Fast food drive thru error - WWYD?

[mster425]

The worst was a few weeks ago I was at Mc Donald's getting food for the kids and ordered a few hamburgers and two fruit and yogurt parfaits. I paid at the first window, then drove up to the second window to get the food. They handed me a bag with all the hamburgers, said "have a nice day" and closed the window. I knocked on the window and told the lady I was missing the parfaits. She said, "I'm sorry, we're out of those tonight" and was about to close the window again! I told her I had paid for them and she said, "I know." I asked her if I could get my money back, and she said no but I could substitute for two small drinks, which I did.

That infuriates me just reading about it.

I worked at McD's in college and they absolutely can give you your money back. I know it's a minor in the grand scheme of life but I would have gotten caught up in the moment and parked the car to let a manager have it.

OP, I'd just eat it. I always check but my DH never does so when he is nice enough to bring me food it is often wrong. As long as it isn't something I hate or can't eat, I suck it up.

 

[dislaney]

I'd probably just eat it if it was something I liked at all.

 

[disneyfans95]

I check my bags before I leave so I don't have that issue. However given your situation and being starving, I would have eaten it as well.

lol you are the one I am yelling at behind you in the drive thru

honestly though, I have seen people with huge (as in $45 orders, you know how you see what the person ahead of you picked if you pull up fast) that then pick thru each item before they leave.

If you are doing that, just go inside and watch them load the bags up front.

Totally OT, I know

 

[momof1princess]

i always check the order before i leave the parking lot, and if it's incorrect, i go in and show it to the person at the counter, along with my order receipt, and get the right order. i had to get in the habit of this b/c DH is EXTREMELY picky about what he eats on a hamburger, and if there's anything touching his food that he doesn't eat, he'll throw it away. ketchup and mayo (which i love) are gag-worthy in his eyes. *sigh*

 

[MushyMushy]

I'll let little things like that go, especially if what I get is something I'll eat. But bigger things, I'll typically call them and explain. Nine times out of ten, they'll send me a coupon for something of equal value free in the mail.

 

[ReneeA]

Mutter an expletive, eat it and be on my way.

Save your energy for the bigger battles.

Me, too.

 

[Elmo9607]

I simply refuse to go through any drive thru, anywhere, anytime, for anything more complicated than a beverage. I don't care if it is 100 degrees or -20, I WILL go inside and order my food.

I am very picky when it comes to what I get on hamburgers and such (I HATE ketchup, mustard, mayo, onions...basically every standard hamburger condiment) and I just don't trust the people to get my order right. Even my breakfast order at McDonald's has modifications to it. I always order my cheeseburgers "plain". As in, all I want on them is meat, cheese, and bread.

I also happened to work on a drive thru for 8 months in high school. It was at an Arby's. I know how it works, and I know that the vast majority of the time, the order will probably be correct. But I just can't bring myself to do it. No drive thru, anywhere. Not even at an Arby's

 

[grafxgirl]

I was an assistant manager for McDonald's for 4 years. Of course, this was 17 years ago!!!

My advice would be to call the store, and let them know what you ordered, what you got instead, and that you were in no position to turn around and get a replacement sandwich so you ate it anyway.

As a manager, I used to take the person's name down, and write up a quick note to the other managers letting them know the situation and post it in the office. We would offer the person a free sandwich on their next visit.

 

[grafxgirl]

lol you are the one I am yelling at behind you in the drive thru

honestly though, I have seen people with huge (as in $45 orders, you know how you see what the person ahead of you picked if you pull up fast) that then pick thru each item before they leave.

If you are doing that, just go inside and watch them load the bags up front.

Totally OT, I know

I usually check mine too, but I pull into an empty parking space so the drive-thru can continue to move. When I worked for McDonald's in the drive-thru the one thing that irked me were people that would stay at the window to check those massively large orders and back up the rest of the cars, because I was the one that would get yelled at by the other customers as to what was taking so long.

 

[MM27]

I check my bags before I leave so I don't have that issue. However given your situation and being starving, I would have eaten it as well.

This

 

[bumbershoot]

For a few years we were getting meatless mcmuffins. And around 1/4 of the time they'd give us meat. We weren't going to eat those, so we definitely would take them back (not GIVE them back until we had another, of course, not wanting them to just take the meat off).

Biscuits, muffins, I can't eat either. What I can't stand is sugar in my coffee. My typical Dunkin Donuts order for coffee is, "Coconut coffee, cream only, light, no sugar. Now and then I circle back around the drive thru and hand it back to them.

Have you tried not mentioning sugar at all? I would think that it would confuse them, to *hear* sugar at all. Obviously most of them are hearing the "no", but I would think you could get to 99.99% correct if you just left out the word altogether.

The worst was a few weeks ago I was at Mc Donald's getting food for the kids and ordered a few hamburgers and two fruit and yogurt parfaits. I paid at the first window, then drove up to the second window to get the food. They handed me a bag with all the hamburgers, said "have a nice day" and closed the window. I knocked on the window and told the lady I was missing the parfaits. She said, "I'm sorry, we're out of those tonight" and was about to close the window again! I told her I had paid for them and she said, "I know." I asked her if I could get my money back, and she said no but I could substitute for two small drinks, which I did.

"Hello, management? Hello, corporate? I need to tell you about one of your stores...."

 

[mickeysgal]

I've gotten into the habit of always checking.
It HAS gotten worse and worse. They always (and I mean 100% of the time, honestly) forget the straws at our Wendy's.

