Count the "huh?" moments

[Vort]

[Vort walks into a McDonald's in downtown Seattle -- foreign territory for our hero]

COUNTER MAN: May I help you?

Vort: Uh, sure. Do you have a sandwich or hamburger or something cheap, for like a dollar?

CM: I'm sorry, sir, but we don't have a dollar menu here. The closest I can do for you is a hamburger for $1.19.

Vort: ...okay. I'll take the hamburger.

CM: Very good, sir. That'll be $1.19.

Vort: [Digs out change] Uh...looks like I have...aw, shoot. I only have sixteen cents. [Hands the guy a five.]

CM: Oh, that's no problem. Sixteen cents is enough.

Vort: You sure?

CM: Oh, yes. What's three cents?

Vort: Oh, okay. [Hands the guy the sixteen cents]

CM: Out of $5.16, that's... [reads display] $3.97 change. [Hands Vort three dollar bills and counts out 97 cents in change]

Vort: ...thanks.

CM: Is that for here or to go?

Vort: To go. Oh, but don't bother putting it in a bag, because I'm going to eat it right now.

CM: [to cook staff] Burger to go! No bag!

[...30 seconds pass...]

COOK STAFF LADY: Number 60, hamburger?

Vort: That's me.

CSL: Here's your burger. [Hands Vort a nicely folded bag containing said hamburger]

Vort: ...thanks.

It's like I'm living in a whole other dimension, one that touches the McDonald's dimension only at discrete points.

Edited June 4, 2012 by Vort

[BenRaines]

Can't say how many times I have ordered a McDouble, no cheese. Two small patties with two slices of cheese. I request it without cheese. More times than not it comes with cheese. Usually at drive thru so I am down the road before error is discovered.

That is what you get for minimum wage and they want to increase it even more. HUH.

Ben Raines

[Jennarator]

Wow! People just can't think.....

[Backroads]

Clearly, Vort, you just can't communicate. It must be your fault. It must.

[Mahone]

To be fair to McStaff however, if I ever go to one of their restaurants at meal times, it's usually pretty chaotic, with staff trying to juggle multiple tasks very quickly. Couple that with a system which I believe has fairly limited capacity for custom orders, requiring staff to actually remember something, it doesn't surprise me that mistakes like this are made.

I've been lucky enough to never have to work in McDonalds in the past, but my BIL did. His current job gives him 3 or 4 times the salary the average full time McJob would earn, and he claims his stress levels are never anywhere near as high as they were when employed by McDonalds. Go figure lol.

[Vort]

It was about 2 pm, less than an hour ago, and not busy. I was the only customer ordering at the time.

But Backroads must be right. The common element in the whole exchange was...me.

[mnn727]

Can't say how many times I have ordered a McDouble, no cheese. Two small patties with two slices of cheese.

Actually the McDouble only has 1 piece of cheese - the old Double with Cheese had 2 pieces of cheese.

To keep it on the $1.00 menu (which they still have here) they had to lower the cost, thus the name change and the reduction by 1 piece of cheese

I also think their burger patties are smaller than they were a few years back, but......?

To me the worst offender is Taco Bell -- they are so focused on speed, that accuracy of the order is forgotten. I can count the number of times I have gotten exactly what I ordered at Taco Bell in the last 3 years on the fingers of 1 hand - and have fingers left over, I don't go there very often because of that even though I really do like their food.

Edited June 4, 2012 by mnn727

[pam]

I can't count how many times I've gotten the double cheeseburger from the value menu, tell them to hold the pickle, only to have them pile the pickles on. I guess when I say hold it must sound like more.

[beefche]

Ya'll need to go to a McPuke near where I work. Man, those people are so awesome. I even wrote the company to let them know how great those workers are.

Two of my cow-orkers used to go to McTasteless at least once a week. One of them always ordered a quarter pounder without cheese. The other always ordered the #11. These workers would have their order either ready or ordered when they saw them pull into the parking lot.

And they are always so friendly and helpful.

[applepansy]

Welcome to my world! LOL

Whenever we're downtown my grandson has to have a Happy Meal! They forget the toy or give him a girl toy. Or they forget the apple juice. Or they forget my large diet coke. Or they forget the apple pies. its always something.

I do not drive away until I check everything. Especially at the other two stores in the Ogden area where they can't speak English.

[john doe]

Every time I eat at McDonald's I am reminded of why I don't make it a point to go there more often.

