DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Done with McDonald's

You guys after get fed up with repeated poor service and swear off that establishment for life?
Well, I do.

Today I went to McDonald's, used the drive thru and they screwed up my order once again.
Third straight time, among many others.

I go to McDonald's maybe once a month and it's usually because my wife loves their fries. I don't paw through the food at the drive thru because I shouldn't have to - When I say "only cheese and onion on the quarter-pounder" they should be able to get that right.

Which they did today, but instead of root beer I get ice tea, which I didn't discover until I got home (I'm literally a three-minute drive from the Golden Arches).

So I called them up and said I'm never going there again, goodbye, don't apologize because I don't care.

They are on my banned list, just like Tim Hortons, a popular coffee shop chain in Canada and also, I believe they have outlets in the US.

Last summer I got poor service from Tim's for the last time. Not going back.

I'll miss the bacon and egg mcmuffin, but see ya, Ronnie.

That's funny - it's one of my wife's favourite songs....,

I've stayed away from fast food burger joints for the most part the last few years (with exception of McDonalds breakfast)...had McDonalds lunch or dinner a couple times this year and it was terrible. The burgers don't taste like meat, the filet o fish is just awful (used to love them), and even the fries weren't very good. If I do fast food now, it is either local (burgerville), popeyes, or taco bell.

This being said, I still really like the sausage and egg mcmuffin, though the hashbrowns aren't as good as they used to be.

Regarding your service point, I agree. I go in and order on the kiosk and double check before I leave the counter. Screwups have decreased dramatically.

I feel you though. Once you get on the "hit list" as I call it - I'm done with you. I own a restaurant, I know how hard it is to be perfect all the time, most fast food chains simply don't care to even aspire to greatness, let alone perfection. They claim they do in the boardroom, but it never happens where the rubber meets the road.

Oh I understand that people make mistakes, and I'm sure a fast-food environment can be hectic at peak times... But after so many screw-ups.... I gotta ban them on principal.

And once I do, I'm a stubborn-enough arse that they stay on my banned list, which is why I don't listen to Alice Cooper anymore (long story, won't bore you with it). And it sucks because I like his music. Somewhat.

My problem with McDs is their drive thru is way too slow.

When I was a teen I worked there, and I was the drive thru queen.

Back then they used to have goals for how many seconds it takes a car to get through the drive thru.

These days they dont care if you grow old and die before you get through drive thru.

So, therefore, I go to Taco Bell.

I like their breakfast and fries... their service is awful...

I absolutely LOVE McD's sausage egg and cheese biscuit. In the last year, I've had 1. Because I don't eat at McDonalds much. Obviously.

Truth be told, I haven't even eaten today. At all.

Coffee this morning. Work. Water. Double header softball game tonight.

I like McD's Sausage McMuffin with Egg .... and I admit to an occasional Big Mac when they have them 2 for $5.

Their service does stink, though, and their quality of generally inconsistent.

I wish Wendy's had breakfast.

My general complaint with all fast food restaurants, is that every time, without fail, is that I'm stuck behind the SUV who has to order every thing in the store to feed their family of 20. And takes for.ev.er.

I have no patience for that.

They do. In certain locales and airports. It's not good.

Fast food, in general, is nearly inedible.

People should watch the movie "Supersize Me"

Flash Frozen beef served over 60 billion, ... Bring back the flash frozen beef in the quarter pounder size!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You gonna start eating depression meals from BK?

I hate McDonalds but I'm such a mark for their ice coffees that it's not even funny. I usually run up there two or three days a week and get one.

The main point of this thread was to discuss poor service, getting fed up with it, and drawing a line in the sand.
I will miss their hot fudge sundaes, too.

