McDonald's, I'm Not Loving It!

I work second shift, so if I'm exhausted and hungry after work and
don't want to make food, I have limited options--McD's being the only
one on my way home. They usually do a pretty good job, but often
forget one thing, or over-ice my "easy ice" diet soda.

I actually commend you for leaving when given attitude at the
drive-thru, I probably would have sucked it up and stayed, just to
avoid more hassle.

Most of the replies say ice is cheap...well it is! It's the cups that
cost money. I was in the food service industry for a while...worked on
midnights where the majority of my customers were drunk coming from
the bars...boy was that fun! Anyway, there is never a good reason to
be rude or obnoxious to a customer...key word here..CUSTOMER...the one
who if you don't please take away money...MONEY THAT PAYS YOUR SALARY!
Customer service and customer abuse are not the same thing. They are
even in different parts of the alphabet. Mistakes are human, having a
bad day is human...consistently having a "bad day" means that you
should be working in an office of (1) with no telephone. The
restaurant business is a CUSTOMER SERVICE industry....service to the
customer. There also were a few suggestions about going to other
places instead...if you were a business owner and it were your money
that was being driven away would you make this same suggestion or
might you just decide that employees who come in constant contact with
your paying customers need a higher level of training and monitoring?
It's your money that pays these people so in effect you are paying
someone to be rude to you and to give you things you don't want. Do
you really need to pay someone to do that to/for you?

This always happens to me with the iced tea...it's so frutrating. The
tea is always warm with a few slivers of ice. When I politely ask if
they could dump a little out and put some more ice in there, they
always act as if I had perhaps asked them to drive to my house and
prepare a gourmet meal for me, and then maybe do my laundry, too. I
get an incredulous look and a giant sigh before they reluctantly add
some more ice. This happens at every McDonald's I go to. Maybe after
the tea is brewed, they could remove it from the..uh, the brewing
machine (I don't know if there's a word for it!) and put it into some
sort of cooler container.

they can go and get a better job than one where people don't take
their daily agressions out on a stranger with a colored vest on. A lot
of people on here have worked as CSRs and know that there are 2 sides
to the story and 75% of the time the customer is lying to get what
they want.
Years ago I had a lady with a broken arm explode on me during a normal
conversation one morning about her account, and when she left my DSM
(wuss) came out of a back room and tried to work me over asking what I
did wrong. Another customer standing there told him I was being very
nice and helpful to the broken arm lady, but he still gave me a hard
time.
This lady came back at 5:00 that same day and asked for the manager.
She came out a short while later and apologized to me profusely and
said she was really stressed and her arm was really hurting that
morning and she snapped at me for no reason and really felt bad all
day. I appreciated that but I also know this type of situation
happened once or twice EVERY DAY, without anyone else EVER coming back
to apologize. On top of that, if the DSM had not been there when she
came back to apologize, he never would have known or cared.
When customers get out of hand they may go to the competition but I
bet 70% of them just go back and forth because they are always rude
and always think that customer service is lacking. Truth be told, a
lot of times companies are better off shedding crack-pot customers
because the cost of doing business with them eats up profits in a
hurry.
From now on, maybe you should understand there are two sides to every
story. I would bet my pay check that on the one order the person
taking the order went to press "1" for the number of iced teas and
accidently touched the "3" and before she could correct it had 2 old
hens screaming in the speaker that she was wrong and stupid and they
always get it wrong...., and pissed the employee off.
Just think, if the customers go elsewhere and these people lose their
jobs and the company goes out of business the customers actually lose
because they will have no where to go to get their iced tea and will
actually have to make it for themselves.

So true.

I read an article years ago that said "the cusotmer is always right"
philosophy of doing business has completely damaged customer service
as a whole. It has created high turnover in customer service positions
(due to the stress), it has made managers powerless to do their job
effectively, and, worse yet, it has turned many customers into
arrogant jerks by rewarding bad behavior.

The author of the article said he has no problem tossing out an
abusive, unruly customer out of his store. He said the customer may
tell 10 people about the service, but he'd rather have less business
with good, loyal customers than more business with abusive ones.