[Backroads]

Welcome to my world! LOL

Whenever we're downtown my grandson has to have a Happy Meal! They forget the toy or give him a girl toy. Or they forget the apple juice. Or they forget my large diet coke. Or they forget the apple pies. its always something.

I do not drive away until I check everything. Especially at the other two stores in the Ogden area where they can't speak English.

I think I can guess at the stores of which you speak...

[annewandering]

lol give them something hard. my daughter decided she wasnt eating any more fast food hamburger. This was at Burger King by the way. So she ordered whoppers with no meat. hahaha. It was way beyond their capabilities.

[NeuroTypical]

Y'all are a bunch of novices.

I was having a hard time getting a Ham and Cheese biscuit from Hardees - they kept putting egg on it. So I had a buddy go work there, and he told me there was no such thing as a "ham and cheese biscuit" button - only a "HamEggCheese" button, and a "no egg" button. So when I ordered, the kid would hunt around for the right button to push.

So I started ordering a Ham Egg and Cheese biscuit, with no egg. This loaded two instructions into their brains, and gave them two buttons to push. Never had the problem again. In fact, some of them assumed that because I knew so much about their cash registers I must work there, and they'd give me an employee discount.

Learn at the feet of the master children. Next time I'll tell you how the University of Utah refused to sell me a parking sticker for 3 years in a row, and demanded I park wherever I wanted for free.

[MorningStar]

I haven't eaten fast food in over 18 months and I don't miss trying to order for four kids who want a variety of things that they will never get right. One kid wants it plain. Another wants onions but no pickles, another wants pickles but no onions, or ketchup only.

They will never, ever get our order 100% right. Ah, yes. Here's a story I shared on my blog years ago.

Guy: Welcome to McDonald's. May I take your order?

Me: Hi! I would like a Mighty Kids double cheeseburger meal with no pickles and a rootbeer......

Guy: Is that everything?

Me: No ..... I also need two cheeseburger Happy Meals - one plain, one without pickles.

This is when the guy starts getting confused.

Guy: Ok, you want the double cheeseburger plain?

Me: No, that one is with no pickles. For the cheeseburger Happy Meals, I need one plain and one with no pickles. We'll have a lemonade with one and a rootbeer with the other.

Guy: Ok, you ordered ... (Then he rambles off a bunch of stuff I don't understand, but it looks like it might be right on the screen.)

Me: Yes. I would also like a two cheeseburger meal.

Guy: Ma'am, I already took that order.

Me: No you didn't. I'm ordering something for myself now. I would like a two cheeseburger meal.

Guy: I already did that one.

Me: No, you didn't.

Guy: Ma'am, please pull forward.

I was relieved that I was pulling forward, thinking I would be talking to someone else, but it was the guy! We had the same conversation all over again and he had to call someone else over. She looked kind of amused and apologetic. I said I was sorry for having such a complicated order with my kids, but she says that's the norm. Kids are very particular about their burgers. If he hadn't called her over, I seriously would've left because I was about to lose patience with him.

Even though she took the order down correctly, they still managed to mess it up. I had my 6-year-old's plain burger in my bag, which I didn't realize until I started eating it, but luckily there was another plain burger (which wasn't supposed to happen) and my other burger had no pickles and I think one of the kids probably got pickles on their burger.

Oh well. What can I expect? It's McDonald's. I just remember the days when I would order food there and we could all understand each other. We went to get ice cream cones there after swimming last Summer and this woman seriously couldn't understand that I was asking her to put the cones in a cup for the kids to help with the dripping. She had to ask someone else to come over and translate for her.

[Sunshine40]

My son likes to go up to the counter and order a "diet water".

[Jennarator]

Have you ever gone to a clothes store and when you go to try something on and it doesn't fit, ask the employee to bring you a size double XM? LOL they typically walk to the rack before they realize that doesn't exist.....

[Dravin]

My son likes to go up to the counter and order a "diet water".

Heh, my father-in-law likes to do that.

[pam]

Heh, my father-in-law likes to do that.

Haha. I could picture him doing that too. He's so adorable.

[Dravin]

Haha. I could picture him doing that too. He's so adorable.

He says it with the mischievous little boy look on his face. I'm rather fond of the guy, he can be quite the hoot.

[Dravin]

Haha. I could picture him doing that too. He's so adorable.

He says it with the mischievous little boy grin. I'm rather fond of the guy, he can be quite the hoot.

[pam]

He says it with the mischievous little boy grin. I'm rather fond of the guy, he can be quite the hoot.

I so enjoyed meeting him the weekend of your wedding. I agree. He was a hoot.