I lost my temper at a McDonald’s employee today. I’m not proud of it but if you had experienced the can’t-be-fucked attitude that I copped, you’d understand. But let’s start from the beginning …
The reason why my temper was probably a little short was because I started work at 5am today. Our company operates on Australian Eastern Daylight Time, plus because WA stopped daylight-savings time one week earlier it means that WA is three hours behind the eastern states. Hence, 5 freaking am.
So my meal break was around 10am and I decided to go have breakfast at McDonald’s. I got up to the counter and ordered a Sausage and Egg McMuffin meal, except the girl serving me didn’t hear the “meal” bit. As soon as she said the price to me ($2.95 vs $4.95), I knew the order was wrong.
As I gave a $5 note to her (don’t know why I did that) I said to her, “No, no I want the meal”.
She sighed loudly and rolled her eyes at me. Then she said to me, “It’s too late to change it. You should have said it before.”
I got real irritated, “I did say it.” She gave me a look and then proceeded to finish the order anyway by putting my money in the till and counting the change for $2.95 out of the $5 that I gave her. Like she totally ignored what I just said. WTF?! That’s when I lost it. I yelled, “Wait wait wait, if you are not going to change it then I don’t want it!”
The manager heard me and came over. He angered me some more by repeating, “Well you should’ve said it.” Hoo boy. I yelled back, “I SAID IT!”
He decided to back track and asked if I wanted a refund. “No! I don’t want a refund! I want what I ordered which was a Sausage and Egg McMuffin Meal!” In hindsight, trying to be angry while saying the names of McDonald’s food items just doesn’t work, yeah?
Anyway, it doesn’t matter whether I didn’t say the word properly or she had misheard me, the whole thing could have been defused if she had just canceled and redone the order. I accept that it was a hassle because she had to get her manager to do it but it wasn’t even that busy.
I just don’t get what was so difficult about that. It all just boils down to her bad attitude. What also cheesed me off greatly was that she was all smiley to the customer before me too.
She was an Asian girl and the customer before me was white. Could she be a self-loathing Anglo-worshiping type? Ah, but that’s a topic for another day. Serenity now!
21 Responses to “Losing it over a McMuffin”
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Hell no man you did the right thing, I get this shit all the time as my job has a maca’s right next to it and the amount of time they stuff up an order is just to much that now I just tell them flat out to re do it from the start and I don’t care what people or the staff think cause god damn it its not that hard to listen to what a customer says and press the correct buttons, for fuck sake, no fucking cheese!
I work in retail to, so that kind of shit is just not on – I don’t do it or take it.
Imagine you’re a teenager looking to earn some extra cash … Imagine you just wanna do your hours and get out from there … Imagine you don’t really give a fuck … Imagine you’re a teenager who thinks talking back is cool … Imagine you work at macas.
I think you have done the right thing because I’m working in the cafe and it’s not hard changing the orders and redo the whole thing. I seriously think that maccas is slow in everything. I feel like the employees there have been abused everyday until they don’t really care about the customers. Maccas over here is definitely not a fast food. It’s slooowwwwwww food!!
she is that kind of asian who embarass our population. these ppl..argh!
speaking of self-loathing Anglo-worshiping type, remember Good One BBQ at Vic Park? that lady boss is very much like that. Kian told me dont ever speak Canton to her..or else , she gives shitty meats. I didnt believe it..turn out..he IS so right. Damn it! i dont understand.
I certainly don’t blame you for getting angry, I mean she actually rolled her eyes at you, talk about rude! Ah well, she’s probably just angry because she has to work at McD’s and is taking it out on you.
You’ve done the right thing. What’s so difficult about having to redo the order.
I can understand why you lose your temper. It’s their attitude that sucks. I would lose my temper too.
I just brought my son for his big breakfast meal at MacDonald’s this morning. The team of people at this outlet is always very friendly and helpful…which is a good thing in the morning of course.
My friend just told me he was in the Ralph Lauren shop in Florida waiting in line to pay for several shirts and pants. When it came to his turn, the cashier just turned around and did her other things, completely ignoring him for several minutes. He was pissed but kept quiet. When she was finally happy to get back to him. He let her scan everything, total up the purchases and then he said, “I don’t want it anymore.” Then he walked out.
Bad service happens everywhere.
weird. I hv had such experience b4…wanting a meal but the staff didnt manage to get wat i wanted….but she was nice enough to rekey the order. Or shd I say the Mac near my wkplace employs very very very nice Golden Age folks
And yes I tink both the staff u mentioned were really bad. If i were you i wud hv flared up too!
