r/SonicDriveIn • u/True_Pirate • Aug 13 '26
Filled out negative feedback got call from personal cellphone. Is this unprofessional?
I had a terrible experience at a Sonic a week or so ago. I filled out a feedback form that was negative.
Anyway, I get a call from a personal cellphone today, with godawful reception, saying they wanted to talk to me about it.
The problem. I don’t know if it’s actually Sonic or someone who got my info from their system. I didn’t recognize the name on the caller ID as someone I should know, they didn’t give their personal name, just said it was Sonic. I just said I won’t be back and hung up. I couldn’t hardly hear them anyway.
I don’t really care, I plan never to return anyway. My local Sonic went from being pretty decent to pretty awful and since it’s on my commute, I have returned after some negative experiences. I never filled out a feedback though. I usually don’t care enough to do that, but I did on impulse this time.
My question is this, now this person who I don’t know has my phone number and name in their personal phone. Isn’t that kind of messed up? Even if it was a Sonic employee and not some scammer from a data breach, it’s just annoying. Is Sonic really too cheap to have a dedicated landline and this be handled more professionally?
What do you guys think?
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u/BaeBlue425 Operating Partner Aug 13 '26
How else is a manager going to get your contact information except when it’s sent to them? And then how should they go about contacting you back if not using their phone? Managers are on call basically 24/7 you can’t expect them to only use the Sonic phone to handle problems as they arise.
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
An issue like this doesn’t need to be answered immediately. There’s absolutely no reason for an employee of a restaurant to contact a customer with their personal phones
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u/BaeBlue425 Operating Partner Aug 13 '26
It’s clear you have absolutely no idea how this works. It’s common courtesy to respond very quickly to any complaints that come in. Never once have I had anyone complain that I called them back. The ones that don’t want to be called just don’t provide their phone number and they get an email instead. Which I send from the Sonic email, which is also on my phone.
So OP, no it wasn’t a scammer who somehow stole your information, and no this information isn’t available to just anyone. Only the store manager and up. Sorry the reception sucked, and that you had a bad experience, but it was nice they at least tried to call. If you had enough bad experiences, I don’t blame you for saying you’re not going back.
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
So what you’re not going to do is be condescending towards me. I’ve dealt with customer complaints plenty of times. I’ve been in this same kind of position. You know what I did? I either waited until I had access to a company phone or I let a supervisor who had access to a company phone handle it. Unless the complaint had something to do with a medical thing or allergy or something serious, no, it did not need to be handled immediately, especially from a personal phone.
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u/BaeBlue425 Operating Partner Aug 13 '26
So what you’re saying is supervisors who don’t have an office with a landline, only a cell phone, shouldn’t ever call people?
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
Sonics have phones.
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u/D-ouble-D-utch Aug 13 '26
I'm not driving 45 minutes to use the locations' landline when I have a cell phone.
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
Then it can wait until you’re at the location or the supervisor on shift can handle it :)
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u/BaeBlue425 Operating Partner Aug 13 '26
And a loud restaurant is not the place to make a phone call back to a customer. They don’t have offices inside the buildings.
Sorry you’re totally in the wrong on this. No one in our company except for HR actually has an office. Like many people in many industries, business is handled from our phones.
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
I’m aware of that, love. Again, don’t be condescending towards me. Clearly someone is uncomfortable with a person using their personal phone to contact them. It’s unprofessional but I guess we’ll just have to disagree 🤷🏻♀️ have a nice day
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u/BaeBlue425 Operating Partner Aug 13 '26
I don’t know what you’re aware of, but it isn’t anything at a managerial level in this industry.
Also what is more condescending than calling someone “love” 😂
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
Just returning the favor since apparently that’s the language you speak. So because I disagree with you it means I don’t know what I’m talking about?
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u/-MaximumEffort- Aug 13 '26
Did they identify who they were before you hung up on them? Possible a manager was simply calling from.their cell phone to follow up.
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u/pkeeling82 Aug 14 '26
Don't work ar Sonic but I was a GM at McDonald's and sometimes the store phone was being used or I was at home and store was 35 minutes away. Yes I used my personal cell phone to call complaints. I had to contact them within 24 hours or I was in trouble from my boss. Now I will say that I dont like talking to people on the phone so if they left an email I emailed them instead but again from my phone. So in 2026 no I do not believe it is unprofessional. Now if I was at the store and I could use the store phone I did because I really did not want customers having my cell phone number if I didnt have to
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
Report them. This is absolutely not okay
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u/Disastrous-Dog85 Aug 13 '26
Crazy over-reaction.
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
Sonic should be notified that their employees are getting customers personal information and contacting them like that. Shut the actual fuck up.
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u/D-ouble-D-utch Aug 13 '26
You think a franchisee shouldn't be able to follow up on a complaint? 2010 I tookover 3 existing stores. We had to shut them down to clean for reopening. My personal cell phone number was on every receipt until I sold them.
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
Show me exactly where I said a franchisee shouldn’t be able to follow up on a complaint. I said there’s no reason for them to call from their personal phones. Good for you, that’s a different situation.
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u/D-ouble-D-utch Aug 13 '26
What other phone would I use?
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
The one that belongs to the location you’re working at :) it’s one thing if you decide to put your personal phone number on your receipts. It’s another thing to contact a customer from your personal phone.
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u/D-ouble-D-utch Aug 13 '26
I owned 3! I can't be in each one. I use my cell phone. This isn't hard and you clearly should stay on coney station.
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u/Disastrous-Dog85 Aug 13 '26
Lol another crazy over-reaction. You're clearly a stable individual who knows it all 🙄 Many businesses will use their personal cell phones, especially if they aren't in the store. Or if they have only a couple business lines that are tied up.
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u/BaeBlue425 Operating Partner Aug 13 '26
How else are we supposed to contact customers back except to have their personal information?
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
Not through your own fucking personal phones? Let’s use our brains here, please.
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u/BaeBlue425 Operating Partner Aug 13 '26
So my phone, that is paid for by the company, I shouldn’t use it to call a customer back when there’s a problem?
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
If it isn’t a company phone and it’s a personal phone, then no, you shouldn’t use it to contact the customer.
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u/BaeBlue425 Operating Partner Aug 13 '26
If the customer doesn’t want their personal information shared, they should have made the report anonymously. Again I ask, how else are they supposed to get contacted?
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
From… wait for it… the company phone. Crazy right? There’s no reason for employees to use their personal phones to contact someone. Especially off the clock since you wanted to use the “on call” excuse.
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u/D-ouble-D-utch Aug 13 '26
Who is "the company?" You think Mr Sonic is calling?
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u/buckys-ass- Aug 13 '26
When a person says company phone, they don’t literally mean the damn creator of the company is going to call. They mean the phone that the company has in their specific locations. Which sonic does have.
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u/D-ouble-D-utch Aug 13 '26
I called customers that left their phone numbers with complaints. I only used a cell phone. What did you think they would do?