Attention McDonalds people:

[NightAngel]

I actually eat at McDonalds and other fast food joints because I like the food. You can call it what you want- it's yummy and it's faster and easier than cooking.

As a customer I want what I've paid for.
I'm not paying for excuses as to why I ordered a #1 but got a #5... sans fries.

Besides, if you'd just get my order right the first time- you won't have to see me a second time when I'm requesting what I actually ordered. It's simple- do your job right the first time it saves both of us time and hassle.

Oh, and how many times have I seen threads where drive-thru workers have complained about people checking their orders before driving off? It seems to push up the time... which isn't liked either. If the orders were consistantly correct then less people would feel the need to check before pulling away- keeping the times lower.

Seems that the customer can't win.

[Gurndigarn]

This is no slur on the employees. Correct me if I'm wrong here, McD's employees...low wages, shitty hours, jerk manager, half your coworkers are useless. Accurate picture?

For a competent employee in most places, hours will range from moderate to "please don't go into overtime" (and occasionally "time and a half is fine, just stay, pleeeeeeease!"). Less competent employees will get three hours to "damn, we have to give him that many".

Jerk manager is optional. Usually management has at least one decent guy and one idiot, with the rest scattering around the spectrum.

Low wages and useless coworkers are eternal in fast food, however.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I have an even better idea: Don't eat at McDonalds!
Nasty, gross, disgusting stuff. It's not even food. Edible garbage. Bleah. Yech. Yuck! Eewwww. Yucky.

Save yourself the heart attack. Besides, BK has better breakfast!

True, but sometimes you just gotta have that burger and fries!

(I almost never do fast food breakfast so I don't have an opinion on that but I do prefer McD's over BK for burgers and fries).

[Bramble]

I couldn't really tell you about the bad workers thing since i work for a franchise. My coworkers are actually really good at what they do. And besides have you ever gone to McDonalds during breakfast rush? Sometimes it's hard to get everything right when someones telling you to hurry hurry hurry make more. (and don't eat our 'food' it sucks!!)

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Oh, of course I agree that they should get your order right.

But they don't. How things are and how they should be are two very, very, VERY different things. In fact, these two things don't even know each other.

Work with the shortcomings of your world instead of fighting them. You'll have a whole lot less stress. I know my order's going to probably get fucked up if I go into a McD's. In fact, I went into one last weekend to get breakfast for me and the husband, and guess what? Order fucked up. But it wasn't so wrong I couldn't eat it. Glanced into the bag to make sure there were no potatoes or turnovers instead of meat and eggs (wasn't the meat I ordered, but it was a dead animal, along with some eggs. Big deal.) I shrugged and took it back to the lair.

PROBLEMS LAST WEEKEND: Air conditioner dead. 100+ degrees in upstairs. Computer hardrive deader than Elvis. Baby has diarreah. Having to live in friend's house (who was on vacation, thank God I had his keys) while waiting for repairs.

NON PROBLEMS LAST WEEKEND: Ham instead of sausage on crappy 6 dollar breakfast that I didn't have to cook.

See? Perspective, friends. Yeah, they ought to get it right. They don't and they won't. Roll with it. It's not really, comparatively speaking, a problem.

[blas]

Try a different McDonalds!

Truly, I have multiple posts about a certain McDonalds in my area that is notorious for wrong orders. Notorious for employees not listening to orders and putting in whatever they like "aka, only onions vs only ketchup".

I took everyone's advice and took advantage of the several other McDonalds in my area. I've noticed that all the other ones are much better run and even during the busiest times, they still get everyone's orders right.

If they think I'm sucky because I pull over and open my sandwiches, so be it. I cannot help it. It's habbit. I'm not paying $4.63 for burgers with the works on them. I wanted them with ONLY ketchup, and that is how I will get them.

At that one McDonalds, it's easier for them to give you what you don't want than to simply correct it. So I stopped going there. And guess what, no more complaints from me!