Yeah, I just wanted to get some people talking about the mental health meal that BK offers

I go grocery shopping at Wal Mart sometimes just because it's between me and my work. Tonight I went, got a bunch of groceries, talking at cart filled to the brim. Got frozen stuff, got regular stuff, but way too many things to go self checkout which is my usual move. Anyway, I go to the front and there are only three cashiers working at around 6:30 PM. I'm thinking, whatever, they're always short on cashiers. This isn't ideal, but whatever. Hop behind a large group of three women each and their children, thinking that they'll have the most hands on deck and we'll get through the misery of shopping at wal mart together. So I wait 5 minutes and look around, none of the lines are moving at all, but slowly growing as more customers come and try to check out. The family in front of me are going crazy, the kids are running from the checkout lane other departments to get more stuff to buy. I'm thinking this is hella rude, but I bite my tongue. I'm in no position to accost three women and their children. I'll just wait my turn in line. Another 5 minutes pass creepily and no dent has been made in this line. There is an old woman behind me who looks like your traditional wal mart shopper to a stereotypical T, is whining to anyone who listens about the speed. It's so bad. She sounds like a water buffalo giving birth venting her frustration. I'm thinking in my head, whatever. I'll just hop on my phone, check twitter, IG, DT and I'm sure I won't even notice the time passing. So I'm making the cycle, firing off some crap posts here. 10 more minutes pass, and nothing has happened. I look up to see what's going on. The cashier had just turned on the blinking light to get a manager's attention. I'm really started to get aggravated now, but I look around, see all the other lines have barely moved, and am like, well at least I'm not really getting the short end of the stick. Talk myself off the ledge, while I see manager approach the cashier. He goes and sees what the problem is, and the family is paying on what of those EBT cards, which IDC, because needing assistance isn't shameful and I would never shame anyone for it. However, it seems like they got some non covered things, that they're trying to void, so they can pay and leave. I hear the manager say, "If we void these things, we're going to have to go back and scan every item again." Dude, I could not hide my boiling rage at this point. I started making primal animal noises like the old woman behind me. It was bad. I swore to myself if they start rescanning this cart, I'm going off. I'm just dropping my cart in the aisle and walking through the doors. I don't care, bro. There's a CFA down the street that I'll have for dinner. It's 7:50. I've been waiting in line for too damn long to move up two steps. The woman paying with her EBT card is flustered and is also throwing a fit, but after 30 seconds she just says she'll pay for it and whips out some cash, pays her bill and is now waiting for the woman in front of me to get done shopping. Now, I'm a person away from checking out. I can finally see the bright light in front of me. The end is here. Not. Two of the children come running out of nowhere like a pack of wolves, with t shirts and jeans in their mouths looking like savage beasts. They cut the woman in front of me, pay for their clothes in cash. I'm irate. This is exactly what the self checkout is for. But the cashier processes their order quickly and the children have the cash in their hands, so the transaction goes fast enough that my anger can't boil over. Now the woman in front of me starts putting her stuff on the belt. Finally, I'm coming around 3rd. I can start putting my stuff on the belt as fast as I can, and again, I got a lot of stuff. $120 worth in wal mart groceries. I got beef and veggies that's been getting to room temp, ice cream that's melting, beer that is warming up. I got the works, and I feel how wet they all are while I'm putting it on the belt. The woman in front of me is with her son, and he's not helping her, so it's going slow once again, but I'm distracted enough by putting my items on the belt as I think about berating this 9 year old boy that he should be helping his mother. I decide against it as I look up and see that the wal mart cashier has scanned most of the items. I look back down and next thing I hear is "Stop. Let me see that." I look up to see that the mother is holding a can of pringles reading off the ingredients list before handing it back to the cashier after 20 seconds of analyzing the various preservatives found in pringles. Dude, I had to wash my chin when I got home, because my jaw was on the floor. The audacity. I was bamboozled. I turned into a Stephen A Smith reaction meme after seeing such a thing. I still have no idea what she was looking for and thinking about it just makes my blood boil. To do that at checkout! Unheard of. Unprecedented. Completely disregarding the norms and customs that have made snack food so prevalent and the checkout line to work so seamlessly. Anyway, as she did that the cashier got the majority of her items scanned, and she got processed out after a couple of minutes of more minutes. Now, I'm the person checking out. Finally, I'm Pete Rose coming around 3rd base and sliding into home. All my stuff is on the belt, my cart is empty and ready for bags. And like the iconic image of Pete Rose sliding into home, I was stuck in midair for about 5 minutes. I go up to the cashier and see that she is high as a kite. Clearly on some Oxy or Vicodin. She is moving at a snails pace. She is bagging 3 small items before opening up a new bag to put 3 other items in a new bag. At one point, she put two small bags of yeast in a plastic bag, then opened up a new bag to put things in. It was so infuriating that I just had to tell her that she needed to put more items in my bag. To make matters worse, she's skipping bags on the carousal, so I'm trying to find my items like a Parent tries to find their child on a packed merry go round. I'm spinning the thing as fast I can to make sure that I didn't miss a bag. Anyway, after 10 minutes, she finally checks me out. It's now 7:10, I've been in line for 40 minutes. I run to my car to start packing crap up and what do I see? That group of 8 parked right next to me, still loading their groceries into their cars! I throw my stuff in my car, throw my cart into parking spot and whip my ford focus as fast it could go through that parking lot. That's how heated I was. I got home at 7:30, immediately chugged the beers to cool off, pizzing off my girl in the process, because she needed them to make beer bread tomorrow and went back to working outside to blow off some steam. So I'm never going to Wal Mart ever again and am now shopping only at Aldis and Kroger.

