I have been a customer my whole life, and have watched a lot of changes happen in the way the corporation handles the business end of making and selling hamburgers to Americans.
Lately, I have run into some problems, and wanted to share them with you.
You do NOT have a very 'user friendly" system for registering complaints, and those that you do get seem to fall on deaf ears, so I thought I would bring them here.
Today, I went to get a Mighty Kids Meal for my son.
He hates cheese on his burgers, and so I ordered a Mighty Kids Hamburger meal, Sprite, Boy Toy.
Simple hu?
OH NOOOOOOOOOOOO.
They don't understand that at ANY of my local McDonalds, since they, like ALL your stores, are FRANCHISES run by mental midgets.
At MY McDonalds, I get the voice asking me if I want "A drink with that Happy Meal?".
Me: "That's not a happy meal. I want the mighty kids meal hamburger"
Voice: "That's a happy meal."
Me: "No, a happy meal has one patty of meat and a mighty kids meal has two".
Voice: "Oh, You want the mighty kids cheeseburger, what will you have to drink with that?"
Me: "NO! MY SON HATES CHEESE. I want that as a double hamburger".
Voice: "Yes, I can get you a double cheeseburger meal. Did You want to supersize that?"
Me: "I want that as a kids meal".
Voice: "The happy meal. Do you want a boy toy?"
Me: " The Mighty Kids Meal!!!!"
Voice: " That only comes as cheeseburger or chicken nuggets".
Now at this point I am tempted to order the Mighty Kids nugget meal without cheese and two patties just to see if their heads explode. MINE already HAS.
I go through this for SEVERAL more rounds, and eventually get through (so I think) and drive forward.
I get to the window, and get handed several bags (we had 3 orders total, the other 2 were simple as well, but did not require a map and shiny arrows). I open the bags, and we have our 2 burgers correct. There is a 3d bag with 2 burritos we did not order, which I pull to the side to give back in a moment. Then, there is the bag with the Mighty Kids Meal.
It has a single hamburger patty.
Foolishly, I think in my head "OK, Give this back to them, tell them they have made a mistake and that you want the right burger".
I do that. The hispanic store manager at the window looks at it and says "Yes, that's a hamburger".
Me: "Yes, it is. I ordered the Mighty Kids meal, not the happy meal."
Manager: "No, you ordered the happy meal".
Me: "No, I want TWO hamburger patties".
Manager: "That's a double hamburger not a happy meal".
Me: "I wanted a Mighty kids meal".
Manager: "You did not order that, you ordered a happy meal".
Me: "No I did not".
Manager looks at the receipt and points out the print.
Manager: "You ordered a happy meal".
Me: "No, I ordered a Mighty kids meal hamburger. What's the difference"- thinking that since it showed I PAID for a Happy meal that I will owe them money for the Mighty Kids Meal when I eventually get the double hamburger.
The manager does not understand this, as his English is not very good.
Manager: "The difference is that one has just one patty".
Me: "No, what's the difference so I can pay you" (holding out small change in my hand to the window).
Manager: "You ordered the happy meal, and it doesn't have the double hamburger. The Mighty kids meal is a double cheeseburger".
Me: (Now angry enough that I am ready to do something unladylike) "I WANTED A DOUBLE HAMBURGER MIGHTY KIDS MEAL - DON'T YOU IDIOTS SELL THAT ANYMORE?"
Manager: Hands me a double hamburger saying "We sell hamburgers and double cheeseburgers".
Me, taking the double hamburger, notices that we still have the single in the car.
Manager: "That costs another 48 cents".
Me: "Here's the difference in what I paid. Thank you".
I then took the item I WANTED, the item they gave me that I didn't want, and the bag with the 2 burritos and drove off.
Mad again.
HOW IN THE HELL CAN THEY OPERATE A BUSINESS THAT WAY????
Aren't you, the corporation, embarrassed at ALL by franchise's that have owners who hire idiots and people that cannot communicate with the customers?
Doesn't McDonalds have ANY QUALITY ASSURANCE or CUSTOMER INTERACTION STANDARDS?????????
This is not the first time I have had trouble at that store. Or the 3d. Or even the 20th.
Ever since it opened, that store has been run by staff that are just a chromosome shy of sentience. The managers are pleasant illiterates that are not aware of anything other than pictures on the keyboards and tend to drag their knuckles when they walk.
They move slowly at this McDonalds, no matter what time of day or how busy they are.
They hire people that slur their words and speak in half sentences to run the drive through windows.
The store keeps a level of service just under that offered by Turkish prisons.
There are smart cars smarter than these employees.
There are smartees CANDIES smarter than these employees.
This store could not pass gas let alone a full customer service and quality investigation.
I DARE corporate to send in undercover shoppers to focus on this place for just 10 days straight, 3 orders a day.
I guarantee you that ordering anything not EXPLICITLY PRINTED EXACTLY ON THE MENU will put the entire store into a tizzy of lack of concern and obtuse failure to comprehend on par with Custer heading into the Little Big Horn.
There are pet guinea pigs that could assist customers and generate more complete an accurate order delivery.
There are PLENTY of applicants for jobs that both speak English and walk and chew gum at the same time, yet this store finds it necessary to hire STUPID people.
I have had friends THROW food through the drive up windows over these kinds of misunderstandings. For YEARS.
So, in closing, dear McDonalds, you have a disfunctional store.
Probably more than one, but this one stands out head and shoulders above any other McDonalds I have ever been through, and I have been through almost every store in the greater bay area at one time or another during quests for Beenie Babies and Hot Wheels. There is no level of incompetence lower than this store, the McDonalds Midtown San Jose on Meridian at West San Carlos.
During these stressful times with such a low economy, taking the internal camera tapes of this and many other stupid moments and showing them on America's Funniest Videos would be a service to the world.
We need the laughter, and no one laughs harder than when they are laughing at incompetence.
This McDonalds could well herniate most of America with laughter.
Thank You,
A disgruntled but persistant customer.
