I went for a McDonalds breakfast this morning. There is a drive-thru near my work, and I started work earlier than usual, so I skipped my porridge and decided instead to go for a cheeky fast food hit. I avoided the McMuffin, dripping with grease and loveliness, and decided to go for some pancakes and syrup with my usual Maccy D’s cappucino.
Now, I thought this was one of the accepted meal combos, but it turns out they tak this as two separate orders. If I had ordered the savoury pancakes, which come with sausage (a very odd combo in my mind) then this would indeed have been one of their discounted breakfast meals. However ordered in my way, they wanted £3.28 from me. I enquired as to why it was this price, and was told of my oversight.
The guy working behind the glass must have been in his fifties. He sighed loudly when I asked if my order was part of the breakfast combos, as if I were asking him if McDonalds sold ornamental cats. He then gestured towards the menu like a teenager in a bad mood, but I let this all pass as I had remembered that I had a full coffee loyalty card in my wallet. Sadly the full coffee loyalty card, that leads to a free cup of medium sized coffee, has become somewhat of a highlight in my sad existence, so I was willing to forgive the rudeness of this chap and slap him back into his place with my freebie.
He had other plans.
If the behaviour he demonstrated following my incorrect assumptions about the McDonalds breakfasts was churlish, the behaviour following my production of the free coffee card, at this late stage of negotiations was unbelievable. I handed him that card, and said I’d just be paying for pancakes then… He laughed, “No” he replied. He was laughing as he said this. I asked if I was too late to use it… “Just a bit” he said, shaking his head. Honestly, you’d swear I had asked him to shit me a golden egg. I couldn’t believe this guy’s attitude.
“In Future” he said to me, as though he were a school teacher berating me for forgetting my homework, “It may be better to produce this little voucher before you order, to avoid confusion”. What a prick! This guy was on a serious power trip, working behind a little screen at McDonalds drive-thru. It was insane.
What happened to “Have a nice day”, and the American style of service that McDonalds was founded on… I don’t really need an excuse to leave McDonalds, but I think this might be it… Maccy D’s is on the list!