I enjoyed "Supersize Me" as well .

Though too much of anything will probably make you sick.

As far as their service goes, I believe it's more of a work ethic thing for that particular generation .

You sound like me. I'm a one meal a day
guy and it works for me. I eat between 4 and 7 PM and that's it. More of a choice than busy.

Don't do much fast food but have knocked other businesses out of my way. Direct TV, Target, Longhorn Steak to name a few. I know our lack of patronage isn't going to sink them but it's the one Avenue we do have to travel. Not a boycott guy, just will be a patron of places that try to satisfy rather that exasperate and cheat me.

They do

It's called a single with ketchup and onions, large fry, and a large Chocolate Frosty.

Maybe a couple times a year I'll get some McDonalds nastiness because I love those double cheeseburgers. I feel like crap after I eat them, and my fix is satisfied for months

"Leaving so soon lamp?"

Right there with you on the # of visits to that place a year. I don't really care for fast food at all. Popeyes or Churches fried chicken are the only fast food restaurant we visit with any regularity. Everything else I like to make at home. My charcoal grill produces much better tasting food and the Instant Pot makes fantastic, one pot dinners.

I see you still love your pot.

Instantly.

I haven't eaten at a fast food place in probably 15 years ... it surely tastes good, but would always feel crappy after the meal. I'm not sure it would even taste good to me anymore

I haven't eaten at McDonalds in longer than I can remember. I don't eat fast food, except for one sandwich from Chck-fil-A that I had while traveling several months ago.

I don't eat at those places because the food is absolutely terrible for you and I don't want to put that crap in my body. Which is a bit strange considering I poison myself w/alcohol too often.

As far as service goes........I am not the type to complain and make a scene. I just never go back to a place that doesn't have good service.

IMO, you get what you pay for. If you're buying 2 Big Mac's for $2, don't expect perfection, even by "fast food standards".

I eat 99% of my meals at home. My UC tends to give me fits when I eat out, it's hard to know everything they put in the dish, so it's safer to eat at home. Every once in a while I'll get sushi (cooked stuff) or I'll order a piece of salmon with S&P on it.

I feel like Albert Einstein sometimes with how I eat. He famously owned several variations of the same grey suit so he didn't have to spend any mental energy on dressing each day. For me, I eat basically the same 10 things and I rarely think about food anymore. Kind of sad.

j/c:

Just had McDonald's breakfast.....

I do the same.

The local Tim Horton's is the worst. My kids love it, especially for breakfast when they have friends sleep over. They would mess up the order far more than they got it right. It got to the point where I would go in to order and take the bag apart to make sure it all was correct. Then I got attitude for that. So I no longer go there. Terrible service.

Speaking of McDonald's ... several years ago I was teaching an evening course at a college in downtown Columbus. A student came in to class with a bag from the McDonald's across the street. They got the order wrong so he ran over there during the mid-class break. He told me they gave him a voucher for a free meal.

