For those of you that are on my Facebook, you may have seen my huge rant about Taco Bell on August 15th. I've decided to spread this story on the internet a little bit further with my blog.
As far as "fast food" goes, Taco Bell was the best choice vegans had in the area. Once they added the Fresco option (a zesty salsa with no cheese automatically), it made ordering food much easier and should even promote a lower chance of your order being screwed up. I mean, ordering something with no meat, and sub beans off the Fresco style menu should be pretty easy. Right? WRONG! (We learned their lingo for ordering just to make it easier for them to understand what we wanted)
Several times we've ordered food, but once we looked at the "food" there would inevitably be cheese and/or meat on it. I've sent several emails to corporate, talked to a local manager, and I have even called and emailed to compliment them for going a period of time of having my order correct. In our local store there is one employee, Bobby, who knows his business, and is damn good at it! When I've seen Bobby making our food, I've felt relieved. He's just that good. I've sent emails letting them know how good he is! I don't mind giving compliments when they are deserved, and I don't mind complaining when I pay for something and end up with dead animals in my food.
So why go to these restaurants you may ask? Why should I not? If an omnivore ordered a burger, would they expect to get horse, cat, or dog meat in it? No! I pay the same just as everyone else. If they are going to have the options for me to be able to eat there, I'd like to take advantage of it! In a capitalist economy, the dollar is the almighty vote, and if I can put my votes towards vegan options, I'm going to do it!
So on the 15th, Jim picked up our favorite items from Taco Bell and brought it home. We pulled out our "sour cream" and Daiya cheese and slather it on. Jim takes a bite of his taco, and all is well. I take a bite, and taste meat. Ok, yeah I should have checked it more thoroughly before I took a bite, but how hard is it for people to read and follow directions? Is that too much to ask?
So after the crying and vomiting, we get back in the car, drive another half an hour back to Taco Bell, walk in and ask for a manager. A man comes to the counter and Jim politely said, "We ordered this Fresco with no meat, and there is meat in there." The man asked if we ordered it through drive through or came into the store, turns around and walks away with the receipt (which was correct). He comes back with a full refund and starts to turn and walk away. No apologies, nothing. I politely said, "Excuse me, this has happened several times, who can I talk to about this?" I was not a bitch about it, as much as I really wanted to be, but what would that do other than make us look like assholes? So many people have this idea that vegans are automatically holier than thou snobbish people, and I don't want to portray that. I simply wanted to see who I needed to talk to about having a "vegan" menu, even if it was just a couple of things that they are already making without having to sub this, remove that. There are other taco places that do it, why can't a nationally recognized chain do the same?
So I digress, when I asked the "manager" of the day who I could talk to, he said "I don't know. I don't have a number for corporate." and started to walk away again. I am really starting to get pissed off at this point. What kind of manager or fill in manager doesn't have the number to their corporate headquarters? Especially when it's 1-800-Taco-Bell!!! Then the sarcasm in me came out, I said, "You don't know the phone number to your own corporate headquarters?" He said no, and I got my Chester Cat grin, laughed, and walked out. Douche bag.
I get back home and call corporate headquarters, explained what happened, and told her I wanted to talk about offering a "vegan" taco or burrito. They can do it already, why not just make a name for it and there ya go? So she pretty well much ignores the vegan menu option idea and start apologizing for the dead cow in my taco.
Now, I'm a manager for a multi-million dollar company, so I even approached it from a revenue side. Every time they put that crap in my food, it's wasted money because they have to make a new one, and for me, it's a needlessly dead cow. She apologized for the man in the local store refusing to give me the corporate number, and ensures me I'll get a phone call back within 3 to 5 days. Still no call back, and they won't. They've not responded to the last several emails or phone calls I've made, not even the compliments.
Taco Bell will not receive one penny more from me, not a single cent. I will not recommend them to anyone any longer. I've sent them plenty of business. I can't tell you how many vegetarian/vegans I've explained what they can get there that would be safe for them to eat. I'm very aware that only 3% of the American population is vegetarian, and only 1% of that are vegans. (There is a quickly growing population of vegans in my area though!) I know I will not make Taco Bell go broke, and even if every vegetarian/vegan in the country boycotted them, it wouldn't do much harm. One thing that can hurt them is their lousy customer service and management staff.
And just because I've been a good girl through most of this blog with pulling out my favorite word (check it, I haven't used it once!!)---- FUCK YOU TACO BELL!
Period.
