4:00 this afternoon.
I drive up to a local McDonald's franchise. The drive-thru is seven cars deep but I'm worn out, long day, and figure it will be an opportunity to check my email while I wait.
Eventually I am second in line at the order window. The car in front of me sits for, oh, maybe 7 minutes before pulling up. This is a long time at a drive-thru window. But when he advances, I pull up and stop at the window. And wait.
Wait.
Wait.
"Hellooooo?" I said. "Anybody there?"
Wait.
Wait.
"Is this thing working?"
Nothing.
"Hello?"
Nothing.
So I pull to the side. "What the hell," I think. Why not. I go .... inside.
It gets good here. When I walk inside there are five people at the counter and four are pissed off. On the other side of the counter there are two employees and one of them is bitching out a customer.
"Excuse ME, MA'AM, but would you like a REBATE? WHAT can I do for you NOW?! I'm SORRY if you not happy with your ORDER but WHAT do you want ME to do about it? MA'AM?!"
And this employee is wagging her head back and forth, hands on hips and using the most sarcastic tone you can imagine. The customer is a middle aged woman with a child who looked to be about 7 or 8.
Meanwhile, another customer has a half unwrapped burger in her hand and is hopping from one foot to the other waiting to get her issue settled; another customer is standing at the counter, "Am I going to get my order? I have to be at work! If it's not coming, I've got to go....".
A manager finally walks up.
"What's the trouble here?" She attempts to sort things out. She sends Miss Sarcastic back to the window (which is why she was not there to take my order) and attempts to restore order.
This does not last long because as the woman with the child attempts to explain what's wrong with her order to the manager, Miss Sarcastic comes back from the window with that head wagging thing again and this time she's pointing her finger.
If this girl worked for me she would have been fired on the spot. The manager, clearly frustrated, sends her back to the window.
Finally my order comes out (woman with child is still waiting for her plain hamburger, and woman that needs to get to work is still waiting).
My order is wrong. It's missing one of the two sandwiches. I give it back to the manager.
Woman with child gives up and takes her order the way it came and explains to her child that they'll just scrape off the offending ingredients. Woman who has to go to work is still waiting. More customers have stacked up behind us all. Meanwhile, Miss Sarcastic is working the window.
My order comes out a second time and it is still wrong but I don't have the heart to send it back. I just take it and leave. As I go, I notice that cars are stacked up twelve deep in the drive-thru.
So tell me why McDonald's is posting record profits?
Where's the civility? The customer service? The "home-training?"
So when The Teenager feels the need for fast food, I'll route him to Burger King or Wendy's from now on.
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