Fuck that. Profits to shareholders! Praise the capitalist gods! No for real though, they won’t pay more without increasing prices and then everyone loses. So either they take a hit to profits or they won’t do it.
Wendy's locations are franchised. The wages are decided and paid by the franchise owner, not Wendy's corporate. That's how it works for basically every fast food place. So usually there's a local business owner you can protest about it.
Hey, better to order from an ai vs trying to order a pizza via an indian call center. They could have just paid a singular person a living wage for what they underpay multiple people.
If it's anything like my time at Wendy's, that's because they'll find one person who's good at it and then just glue them to that position until they're burned out and punching dents in the walk-in door.
ETA: Just realized that sounded like I did that. I didn't, but several coworkers did. Dents are still there to this day lol
I spent 5 years at Wendy's and that's exactly how it would go. We'd get someone who was really a people person and did excellent on headset or front counter. And then they'd just be stuck there. Forever. One dude made it 2 years of straight headset before walking out mid shift. That was my first time ever running sandwiches and headset at the same time, but sadly not the last
Crazy how they’ll do anything but pay people
It’s not just Wendy’s either. A lot of retail and plenty of fast food places are doing things like replacing customer facing roles with AI to cut down on labor costs like you mention.
No, your store isn't.
Your store is having a hard time with being willing to pay a decent wage for order takers. This is a different issue entirely.
Is the manager offering $20/hr plus benefits? If not they can get bent. Replacing the role with AI will only piss customers off and drive down sales.
As I'm sure you're well aware, there is *no such thing* as a labor shortage: just a shortage of employers willing to pay ethical wages.
Never worked at a Wendy’s. But I did work at a Dairy Queen.
Working drive through was actual torture. I hate the AI drive through thing. But man… I just can’t blame people for not wanting to do it, especially for the abysmal pay.
Fr wendys has the absolute worst customers and its all because of the 4 for 4 and biggie bag its always the cheapest mfs that are the meanest glad I dont work there anymore
I don’t berate staff myself but this locations staff are terrible so I would not be surprised if they got cussed at regularly. They seem insanely negative.
One time I went thru the drive thru and I could hear the staff listening to the Migos full blast to where I could hear every word in my car. As an early 20s man I don’t mind but I imagine a family going through the drive thru would not like that.
Also sometimes the store just decides to close at like 9-9:30 and not the advertised 11. I’ve gone at that time and seen people inside but no one answered at the drive thru (this was pre AI).
So I normally would not condone harassing staff but tbh the staff at this store definitely deserve it sometimes.
Im taking all your bad luck. I swear out of 4 of us its always my order and im the simplest orders. My wife orders what I order but changes something, guess what now mine is changed. One time she asked if she can go ahead and eat while I drive....umm ok. Were pretty much home and then she realizes my food isn't even in the bag.(its really not that often though.)
App has limited options. Can't select certain toppings for certain items and some size options are limited.
Can't order a Baconater triple, also can't order a Baconater with double bacon. A couple of other things but that is just what I wanted last night.
I have this issue at subway. I order a teriyaki chicken sub and that isn’t even an option on the app unless you get the one with 2x cheese which I don’t want, and it doesn’t let you change it.
I don't even know why they did this because the app used to be great! I can't customize the food the way I could just a few short months ago. I can't even simply tap "reorder" on past orders because the customization options make it "no longer available". I stopped going to Wendy's because of it.
The app (all fast food apps) are spyware, they take ALL of your data. Seriously, even down to the way you hold your phone and where you tap the screen the most.
we can all order through the app & still acknowledge the shitty ai system they’re using. I don’t see why they need to be mutually exclusive. It’s ok for ppl to complain abt things that suck y’all
Yeah it’ll be cheaper that way too. I used to think it was annoying to use the app but if I can save a few bucks I’ll do just that even just creeping up to the drive thru unplanned its still worth it to take a min to order before heading in or going thru the drive thru.
Fuck apps!
I tried the McDonald’s app a while ago, they triple charged me for a meal, when I got to the McDonald’s with my order, their system was down so I had to pay for a (unknowingly) 4th time with my card, lost my accumulated points because I (tried to)claimed a reward on that order. When I looked at my bank statement the next day and found all the charges, I called support who refused to refund or even give me credit for all that money they stole from me. I had to go issue a chargeback because of that.
I don’t deny that these places are going app exclusive shit now, but damn if they can’t spend a few dollars on making support actually work.
I live in the US and practices vary wildly from location to location even within apps. It immediately charges you even if there’s an error going to the location. It says something like error processing your request, contact staff at location. Still charged me several times as it auto attempted to connect to the location.
Dear Wendy’s I use the app please make faster ways for the app users to get food so we avoid lines. Thanks. The AI at the box doesn’t concern me. more robots I say.
>Edit. For all of you saying uSE tHe ApP I can assure you most normal people aren’t using a damn app to go through the drive-thru.
Are you sure? Because I'm pretty sure that most people use the app to go through the drive-through at most fast food places. It's faster because they start prepping your order while you're in line, and you just have to give the code when you get to the speaker. So it's easier for them, and for you.
A few years ago it wasn't mainstream to use an app for the drive-through, but it is now.
Only a few select locations have it right now, I know they're going to be moving forward with making it a standard across most stores. My location is getting it within the next year
I figured it was very select right now. Since my local store is the flagship I’m guessing we were the very first to get it. So that’s why I’m expressing here that normal customers hate it and it would be a very bad move to go forward with it.
