McDonald's — Restaurant in England

Had to put 1 star as couldn't put 0. Absolutely appalling service. Ordered through the app, and went to collect via drive thru. Received drinks and mcflurry was told to wait in the bays and the rest of our order would be brought to us.

We pulled around, cars were already parked in the bays so we parked next to them. We then waited HALF AN HOUR. During that time, everyone else who went through the drive thru was getting told to wait in the bays, the car park was already full and was creating chaos. One person parked at the end of the drive thu because there was no spaces. There was about 8 other cars at least that had waited 30 minutes like us.

Nothing against the just eat / uber eats drivers at all. However, they were arriving and departing with full orders before we had received our order. At the finish us and another couple who had also been waiting upwards of 30 mins. Went inside, the manager was stood at the front door. We complained him about our orders and wait time and he took us to the front counter. Inside was about 15 delivery drivers also waiting for orders and there was about 4 other people sat on tables. The manager then verifed our order and refunded us. At no point did he apologise and said that they were understaffed. I counted at least 12 staff. I appreciate places can be understaffed, it happens. But it was just utter chaos. There was no direction to the staff from the manager, we said could not temporarily close the drive thru or temporarily stop taking online orders till the backlog was cleared but we were told they couldnt do that. The state of the floor was appalling, looked like someone had tipped the contents of a full bin bag all over the floor.

Look I've been in the trenches as well, totally understand their side, got 11 years in hospitality. I can appreciate they are understaffed and working their backsides off to provide the best service they can. But for that big of a backlog to build, it must have been brewing for a while, with no clear direction from management. Unacceptable from management and needs looking into. Sorry but with that level of "service" we...

Firstly the drive through queue was so big it nearly went round the block, we entered the store shortly after 18:00, tried to order using the terminal but couldn't get it to work, the second was the same. So we walked over to order at the counter. We waited, waited and then waited some more as crew members scurried past us back and forth taking orders out to tables, grill bays and to the delivery drivers who were all clogging up the main walk way in the store, we were stood at the counter for at least 10 minutes if not longer. A crew member eventually came over and proceeded to tell us that she didn't know how to process our request so she sought the assistance of a more experienced crew member who told us the same story, shortly after a shift manager arrived "one of the item's we wanted was only available if we ordered on the mobile app or had requested delivery" we were told! We could order the items on our phones and join the order queue then our order would then be brought out to our table, there were no tables available and as we had already been stood in the store for at least 15 minutes didn't really want to start the order process and have to wait again for a table number to come available inorder to be able to start the waiting process all over again! Is it just me or has McDonald's switched it's priorities to serving as many faceless customers as possible at the detriment of those who actually travel to the store and order. It took best part of 10 minutes to even get noticed and then to be told that we had to use an automated system whilst in store to order our food when we got there, does actual customer service even exist anymore at McDonald's? Do they even care about actual real life customers who have taken the time and made the effort to turn up in person to make an order? It feels to me like they don't want to see you, don't want to have to talk to you but are more than happy to take your money. I wish I could say something positive about the experience, but I can't!...

18:15 last night we called in at Ashington's McDonald's store to grab some food before heading on to Alnwick, the drive through queue was so long it almost went round the block. We couldn't get the in-store order terminal to work so headed to the counter to order, well what a mistake that was, we waited...5 minutes passed, half a dozen staff members passed us by as they took the orders out to the front of house, we waited some more...at least another 5 minutes as other staff members passed us by. Then all of a sudden 2 staff members appeared at the counter to serve us only to be told "I don't know how to put that through the till" the second member told us the same story & off she went to get a manager to solve the problem. The manager arrived and told us that the offer on the app we wanted could only be ordered through the mobile ordering system and that we would have to wait even longer at a table in store (which there was none of) for the order to go through the system and then come out to us! What has happened to customer service? Does it even exist anymore? I understand that places are busy after lockdown and it's Easter etc. But this poor show of how to treat a customer is how you end up with a 1 star review, treat everyone equally and don't ignore them just because the drive through is heaving or the Uber eats driver is waving his/her phone in your face should not mean that the a customer who has travelled to the store and is actually in the store waiting to order food...