Like another poster said…you misquoted and twisted that. I see your tactics. Take the cheese off you say? Sorry, the cheese is melted, adhered, stuck to the meat. No can do. Go inside if I say no cheese or have any other special request? No drive thru for me? Sorry, McDonalds is happy to accept special requests throught the drive thru. You don’t make the rules, what’s it to you? So why don’t you just tell us what is up your ass about how fast food hands out freebies to customers who have been wronged and are vocal about it? I’m not fabricating mistakes and crappy service, only valid complaints. So what is up your ass?
Fries cost like a $1.59. Drinks cost about the same. I originally paid for them. The outrageous markup on the fries and drinks mean they still make a huge profit, even if they had to replace every fry and drink order for every customer. Next you’ll be bitching about the fries dropped on the floor or someone getting more than two refills on their soda (it’s eating into their profit!) They lost no money on any of this, they just didn’t make as much as they could have. No one said I complained every week, it’s about twice a month between a couple places. Lies and distortion, way to help people get the Straight Dope, spud. When I eat out for myself and ferry as much takeout as I do for other people each month, a percentage is bound to be fucked and I will not go uncompensated. It sounds to me as if you don’t frequent McDonald’s or Wendy’s, since you live in Carmel and wipe your ass on $100 bills, and in that case, you had no business commenting on this topic since you have no experience with fast food, nor do you know what fries cost. Do you or did you own a business? Did you hate customers that asked for service or order accuracy? How dare they! Must be the case. It’s all adding up. And if the idea of a customer complaining about inaccuracies or poor service sounds so awful to you, you must never have engaged in such behaviour, so what qualifies you to comment here?
The employee wouldn’t get chewed out, but the manager might mention it to the employee if there was enough negative feedback. They probably wouldn’t be fired since employers fear having to pay unemployment compensation, but they might have their hours reduced to induce the employee to quit.
At least I’m not starving. Giggity.
Really… care to share which poster in which post? To make it easier, my first post in this thread was #48. By “another poster” I assume you aren’t talking about you or me. That leaves posts 49, 50, 51, 52, 55, and 59 between that and where you make this accusation. I’ve re-read these but if I missed something please point it out and I’ll gladly apologize. I assume you will extend the same courtesy if you are mistaken.
Do I really need to re-quote your words about how if it is only the sandwich with a problem you will make something up about the fries being cold?
In business this is called “losing money.”
Really… I didn’t know there was a universal price for all sizes across all fast food restaurants. Consider my ignorance fought.
Let’s see… I estimated $0.59 in one example and $1 in another. You estimated $1.59. Wiki Answers says a small fries at McDonald’s is $1. So I was off by 41% in one, and exactly on the money in another. You in contrast were off by 59% I WIN!!
Easily 2-3 times per week. Let’s see… I’ve been driving for 35 years and balanced out over time I’d say 3 times per week is on the low side. That makes roughly 5,500 fast food visits. I know I’ve complained (and been compensated) at least three times, but to make the math easier I’ll say 5 times. That is 1 per 1,100.
You say you go more frequently and get comped twice per month. So, maybe you go 5 times per week so if you get comped every other week that is 1 per 10 visits. See the discrepancy?
To see which is more close to the norm, can someone with fast food management experience please contribute how long a store would remain open with a 10% comp rate.
You clearly have no business commenting on rich people ass wiping. I don’t wipe my own ass… I have a man servant to do that. And $100 bills are far too rough. I have him use a Chinchilla.
Hold on… let me check… well I’ll be… it appears to be a soiled Chinchilla.
Why should we deal in small fries rather than medium? Medium is the most popular, and cost $1.59. Just because I may average a 10% replacement rate does not mean the store replaces 10% of all orders, some people may get screwed all the time and never speak up, and others may do nothing but pickup receipts in the parking lot and fabricate complaints and get an 80% rate…
You win nothing. Why would we deal with small fries? I was on target with the price of medium fries, and being the most popular size, should be the one discussed. I’ve never see anyone getting small fries with a McDonald’s combo. And if you’re talking Taco Bell, the drinks do cost much more than a dollar. Almost $2 for a large.