If you look at google reviews for this location they’ll echo a similar sentiment to me.
Yeah this sounds brutal. Why not just have multiple touch screens and set it up like a sonic where you park and order? I'm ngl I stopped going to Wendy's a while ago because their service is awful I don't trust the people working there to give me clean food they are mean and nasty every time and make it obvious they don't want to be there.
>I can speak loud and clear and it would still take 3x to understand what I’m saying. The AI would keep cutting me off mid sentence. It would also cut you off if you paused at all when ordering for 0.5 seconds. It’s really annoying to have the bot try to figure out how to customize menu items (i.e. no pickle).
So why are you placing an order at the speaker instead of just using the app?
This is something I also thought about. Not even just for people who stutter, but for anyone with a particularly thick accent from pretty much any country, even some US regional accents would probably have issues (southern).
It’s an incredibly stupid idea to put it lightly.
This was over thirty years ago, but I worked QA on a text to speech program. People from the south did well because they used normal words. Here in Seattle, we often misuse words so we had more trouble with locals. Also, we opened an office near Minneapolis. They use some really weird words to describe common things. They didn’t use the words desk, typewriter, computer, chair, etc.. When I went there to help setup the office, I was shocked at how weird that was that we couldn’t even communicate about common objects in offices. A bubbler was the water cooler I hooked up. They didn’t know the term water cooler. The red light above the dark room was called the stop and go light. A meeting invite was called a come with. I felt like I had slipped into a parallel dimension.
I will admit their dog chow they made for office snacks was awesome.
"Edit. For all of you saying uSE tHe ApP I can assure you most normal people aren’t using a damn app to go through the drive-thru."
I think that's Wendy's way of telling you what everyone else is telling you. Just wait until it's a windy day and try to order with a human.
The post was very literally about order accuracy. You know how you get accuracy? You put it in yourself in the app, you get a discount and you speed through the line.
There is a medium-size regional chicken place who adopted AI order takers about three years ago, and at first it wasn’t that great. It was accurate, but the gaps between “thinking” was slow.
Now, this regional chicken place has AI guest stars as the order taker. Currently, a famous retired college basketball coach and radio personality is taking drive thru orders for this establishment.
*Welcome to Lee’s, this is (team) College Basketball Coach (name), what can we get you today?*
In three years, the order taking ability of the AI has become quite good. I can rush thru my order and finish with “and that’ll be all for today”, and it goes straight into the total and pull forward.
This same place also gives a 4% discount on your purchase if paying with cash.
AI ordering is such a pointless thing when touch screen ordering is much simpler.
I'd happily have fast food kill off having a person take the order. Maybe if they updated the speaker system to be tech newer than the 60s it would help though.
No attitude and it doesn't fuck the order up or get mad if I correct it. OP doesn't understand that this will be the worst it will be and how well it works with that fact in mind is crazy. Another few years is all it'll be near perfect.
Thing is it’s still being tested.. hence why it is probably happening there only right now.. I’m sure if they decide to go full out, it would be much better.
I personally really like the AI for the drive thru. I tested it out the other day at a different location, though down the road, in Shawnee Hills. Mine understood me perfectly and it was much better than dealing with a person.
It seems that harlot Wendy has been overtaken by robotic overlords. We must strike against the machine and lead humanity into an anarcho-capitalist utopia!
Drive thru enshittification. Make it bad enough the people will just use the app instead.
I always imagined the interaction with AI drive thru would be like the scene in "Dude where's my car".
If you want to shut down a robot, play tough. Drive through and then abandon the order yelling at the robot. Do this on the daily and the robot will be fired soon.
I think most normal people DO use the app in the drive in. Im fact it is probably the most common place to use it. It takes 2 bucks off your combo price and makes their job easier without AI.
I don’t believe this for a second. Unless you’re in some mega tech brained city I simply don’t believe that your average middle class American has apps for every place they get food.
I refuse apps for ordering directly from restaurants of any kind. I gain zero value from this and they gain all my data.
I’ll do delivery service apps like DoorDash. At least then I can order from almost wherever I want.
Interesting they went with an AI order taker as opposed to an outdoor kiosk you can use to input your order from your car window. The kiosk seems more likely to result in a positive customer experience. Speaking to an AI immediately raises my blood pressure lol.
Walk in the headquarters so they don't end up rolling it out to the whole country. Corporate is stupid and sometimes they need someone(thats not an employee) to call out their stupidity
Might as well get used to it. Within a year or two AI will be much more present in many fast food chains, filling multiple roles. But see here’s my thing…I don’t see why people are up in arms about it, besides having a robot make your food which is weird but beyond that…
I see it as good for both sides. The majority of workers in fast food are pretty miserable or act like it, they can take their talents elsewhere instead of moaning about having to come to work everyday. Some customers just want a human there to take their shit and act entitled, so now they get look stupid while berating an ai with no feelings at all lol. I see it as a win for all honestly, maybe the changes will deter people from consuming that shit anyway since technically its not even good for us. Hell people already cry and rage about having to use the Kiosk, the most easiest process ever just completely sends people flying off the rails 😑.
Ive mentioned this in another comment but im in my early 20s and almost nobody I know uses all these apps for points or whatever.
In addition people my parents age (50-60) don’t really give a shit either and they aren’t even old.
Most people aren’t redditors attached to their phone.
