McDonald's — Restaurant in Clarington

Grew up in bowmanville and visited this McDonalds many times, pre- and post-renovation. It was always fine, but drive thru a bit slow sometimes and orders occasionally incorrect - nothing you don't experience at every other McDonalds anyways.

Was in town for Christmas and my family had decided to order on Christmas eve. The app listed them as open and let me place an order, so we placed our order and I drove over to pick up. Marked myself as arrived for curbside pickup and waited about 5 minutes, at which point 3 girls came out and told me that they were closed now and they couldn't make my order. I asked when they had closed and they said 6. (My order was placed at 6:30, and this was around 6:45. The app still listed them as open.)

A bit frustrating, but oh well. It was Christmas eve so I cut my losses and went back home. Upon arriving home, I opened the app to cancel the order and saw a brief "picked up" screen. Order disappeared after that and strangely wasn't sent a receipt either as I usually would be. No option to cancel.

I checked my bank account and sure enough the charge had gone through. I emailed Mcdonalds and was just told the feedback would be shared and to issue a chargeback as they didn't have the "system capabilities" to refund. I let it sit in case a refund was going to come through but when it didn't 2 weeks later I contacted my bank. No one from the restaurant contacted me in this time.

Now, after 3 weeks I am still fighting my bank to get the money back because it was on a Visa Debit and not a standard credit card, which complicates the chargeback process. Not only did my time get wasted on Christmas eve because the restaurant doesn't update their hours on the app, I've now also spent close to two hours on holds with the bank to try to get the money back when it shouldn't have even been taken in the...

I really want to give this place 1 star… but also 5 stars. This place is terrible during peak hours. It’s mainly the wait times because it is so busy ( I’ve waiting up to 45 minutes at curbside). I’ve been getting take out from here occasionally for about 7 years and only a couple times was there an error in what I received and they happily mailed me gift cards for meal replacements.

The review…

I honestly think there needs to be a second stand alone McDonald’s in Bowmanville (I hear we may be getting one). With all the ways we have to order (mobile for take out, dine in, table service, curbside) plus drive through and old fashioned “may I take your order” at the counter it has made it faster than ever to place an order. However this also means the kitchen is receiving orders at a faster pace than their capacity can produce in peak hours.

That time we used to stand in a line up (or big crowd) trying to fight our way to the 6 people taking orders is now replaced with added time waiting after we place the order. It makes it feel like it is taking longer when in reality the entire process is probably close to the same.

Be kind to the people that work there, as stressed as you may be waiting for your food, you get to dink around on your phone while they run themselves off their feet trying to keep up with a constant flow of orders.

If you don’t have the time you may want to take a drive across the street to the one in the Walmart. But you may have to…. walk a bit…

Also, I see a lot of reviews about messed up orders. Some even give one star and say “the one time I didn’t check”… did they get it right every other time??? I hope your boss gives you a 1 star on your yearly review and only bring up the one time you messed up. Call the store and they will replace the entire...

UPDATE: June 14th , another order another missing meal via Food Delivery Service. This location is an absolute joke. I can't believe in 2023, Food orders are constantly messed up yet everybody wants $15 an hour min wage. How hard is it to check off an itemized receipt. beyond frustrated

UPDATE: April 24th. Missing two sandwiches from our breakfast order. Unbelievable.

This location is absolutely awful..Every single time we go our order is wrong. The service is a joke basically 20mins per order and You get the illusion that they aren't busy when the drive-thru is completely empty, but they push everyone to the side and make you wait for someone to bring your cold food out in a basket.

Today, order breakfast. waited 25 minutes. get home completely wrong order.. what I was walking out with my food. somebody was walking in with the wrong food as well.

as soon as I walked in with my bag the manager or somebody at the door knew exactly what the issue was.... because it appears it happens quite often. I've been to this location multiple times and seeing the managers yelling at the staff. customers yelling at the managers because everything is wrong. This location is a joke. I don't know if it's a management problem or a culture problem within this specific location where the staff just don't care. I don't know.

I really hope the owners in the managers see this. I really hope for corporate office sees this review and actually takes a hard look at what they're doing with this location and what they want to be known for. I've seen the star reviews on Google drop from in the high threes or fours to almost twos.

You guys might be making money with this business model but you're not doing a very good job doing it and eventually people will...