Also, at the other McDonalds I've been frequenting, if they hit a wrong button, I correct them and they are polite about it and actually DO fix it if they don't hear what I said. At the bad one, they'd correct it but I'd still receive burgers with only onions on them.

[Bella_Vixen]

I also agree with Ree. They, as the employees, should be doing their jobs, which is to correctly give us our (correct) orders in a reasonable amount of time. We shouldn't HAVE to check our order to make sure it's correct.

[Ree]

Perspective, friends. Yeah, they ought to get it right. They don't and they won't. Roll with it. It's not really, comparatively speaking, a problem.

Ya know, nothing I hate worse than someone trivializing another person's concerns.
Yeah, perspective is important, and while it may not seem that important to you, that doesn't mean another person is silly because it does bother them. (That old saying about, I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man with no feet is very true, but there is still the fact that the first person has no damn shoes and his feet are probably pretty cold!!!)

As I pointed out to someone earlier today, when I was discussing this thread, I get that it's a fast-paced environment and there are young people with a high employee turnover rate, but a job is a job.
If a meal comes prepared a certain way, then prepare it that way.
If you are going to allow customers to make special requests with their orders, then get it right!

It's just fast food, but sloppy work ethics in a person's first job can carry over to all their other jobs.

In the grand scheme, it's not a major incident of epic proportions, but when a person works hard for their money, and all they want to do is order a quick meal and get on with things, then it's really not too much to expect a business to do the job properly and give the customer what they paid for.

Mistakes happen. It's a fact, but when mistakes become the norm rather than the exception, and people are content to accept that and just shrug it off, then there's really something wrong with society.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Ya know, nothing I hate worse than someone trivializing another person's concerns.
Yeah, perspective is important, and while it may not seem that important to you, that doesn't mean another person is silly because it does bother them.

*MOD EDIT - I like to have my quotes attributed to me, thanks.~Ree

Of course they're not silly. You have a right to want what you agreed to pay for. You have a right to get annoyed when you get ham when you order sausage.

I'm just saying there's a lot of stress out there. You can choose to give yourself more or give yourself less. Some situations you walk into knowing that the deck is probably stacked against you before you even open your mouth. This is one of these situations. I'm simply saying to try to get out of the situation without getting your blood pressure up, because it's not a battle you are likely to win.

If you are going to allow customers to make special requests with their orders, then get it right!

*MOD EDIT - I like to have my quotes attributed to me, thanks. ~Ree

I'd agree with this wholeheartedly if the idiot suits who get paid tons of money to make decisions about what a bunch of underpaid kids will be doing in their day to day jobs were actually doing the work themselves. But they aren't. These idiot suits don't have a clue what a real day's work on the front lines is like. They hand down policy without the first clue as to how that policy will affect their employees.

But that's not how it is. Some overpaid suit tells the minimum wage high schooler working in, say, Subway, that he will now be offering pizza in addition to made to order subs. The kid now has another plate to spin. Your comment suggests that the same people screwing up the orders are the same people who came up with the bright idea to complicate the workflow. They have no control over that whatsoever. So to imply that "they came up with the policy, so they'd better get it right" is not fair.

These workers are considered disposable. I mean, come on, McDonald's stores sport signs that say "Always hiring!" Think about what that implies.

[draggar]

Try a different McDonalds!

Reread what I said earlier:

My main complaint is that considering the number of different McDonalds I've visited in the past (Well over 15) what I get in the meal is inconsistent. It's a simple and popular meal.

This isn't just one McDonalds, this is several in my area (I used to work in a very large area). Some had better track records than others, but those are not near me. Yes, I should pay more attention, but when in a hurry or you want to get to work, you can't always take a few minutes to dig though everything, open up boxes, and count what you have. If it happened once in a while, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but this is over half of the time.

