Dear McDonalds - It's ON!

I have had a love/hate relationship with the McDonalds Corporation for most of my adulthood.  I stopped eating fast food for a solid year and a half when I was a senior in college and beyond, and I think I'm about to take this on again.  It's bad enough I'm pretty much disgusted with the "food" that the fast food industry sells to Americans and I honestly believe McDonalds is one of the worst offenders, but my recent boycott actually has to do with the employees that work at McDonalds.

Here is what I have considered writing to their CEO:

Open Letter to the McDonalds Corporation...

Dear Mr. Skinner:

From this day forward, the McDonalds Corporation will not be receiving another penny of the Griffin family's money.  My most recent experience at your location on Leesville Road in Raleigh, NC, was enough to permanently irritate me into boycotting your company once and for all.  It's bad enough that you constantly bombard my children with advertisements for your Happy Meals and your overprocessed pancakes, but this time you really pissed me off.  I went through the drive thru on a Saturday afternoon to get an ice cream cone for my son who had just finished playing soccer.  We ordered two ice cream cones and a large Coke, light on the ice.  When I received my order, the cup I received with the soda was HALF FULL.  I have ordered my sodas this way for probably 5 years and have never ever had this problem before.  I personally don't like an entire cup of HUGE pieces of ice in my drink.  I actually want to drink the drink, not have 2 ounces of soda and entire cup of ice (for $1.39, mind you).  When I handed your employee the cup back and asked her if she could actually fill it up, she rolled her eyes at me and said "No, the drinks are dispensed by a machine."  I then inquired as to why she even worked there if she couldn't see that the cup that she was handing me was half full?  "Irene" (as her nametag said) squirted a little more Coke into the cup and handed it back to me with a smirk on her face.  "Happy now?" she asked me.  The look of shock on my face must have given her the answer she was looking for.   Irene shut the drive thru window and that was that.

Oh no it wasn't.  I sat in the drive thru refusing to move until Irene got the manager to come to the window.  "I'm not going ANYWHERE" I told her.  "Get your manager NOW."  The manager that came to the window could hardly speak English.  She attempted to apologize for Irene's behavior.  I asked for HER to fill up my cup of soda and she did, then promptly handed it back to me and said "I apologize.  Thank you."  I was not satisfied with this.  I asked the manager for the name of the Franchise owner, his phone number or email address and their store location.  This was by no means over.  I intend to call the franchise owner directly to let him know what happened and I will never buy another thing from this company again.

Now it's bad enough that this woman in the drive thru tried to be a jerk over ICE, but this is not an isolated incident with the McDonalds Corporation.  I constantly have problems with the lack of customer service in your organization.  Here are my recommendations for your company moving forward:

1.  DO NOT have someone working in the drive thru if they cannot speak appropriate and intelligible ENGLISH.  I am all for diversity, but for the love of GOD, no one can understand what they are saying.  It's unfair to your customers to not be understood or to not understand what someone is saying back to us in the drive thru.  I know it must be frustrating to your employees too - they are doing their best to earn a living, provide for their families etc, but if they can't speak well, then don't let them work in the drive thru.

2.  Please do not assume that your customers don't have CHOICES in where they dine.  Do you really think your company is the only one out there serving hamburgers?  Or what you pass off as chicken nuggets?  Granted, you have a corner on the McGriddle and Filet o Fish, but I have plenty of choices of what to feed my kids when I need to feed them quickly.

3.  Teach your employees MANNERS.  Every time I order something at McDonalds, I am never told thank you by the cashier.  When I order at the drive thru - no "thank you".  When I give your employee my money - NEVER a "thank you" uttered.  In fact, I tell THEM thank you on purpose to make my point. When I'm handed my food.... you get the picture.  When I go through the drive thru at Chic Fil A, they are practically falling all over themselves to say "My Pleasure!" and smiling at us.  In fact, the manager even comes around to say hello and to thank us for coming in when we're in the dining room.  What a novel concept!

Until I see any drastic changes in how you run your company and how your employees behave, I will not be patronizing your establishments.  I don't see this changing any time soon.  You have lost a customer and there's not a whole lot you will do to get me back.  But that's OK, I'm sure there are plenty of Americans left for your employees to irritate and upset.

Sincerely,

Carrie A. Griffin