Really.......you have choices or do you just like to complain about
the same thing over and over again? That makes no sense. Where
there's a McD's.....there's usually a Wendi's, Burger King, Dairy
Queen, Jack in the Box, etc. close by. They're like banks. They are
all around each other on opposite corners of the streets. That's just
how it works. And their weird thing is, it's your friends issue, not
yours. Why didn't she write the letter? I really don't get this one
at all. Must love to complain, that's all I can figure out (mumbling
to myself as I meander down the hallway of life....must love to
complain! Amen....always something wrong, mumble, mumble, mumble)

Putting more ice in a beverage is cheaper for the restaurant than
putting in more beverage, so the letter writer's friend actually was
doing something that was beneficial for the McDonalds. This letter
does not ask for freebies or any compensation; rather, it documents a
problem in a calm and polite manner of how customers are treated
poorly and how orders are not being completed properly. In my
opinion, the letter writer has done nothing to deserve any attack.

Melissa, I agree completely with your letter. I'm the opposite of
your friend, I hate ice in my drink. HATE it. Ugh. *sorry...
thinking about ice in my cup... shudders* The cost of ice is so
ridiculously low. When I worked fast food occasionally we had to
empty the ice maker to clean it out and we threw an insane amount down
the drain. Much of which was there since the last time we cleaned the
thing because we never made it more than half way down. There is no
reason other than laziness for not loading her cup up with ice. As
far as the attitude goes, I often experience this on the rare occasion
that I use the drive thru late at night. I have worked night shift
before so I certainly understand what they are feeling... but you
still just have to put on that fake smile and make it through a shift.
While I doubt you'll hear back, I hope you do.

I am sure that the McDonald's employees in your neighborhood will be
very relieved to hear that you are not going back. No, I'm serious!

Writing a complaint letter, because your friend is mad that her ice
cup is not big enough? Don;t you fill your ice yourself anyway?
Seriously, get your priorities straight, and tell your FRIEND to write
a complaint letter which will get ignored because people get tired of
other people who get free stuff, but don't think it's good enough.
Sad Sad Sad.

I would stick with Burger King, but don't make a big deal of the ice
they are going out of the way to give you the free ice. Asking for
more of something that you get for free which they don't normally do
is not a good idea. And while everyone makes mistakes, it sounds like
the cashier was blaming you for the mistake and was rude about her
mistake. If you were making a big fuzz about her making a mistake
then I can understand her attutide because you were expecting her to
be perfect. If you were polite to her then she should not have gotton
mad at you for her mistake.

Also you can try making your own sandwiches. I don't think it is a
good idea to go to Mcdonalds twice a week.(unless you are just getting
drinks and salad). They probably know your car and face by now:D
Maybe that cashier knows you and your friend well and is glaring at
you because of your friend's ice demands everytime she goes. Ice
isn't free for them so take what they give.

it is only ice...they could have given it to her and not have been
rude...

also we have no idea if the OP had made the request sound more like a
demand and thus was treated in kind.

I think this is a reasonable complaint. While it's fine you provided
feedback, I agree with MA Loper below: it's best just to write this
location off.

Maybe they don't WANT to give out a large cup of ice. I mean, that
seems to be the message they're sending.

I have to wonder.. do these OPs ever talk to the manager about the
issue? Or just resort to this website?

If your friend went inside, the beverages are often self-serve and she
could get as much ice as she wanted....

I'm not sure what to make of this one. While your friend asked for
extra ice, as you pointed out yourself, the tea is brewed. It's very
likely that it was chock full of ice and it melted. Simple rule of
physics that they can't possibly control.

I understand being disappointed about asking repeatedly for something
and not being able to get it, but as the manager pointed out - it was
an accident. Is it really worth the effort? There are plenty of
other McDonald's around and maybe it's time to write this one off.

This complaint is primarily about an iced tea issue that has boiled
over.

To get this upset that only a kiddie cup of ice is being supplied
(instead of a larger amount) I think is over the top. After all, they
are going the extra step of giving additional ice. Why have a
coronary that it is 10 pieces of *extra* ice instead of 20?

My guess is the employee in question in the latest incident is either
1) tired of hearing from you two about ice or 2) received quite an
earful when the order was wrong.

You aren't asking for any free meals? Well, how nice of you. Do you
think you in any way deserve free meals? So you are leaving this
location because they don't supply a biggie ice with their iced tea.
I don't think this store is going to miss you.

"Please train your employees..."

Even when accompanied with a valid complaint, this phrase is starting
to bug me more than anything.
It's just below 'The customer is always right' on the growing list of
PHRASES MOST LIKELY TO GET AN EYE ROLL and just above "I pay your
salary!".

Your Bowels will thank you later. If you really want quick food at a
reasonable price from great employees... seek out a chik-fil-a!