“Neal”
Today was National Avocado Day and some of the various Mexican-style restaurants were offering free guac. We decided to get Chipotle. Placed an order for pick up at 6:30 and got there about 6:25. The store was absolutely packed beyond its seating occupancy. Massive line of people queued up for that big $2.49 discount and a small crowd waiting for pick-up orders. I joined the small crowd and waited patiently.
About 10 minutes in, this big, tall college-age looking fellow came in. He looked a lot like a larger version of Rocco from Mega 64. He proceeded to stand directly in front of the pick-up shelf, blocking the view when they’d place new orders. This guy spent most of the time talking to himself at a volume where you could tell he wanted a reaction, but nobody cared. Finally, after another 10 minutes, one of the staff gave a bag directly to someone waiting and said his name in a muffled voice. This guy rushed over there and tried to grab the bag out of the other guy’s hand, saying “I’M NEAL! I’M HIM- THAT’S ME!!” Both the employee and the other guy looked at each other before the other guy said “uh…my name is Steve.” “OH YOU’RE STEVE?? ARE YOU SURE THAT’S WHAT IT SAYS ON THERE” as he tried to go for the bag again, but Steve skillfully dodged the big man’s attack and pulled back. “Yes, it’s for me,” he said, and walked out. Neal then began complaining out loud before announcing “YOU LOST. YOU JUST LOST!!” and stormed out.
With that entertainment out of the way, I stuck around for another few minutes before asking someone what was going on. By this time, I could have gotten an order from standing in the large line, which was now much shorter. “Uh…like I told this other guy right here, we never got your order. It’s not in our system. We can’t do anything. You can go back online and use the ‘Ask Pepper’ thing on the app to get a refund.” So I walked out, then sat in the car for another 15-20 minutes trying to get through to an actual person to speak with, who at first just told me “OK, I’ve refunded your money” and nothing else. Explained that nearly an hour had gone by now and I had no food for me and my family and was hungry and agitated. This got me a free burrito.
Tweeted at Chipotle and immediately got a reply that asked me to go online to “make a statement.” WITH PEPPER.