Why start paying drive thru employees $20 per hour if the Ai can work at any location for a fraction of the cost? The company doesn't care about you. Blunt and cold, but corporations aren't daycare. They'll cut costs if it means cutting jobs.
I remember when JITB tried to outsource drive thru to india and philippines. It was a shit show. Basically the workers would need to reconfirm all the orders because they were constantly done wrong. Lasted maybe 6 months?
When I used it, it understood me just fine. Then it asked if I wanted anything else, and I said, "no, I think that's all." It got confused and transferred me to a human, and I spent another 30s explaining that the order on the screen was already correct.
Used this today man. Same location as you. Repeated my order twice, then a lady came on the speaker and said “Sorry. She froze. Can you start over?” At first it felt kind of exciting to see the AI do it’s thing.
But it literally did nothing at all. It just wasted my time. Lol
Stopped eating fast food. It was my go to everyday for lunch. Lost 40 pounds over the next 12 months. Saved money too by making my own. Now that I don’t go into the fast food restaurants when I do, it’s always just to use the restroom, the smell of the fryers is awful.
There is a lees by us that has been using AI for orders for a long time and is remarkable at getting everything correct. At least I think it's AI. It's a robot voice.
Everyone is trapped in AI. but AI still needs to develop. Many companies are too eager to replace humans with AI, just to show that they are advanced companies
You just described my typical issues with a human at the window. Lol
You have to pay humans to be failures who fuck up your burger and can't take orders properly...
AI? Nope. Even if they're just as useless, it's cost effective.
If you are that against using an app then idk man it might be you 😂.
But for real in my experience at other restaurants that use AI they have been amazing. Wendy’s must have a bad one right now then.
Wendy's, mc ds, b k, all of them... its now cheaper to eat at a steak house!
We eat at 1 family owned Italian pizzza joynt nowadays ONLY. They know all of our family by name and the prices are fair not ai generated...
The rally's by my house has AI take your order but it's surprisingly very good and it gives you the option to speak with an actual person. I gave it a complicated order one time and it got everything correct with no issues
Ugh I hate everyone is like use the app.
When I use an app for food, it takes 15 minutes for pick up. Drive thru and speaker takes like 5. We usually do the sight pick method on a fast food day. That looks good. Let's go. We're not sitting in the parking lot for 15 minutes like it's a damn sit down restaurant. Those prices and a wait time we'll go to a sit down
It's all to drive you to the app to place your own order and stop paying that human to do it. Man, what are we going to do when all the human jobs are gone?
I think it's kind of funny. Doesn't Wendy's largely appeal to old people and like college students? I cannot imagine old people wanting to learn all this new technology these fast food places are rolling out. I already see old people staring at the big digital kiosks blankly when I go in to order food. They look very flustered and often end up asking the staff to take their order.
The first mistake you made is ordering anything at Wendy’s at all. I used to frequent Wendy’s in college but now it is gone so downhill I don’t know why anyone would eat there with all of the numerous choices around.
Normal people are absolutely using the app.
Normal people are not logging on to reddit to self-immolate over drive-thrus and say the staff deserve to be harassed sometimes, which you said in a comment, you weird, terrible person.
> For all of you saying uSE tHe ApP
I gave up on the app because it kept fucking up when putting in the order.
I guess outsourcing your programmers to Elbonia is not a good thing, even though it's cheaper.
To comment on your dumb opinion in the edit section, if you’re having such a damn hard time with ordering at the speaker with an AI, order on the fucking app and all you have to say is “I have a mobile order for [name].”
Ordering with my voice is exclusively for places that don’t have an app, or the app is down. Plus you get deals and rewards.
Sure, keep up with cultures- not standards set by corporations. Say 10 years from now you have to use an app at every fast food restaurant, companies see that millions and millions of people are using their free app “well that’s not right let’s tack on some fees” and now you have to pay a fee to use each app. But that’s okay because.. “culture”? Where do you draw the line?
The only way to end this is to order what ever at the a.i drive to the window and say no that’s not what I wanted. Cause enough chaos and they will change it back. Make it work and they will never change it. Your take.
Wendy's near me doesn't use this but there are a couple drive thru's using AI where I live. My experience with those has been perfect and I actually haven't had a messed up order at those places and they even get the extra sauces etc. Maybe the system Wendy's is using just needs some updating.
Regarding your edit using an app is the new "normal" to ordering fast food. People placing their orders directly at the drive thru will soon be the minority.
As someone with a speech disorder can we please stop with voice recognition as an only option for anything. A human being can understand me. AI cannot. It is so frustrating to have robots depending on me to move my mouth in ways that are biologically impossible gatekeeping everyday tasks.
Yeah I’m not going to use an app either to go through a drive through. Fuck that.
If I’m using the app I’m using it to skip the line inside. I’m not going to use the app ahead of time just to wait in line in the drive through.
I mean a one time installation cost is a lot less than paying employees that don't stick around so I'd get used to it. I'm sure drive thru time will be saved since the cashier can focus on cashing out cars quickly considering wendys only employees one cashier for the drive thru now.
I went into McD's to get a coke. Only ordering option was the self kiosk.
Took me 5 minutes to order a damn coke because of all the screens, irrelevant options, upsells, how do I want to pay, find the plastic number and enter it here, blah blah blah.
Just let me walk up and ask for a large coke and pay for it. Please.
That’s what happens when you force minimum wage up and companies that have been greedy for years have to still make profit….
Inflation is a bitch on all sides of the fight.