The worst was a few weeks ago I was at Mc Donald's getting food for the kids and ordered a few hamburgers and two fruit and yogurt parfaits. I paid at the first window, then drove up to the second window to get the food. They handed me a bag with all the hamburgers, said "have a nice day" and closed the window. I knocked on the window and told the lady I was missing the parfaits. She said, "I'm sorry, we're out of those tonight" and was about to close the window again! I told her I had paid for them and she said, "I know." I asked her if I could get my money back, and she said no but I could substitute for two small drinks, which I did.

I would have thrown it into park and let the line form behind me. I'd sit there until they refunded me. That's infuriating.

It frustrates me that some places have so old of a speaker system that they can't hear you and you can't hear them. If I suspect they didn't get the order straight I ask them to repeat it when I pull around with the money.

 

[GJM]

This just happen to me yesterday, my DS likes cheeseburgers - Ketchup only! This is how I order them, 2 cheeseburgers, ketchup only -

Drive home give him his cheeseburger, he takes a bite and goes and spits it out! It had mustard, onions, pickles & ketchup on it. Now McD's is not that close to my house to go back, I tried scrapping everything off, but he could still taste the onion. The burgers went in the garbage!

 

[Jennasis]

My McDonald's is usually pretty good, but it does seem like the only time they mess up my order is when I am in a super hurry, a bad mood, or starving...and for the person who had a problem with the use of the word STARVING, it is a figure of speech, get over it.

Anyhoo...One time they mistook my Quarter Pounder for a Filet O' Fish (barf), so I wheeled around and drove back (about 5 miles) to rectify the situation. The funny thing is, while I was standing at the counter waiting for the manager, another lady was also there with the exact same problem I was having...except she had a Quarter Pounder instead of the filet o'fish she wanted. When we realized we had each others orders, we laughed and went to exchange bags, but the manager freaked out and made us give the bags back and gave us fresh orders.

I guess they were worried we might be poisoning each other.

 

[C.Ann]

I havent seen this one asked, but Im sure its been asked a hundred times. Went through the McDs drive thru this weekend and ordered a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. Got a minute down the road, unwrapped my sandwich and it turned out to be an egg mcmuffin instead. I was starving and wolfed it down anyways. I was really annoyed but there were bigger battles to fight so I just let it be. What would you do?

If I liked egg McMmuffins, I wouldn't do anything.. Just eat it and continue on my way.. Something as minor as that wouldn't be worth a hassle for me..

 

[SandrA9810]

What good does it do at that point? You don't have the sandwich or the receipt.

Well in California, there was one time when some one didn't check under all the napkins to notice the hash brown. I had already gone back inside and asked for one. Down the road a bit, mystery hash brown appeared, so on our way home I stopped by to say "hey, i made the mistake, can I pay for it?"

When I was living in Orlando, we went to the same McD's every morning, and the same lady took our order every day. Once or twice they'd forget to toss in the cream cheese with my bagel, so the following morning I'd let the lady know, and she wouldn't charge me for the cream cheese but still give it to me.

 

[pixiewings71]

You know, we have this problem so much that when we go thru the drive thru we check the bags before we leave the drive thru. I could care less if the person/people behind me get upset because we take 30 seconds to check our bags. I have a child who is very picky, even if it's McD's I'm NOT throwing away food just because they messed up the order. It seems like when we check our order is perfect but when we don't it's seriously messed up so we just check.

However, if for whatever reason we did not check and I got something I would still eat then I'd just eat it and not worry about it, if it was something I did not like I would have to decide if I had time to go back or not. If I did have time I would absolutely go back, if not I'd struggle thru it. Of course if it was a fish sandwich I would just forget it, no way can I eat the nasty fish there. lol

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

If the mistake yields something Ill eat then I eat it. But if it yields something I wont I go back. I have allergies so I tend to be check but when I forget and its wrong Ill take it back i never go anywhere too far from home thankfully

Same here. Due to food allergies I usually can't just eat whatever they put in there. The past visit to Wendy's and Steak N Shake they both forgot to but BACON on the Bacon Cheeseburger!

And YES about Wendy's and the straws. I used to grab extras when I would go inside to keep in the car because every time we would go through the drive thru they would forget the straws.

 

[camlace]

Biscuits, muffins, I can't eat either. What I can't stand is sugar in my coffee. My typical Dunkin Donuts order for coffee is, "Coconut coffee, cream only, light, no sugar. Now and then I circle back around the drive thru and hand it back to them.

I do the same thing and it drives my husband CRAZY...but I just cannot drink coffee with sugar in it...DISGUSTING! I am so bad once when he went to DD for me I specifically told him to go inside and watch them make the coffee to be sure there was no sugar...he chose to do the drive thru and didn't check the coffee...I sent him back when he got home to get me a properly made coffee

 

[Heidict]

This just happen to me yesterday, my DS likes cheeseburgers - Ketchup only! This is how I order them, 2 cheeseburgers, ketchup only -

Drive home give him his cheeseburger, he takes a bite and goes and spits it out! It had mustard, onions, pickles & ketchup on it. Now McD's is not that close to my house to go back, I tried scrapping everything off, but he could still taste the onion. The burgers went in the garbage!

I ordered the same thing once for my daughter. Apparently CHEESEburger with ketchup only is code for leave off the cheese. Don't they have enough brain cells to know that if I didn't want cheese I would have ordered a hamburger instead of a cheeseburger?