Is it just me being sucky? Tales from the Golden Arches Restaurant

[Midnight_Angel]

So, I am an official Nazi now.

So, I stepped into McD the other day. Time is 11:25 (this might be relevant later), only one cashier going, with a line about eight people deep. *sigh* So, I prepare for a litle wait...

...and wait, as the lady currently being served has no idea what toy to get for her children's Happy Meals, forcing her to go and drag them (one by one) to the counter, so the little rugrats are able to 'umm... duuh... dunno. Maybe that'un (out of stock)'... *le sigh*

...and wait, as one of the gentlemen in front of me seems to be ordering pickup for about three football teams, with no small amount of built-to-order burgers...

With only one person standing in line before me, a second cashier starts going Yippie-ya-yay! Given the fact that several people almost stampede to the new line, I decide to keep my calm, and stay where I am. Which, btw, turned out to be a mistake.

Person in front of me gets his order through reasonably quick, so I step up, open my mouth, to

(him) "Just a moment" *leaves to the backroom*
(me) *grumble*

*Worker returns shortly after (it's 12:01 now), ignores me for a while more while merrily taking down the 'breakfast offer' signs*

(him) "So, what can I do for you?"
(me) "Well, I'd like one Coke, a Hamburger, and one of your Bacon-and-Egg..."
(him) *cuts me off* "Breakfast offer hours are over, there are no more Eggs available for today"
(me) "Well, they were when I steppen in line. They even were when I stepped up to the counter, before you turned away from me."
(him) "Yeah. Tough, huh?"
(me) "Look, I can see you have one of these in the warm keeping shelf"

(at which time his colleague came over ant took said item to service the customer in her line)

(me) *sigh* "Very well then, keep the burger and coke as well, and let me talk to your manager, please"

which seemed to be his cue for getting mad at me, calling me a typical German Nazi who has nothing better to do than to pick on him (him being from Turkey) at the top of his lungs, yelling that he was being sick of being treated like an idiot for being Turk, that he was proud of being Turk, yadda yadda...

At least, he didn't need to fetch a manager for me. With all the commotion he caused, his shift manager came over to look what the problem might be

Well, I can imagine I was the one straw that broke this particular camel's back... still, I fail to see the suckiness from my side... especially as I remained polite until the very end, while simple things like a greeting, or any of the words 'please, thanks, sorry' never left his lips during the whole time...


Is it robots they are employing there?

It's about a quarter past midnight, I have some folks at my place, hosting our RPG troupe, when suddenly one of the guys comments he's hungry. A few others pipe up that they could use some foodstuff as well. Since about everything edible (at last everything of it I'd voluntarily throw them) is pretty much depleted, we decide to order something. Or not, since delivery hours of the services in the area end at about 11:30 PM, so driving over to McD and getting some of their stuff is the only option.

Being the good host I am, I entrust the party to my kid brother (who was GM'img anyway), and go over. As expected of the time, the place is pretty empty, only one pair of customers sitting at a table in the far corner, being much more absorbed with one another than their surroundings or their cooling food, but hey; that's their thing, not mine. Other than them, me, and the employees running graveyard shift, there's no one else there.

So, I step up to the counter, and start ordering away: Three super-size menus, one 20-pack McNuggets, a couple bonus burgers... when the employee asks

(Her) "Will that be for here, or to go?"

Umm, right. I ordered all of these things to sit down somewhere and start a merry food fight with my invisible little friends that are literally swarming the place.

(me) "Umm... Do I really look like I was able to eat all of this stuff by myself?
(her) *blank stare*
(me) ...
(her) *blank stare*
(me) *sigh* "To go, please"
(her) *packing things up* "Why didn't you tell me so before, when you odered"


Is it robots they are employing there? (part 2)

One merry morning, a few seconds after 7:00, I come by McD while on my way to the office. Thinking that I could use one of their coffees, I pull over into their drive-through. Of course, the ordering booth is unmanned, so I drive to the second window (which is where you get your stuff and pay during the slow hours)

No one's there.

I wait a minute or two. Still no one.

I sound my horn. No reaction.

(Admitted, Suckiness on my part) I leave the car where it is and enter the facility (entrance is about 5 meters from said window). No one at the counter.

(me) "Good morning" (in a fairly loud voice).

Ah, someone noticed me, and is emerging from the back room.

