In its defense, McDonald’s as a restaurant has suffered along with the rest of the industry over the past year. Perhaps this particular venue has had it tougher than some of the other fast food enterprises. After all, even today, in late March 2021, you don’t see many people parking their cars and then venturing into the dark interior of the one located on Coy Blvd in my town of Forsyth, Missouri.
And on a cloudy day, towards the end of the month of March, I joined the end of a line of about six cars that were in the drive thru lane at the McDonald’s in Forsyth MO. At first, everything appeared to be normal. As a frequent customer, I’d grown used to the rhythmic flow of inching forward about once every 30 seconds, as someone would place their order at the ‘ordering box’, and then proceed to the the ‘pay window’ before finally making it to the promised land that was the food delivery window…
But, on this day, that wasn’t how things went. For one thing, right after getting into line, I pretty much set there as more than a few minutes ticked on by. OK. I said to myself. Perhaps someone up ahead is placing a large order. That happens. I glanced at my watch and noted that it was 12:16 PM and that I’d been in line for something like four minutes without once moving. As I was pondering that state of affairs, the line moved. Yea for me…
Still, I realized that things were actually a tad sluggish. A full ten minutes went by before I finally got to the box. ‘Hello, can I help you?’ Came a tinny sounding voice from the metal grill.
‘Yes’, I responded. ‘I have a mobile order and the code is AS16.’ After a few seconds of silence, the voice came back on. ‘Yes, Dan, please pull up and get you receipt at the pay window.’ Smiling to myself, I inched forward.
Glancing down at my watch, I noted that the time was now 12:28 PM. ‘Hmm,’ I thought, ‘This is one slow day at McD’s.‘ And just about that time I managed to creep up to the pay window where I was handed a receipt.
Finally, after another dollop of time had come and gone, I got to the take out window… Where a young man was holding out two drinks in my direction. ‘Uh’, I said. ‘I ordered a double cheeseburger and a large fry.’ The young man continued holding out the two drinks, only now hew looked very confused. More minutes continued to tic by.
‘OK, so look! Here’s my receipt.’ I said with a rising voice. I thrust it out the window and he grabbed it. ‘Uh sir, this says you ordered a large coke and a plain cheeseburger…’
‘What? No,’ I exclaimed. ‘I know what I ordered.’
‘Alright sir, Give me a second and I’ll get that for you’. He then disappeared back into the depths of the building. And, there I was looking in my rear view mirror and the people behind me who must be wondering what sort of old screwball I was.
Just as I was trying to decide if I should call the whole thing a bust, the kid magically appeared and thrust a package into my hands. I drove off shaking my head.
Thinking, that perhaps thing were not what they appeared to be at McD’s, I drove on down to my destination at a local park and enjoyed, or attempted to enjoy my meal. It was as I was eating that I thought to take a glance at my cell phone just to see if the emailed receipt, I always got, would jive with what I thought I had ordered. Here is what my #.29 purchase looked like….
To say I was little upset, would be an understatement. In anger, I checked my contact list for McDonald’s and gave them a call, thinking I’d get this cleared up tout suite. Beep, said my phone. The call could not go through. What! I tried four more times with the same result. The phone at McDonald’s had apparently gone dead….
Later that day, I did manage to get someone on the phone, where I was then told that nothing could be done. The girl suggested that I contact my credit card company. Which I did. And, they gave me a McDonald’s complaint number to call. Which I did. Only to be told by someone named ‘Chelsea’ that I basically needed to just suck it up buttercup.
The bottom line that I learned from this ‘unusual experience’ was; 1) No more McDonald apps for me. I deleted it, 2) That the venue off Coy Blvd was apparently experiencing some pretty large issues and 3) That it might be a good idea to take my business elsewhere.
Update: Nothing was ever done by the venue or by Corporate McDonald’s concerning their sloppy management style. A sad state of affairs, yet completely in line with a country that was falling apart.
Forsythkid.com 