McDonald's — Restaurant in South Cambridgeshire

Make sure you leave within 60minutes even if that means leaving food behind including that you ordered but didn't receive in time to finish within the 60 min deadline since that ANPR camera registered your car reg.

On 29th July I made a pit stop on the way to London there for about 90mins, unaware of the time limit (my fault that I didn't read the small wording), feeding two kids and us parents on a very busy day where the order could have taken over 20mins to be delivered (I am up for a full investigation on this). We left with happy bellies and continued our journey.

Within a week I received a parking notice. Searching the internet and reading through the forums I understood that the store manager can cancel the ticket if convinced of a genuine reason for overstaying.

On 12th August I visited the store (as reflected on my credit card statement for the card I used to pay for my purchase that day) and spoke to the lady on the tills. The lady took details (car registration and the parking notice number) and asked me to wait while she confirmed with the manager. After some time she appeared and confirmed that the parking notice will be cancelled. Assured that I no longer need to pay the hefty parking charge I returned (without over staying this time).

The story doesn't end here, today (18th Oct) I have received a debt recovery letter dated 29th September to pay £170 by an unachievable pay by date of (11th Oct).

Unfortunately, I could never reach the store manager (tried calling for few hours and every time the phone went unanswered after few minutes of ringing). I then turned to the debt recovery company and managed to talk to an agent which advised that as they are just debt recovery company the recovery cannot the stopped without involvement of the Parking company.

Fearing my bank accounts may get frozen (for not paying £170 of debt) and the impact it will have on my exceptionally good credit rating I paid off the recovery amount.

It costed me over £200 for 2 meals, a burger and 2 coffees.

McDonalds may be a very good business model and a money making machine, it certainly fails at many societal issues as successfully glorified by John F. Love in his book McDonald's:...

I've had the displeasure of this McDonalds being the closest one I've lived to my whole life.

You could send their incompetant staff on an arctic expedition and they'd still say they have no ice.

If you like new menu items, don't come here. If you like McFlurries which are more than half full, don't come here. If you like fries which aren't soggy, don't come here.

If, on the off chance they do have iced drinks, they will be clumpy, since they have sat out all day.

I once complained about an iced drink I had as it was a literal block of ice, but apparently that's how it's made according to the woman at the drive thru (it isn't my better half used to work there but was repeatedly told she was wrong when she asked why the iceberg which sunk the titanic was in my drink).

It's been about 3 weeks since the iced drinks were available, and months since I last had a soft drink with ice in it.

They often won't put the sauces you've paid for in the bag, and will forget to give you a straw.

I've been made to wait over 30 minutes for a singular meal when I was the only one in the restaurant, and there were about 4 people in the kitchen, probably playing clash of clans or something, I don't know.

Often they'll put you in a waiting bay for incredibly small orders - i.e a cheeseburger and a drink. They're often full up anyway with other drivers waiting so you have to wait in the road, blocking other cars.

I've often gone late at night, where the man at the drive thru says they're 'updating their systems' and it will take two hours. I've spoken to people who have worked at other McDonalds and they've said they've never done that before.

If you want to be let down I...

Quick update:

Today, 02nd of August visited this McDonald’s again. I have ordered 4 items: 2 coffees and 2 flurries. They got it WRONG again. I obviously did my order on the phone, for click&serve, as I always do. But they gave me a mini flurry instead of a regular one. I had to go back inside as the employee left. Next time I will ask not leave until I finish checking my order, open all the lids from cups, unwrapp all the food.

I am coming here quite often. In the past week, nearly every day. I am still waiting for that time when, after I receive my food, I cannot find nothing wrong or missing from my order. Today, no sugar. I ordered for click&serve but I had to go back inside for it. Then, I realised I have to drink my milkshake without a straw and couldn't be bothered to go back again. What is the point of click&serve if I need to go back and forth? Yesterday, also order for click&serve, I had to go back because my "large" cappuccino was half empty (probably a medium in a large cup). 3 days ago no napkins. On Monday I had to go back as the flurry was yellowish and it was definitely not fresh. I went back and received a refund as "this is how the flurry machine is making it". Well, the flurry should be creamy (not (re)frozen) and white. If there's something wrong with the flurry machine that day, DO NOT sell the ice cream! I will keep coming back maybe, just maybe, one day I will not have to go the extra mile to receive an order I don't have any...