(Me) "Good morning."
(him) *spots a car at the Drive Through. My Car* "Good Morning. One second please!" *rushes over to the window*
(Me) "There's no need to serve the Drive Through, that's my car..."
(him) *oblivious to what I said, opens the window, looks out... gets a baffled expression on his face*
(Me) "Um; like I said, that's my car."
(Him) "Well, why are you in here, then?"
(Me) "Because no one was manning the Drive Through?"
(Him) "You can't park there."
(Me) "I know. Should I go back, or may I order from here, and go back then?"
(Him) "What'll it be, then?"
(Me) "One large coffee, please. Wait, make that two." *turns to go back to the car*
(Him) "Sir, where are you going? I have your coffee right here. Will that be for here, or to go?"

[xaenon]

The first story, the House of Ronald employee was seriously rude and blatantly hostile/indifferent. The very definition of 'asshole'. I think this employee rates a gripe on the hotline. Definite suck there.

The second story I think you could have handled better. Granted, I'd have probably done just as you did, but still, it would have been just as easy to have answered the employee's question directly. It would have satisfied their need for an answer quickly and without a lot of effort. I don't think the employee intended to be a jerk, just in that 'routine haze' you get doing such mind-numbing work.

The third story, it sounds like the employee was flustered because something was out of place. I think it's safe to say it's happened to all of us. He was probably very busy in back doing whatever he was doing and when he discovered he had customers, something was out of place and it just kind of went sour from there. Seems that he shouldn't be the only employee in the place, and if he was, then I'd say there are bigger problems present. Not a lot of suck here, either - just overwork and confusion, from the sound of it.

Just this one's humble opinion.

[Becks]

When I'm actually in the building, and I place an order, I automatically specify the order is "to go".

[MrSmiley]

The third story, it sounds like the employee was flustered because something was out of place. I think it's safe to say it's happened to all of us. He was probably very busy in back doing whatever he was doing and when he discovered he had customers, something was out of place and it just kind of went sour from there. Seems that he shouldn't be the only employee in the place, and if he was, then I'd say there are bigger problems present. Not a lot of suck here, either - just overwork and confusion, from the sound of it.

Just this one's humble opinion.

I could make arguments to justify the poor cashier's behavior too... but it's just pretty darn entertaining on it's own. Not every post on CS makes me laugh and this one did

[guitardude1987]

I can't actually recall a time I walked into a McDonald's and the employees were polite OR that I got what I ordered. Even a double cheeseburger with mustard only and a small coke seemed to baffle them. Having only recently quit a fast-food job, I'm usually very very very patient and understanding, but still. Come on people.

[Dasota]

I am absolutely horrible when it comes to ordering from fast food places. I worked at a McD's and currently work at a Tim Hortons, so I know how easy it is to put together food and to get it right. I do understand things happen, but I also know that I'm paying money to get what I want, if it isn't what I ordered I'll give it back and ask for a new one. The way I see it, at least from an employee's POV, if there's a mistake, and you can't sell it, hey, free food.

I really don't get how some people can be so dumb at those places, it's not rocket science. I have sympathy if it's busier than hell, or if the person serving me is the only one to have a brain and the rest of the crew is a bunch of monkey drones, but other than that, I expect my food right and in a timely manner.

[bankworking]

Try imagining that you have a set phrase that you have to say. You must say it to almost everyone you come across, people who come and go in quick succession. Hundreds of people every day. And you have to say this phrase to each person, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, for weeks/months/years.

Mostly to people who barely acknowledge your existence long enough to tell you what they want.

ME: "Hi! How are you today?"
Customer: "I want $20"

There are reasons some workers turn into robots. 1) Their customers 2) Their job

[Kiwi]

story one you weren't sucky, in fact if that had happen to me I would have gone to corp complaints to.

(Her) "Will that be for here, or to go?"
(me) *sigh* "To go, please"

you were sucky, all you needed to do was say, "to go please"
maccas people serve 100s of people a day, and some people order enormous amounts to munch on themselves, its not up to the employee to decide if its too much food for one person. Next time just answer the question

story three you were not sucky

[wagegoth]

There are two common reasons I've found for bad service at fast food places:

One, the managers don't manage. They futz around in the back office, avoid helping out when it's busy, hire their friends, etc.

Two, most of the employees don't speak English. I was in a McDonald's one day and they had one of the managers doing nothing but translating the orders from the display into Spanish for the workers on the prep line. At another one, in the drive-thru, I ordered the boys' meals with the cheeseburgers plain. I explained very carefully that the cheeseburgers should only have meat, cheese and bun. We stopped on the way out to check and the cheeseburgers had everything on them. Park car and enter restaurant. I explain to the manager who repeats everything to the line guy in Spanish. He then gives me two plain hamburgers, no cheese. Back to the manager, who ended up doing it himself. If you have a couple employees with poor local language skills, you can usually work around it, but having most of the crew non-English speaking is an issue.