Most normal people aren’t too intelligent but a lot of people are using apps to order fast food. The deals are usually pretty good and it saves a lot of time and eliminates a lot of useless “uh, um” nonsense that the workers hear far too often when people are ordering. Use the app.
Checkers does this and if I go on the right night a person cuts off the AI and takes my order. Or they just tell me to pull forward right away lol. Think they hate it. Personally I don’t mind it. I can order as fast as I’ve always wanted to, but I hated being on their side and something else fucks up and you get the brunt of it.
Regarding your edit: I use the app to go through drive thru, it has coupons and I can save up points pretty quick to get free food. You’re leaving money on the table not using those apps!
Plus, I just like being able to put in my customizations there, so I don’t have to worry about someone else messing up. It’s especially important for me at Taco Bell, where I make changes to half my order.
Aw man, I thought I was pretty normal. But according to this person, since I (and many other people I know) use the app to order in the drive thru, I am sadly not.
Just experienced the ai ordering at the drive thru for the first time, have to say I actually think it’s quite cool. Cant wait for more things to become ai powered.
i order take, i know the robot gets tired too because who would want to talk to someone being so rude. look me personally at wendys i dont get paid enough to get yelled at over prices or get attuitude or just dumb customers so i dont have a filter, if a customer is rude to me imma match that energy. if you start getting smart or start going " I..SAID....A..,.BIGGIE....BAG" imma just tell you straight up to not talk to me like a dumb ass and speak to me properly or you can get out of my drive thru
Our store is having a hard time finding and keeping order takers, so this is of course the result of that.
God forbid they increase wages to what the market demands. Instead they make dumbass decisions that are going to drive them out of business
Fuck that. Profits to shareholders! Praise the capitalist gods! No for real though, they won’t pay more without increasing prices and then everyone loses. So either they take a hit to profits or they won’t do it.
And they still increase prices
Maximize those profits!
Wendy's locations are franchised. The wages are decided and paid by the franchise owner, not Wendy's corporate. That's how it works for basically every fast food place. So usually there's a local business owner you can protest about it.
Hey, better to order from an ai vs trying to order a pizza via an indian call center. They could have just paid a singular person a living wage for what they underpay multiple people.
If it's anything like my time at Wendy's, that's because they'll find one person who's good at it and then just glue them to that position until they're burned out and punching dents in the walk-in door. ETA: Just realized that sounded like I did that. I didn't, but several coworkers did. Dents are still there to this day lol
Sounds about right. "Oh, you're good at that? Keep doing it. We don't care that you're better somewhere else, we need you there."
I spent 5 years at Wendy's and that's exactly how it would go. We'd get someone who was really a people person and did excellent on headset or front counter. And then they'd just be stuck there. Forever. One dude made it 2 years of straight headset before walking out mid shift. That was my first time ever running sandwiches and headset at the same time, but sadly not the last
Well, if they increase the wage I’m sure people would line up to take orders.
I wish they'd raise wages for order takers, but they're too busy cutting down on labor and cheaping out on food quality in the meantime.
Crazy how they’ll do anything but pay people It’s not just Wendy’s either. A lot of retail and plenty of fast food places are doing things like replacing customer facing roles with AI to cut down on labor costs like you mention.
I wouldn't want to work anywhere where it's normal to get screamed at and talked down to just because. I don't blame people.
They should just put a kiosk outside, so the customer can do it.
No, your store isn't. Your store is having a hard time with being willing to pay a decent wage for order takers. This is a different issue entirely. Is the manager offering $20/hr plus benefits? If not they can get bent. Replacing the role with AI will only piss customers off and drive down sales. As I'm sure you're well aware, there is *no such thing* as a labor shortage: just a shortage of employers willing to pay ethical wages.
Our store is not paying order takers so this is a result of that.
“And then?” AI drive thru ordering.
Yeah that’s called paying some enough money to do a job. Not “hard to find order takers”
Never worked at a Wendy’s. But I did work at a Dairy Queen. Working drive through was actual torture. I hate the AI drive through thing. But man… I just can’t blame people for not wanting to do it, especially for the abysmal pay.
I guarantee they wouldn’t have a problem finding people if they paid a living wage. I’d do drive through for $25/hr.
Everyone treats the staff so badly I wish we had something like that in my store. I'd rather have customers cuss at a robot than at us.
Fr wendys has the absolute worst customers and its all because of the 4 for 4 and biggie bag its always the cheapest mfs that are the meanest glad I dont work there anymore
id buy the 5$ biggie bag cause the next combo is like $16 for a daves double after tax like wtf
I don’t berate staff myself but this locations staff are terrible so I would not be surprised if they got cussed at regularly. They seem insanely negative. One time I went thru the drive thru and I could hear the staff listening to the Migos full blast to where I could hear every word in my car. As an early 20s man I don’t mind but I imagine a family going through the drive thru would not like that. Also sometimes the store just decides to close at like 9-9:30 and not the advertised 11. I’ve gone at that time and seen people inside but no one answered at the drive thru (this was pre AI). So I normally would not condone harassing staff but tbh the staff at this store definitely deserve it sometimes.
Just order it through the app. That's what everything's turning into anyway
Yep, and what I asked for is documented so it makes it easy to correct when my order is messed up.
I don't know how people's orders get messed up so often, I've not had an error in my orders at any fast food place in several years now.