In your world, the store would be happier if I would take my wrong order, chuck in the trash and never return, rather than giving them a chance to remedy the problem. Now that is ‘losing money.’ Not losing the chance to make a profit on one meal, but losing a customer for life because I have no insurance against getting ripped off. These comps are my insurance and why I will continue to patronize a store, even if there is a chance the order will be wrong. I know they will replace my meal.
Sounds like something you have may well have given a bit of thought to…
Because that is what I order… I didn’t know about that whole universal size and price thing you mention.
Cite? My research is that McDonald’s charges $1.29 for Medium Fries… so I’m off by $0.29 and you are off by $0.30… I WIN AGAIN!!!
Sure, what is a 110 times increase between friends?
I would so love to see you try to pull off this scam. Wait… I’m being serious here… I’m sure this happens all the time, and it makes your 110 times increase in complaints so much more reasonable.
No, I’ve won twice… remember?
Who brought up Taco Bell? How much are their fries?
I’m pretty sure with a “regular” customer like you they would actually prefer this.
Yup… you have it figured out… and you are proud of it… you go dude!
Anyway, I’m a patient guy (probably why I don’t complain so much)… so I’ll just wait until you have a chance to review those six posts and tell me if you lied… sorry, were mistaken in your comment.
Then we’ll move on to the next comment that seems to be in question… or we can just continue to dance around the facts.
And don’t feel you have to critique the Chinchilla comments… I just pulled those out of my ass (God, I’m killing myself here)
My God, you people care too much.
Here’s a hint: fast food is fucking killing you.
Being alive is guaranteed fatal. 
Naw… one of us is having fun.
Just for fun: very limited research has shown that a large fries contains only about 14 more actual fries than a medium; in one case, a large contained only 1 more fry than a medium. Just so you know what the extra 50 cents actually gets you.
I heard back from Taco Bell. I got a form letter and a coupon for a free (except for grande) menu item.
Clearly you didn’t do it right or you would have also had free nachos (or whatever is equivalent to fries) and a Coke… since after all it was all ruined. Try harder when you complain in two weeks.
Anyway, I kind of feel bad that I forgot there was an actual question at the start of this thread. Pretty much the resolution I would have expected.
Mods… I don’t know why this guy rubbed me so wrong (not the OP, the other guy) and I promise I’ll drop it after this.
I can give you some really good advice about complaining directly. Never complain BEFORE you get your food and never eat any food you receive as “compensation” for a complaint . You don’t think your food will receive “special treatment” ? It happens every day. Believe that !
But. . But. . Do you know shit from, aw never mind.
Your responses to him were hilarious.
Ah Spud, just fed my little dog some comped burgers for her Friday night feast from McDonald’s. Had coupons and such from complaints since they didn’t honor all their drive thru contracts from this week. Have you had any luck in lobbying Congress to end these ‘handouts’ for the more vocal consumers?
Only complained once, and it wasn’t about food. Couple years ago we were in a certain fast-food chain restaurant with a Mexican name, and before ordering we went to the ladies’ room down a short corridor. It had rained a lot the day before. As we walked back toward the restaurant area, I trod on one of those black “safety” mats placed at a side entrance. Suddenly my feet went out from under me and I was on the floor before I could take any preventive measures. I hurt my wrist and knee when I fell.
It was their bad: A big puddle of rainwater had seeped in the door, but was completely hidden by that mat. Instead of mopping it up, they had just tossed the mat on top in hopes that would provide safety. Quite to the contrary; I hydroplaned. Well, the manager, a young woman who had immigrated from Latin America, was terribly apologetic and frightened that I would get her in trouble. There was no charge for our burritos that day. She was very solicitous toward me, hoping I wouldn’t turn her in. She gave me her card and told me to call her to let her know if I was all right. I declined a trip to the hospital.
When I got home and that evening spoke with her on the phone, I decided to let it slide (hmm, probably not the best choice of words in this context). We’d gotten our free meal, my wrist was better within a couple weeks, my knee hadn’t been hurt much. I thought of the life of immigrants struggling to make a living in this country, just like my grandparents once did, how the young woman had risen to manager so early in her career but now risked ruination because of one slip-up, and most of all, she seemed genuinely conscientious and was so scared by what happened, I expected she would take the abrupt safety lesson to heart and never allow customers to be endangered like that again. And that was that. (We haven’t been back there since, though.) Did I make the right decision? I think so.