[McGoddess09]

Story one: That guy was an ass. No doubt about that.

Story two: As a current McD's employee, I can tell you that if we do not follow a script, we get in trouble. We cannot say "Is that all?" and if we are working front counter, we have to ask if it is for here or to go, even if we only see one person with a big order. How do we know that you came to the place ahead and more people are coming? I have done that with friends and we paid the person back when we got there.

Story three: Ok. So you admit you were sucky about the horn thing. The headsets are right on our ears and horn honking HURTS ALOT. I can't tell you how many times my ears have hurt after people shouting and diesel trucks running right into my ear. It was also kind of mean of you to leave the car parked in DT and then coming in. It really confused the person. I know I would be confused and a bit upset, especially if I were the only person up front, which I do every weekend for the first few hours of my shift.

Not all of us McWorkers are dumb. I've never had any complaint about how I've done things. I have gotten yelled at by customers for doing what I'm supposed to do or asking what I'm supposed to ask. Sometimes, human errors happen, but it can easily be fixed.

Just so you know, I'm not saying you are a bad person. I'm just saying (from a different point of view) how your actions seemed.

[bunnyboy]

Two, most of the employees don't speak English. I was in a McDonald's one day and they had one of the managers doing nothing but translating the orders from the display into Spanish for the workers on the prep line. At another one, in the drive-thru, I ordered the boys' meals with the cheeseburgers plain. I explained very carefully that the cheeseburgers should only have meat, cheese and bun. We stopped on the way out to check and the cheeseburgers had everything on them. Park car and enter restaurant. I explain to the manager who repeats everything to the line guy in Spanish. He then gives me two plain hamburgers, no cheese. Back to the manager, who ended up doing it himself. If you have a couple employees with poor local language skills, you can usually work around it, but having most of the crew non-English speaking is an issue.

This is also a Managerial issue, I encountered this way back during my first stint as an employee of the upside-down-W, it was pretty much on the part of the store manager, we were one of the test stores for the dollar menu, and as such we had McChickens, and Big and Tasties (tastys?) on the dollar menu... needless to say when all the people on grill are lookingfor is chicken and big and send out crispy chickens (no the McChicken) and big macs (not the sammich that was once the McDLT) nedless to say, there had to be something going on, not surprising I started out at more than minimum wage, and only got to look at the grill, because you know, it was cheaper to hire immigrants and have them work it that making sure everyone got to do something...of course this same manager got fired for quite a few things that I wont threadjack for.

[Hyndis]

There are two common reasons I've found for bad service at fast food places:

One, the managers don't manage. They futz around in the back office, avoid helping out when it's busy, hire their friends, etc.

Two, most of the employees don't speak English. I was in a McDonald's one day and they had one of the managers doing nothing but translating the orders from the display into Spanish for the workers on the prep line. At another one, in the drive-thru, I ordered the boys' meals with the cheeseburgers plain. I explained very carefully that the cheeseburgers should only have meat, cheese and bun. We stopped on the way out to check and the cheeseburgers had everything on them. Park car and enter restaurant. I explain to the manager who repeats everything to the line guy in Spanish. He then gives me two plain hamburgers, no cheese. Back to the manager, who ended up doing it himself. If you have a couple employees with poor local language skills, you can usually work around it, but having most of the crew non-English speaking is an issue.

I've seen this myself at a fast food restaurant in the area. The vast majority of people living nearby that restaurant speak English. And as such, the vast majority of customers there (90%+) speak English.

The only employee in the entire fast food place who spoke a word of English was the manager. It was lunch hour, too. None of the customers could communicate with the other staff in any meaningful way.

Needless to say, the manager had his hands very busy. He was basically one-manning the entire place during lunch hour, as he apparently couldn't even talk to the other employees.


Sadly I don't think there is a good solution to this. Discriminating against people on the language they speak is bad. On the other hand, if employees are utterly unable to communicate both with their customers and their boss, thats also bad.

[iradney]

K guys, just a friendly little note here: We're talking about the suckiness of the employees, not the languages they do, or do not speak.
Thanks!

I haven't had MacDonalds for about 5 years. Unless you count their ice-cream, that is.

[PepperElf]

all i can say is... i'm surprised you still eat there
tho yeah... when it's the only thing open that's quite teh suck