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.

[DfanjoUnchained]

He shouldn't have been made to queue all over again when he was at the front and they closed it. The manager sounds like an idiot.

@ 'Shaun the sheep'

[hurricanewyn]

I'm going to disagree with everyone else and say it was a bit shit.

I doubt they'd tell an adult to go queue somewhere else when he got to the top of the line, so it was a shitty thing to do to a child, just because he's young.

The manager's 'whatcha want me to do about it' attitude was also shit - I assume he's paid more than the servers because he has responsibility for the whole restaurant and to be honest a quick 'I'm sorry to hear that' is only good manners.

I'd have been pissed off too. (I'd ask my 11 yo to queue too - don't see the problem with that)

[differentnameforthis]

To those saying get over it...do you really think it is acceptable to close a till while there are still people queuing - who had been queuing a long time - & tell them to queue elsewhere?

If you were in Sainsburys & had queued for 10 minutes, would you be happy if the till operator shut down the till as you came to the front, forcing you to start queueing AGAIN?

It is absolutely crap customer service & the op was right to complain about it.

I complained is Maccas once, as they had ONE server on the till at 12.30pm on a Saturday! She was getting flustered, mixing up orders & constantly having to ask others for help. I told the shift manager that while I understood that everyone needed training, it was, imo, a bad idea to have a trainee on her own at a very busy peak time & explained why. He apologised, and took her off for a while. I wasn't being rude, but when it takes me 10 minutes just to get my order correct, something needs to be done.

[livinginwonderland]

Why didn't you just wait for the McFlurries? You waited longer and paid more to go to Costa! It wasn't great service but if your DC's wanted the McFlurries and hadn't done anything wrong, you should have waited, really.

[Itsjustafleshwound]

Regardless of the cost or where you ate, the service was bad and attitude of the management stank.

[mindalina]

how do you even get to be in a managerial role with an attitude like that? I would have been really irritated by that too and would put in a complaint. it's the managers job to smooth over little problems like this, "it wasn't me" that's just ridiculous

[Cabrinha]

I do agree it's a bit shit to close a till on a kid - if that's what happened. The OP seems a bit of a stresshead and vague!
IME McD queues are a bit random - not do much clos

[BreconBeBuggered]

It was shit. I'm not surprised, though - my DC seem to be dismissed as legitimate queue place-holders quite a lot, and they're too polite to complain about adults being rude, whether they're staff or customers. It's me who ends up seething on the sidelines. You can now console yourself with the knowledge that you have an excuse not to go back.

[Cabrinha]

... Not so much closing in your face, but extra ones opening, queues shifting around because of that etc.
This kid wasn't used to McD queues.
It might have been awful, but it might not.

[tittytittyhanghang]

YANBU. That is shitty service.

[crashdoll]

YABU for posting this thread because now I want a McFlurry!

[QuintessentiallyOhDear]

Cant believe I should get this much flack for being upset about poor customer service!

Only on Mumsnet, where people working behind the till are Kings and Queens.

Costa was by the car park. We were on a tight schedule. We did not have time to have spent 15 minutes getting a Flurry. We needed to leave as we had an appointment.

Go on, why dont you lot try and pick as many holes as possible, just for fun, lets see who can find the most?

Challenge of the day: Find a mumsnetter who feels a bit shit, feels badly treated, and pile in and pick her apart. Happens often enough here, I invite you to continue in the same vein as in the beginning of the thread.

I dont need a hard hat. Years here have given me a pretty thick skull.

[MarmaladeTwatkins]

Oi! I work behind a till and I Reign Supreme.

I will batter Mr McFlurry for you. Which McDonald's was it?

[MorrisZapp]

I hear you. However, I have another hole to pick, sorry!

The manager said the mcflurries were going to take at least another five minutes. But you were already there and had paid. I can't see why you had to abandon the five minute mcflurries and head to another venue altogether. Did that honestly save time? Also, what is a costa cooler, I have not heard of this refreshment.

[livinginwonderland]

Costa Coolers are basically frappucinos by a different name.

[MarmaladeTwatkins]

Costa Coolers are shit.

I bought one for DS once (in an art gallery café so captive market) and it was basically a plastic cup full of cold foam.

[QuintessentiallyOhDear]

Morris, the costa belgian chocolate and cream cooler is a drink made for Goddesses (and till operators ), only rivaled by Starbucks chocolate and cream frappe! Nothing like the McDonalds potato starch- tasting milkshakes.

Why did I not just stay 5 more minutes and get the mcflurries? Because I was pissed orf! Thats why. Because in my freezer I had vanilla icecream, which I was going to take to my friend for tea, and the kids were more keen on getting into my friends pool (No, I am not that poster who turns up in other peoples pools at random, like I was spat out of a hadron collider) and if you weigh up A McFlurry against a lovely garden, a fab pool and friends to play with on lilos with Vanilla ice cream and strawberries, you know what you chose, right??? And I had a car tire to pick up on the way, so running late.

[GladbagsGold]

The manager sounds like a dickhead and you are right to complain. I would get the DC to send an email or letter.

Btw Costa do do a really nice Tropical Fruit Cooler - it's not remotely pudding like, just juice and ice, but it's delicious and they are on bog of every other Friday afternoon :)

[phantomnamechanger]

It was crap and I agree that they would not have shut the till on an adult, without ensuring they got served next at another till.

manager was beyond pathetic -but confirms my suspicions that in places like this, promotion comes just cos you have been there a while, and does not necessarily mean you have the right skills for the job.

[phantomnamechanger]

"basically a plastic cup full of cold foam"
- great advert!
(now I know not to bother)

[CuChullain]

Erm, you asked a question under the ?Am I Being Unreasonable? section of the forum, by doing so you are explicitly soliciting input from people who are under no obligation to agree with your take on the scenario that you have described. You have every right to not like some of the feedback that you receive but equally you look very silly by having a sarcastic pop at the very people you whose opinions you have publically invited. If it?s any consolation a quick glance at the responses concludes that people are broadly in agreement with regards to your grievance with the management, they just don?t think it is worth getting too stressed over a ?McFlurry?.

[QuintessentiallyOhDear]

Maybe he was promoted because he had been there since they first opened in the UK and somebody thought "oh look at poor old Ronald, he has been cleaning trays for 40 years, time he got promoted"

[QuintessentiallyOhDear]

Cu - maybe people are just too used to abysmal service from people who demand you dont answer your phone when dealing with them and demand respect, while they assume they cannot be faulted for closing tills and ask people to queue again?

But not ME!

[MarmaladeTwatkins]

LOL at the drongoes trying to start a ruck over a fucking McFlurry...

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

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

This is the problem in this country. We accept shit service like a badge of honour. We should be complaining. Service should be better.