I'd agree with this wholeheartedly if the idiot suits who get paid tons of money to make decisions about what a bunch of underpaid kids will be doing in their day to day jobs were actually doing the work themselves. But they aren't. These idiot suits don't have a clue what a real day's work on the front lines is like. They hand down policy without the first clue as to how that policy will affect their employees.

I've always said, ever since my second (real) job, that if I was ever in a position to make important decisions in a company, then I would make everyone who applied for a supervisor position or one that their decisions directly affect how others work, for them to spend two weeks to a month in every position under them or in the positions that their decisions affect (and during any important event, like aninventory). A friend of mine applied for a district manager position with KFCand he got it. Before he started that positon, they made him spend six to eight weeks working as a grunt in a store, two to four weeks as a manager before he ever started as a district manager. I had a lot of respect for that.

When I ran a seafood department the store management would always get nervous when corp stopped by. Why? They would stand there and tell me how to do my job, how to set up the case, when it should be set up and so on. I always invited them to come in at 6AM and see if they can do it. Many accepted, but only one showed up. He wasa hot-headded recent businesses management graduate from a local private college who never worked a day of REAL work in his lift (snob). Sure enough, it was VERY humbling when he showed up in his expensive suit. I told him to go back home and come back another day dressed in our uniform since it would get ruined, he said no. OK, fine. By the end of the day he was humbled, had a lot of respect for us, and reeked of fish. I hope is dry cleaning bill wasn't too much. Hey, at least I got one turned around.

[powerboy]

When you're trying to get in and out quickly enough so you aren't late to work, or in the drive though, you do not have the time to check.

Actually you can look when you just get your food at the drive thru. Just do that fast. But I do know what you mean. Most of the time, you just do not get that chance.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

And even if you do, do you really have time for a do-over?

That's what I'm saying. If you don't have time to check the bag, you don't have time to send it back anyways. You're there because it's fast (well, in theory, anyway.) So if it's edible, no point being picky.

[kibbles]

I don't think it should be considered "being picky" to want what you actually ordered. Sure, what they gave you may be edible, but it's not what you ordered..wanting what you actually ordered is not picky at all IMO.

[Erin]

Since I worked in a McD's for 8 looooong years, I understand that they'll screw my order up more often than they'll get it right, I usually just pull up so that the next customer can get their Big Mac and I wont hold up the line and tick off the customers and the employees.

if my food is not correct, and I have time (I usually make time for this since I know something will get screwed up) I'll go inside, tell them it's not correct and ask them to fix it please.

When I worked for McD's, I'd almost always go back and remake the food myself for the customer so that I knew it was correct. It was easier than yelling back into the grill and ask the stoners who usually worked back there to remake it. (they'd get all mad that I was interrupting their nap on the shelves in the storeroom)

I dont so much mind the orders being wrong as I do the outright rudeness from the employees at the McD's near my house. If you ordered McNuggets and you ask for extra sauce, they get all snippy with you and tell you that you have to pay a quarter apiece for extra sauces. I'll be trying to hand them a couple of quarters and they'll ignore the quarters and tell me that I cant have any extra barbeque and sweet and sour for my McNuggets and fries (got hooked on french fries with the BBQ and the S&S sauce when I worked for McD's)

I just cant ever get these kids to take the quarters and give me extra....they'll be calling over a manager because they dont know what to do when someone hands them the quarters instead of complaining about having to pay for extra sauce. (I used to try to argue with them about it, but gave up because my food would get cold while we debated the actual cost of a nugget sauce)

[Imogene]

It really doesn't help either that the hash browns are usually in a location other than where all the rest of the food is emerging from the mysterious 'back room'/'kitchen'. Also, even once the meal was 'assembled', there would be someone standing in the way of the fryolater (the hot foods bin...) If your manager didn't suddenly decide YOU needed to be packing hash browns into their damnable sleeves!
"I'm assembling an order!"
"No, you're packing hash browns!"
While you're busy packing hash browns, someone else who is actually running has taken the bag you were preparing and handed it out. Before you had a chance to toss in hash browns.