Ageless Passions by Karen Putz

Tag: drive-thru

  • Steak ‘n Shake, The “Other” Side of the Story

    It’s amazing to me that a year later, people still remember the Steak ‘n Shake incident where my son and I were denied service at the drive-thru window of the Bolingbrook Steak ‘n Shake.  I still receive comments from time to time, and with the exception of two that were literally nasty comments, I’ve published every one of them.

    Carol, a lady who bills herself as the friend of the still-employed trainer, left the following comment recently:

     

    As a friend of the SnS manager who didn’t serve you, I just wanted to throw this out there-

    Obviously what he did was wrong, since this is America and he works for a corporation and you can’t just not serve people. It would be great if SnS had a better drive thru board to better help assist all types of customers that need extra assistance for whatever reason. I’m sure that’s not in their budget at this time, however.

    From his point of view,I believe, the reason he didn’t serve you is because he through you were being very rude in the drive thru. When you work in a drive thru, you get many, many, many rude customers. Sometimes it can really push you close to wanting to snap on someone, as he did you. I believe he told you as you pulled up to the window that “he wasn’t going to not serve you because you were deaf, he was going to not serve you because you were being rude.”

    I guess what I’m really getting at is that there is another side of the story out there that doesn’t really get much mention, and this seems like a classic case of a manager dealing with a lot of stress on his shift and snapping on the wrong person. Not the right thing to do by any means, but maybe it really has less to do with deafness than meets the eye.

    Dear Carol:

    Let’s go over this one more time, shall we?  I pulled up to the drive-through window and when the window opened, I explained that I could not use the speaker because I couldn’t hear and ordered two milkshakes.  I was told to go around again.  The trainer probably figured I just couldn’t hear clearly.  I calmly explained again why I needed to give my order through the window and why going around again wasn’t the solution.  The trainer kept insisting that it was company policy and that I needed to place my order at the speaker. 

    Yes, Carol, at that point, I’m sure on the company’s videotape, it must have looked like a rude customer was ripe and ready for an argument.  After all, like every other customer, all I wanted was for the guy to do his job, which was to take my order, fill it, and send me on my merry way.  Instead, I had to explain why an accommodation was needed at the drive-thru window and defend my reasons for not being able to use the speaker.  The trainer had chance after chance to change his method of delivering customer service and fill the order.  Instead, HE chose to threaten the cops, shut the window (not once, but twice) and leave me empty-handed.

    Let me remind you that he failed to follow the Steak ‘n Shake corporation’s customer service delivery model.  He had several chances to redeem himself as an employee and satisfy the customer, but he failed to do so.  If the company had a policy in place for customers with disabilities as well as a drive-thru modification, chances are good that my son and I would have drove off that day happily enjoying our milkshakes.

    Yes, Carol, there are two sides to every story, but when it comes to discrimination in the drive-thru, this story is pretty straightforward:  My son and I were denied equal right to the same service that customers without disabilities experience in the drive-thru.

  • Steak ‘n Shake — Filing a Complaint for Discrimination

    It was bound to happen. 
     
    Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  Back in January, my son and I had the drive thru window closed in our face, not once, but twice by a head trainer/manager of Steak ‘n Shake in Bolingbrook.  “Go around and use the speaker,” I was told. Numerous attempts to explain that I was deaf did not sway him.  Showing my hearing aids didn’t convince him to serve me.  He stated that he could call the cops if I continued to remain in the drive thru.
     
    Many people told me to “sue the pants off of Steak ‘n Shake!” 
     
    I wanted something more.  I wanted to work with the corporation to try and affect some positive changes. I didn’t want to pursue a lawsuit.  I wanted to make it so that when my kids go through a Steak ‘n Shake drive-thru, they’d be able to access it in any of their 400+ restaurants.
     
    A meeting was set up with three Steak ‘n Shake employees: the Director of Communications, Director of Human Resources and Director of Operations.  Howard Rosenblum, a deaf attorney from Equip for Equality and a person who was very familiar with the drive thru issues, joined us at the meeting.  He was there to represent me and make sure that all of the bases were covered in protecting my rights.
     
    At first, the possibility of change seemed quite possible.  The three corporate staff persons were interested in making positive changes so that this would not happen to another deaf, hard of hearing or speech-challenged person in their drive-thrus.  They indicated that they were not the right department to implement the changes and that we would have to meet with other staff who could put changes in place.  So we left the meeting feeling positive about the direction that Steak ‘n Shake was going in.
     
    The issue was handed over to Greg Fehribach, an attorney who works for Steak ‘n Shake.  We stressed to Mr. Fehribach that we wanted to meet with the corporate employees who had the authority to make changes in the drive thru.
     
    On Monday, Howard and I met with Mr. Fehribach and another Steak ‘n Shake attorney.  Despite my request to meet near my home, Mr. Fehribach insisted on having the meeting in downtown Chicago.  Right then and there, I could see that Steak ‘n Shake wasn’t planning to make this process any easier on me.
     
    At first, our meeting went well as we explained the changes that we hoped to see at Steak ‘n Shake.  After the incident in January, I did a lot of research about drive-thrus and experienced several different access options.  A Subway in Indiana had a touch-screen menu so I was able to experience what it would be like to use a touch-screen.  I visited the Culver’s restaurants that had the Order Assist system in place.  I met with the owner of Order Assist and suggested some modifications to the system to make it more accessible.
     
    Imagine the wonderful PR that would result from making a positive change to all of the restaurants and making the drive-thrus accessible, I said.
     
    We quickly learned that the attorneys for Steak ‘n Shake had no interest in pursuing any changes to the Steak ‘n Shake drive-thrus that would require a physical change to the system.  They believed that training their employees and providing pre-printed menus would be enough.  Neither attorney had even made an attempt to explore the systems that were in use.  They were not going to bring about a meeting with the corporate executives who could implement those changes.  It was pretty apparent that they wanted me to settle it, not blog about it anymore and make it all go away.  
    The attorneys brought in the head trainer/manager who discriminated against me.  He stiffly issued a canned apology and then left the room.  The attorneys would not allow me to say a word or ask questions.   After the apology, I got up and left the room.  All the emotions of that January day came flooding back– to be denied service because you are deaf in this day and age means that we have so much more work ahead of us to obtain equal access.
     
    So I’ll be joining Karen Tumeh in filing a complaint against a corporation for discrimination in the drive-thru.  For the last six months, I explored this issue and tried to affect some positive changes in drive-thru access. I really hoped that Steak ‘n Shake was going to be a leader in this.
     
    It’s just a shame that the corporations don’t want our business.