The eggs that John West rejected
Mikey 10 comments
I am usually not one to complain. Well that's not entirely true. Anyone who knows me knows I can not tolerate bad service, and I make a habit of letting the offending party know when they are letting me down. Case in point: McDonald's restaurant.
Bad service comes in many forms, and while I do not expect a pimply faced teenager on minimum wage to take a personal interest in the temperature and circumference of my Hot Cakes, I still do not except the service of a parallel dimensioned third world country. And there are times when the service is so bad that you simply have to sit back and admire the lack of even trying; as if it were a orchestared work of art.
If there were ever award ceremonies for worst customer service in the fast food industry, the McDonalds restaurant near my house would have cleaned up in all categories for their performance on Saturday February 4th 2006.
While I and seven other people waited seven minutes in line (yes, that's seven) before my order was eventually taken, I observed what can only be described as a catastrophic disaster of management and resource allocation.
During three of those seven minutes, with only one person taking orders, I observed a staff member do nothing more than scratch his testicles on two occasions while staring in the general direction of the kitchen, and while in plain site of the 'Manager'. I could only conclude having a staff member available to scratch his privates in plain sight must be some new motivational technique. Despite that I could not help but think that resource should have been assigned to taking orders from the angry mob in line.
When I did eventually hear the soul breaking "can I take your order please", I made it clear that I intended to eat in the restaurant with my family this year. And when our breakfast finally did arrive an additional 12 minutes later, the "Big Breakfast" had the equivalent of three spoonfuls of what can only be described as the eggs that John West rejected.
I returned the 'meal' and asked the testicle scratcher "Can you see anything wrong with this picture?" to which he conceded bad preparation on their part, and that a new one would be bought over to our table soon.
A further 11 minutes had passed when I decided to ask the Manager WTF is my breakfast. Somehow she must have known I was upset (perhaps it was the steam coming out of my ears) because she apologised and said she would bring it over personally soon. Another seven minutes passed before they delivered a meal that actually looked better than the preset display photo they have on the menus. Perhaps the testicle scratching motivational technique does work.
But I did walk away having gained something, and I don't mean a higher cholesterol count. I learned that even the restaurants at the bottom of the food chain (pun intended) are capable of redeeming themselves with nothing more than a "we are very sorry for the delay". If only that had happened.
Mike
Monday 6th February 2006 | 10:08 AMHe he yeah I wish they were under staffed - but that did not look like the case at all. There were plenty of staff. We have been there during busier times and been served faster. I am certain it was a case of badly allocated resources. When you have a long angry line of people, the best thing you can do is take thier orders as quickly as possible. Having only 1 person on the till is pretty slack and sends a message that they don't care.
flugen
Monday 6th February 2006 | 11:57 AMROFL :-P cant believe the guy was scratching his nuts in front of everyone. Not hand down his trousers I hope. At least you got your food. once we waited so long we left before our food was ready so we went to hjs instead.
=o^ o=
Monday 6th February 2006 | 12:29 PMoh my that is hilarious! how could have not been larfing?! i havnt been to mcdonalds in years.
flugen
Monday 6th February 2006 | 03:17 PMi hope you go back again give em a seond and see what happens".
By my calculations he already gave them 2220 seconds (37 minutes) and thats unaccpetable in any business. Anyone ntoice how fast food used to be about getting a quick cheap meal, and now it's the complete opposite. Its rarely quick and we have been known to spend around 20 or 30 dollars in one sitting for a few people. If we did that every night for a week that would cost near 4 times what the dinner allocation of our food shopping bill normally is.
andrew
Monday 6th February 2006 | 11:41 PMyep fast food ain't that fast anymore...late last year i went to the local kfc drive thru and waited 10mins or so and it was not busy, only one car in front of us..
laise-e-boi
Thursday 9th February 2006 | 12:57 AMi will never be able to eat a big mac again without thinking someone might have rubbed thier balls before preparing my food. :-P
andrew
Thursday 9th February 2006 | 01:13 AMif only you knew what goes on behind closed kitchen doors!!!
Sam
Monday 13th February 2006 | 12:54 PMMust have to say this made me chuckle - reminded me of the long dark and extremely curly pubic hair that we found in my daughter's burger from, no less than..... you guessed it .... MacDonalds (but in UK!!!) Perhaps this nut scratcher was an english backpacker?! - that could possibly explain it, haha! We also got a "very sorry madame" and a replacement burger, that i hasten to add, she didn't eat and don't think she has ever eaten there since!
Fonzie
Tuesday 28th February 2006 | 02:35 AMService? What IS service? I mean, the nut-scratcher was servicing himself, he was servicing the waiting line by keeping them amused, and was servicing the manager by giving him/her someone to yell at!
I too dislike bad service, but I'm unfortunately likely to say 'hey, you wouldn't mind taking a little longer, would you? My food's cold, and my drink's warm. Wrong way around, don't you think?
I was at Sorrento Quay on the weekend, and we ordered fish n chips from the busy fish n chip joint, which very quickly (5 - 10 mins, i guess) served me my deep-fried goodness wrapped in paper. No problems. However, a friend made the oh-so hazardous mistake of ordering the grilled fish. We waited at least 25 - 30 minutes (real time), and by the time they called his number (after asking twice) the chips had been sitting for probably 10 or 15 of those 30 minutes. Stone cold. It took them about 2 minutes (again, real time) to get him a fresh lot. But, of course, we've told as many people as we see fit. Nice fish, but a wait that cost him too much. At least he had the decencyu to let the manager know how bad the service was. As loud as possible. But in very gentle language.
andrew
Monday 6th February 2006 | 01:02 AMso mike i hope you go back again give em a seond and see what happens...they could have been short staffed etc
and you never know the testicle scratcher may be on............