Tuesday, April 8, 2008

McDonald's @ Kings Place Mall Sucks!

Location: New Brunswick, Fredericton
Industry: Restaurant
Company: McDonald's

I used to go there on a regular basis... being the only McDonald's in downtown Fredericton, there was no alternative to find my Big Mac / Quarter Pounder fix. I used to have an unhealthy addiction to these burgers, and I would always order bacon just to ensure an imminent heart attack.

@ this McDonald's, the customer service is terrible. The staff are painfully slow, almost meticulously and methodically slothful: not as though it were deliberate, but more like "Damn! I can't rush some with Downe Syndrome" slow. Sometimes I would wait at the counter for up to three minutes (that's 10% of my lunch time) while the staff moseyed and joked, or swept or wiped at greasy spots here and there. Don't let them fool you. They do not have a mental dysfunction, they are just poor employees.


When the chance occurs where they decide they have completed enough of their duties to squeeze my order into their busy routine, they get it wrong. Where is the bacon? Where are my double patties? I'm 99.9% certain I ordered two burgers (remember, the exact same order I gave you yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, ad infinitum), why is there only one? Here on the receipt, where it says 1 Big Mac (mit Bakon!) and 1 Quarter Pounder (altso mit Bakon!). What does dbl mean?

Once I'd managed to get them to initiate any adjustments or additions to my order, I'd have to wait even longer. The average visit to this junk hole would last me between 8 - 15 minutes.

I also feel compelled to point out that the hygiene of the staff there was questionable. It was the wiping of noses and coughing around the food that ultimately forced me never to return, not to mention some employees just seemed... gross.

I work in a customer service role. I do a good job, and when I don't I hustle to fix what I did poorly and make every possible effort to salvage the customer experience / personal integrity.

Thanks to this McDonald's, though, I have beaten my burger addiction, and have never visited another Golden Arches since. Sometimes on warm nights of introspection and ponderance, I like to imagine that these people I have dismissed as pathetic excuses for a labour force were really altruistic angels: feigning incompetence that they may save my life... thank you, gnarly toothed, mole faced, freaks!

3 comments:

  1. "Thanks to this McDonald's, though, I have beaten my burger addiction, and have never visited another Golden Arches since. Sometimes on warm nights of introspection and ponderance, I like to imagine that these people I have dismissed as pathetic excuses for a labour force were really altruistic angels: feigning incompetence that they may save my life... thank you, gnarly toothed, mole faced, freaks!"

    It's no wonder this is the first comment. You've answered yourself so eloquently here that there really is nothing more to be said.

    EXCEPT; have you seen the video on Utube about the ten year old 'MaccyDee'? It looks exactly the same as the moment it was purchased, except it's rock hard. No mold or fungus anywhere. The chemicals pumped into every 'Maccydee' preserves it 'eternally'. (Better than embalming).

    So WHAT does it do to the stomach?

    Just a thought,

    Pete.

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  2. Ok, I also work in a customer service role in a hotel setting and know what it's like to have people become irritated about the most RIDICULOUS things everyday, thus granting me patience whenever I have to deal with a new or somewhat slower moving employee elsewhere. Hearing you say that these people are freaks and making remarks about Down Syndrome makes me wonder what kind of person you really are. Bravo to you for not going back to that McDonald's, but if you treated them the same way you associate them to these terms, they probably are glad you won't be back. Also, about the eternally perserved burger, they do that on purpose for that "ten year old" effect. I've seen McDonald's burgers go moldy.

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  3. I know what you mean about being testy when you go out to lunch and have just 30 minutes. Even the operations director at my company insists 30 is the max break. It convinced me to bring my lunch more often rather than get stressed waiting at food courts, etc.

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