My trips to Carl's Jr. always seem a little odd. I had one last month. Read about it by clicking here.
Tonight I visited the same Carl's Jr. where the strange stuff always happens. The most frequent issue is their inability to process gift cards. I got a gift card from co-worker Leslie for Christmas and still had about $5 on it and payday is a few days away. It made sense to use it.
I pulled into the strip mall parking lot at Broadway and Pantano and almost got run over by a giant pickup truck. Uh oh. The weirdness had begun. I parked the Ken Carr car and went inside.
There were about a half dozen employees behind the counter doing various tasks and all of them started yelling (and when I say yelling I am not exaggerating) "Welcome to Carl's Jr.!!!" I appreciate the attempt to be different but a whole crew of people yelling at you when you walk in the door is extremely creepy.
I ordered a Big Carl combo because I knew it was just under $5 and would fit on the gift card. Last time I tried to order at that Carl's Jr. the promotional gift card wouldn't work. The regular gift card wouldn't work. The cash register just sat there saying "processing".
Tonight I handed over the gift card and the guy behind the counter ran it. A completely not shocking development: It said "processing" on the cash register and sat there. And sat there. And sat there. I'm now convinced that Carl's Jr. uses technology that's a little slower than the process used to get customers through at the DMV. And as effective.
After more than a five minute wait with the register saying "processing" they waved me on. I think they had to because they would have had to make my food over it was sitting so long waiting for the cash register. I didn't have to pay for it but that's not the point. They didn't have their computer equipment fixed since my previous visit a month ago!
The biggest irony of the trip? The tray liner under my food advertising the wonders of a Carl's Jr. gift card. I took a photo and put it up on Twitpic/Twitter. View it by clicking here.