The next week he tried to use it, but the same manager who gave him the voucher said that his location does not honor them.

I get your point and sometimes it is frustrating. Yet at the same time I try to keep things in perspective. I have two grandsons currently working in fast food. One works at Hardee's and one works at McDonald's. Now where we live, fast food places can't seem to get enough help. Many of the kids around here aren't required to work by their parents seem to have no motivation to do so.

So I get it. Most of the fast food places around where i live are just happy to find a warm body that will show up for work. My daughter and son in law are different. When it comes to the kids getting their first care, they will match them up to 2k. But they have to work and save that 2k in order to receive matching funds.

The older of the two has a pretty good work ethic. He actually seems to take his work seriously. The younger one? He wouldn't be there if he didn't have to make that 2k in order to get a car. He spends more time looking at the girls that work there and the girls who come in and out of the place than he would ever look at your order.

It is what it is. I fully understand the situation. I understand that most of the employees are a bunch of kids who wouldn't be there if their parents coddled them or gave them money all the time. They're not mature enough to actually care about their work.

Right now you can get QB'er with Cheese, Big Macs or fillet of fish two for five. I think one should remember that you get what you pay for. You don't want to pay much? Don't expect much. It sounds like you would do well being a Red Robin kind of guy. It will cost you a lot more but they'll get your order right and the service is good. But you'll pay for it.

BTW - For anyone who does a McD breakfast, you really need to try a Hardee's breakfast biscuit. They are the bomb!

No Hardees around YTown.

It was pretty much the same in the Dayton area. None north of town. The only time I was around one was when I worked south of Dayton. But down here? They're everywhere!

I don't do McDonalds that often, but sometimes I just have to have a Big Mac or a Quarter pounder, and/or Fish sandwich and fries. My two rules for McD's are: (1) don't try to special order because they'll screw it up and you'll wait 20 minutes and (2) check your bag at the window just to make sure you got everything you ordered. I don't open the sandwich boxes, just open the bag, peek in, and make sure everything's there. If its wrong, I hand it back right then for them to fix it. I don't usually have a complaint, although one time I asked the girl if it was especially difficult to put the fries in right side up ...

Hardees Mushroom Swiss Burger FTW!! Best burger in fast food!

I understand everything you're saying Pit, but frankly, those are poor excuses. It's not our job to excuse substandard service and product because of price. If you can't deliver the product you say you will - you shouldn't be in business. I don't hear people complaining because the burger is too small, or the value isn't there. They are complaining because they are not getting what the were promised or paid for - big difference in my eyes.

If management is satisfied with a "warm body that will show up for work", that's on management. Either sharpen your training and be more involved with making sure the menu is executed or raise your pay rates and prices to reflect the quality standards you are promising the consumer.

I understand that the days are gone of three well-placed pickles and cheese centered on the burger lol. That I can live with. Giving me the wrong food 50% of the time, with a piss-poor attitude... And then acting like I'm the idiot when I want you to make it right is an absurd approach to foodservice.

When I was single and it was just me and Smokey, my schnauzer, we had a deal, he got the bag fries. He loved it when they dumped the fries in like the bag was a trashcan.

This reminds me of the last time I bought a plain McDonald's hamburger.

Actually I bought 4 of them.

It was probably ~ 1998.

McDonald's had a "throw-back price" of 4 hamburgers for a buck ($1).

They handed me the bag at the window.

I had my lab Willie in the back seat. I threw the bag of burgers on the seat with Willie and said "OK Willie...OK Willie...Good Boy!!!"

On the ride home Willie very meticulously unwrapped each burger one at a time and scarfed them down in shear ecstasy.



It was cheaper than dog food.

I'm not really trying to make excuses for it. I just understand that's the way it is.

I feel you brother. You spelled it out exactly as I see it. Just a shame that is the way it is.

It certainly is. And the bottom line to all of this is that most people are definitely driven by cost and/or habit. So the odds that fast food places will actually pay any price for their poor service is slim.