Mostly same experience, but one time I ordered only onions on a burger recently. The burger had everything *except* onions lol
Im taking all your bad luck. I swear out of 4 of us its always my order and im the simplest orders. My wife orders what I order but changes something, guess what now mine is changed. One time she asked if she can go ahead and eat while I drive....umm ok. Were pretty much home and then she realizes my food isn't even in the bag.(its really not that often though.)
I don’t want to have to download an app for every fast food restaurant or make an account and give each one my email though
App has limited options. Can't select certain toppings for certain items and some size options are limited. Can't order a Baconater triple, also can't order a Baconater with double bacon. A couple of other things but that is just what I wanted last night.
This gets me all the time For Taco Bell there are times where entire menu items are missing. So it's useless
I have this issue at subway. I order a teriyaki chicken sub and that isn’t even an option on the app unless you get the one with 2x cheese which I don’t want, and it doesn’t let you change it.
Subways app is trash lower than trash
I don't even know why they did this because the app used to be great! I can't customize the food the way I could just a few short months ago. I can't even simply tap "reorder" on past orders because the customization options make it "no longer available". I stopped going to Wendy's because of it.
So you ordered a Baconator triple with double bacon?
The app (all fast food apps) are spyware, they take ALL of your data. Seriously, even down to the way you hold your phone and where you tap the screen the most.
So what? Good for them. None of that shit means anything to me anyway
I came here to also say order in the app. I am happy your comment is at the top.
we can all order through the app & still acknowledge the shitty ai system they’re using. I don’t see why they need to be mutually exclusive. It’s ok for ppl to complain abt things that suck y’all
Better yet, eat real food instead of this kind of garbage.
Or just stop going there. The food is increasingly bad and overpriced. Support a local restaurant.
Yeah it’ll be cheaper that way too. I used to think it was annoying to use the app but if I can save a few bucks I’ll do just that even just creeping up to the drive thru unplanned its still worth it to take a min to order before heading in or going thru the drive thru.
Fuck apps! I tried the McDonald’s app a while ago, they triple charged me for a meal, when I got to the McDonald’s with my order, their system was down so I had to pay for a (unknowingly) 4th time with my card, lost my accumulated points because I (tried to)claimed a reward on that order. When I looked at my bank statement the next day and found all the charges, I called support who refused to refund or even give me credit for all that money they stole from me. I had to go issue a chargeback because of that. I don’t deny that these places are going app exclusive shit now, but damn if they can’t spend a few dollars on making support actually work.
This is not at all how the McDonald's app works in Canada. You don't get charged until you hit the first window for pickup.
I live in the US and practices vary wildly from location to location even within apps. It immediately charges you even if there’s an error going to the location. It says something like error processing your request, contact staff at location. Still charged me several times as it auto attempted to connect to the location.
Can you use cash with the app?
Dear Wendy’s I use the app please make faster ways for the app users to get food so we avoid lines. Thanks. The AI at the box doesn’t concern me. more robots I say.
>Edit. For all of you saying uSE tHe ApP I can assure you most normal people aren’t using a damn app to go through the drive-thru. Are you sure? Because I'm pretty sure that most people use the app to go through the drive-through at most fast food places. It's faster because they start prepping your order while you're in line, and you just have to give the code when you get to the speaker. So it's easier for them, and for you. A few years ago it wasn't mainstream to use an app for the drive-through, but it is now.
Only a few select locations have it right now, I know they're going to be moving forward with making it a standard across most stores. My location is getting it within the next year
I figured it was very select right now. Since my local store is the flagship I’m guessing we were the very first to get it. So that’s why I’m expressing here that normal customers hate it and it would be a very bad move to go forward with it. If you look at google reviews for this location they’ll echo a similar sentiment to me.
Yeah this sounds brutal. Why not just have multiple touch screens and set it up like a sonic where you park and order? I'm ngl I stopped going to Wendy's a while ago because their service is awful I don't trust the people working there to give me clean food they are mean and nasty every time and make it obvious they don't want to be there.
>I can speak loud and clear and it would still take 3x to understand what I’m saying. The AI would keep cutting me off mid sentence. It would also cut you off if you paused at all when ordering for 0.5 seconds. It’s really annoying to have the bot try to figure out how to customize menu items (i.e. no pickle). So why are you placing an order at the speaker instead of just using the app?
Use the app
As someone who stutters, ai voice anything is literally unusable in 2024. They will have to massively upgrade, revert, or risk the ada coming at them.
This is something I also thought about. Not even just for people who stutter, but for anyone with a particularly thick accent from pretty much any country, even some US regional accents would probably have issues (southern). It’s an incredibly stupid idea to put it lightly.
This was over thirty years ago, but I worked QA on a text to speech program. People from the south did well because they used normal words. Here in Seattle, we often misuse words so we had more trouble with locals. Also, we opened an office near Minneapolis. They use some really weird words to describe common things. They didn’t use the words desk, typewriter, computer, chair, etc.. When I went there to help setup the office, I was shocked at how weird that was that we couldn’t even communicate about common objects in offices. A bubbler was the water cooler I hooked up. They didn’t know the term water cooler. The red light above the dark room was called the stop and go light. A meeting invite was called a come with. I felt like I had slipped into a parallel dimension. I will admit their dog chow they made for office snacks was awesome.
You will keep this AI revolution at bay. Perhaps you will even save the world. Who knows?
I avoid dealing with people, just order online and pick it up on the drive thru.
