Mana Mana - The McDonald Mc Flurry OUTRAGE - Not an AIBU, but a story of abysmal customer service

[QuintessentiallyOhDear]

So, today was the first day of the holidays, and I took my children to McDonalds. It is a treat to them, a we dont go very often.

After the burgers, they wanted Mc Flurries, so my oldest, who is 11, went to queue. It was one long queue, and somebody shouted for the customers to spread out and queue at each till. My son chose a till on the left. About 5 minutes later, he was still waiting, but at a till at the far right. I went to ask him what happened. He said they closed the till in front of him when it was his turn, and asked him to queue elsewhere. So, he had to start queuing all over again.

I asked the lady serving if they had a policy to not serve children not accompanied by adults. She said no, and asked what he had ordered. I told her he had not yet ordered, but had waited over 10 minutes in total, and nobody had taken his order. She called for a manager, and I explained what had just happened.

What did the manager say?

"Oh sorry, it is not my fault, It wasnt me" WTF!!

So I say "But as the manager here, are you not accountable for your staff?" "Oh, er, well, I guess I am. But we are out of mc flurry now, it will be another 5 minutes at least"

*It wasnt me" Who the eff is he? Wallace or Grommit? Sean the Sheep?

I asked him then for a refund, as I was not going to have waited 15 minutes for a blooming ice cream. He gave me £2.50, which is not even the price of 3 Galaxy mc flurries. The waitress told him we had ordered a different mc flurry, so he gave me another couple of coins. To be honest, by then I was not sure he had refunded me the right money, I just wanted to get out of there.

I think he was a pretty incompetent manager.

[YouTheCat]

He was shit. Complain.

[NotYoMomma]

you got a refund when you hadnt paid or ordered? confused

I used to work in mcds and this seems like a case of bad management as we never closed a till with people queueing, we made sure we identified last in queue and then told whoever joined later to join a different queue or had a staff member ask them.

[PleasePudding]

Strange customer service, sounds a bit like the Shaggy song of yore. Was he very young?

I hope your children weren't too disappointed.

[QuintessentiallyOhDear]

Sorry, as I explained to the waitress what had happened, she took payment for the 3 mc flurries.

[QuintessentiallyOhDear]

They were disappointed, as we were ordering the burgers, they saw galaxy mc flurries being made, so they were really looking forward to it.

[linzi248485]

What did you get a refund for if you hadn't ordered?

[QuintessentiallyOhDear]

The waitress took payment for the mc flurries as I explained what happened. She did however not go and make them as I spoke to the manager, he came up to us. He just said they were out of mc flurries without even going to check the machine or try make one.

[NotYoMomma]

waitress in mcdonalds: do you mean dining area staff or a woman behind the till?

[QuintessentiallyOhDear]

woman behind the till. Can you tell I dont dine there often!
I was just trying to distinguish between the order taker and the manager.

[NotYoMomma]

the ice cream machines in mcdonalds used to need constant filling and chilling, and if you made so many too soon (like on a v hot busy day) they would be like water - you would have to leave them 5/10 minutes otherwise you would make it worse.

in that time we had to just advise customers it would be approx x minutes and it was up to them before we took payment.

so he could have known it would be 5 minutes without checking

[arethereanyleftatall]

Tbh it isn't great customer service but really not worth ranting about.

[QuintessentiallyOhDear]

Fair enough about the machine needing time to chill, but if a manager is faced by a customer who has had the till closed in front of them, and had to move to the back of another queue and queue again, and waited 10 minutes in total not being served, is it professional, as a manger to say "It is not my fault, it wasnt me?" Because it was not him personally that closed the till and asked customer to go elsewhere?

[NotYoMomma]

Its hard to tell in all honesty, he may have

1. been utter shit
   
2. just come on shift and another manager was presumably counting the other closed tills takings - just trying to let you know it wasnt him at the time, although badly
   
3. been utter shit
   
4. not realised that the till lady had taken your money and not informed you of a potential wait
   
5. been utter shit

[80sMum]

Sounds like a blessing in disguise to me. At least you were saved from eating any Mcflurries, which are revolting!

[QuintessentiallyOhDear]

If he had just said "Oh, I am sorry, that should not have happened. I apologize for the wait" or something, rather than being so dismissive, it would have been (almost) fine. Anything but "It is not my fault, it wasnt me". I think he could definitely benefit from a customer services refresher!

[QuintessentiallyOhDear]

80smum - No, because I had to buy the kids Costa Strawberry Cream cooler as consolation. They are £3.20 each! And not that tasty.

[Finney2]

Honestly, there are more important things to worry about. I would just let it go. Life is too short to carry around all that stress about a McFlurry.

[arethereanyleftatall]

Sometimes, op, there are things you're never going to win and there is no point getting worked up about it.

the manager was undoubtedly crap.

But, it's your kids who.missed out, and you who is ruining your evening getting stressed about it.

no one is going to come on here and say the manager was good. But it doesn't matter. Let it go.

[saintmerryweather]

you sound very difficult tbh, it probably wasnt worth making all that fuss. you didnt really have to spend all that money in costa either, you could have gone to a supermarket and stocked up on cheap ice cream and had it later at home

[TabithaStephens]

£3.20 for an ice cream?

[hermioneweasley]

It was crp service, but YABU to be so cross that to start a thread, and to say you "had" to take the kids to Costa - that's hardly the fault of the manager. Your DS has learned a lesson about effective queuing, consider it a service.

And relax. Seriously, what are you like when something genuinely bad happens to you?

[LucilleBluth]

It's this country OP, having lived in the states for five years and being back for two I can't stand eating out here now, our customer service is practically non existsent, it's like the members of staff are doing you a favour, drives me insane.

[CuChullain]

"No, because I had to buy the kids Costa Strawberry Cream cooler as consolation."

You had to?

On the grand scheme of things its really not worth getting too angry about it. Yes, Maccie D's were not very professional and dealt with your complaint poorly, but you need to pick your battles more wisely, chalk it up as experience and save your anger for when you really have something to complain about. You were eating at a fast food joint, not The Ivy, keep some prospective.

[Cabrinha]

Get over it!
I totally fail to see the big deal here, and from your reaction here I'm wondering what you actually said to the manager - although they should remain calm and polite whatever you said.
You can hardly complain at getting the stone money back when you don't even know what you paid!
And "having" to pay more at Costa? Nonsense!
Why not just have the fruit cooler equivalent at McD?
What a mountain out of a molehill!

[Growlithe]

I think I'd have waited the extra 5 minutes for the McFlurry if the DCs really wanted them. After all, it would have taken more than 5 minutes to go to Costa, order and get the much more expensive alternative, so that makes no sense. It's not like it bothered the rude manager.

I wouldn't have sent the child into a long McDonalds queue in the first place though. Things like this are always likely to happen in places like that if you haven't got your wits about you.