream machine at the Brackenfell Haazendal was not in a working condition for THREE months, and received no feedback whatsoever.

I hope that the after-sales service from managerial positions will be slightly more satisfactory than those at the restaurant.

Yours faithfully Dr Y. Pretorius