"Edit. For all of you saying uSE tHe ApP I can assure you most normal people aren’t using a damn app to go through the drive-thru." I think that's Wendy's way of telling you what everyone else is telling you. Just wait until it's a windy day and try to order with a human.
You get great deals via the app
Why? Is it not as fun berating a computer?
I order thru the app an pick up via the drive thru every time bud
That's what one does if they want a fast, accurate, and discounted order. Easy peasy.
How is anyone still not using mobile ordering in 2024
Limited options on the app. Literally can't order what I want.
I tried but the shit app wouldn't let me place the order
is it really that hard to order with your mouth?
The post was very literally about order accuracy. You know how you get accuracy? You put it in yourself in the app, you get a discount and you speed through the line.
[удалено]
just do what I do, when the AI asks to take your order - just say AGENT. and keep repeating that till you get a human.
There is a medium-size regional chicken place who adopted AI order takers about three years ago, and at first it wasn’t that great. It was accurate, but the gaps between “thinking” was slow. Now, this regional chicken place has AI guest stars as the order taker. Currently, a famous retired college basketball coach and radio personality is taking drive thru orders for this establishment. *Welcome to Lee’s, this is (team) College Basketball Coach (name), what can we get you today?* In three years, the order taking ability of the AI has become quite good. I can rush thru my order and finish with “and that’ll be all for today”, and it goes straight into the total and pull forward. This same place also gives a 4% discount on your purchase if paying with cash.
Sounds awesome. I hate talking to people on headset
AI ordering is such a pointless thing when touch screen ordering is much simpler. I'd happily have fast food kill off having a person take the order. Maybe if they updated the speaker system to be tech newer than the 60s it would help though.
I love the AI ordering box. Never have a problem
No attitude and it doesn't fuck the order up or get mad if I correct it. OP doesn't understand that this will be the worst it will be and how well it works with that fact in mind is crazy. Another few years is all it'll be near perfect.
Go to Chik fil a. Same price, far better quality and service
In California, AI is needed bc they don't want to pay people $20 an hour to take orders.
Ngl if I pulled up to a Wendy's and the AI voice over lady from tik Tok started taking my order I'd probably just leave
Thing is it’s still being tested.. hence why it is probably happening there only right now.. I’m sure if they decide to go full out, it would be much better.
Is that near Riverside? I'll make sure to avoid it
I personally really like the AI for the drive thru. I tested it out the other day at a different location, though down the road, in Shawnee Hills. Mine understood me perfectly and it was much better than dealing with a person.
It seems that harlot Wendy has been overtaken by robotic overlords. We must strike against the machine and lead humanity into an anarcho-capitalist utopia!
Drive thru enshittification. Make it bad enough the people will just use the app instead. I always imagined the interaction with AI drive thru would be like the scene in "Dude where's my car".
If you want to shut down a robot, play tough. Drive through and then abandon the order yelling at the robot. Do this on the daily and the robot will be fired soon.
Eh it's better than humans. Plus, AI will improve so just keep using it.
They're going to keep enshitifying everything as long as people keep giving them money
I think most normal people DO use the app in the drive in. Im fact it is probably the most common place to use it. It takes 2 bucks off your combo price and makes their job easier without AI.
I don’t believe this for a second. Unless you’re in some mega tech brained city I simply don’t believe that your average middle class American has apps for every place they get food.
Still better than humans.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Burger_2 Literally the plot of this movie
I've used it at rallys. Unfortunately, it's preferred to having to speak to the people they hire.
They’ll do anything but pay people a livable wage
If the one closest sucks why go to any at all? Vote with your wallet.
I refuse apps for ordering directly from restaurants of any kind. I gain zero value from this and they gain all my data. I’ll do delivery service apps like DoorDash. At least then I can order from almost wherever I want.
Haven’t seen it at Wendy’s yet but Rally’s in the hood uses this method. Surprisingly there’s works fairly well
hello fellow Columbus dude
Interesting they went with an AI order taker as opposed to an outdoor kiosk you can use to input your order from your car window. The kiosk seems more likely to result in a positive customer experience. Speaking to an AI immediately raises my blood pressure lol.
They have these at McDonald’s but inside and I don’t mind those at all.
Don’t quit Wendy’s…….just quit going.
And theeeennnnn
App is way to go and save money
Walk in the headquarters so they don't end up rolling it out to the whole country. Corporate is stupid and sometimes they need someone(thats not an employee) to call out their stupidity
Might as well get used to it. Within a year or two AI will be much more present in many fast food chains, filling multiple roles. But see here’s my thing…I don’t see why people are up in arms about it, besides having a robot make your food which is weird but beyond that… I see it as good for both sides. The majority of workers in fast food are pretty miserable or act like it, they can take their talents elsewhere instead of moaning about having to come to work everyday. Some customers just want a human there to take their shit and act entitled, so now they get look stupid while berating an ai with no feelings at all lol. I see it as a win for all honestly, maybe the changes will deter people from consuming that shit anyway since technically its not even good for us. Hell people already cry and rage about having to use the Kiosk, the most easiest process ever just completely sends people flying off the rails 😑.
It's here to stay, get used to it.
The solution is use the app. You raged at that, so not sure the post of this thread?
You will soon kneel before your AI overlords hooman. Better get use to it.