Ah…a self-loathing Anglo-worshiping type eh? And I thought such things only happens in Asian countries itself…Truly empathise with you.
There are good McD’s and there are bad McD’s …
I know one where in the morning it took 20 minutes to get to the till (with all of 5 people in front of me). Actually it would have taken longer if 3 of them didn’t leave in frustration. I could see all the McNugget employees just wandering around aimlessly not caring about the customers.
Then there’s also the McD’s where it’s packed like mad, but I still get my order in 10 minutes.
I reckon it comes down to the manager working at the time. I saw a manager working once (vs what they usually do) – and she was pretty full on. She was watching the order queue, letting the cooks know what they need to cook in preparation – reordering the queue so it was more efficient; moving people to the registers when it was busy and moving them back to the kitchen when it wasn’t to make sure people weren’t waiting too long.
Contrast that with the manager I dealt with when I order 20 Happy Meals (it was a party). I gave them 45 minutes notice (and it was really quiet at the store), and she told me that I needed to give her more notice, and it would take an hour and fifteen minutes.
BigZapfer: you are right, all it takes is to listen and press correctly. And if they made a mistake, they should want to change it instead of expecting the customer to accept the wrong order. And for us ppl who work in the service industry, this bad behaviour is even more glaring.
herman: hahah nice one. In general I have found McD staff to be better than HJ but now …
sophia: yeah since they changed it from where they had stuff lining up in a warmer to them making it on the spot, it’s been slower. That I can accept but the surly attitudes I can’t.
cynthia: haha no kidding about Good One? I always thought she was just sulky in general.
Silverstar: hell I think it’s because their manager spoils them that she thought she can get away with it. Remember the manager actually sided with her at one point.
blur ting: wahahah, your friend’s tactic is BEST.
mf: I think the golden age staff that you get in Singapore is very patient in general. It’s good!
Kelvin: no man, it happens wherever there are Asians mingling with Caucasians.
Allan: the second manager you mentioned – she is awesome. And as for the 20 Happy Meals order – geesus, how hard is it that they can’t make it in 45 minutes?!?
Ok I totally agree that it’s hard to sound angry when naming McDonalds items!
I don’t go to Maccas anymore because I can’t stand the bad service. Seriously, they SUCK. The last time I went, I went through the drive-through and ordered a chicken and bacon burger meal (i can’t remember the exact name). I had to repeat my order THREE TIMES. If she wasn’t ready for me, then she should have asked me to wait, instead of telling me to place my order.
THEN, I checked my order before I drove off (because they always make mistakes like forgetting the fries) and everything seemed to be there. I got home and discovered my chicken and bacon burger was bacon-less.
DAMMIT.
I didn’t realise I have to actually open up the burgers and inspect the contents now!
Hence, never going to Maccas again.
Whoa, I have rage issues…
Why can’t businesses get something as basic as good customer relations right???? Like “the customer is always right”? Just insane!!!!
to be honest, you must understand the mentalitly of people that work in McDonalds. There has got to be a reason why they are working in McDonalds, and most of the time it is not their intellect. But what annoyed me most was the fact that the manager was a whinger too – have he not heard that customers are always right??
Anyway, imagine how much harder it would be if you were trying to sound angry by ordering happy meals!
Katie: oh man, having suffered the painful ordeal of ordering only to get home without the bacon in a chicken and bacon burger!!! That’s almost painful.
Lightening: yeah I don’t get it either. I mean if the customer was rude yeah, by all means be rude back. But when it’s uncalled for, it’s just very aggravating.
sourrain: you cannot sound angry if the words “Happy Meal” were in your rant! you just can’t! Heheh.
I was with maccas and I can assure you that as long as she hasn’t cashed in the order, it’s gonna take less than 10 seconds to change it.
There will always be crews with good and bad attitudes. It just sucks that you get the bad ones, or the slow ones. Imagine getting both in one!
And with regards to the Good One lady boss, I ALWAYS get a sense of hostility when I patronise. I mean, there has to be something, for one to always feel that vibe from her.
Well cheer up hey! Hope you have an awesome week to make up for it. =)
By the way, love your blog.
elise: about changing the order, that’s what I thought! I’m vindicated.
Re: Good One lady boss – I don’t get a sense of hostility, but much more a sense of “meh”.
And thanks for reading!
i worked at maccas as a kid and it was a pretty good place to work. I thought their systems were so foolproof that any moron could be trained to do it properly. looks like foolkind has evolved.
yurl: nah every generation has a minority of dolts with bad attitudes.
Because it’s SOOO hard to just change an order!?! WTF????
Kathy: glad you understood my frustration and annoyance.
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