McDonald's Taking Your Order - Do They Ever Get it Right?
On a typical visit to McDonald's, I will order two Fish Fillet Value Meals and ask that one be made without Tarter Sauce. The employee repeats my order in the same way I gave it. They tell me the amount of my order and ask me to drive up. I approach the pick up window and someone's hand has a bag hanging out of the window. After taking the bag I am given my drinks. Usually, I get up the highway and begin to open our food. Yep, there it is, two Fish Fillet Value Meals. One with tarter sauce and the other with tarter sauce. What!!!! I ordered two Fish Fillet Value Meals, one WITHOUT tarter sauce.
So, now what do I do? I don't have time to turn around and go back to McDonald's to get them to correct their mistake; I'm not going to eat the Fish Fillet with tarter sauce. I don't like tarter sauce! So now, the only choice I really have is to make a meal from the fries and drink. Not what my mouth was set for.
Who makes up for me receiving the wrong order? Yes, if I go back to the restaurant they will correct the mistake but that takes extra time and gas to return. If I call and complain about the mistake they may offer me a free sandwich on a return trip. What good does that do me now, when I am hungry and want to eat!
I can overlook a mistake every now and then but when something like this happens time and again, it is time for a change. I have called and made complaints on quiet a few occasions but these complaints evidently fall on deaf ears. No one within the McDonald's Corporation gives a care. I know that McDonald's is one of many fast food establishments that use secret shoppers to evaluate their timeliness, etc. The important things that should be checked are not on the list of secret shopper's duties. As a secret shopper, you are given set items to order and you can not deviate from that list. You are not able to ask for your sandwich any way other than the way it is normally made. By doing this, the company is defeating their purpose of having secret shoppers. They are not getting TRUE feedback from customers regarding the correctness of their order.
As a secret shopper for a business, you should be allowed to order items the way you normally would order them, this would give the business the real picture of why the customer is or is not receiving their food the way they want it.
To me, McDonald's doesn't worry about customer satisfaction. They are one of the major fast food restaurants and feel that they don't have to worry with pleasing the customer or being personal, or friendly to them. I believe that it is time that McDonald's changes the way they view their customers. They should desire to employ friendly, competent, and caring people who make their customers feel good about choosing to visit their restaurants.
Published by monme`re
I am a wife of 36 years, mother of three, grandmother of 7. I like to sew,crochet, and do craft projects. I teach kindergarten religion classes at my Church, and I love my volunteer work as a CASA (Court Ap... View profile
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20 Comments
Post a CommentThank you for your comments in defense of McDonalds!! I would like to express that the things that have happened to me at McDonalds have not been at only one location. It happens almost every time we go to McDonalds. Makes no difference if it is here at home or Colorado, Georgia, Texas, etc. It is the same thing. Someone (who was an employee at McDonalds) suggested that I not purchase from McDonalds any more. Just to let you know, for the past month I have purchased my "fast food" items from other fast food establishments. I have not had one wrong order, not one complaint, the food has been great, I've gotten it my way and witout a long wait.
So, to everyone who has written in in defense of McDonalds I would like to say.... so long, I now do business elsewhere!!!!!
I find it interesting that you would judge an world-wide fast food chain on one place. I do believe that McDonald's does strive for a happy customer. I do not think they would replace your sandwich if they didn't care about you. Also it is difficult to get so many people through the drive thru so quickly without making mistakes. The food is kept fresher than it ever was before, but they still serve as quickly. It would be interesting to find another place that serves you fresh food so fast. I am not saying their mistakes are excusable, but if the same thing happens to you so often why don't you check your bag before you leave the parking lot? Is it because you make the same mistake by not checking it every time? Well now making the same mistake repeatedly is just inexcusable!
And by the way the mystery shoppers order special orders all the time, but they are not supposed to purposely order something that would exceed the time limit..for example freshly cooked product that
I used to do Secret Shopping, did it for several years. I did McDonalds, Burger King and Wendys (as far as fast food goes). NONE of my assignments for McDonalds shops allowed substitutions to the orders. I always HAD to order items as they came. I finally quit doing the secret shopping because I felt it was useless to report on these shops. It appeared as though cared less about the correctness of the order you than they did about how long it took you to get.
I know the original article is three years old, BUT. WOW. Stick with me. Seven years ago I lost my job when the company I worked for went out of business. While looking for work I took the advice of a friend and started doing mystery shopping-some cash to do it and reimbursement for a meal. Today I make my living as a "mystery shopper", though I have moved on to higher paying assignments, mostly audits(banks, doctors, hospitals, airlines). But I have to defend McDonald's. While out doing audits I still take basic shopping assignments like McDonald's, Sonic, Wendy's..and monme're was dead wrong about McDonald's not allowing special orders. At least two times a month I will do a special order shop. I am given a list of almost every menu item. I am given a choice to add/remove any one or more items that normally comes with a sandwich. In seven years 97.33%(my company keeps stats like this and I just checked) of all my McDonald's orders have been just as I wanted them, special order
It seems as though the majority of persons replying to this post agree!! McDonalds doesn't not let you have your food YOUR WAY!!!! I can assure you that 3 out of 5 customers do not get their food the way they order it!
someone at mcdonalds bitt into my egg and put it back on my sandwich for me to eat,i need to know what to do!
igotomcdonaldsafterihaveworkeda12hr.graveyardshiftbecauseimtotiredtomakemyselfbreakfastwhenigethomebutendupdoingitanywaybecausewhatiorderisnotcorrecttheyjustcantgetitrightdontwanttogobackbecausethismakescookangryandidontwanttoeatanythingpreparedbyanangrycookthethingstheydotoyourfoodiamtold
Your order is a simple one. Ones that I love taking. But the reason things like that happen is because you've got this teenager, probably his or hers first job, stressed out, taking 300 people's (that's no exaggeration)orders an hour, with a whole ton of noise around him or her. Also, the person who takes your order does not make the sandwitches or bags them and hands them out the 2nd window. The people on the table making your burgers are making 400 burgers an hour if they're busy. So when you change the default by saying "No Tauter", the person on the table might see it, but get distracted because more meat needs to be cooked, or someone needs an extra McDouble because a customer didn't get one. The reasons are endless. It sounds like you just have bad luck and come at the worst times.
Oh, and I never screw up orders when I take them :)
speak a word of english...
when i ask the drive thru woman if i can get a burger with only bacon lettuce and tomatoe on it she says, "what?"
uhh. a burger with bacon lettuce tomato only.
"u want a mcdouble?"
idk, just a burger with bacon lettuce and tomato...
"ok."
so i get home and what do i get? a burger with bacon, lettuce, tomato.... and ONIONS and PICKLES and KETCHUP and MUSTARD!!! my fries are cold. i got a large dr pepper and my bf got a medium dr pepper, he wanted no ice, but they chose to leave it out of mine.
they repeated everything back fine and the receipt looks great, so what happened? and when i ask for a ton of ketchup and you give me 3 packets, im going to get upset. i have 2 large fries and you expect us to eat this with 3 packs of ketchup?!
i dont care if you fix it after i yell at you, you should have taken the 30 extra seconds to check the order.
it must be hard to even understand what the customer wants when you have nothing but mexicans in the kitchen that dont sp