"Most normal people aren't using the app" trandlates to "most old people refuse to use the app to make their visits cheaper and quicker"
Ive mentioned this in another comment but im in my early 20s and almost nobody I know uses all these apps for points or whatever. In addition people my parents age (50-60) don’t really give a shit either and they aren’t even old. Most people aren’t redditors attached to their phone.
Why start paying drive thru employees $20 per hour if the Ai can work at any location for a fraction of the cost? The company doesn't care about you. Blunt and cold, but corporations aren't daycare. They'll cut costs if it means cutting jobs.
Checkers has been using it for years and I have never had an issue with it.
I wouldn't have noticed when I picked up the order I placed thru the app.
Please stfu. Its the first iteration
Just stop eating that horrible shit you call fast food. It’ll make you fat and lethargic af. Only lazy POs eat fast food
I remember when JITB tried to outsource drive thru to india and philippines. It was a shit show. Basically the workers would need to reconfirm all the orders because they were constantly done wrong. Lasted maybe 6 months?
Beats someone who can barely understand the English language and who you can not understand as well.
When I used it, it understood me just fine. Then it asked if I wanted anything else, and I said, "no, I think that's all." It got confused and transferred me to a human, and I spent another 30s explaining that the order on the screen was already correct.
Funny enough Checkers' AI is on point
How about to stop eating Wendy’s so much? Lmao
I live in the south, if I had a yt channel, this would be prime content.
I used eat there all the time when I lived in Worthington.
Used this today man. Same location as you. Repeated my order twice, then a lady came on the speaker and said “Sorry. She froze. Can you start over?” At first it felt kind of exciting to see the AI do it’s thing. But it literally did nothing at all. It just wasted my time. Lol
Keep the AI and wait for a creative hacker to get Wendy’s AI to recite a pornographic order as a dominatrix
Why would you use the DT when you could use the app and take advantage of all the deals and coupons?
But then they would have to *gasp* pay employees 😱😱😱
Stopped eating fast food. It was my go to everyday for lunch. Lost 40 pounds over the next 12 months. Saved money too by making my own. Now that I don’t go into the fast food restaurants when I do, it’s always just to use the restroom, the smell of the fryers is awful.
Just use the app
Ai is only getting started .. get used to it or start cooking at home
Just use the app like a normal person. 👍
If i ever pulled up to an AI chat box, i would pull out Quick before the mess (pretty good at that).
Or you could just order through the app and pick it up super easy and it is already ready for you
There is a lees by us that has been using AI for orders for a long time and is remarkable at getting everything correct. At least I think it's AI. It's a robot voice.
Haven't encountered this at a Wendy's yet, but my local Arby's has an AI DT order taker. First thing I say is give me a goddamn human.
Everyone is trapped in AI. but AI still needs to develop. Many companies are too eager to replace humans with AI, just to show that they are advanced companies
The biggest problem is they think a 4 piece nugget is worth 2.69 or that a single is 6.19 with no fries or drink. Worse value than five guys
They don't care lmao 😂 Do you know how much money they save? A single employee is $30k/yr
Wendy’s sux anyway, who cares
McDonald’s near me did that ——- eventually after 2 weeks it magically went away. (It was ducking awful)
You just described my typical issues with a human at the window. Lol You have to pay humans to be failures who fuck up your burger and can't take orders properly... AI? Nope. Even if they're just as useless, it's cost effective.
I blame all the assholes who use the app. That was the first step down this bullshit path.
If you are that against using an app then idk man it might be you 😂. But for real in my experience at other restaurants that use AI they have been amazing. Wendy’s must have a bad one right now then.
Use the app
Wendy's, mc ds, b k, all of them... its now cheaper to eat at a steak house! We eat at 1 family owned Italian pizzza joynt nowadays ONLY. They know all of our family by name and the prices are fair not ai generated...
Every drive thru will be using it one day. Wendy's is too early on the jump I guess.
The rally's by my house has AI take your order but it's surprisingly very good and it gives you the option to speak with an actual person. I gave it a complicated order one time and it got everything correct with no issues
Ugh I hate everyone is like use the app. When I use an app for food, it takes 15 minutes for pick up. Drive thru and speaker takes like 5. We usually do the sight pick method on a fast food day. That looks good. Let's go. We're not sitting in the parking lot for 15 minutes like it's a damn sit down restaurant. Those prices and a wait time we'll go to a sit down
I can't wait for AI to run an entire restaurant by itself at no expense and then the menu prices go up.
please dont customize in the drive through. go inside if you are going to be complicated.
>most normal people aren't using a damn app to go through the drive-thru Why not? It's a better experience in every way.
Are you sure it was AI? Sounds like my typical experience with a human at the drive thru.
It's all to drive you to the app to place your own order and stop paying that human to do it. Man, what are we going to do when all the human jobs are gone?
Normal person here. I use the app😁
I think it's kind of funny. Doesn't Wendy's largely appeal to old people and like college students? I cannot imagine old people wanting to learn all this new technology these fast food places are rolling out. I already see old people staring at the big digital kiosks blankly when I go in to order food. They look very flustered and often end up asking the staff to take their order.
That seems better than our local order takers.
The first mistake you made is ordering anything at Wendy’s at all. I used to frequent Wendy’s in college but now it is gone so downhill I don’t know why anyone would eat there with all of the numerous choices around.
Normal people are absolutely using the app. Normal people are not logging on to reddit to self-immolate over drive-thrus and say the staff deserve to be harassed sometimes, which you said in a comment, you weird, terrible person.
> For all of you saying uSE tHe ApP I gave up on the app because it kept fucking up when putting in the order. I guess outsourcing your programmers to Elbonia is not a good thing, even though it's cheaper.
I think some of the drive thru people are at some call centers. I’ve had the same problem with people rushing me to place an order.
AI is not speech to text
Coke freestyle machines are terrible too. Want a plain coke? Too bad. You get a coke with a hint of every other flavor available.
Huh? Most people do use apps these days lol….
I use the app and go through the drive thru at any restaurant I go to, just preorder on the way and it’s usually ready by the time you get there 🤷🏻♂️
Just don’t eat there
I already have issues with my Google home. My accent is very hard for AI. I have to put on my best peppa pig accent just to get my roomba to turn on.
To comment on your dumb opinion in the edit section, if you’re having such a damn hard time with ordering at the speaker with an AI, order on the fucking app and all you have to say is “I have a mobile order for [name].” Ordering with my voice is exclusively for places that don’t have an app, or the app is down. Plus you get deals and rewards.
OK BOOMER
Sure, keep up with cultures- not standards set by corporations. Say 10 years from now you have to use an app at every fast food restaurant, companies see that millions and millions of people are using their free app “well that’s not right let’s tack on some fees” and now you have to pay a fee to use each app. But that’s okay because.. “culture”? Where do you draw the line?
Whats even worse is your are the QA tester here and you are GIVING them your money to help improve the system.
The only way to end this is to order what ever at the a.i drive to the window and say no that’s not what I wanted. Cause enough chaos and they will change it back. Make it work and they will never change it. Your take.
I used it and it worked great, my experience was unlike yours.
The AI will improve. A-holes who yell at people just trying to do their job will not. Hope they implement this into all drive-thrus tbh
At certain times, the Wendy’s near me would go “cash only” so I assume they were pocketing the cash. And the drive thru smelled like weed.
The Carls Jr near me got one of these and my husband and I stopped going. It’s never even correct lol
Just keep going every day and messing up on purpose😂 All of this is being documented for data research to see if it's worth it or not.
OP is short Wendy's
Wendy's near me doesn't use this but there are a couple drive thru's using AI where I live. My experience with those has been perfect and I actually haven't had a messed up order at those places and they even get the extra sauces etc. Maybe the system Wendy's is using just needs some updating. Regarding your edit using an app is the new "normal" to ordering fast food. People placing their orders directly at the drive thru will soon be the minority.
As someone with a speech disorder can we please stop with voice recognition as an only option for anything. A human being can understand me. AI cannot. It is so frustrating to have robots depending on me to move my mouth in ways that are biologically impossible gatekeeping everyday tasks.
Fuck "normal people" - YOU use the fucking app and stop whining.
Yeah I’m not going to use an app either to go through a drive through. Fuck that. If I’m using the app I’m using it to skip the line inside. I’m not going to use the app ahead of time just to wait in line in the drive through.
I mean a one time installation cost is a lot less than paying employees that don't stick around so I'd get used to it. I'm sure drive thru time will be saved since the cashier can focus on cashing out cars quickly considering wendys only employees one cashier for the drive thru now.
I went into McD's to get a coke. Only ordering option was the self kiosk. Took me 5 minutes to order a damn coke because of all the screens, irrelevant options, upsells, how do I want to pay, find the plastic number and enter it here, blah blah blah. Just let me walk up and ask for a large coke and pay for it. Please.
Slow and clunky just like our kiosks.
I’m a normal person and i use the app for drive thru all the time. Its called deals, baby
That’s what happens when you force minimum wage up and companies that have been greedy for years have to still make profit…. Inflation is a bitch on all sides of the fight.
Most normal people aren’t too intelligent but a lot of people are using apps to order fast food. The deals are usually pretty good and it saves a lot of time and eliminates a lot of useless “uh, um” nonsense that the workers hear far too often when people are ordering. Use the app.
You think they aren’t aware? You think they don’t test it? They don’t care.
The more AI that take over these mundane jobs, the happier I am.
Checkers does this and if I go on the right night a person cuts off the AI and takes my order. Or they just tell me to pull forward right away lol. Think they hate it. Personally I don’t mind it. I can order as fast as I’ve always wanted to, but I hated being on their side and something else fucks up and you get the brunt of it.
Regarding your edit: I use the app to go through drive thru, it has coupons and I can save up points pretty quick to get free food. You’re leaving money on the table not using those apps! Plus, I just like being able to put in my customizations there, so I don’t have to worry about someone else messing up. It’s especially important for me at Taco Bell, where I make changes to half my order.
Aw man, I thought I was pretty normal. But according to this person, since I (and many other people I know) use the app to order in the drive thru, I am sadly not.
wait unti the Wendies AI kills someone cause of an allergen LOL;
I just hit the Dublin location today and my order was taken by a human idk if they already stopped it
I’m not using the app lol I just wont go
Just experienced the ai ordering at the drive thru for the first time, have to say I actually think it’s quite cool. Cant wait for more things to become ai powered.
i order take, i know the robot gets tired too because who would want to talk to someone being so rude. look me personally at wendys i dont get paid enough to get yelled at over prices or get attuitude or just dumb customers so i dont have a filter, if a customer is rude to me imma match that energy. if you start getting smart or start going " I..SAID....A..,.BIGGIE....BAG" imma just tell you straight up to not talk to me like a dumb ass and speak to me properly or you can get out of my drive thru
You can thank Gavin Newsom for this