McDonald's — Restaurant in Alaiedon Township

Thought I'd give an update of my experiences at this McD's. The food quality is fairly consistently as good as the food gets at the golden arches. Fine, serviceable, edible. But I need to share an experience that has made me hesitant to come back to this restaurant, even though this is the only one in Okemos that currently offers dine-in.

Several months back my youngest wanted McD's for her birthday dinner, which was unfortunately right before a school function. This was while they were remodeling the restaurant, so no dine-in and the drive-thru was long. We opted to go through with it, and after a long period of waiting we received our order for 6 people. We took it to eat outside of the school and found that it was less than that AND no condiments even though we specifically asked for them. I immediately lodged a complaint.

To their credit, they got back to me shortly after that. The manager apologized and said to come back within 30 days to receive the whole order again free of charge. I verified because that was a lot of food, but he wanted to make it up to me. I was ecstatic because this is what you want from a restaurant. Owning a problem and making up for it. I would have been happy with HALF of the order, to be honest.

I go in a couple of weeks later. To make it easier, I actually go into the restaurant so I'm not somebody making a strange demand from the drive-thru. The cashier, I think the manager on duty, had no idea what I was talking about. Eventually, after talking it through, I got my order, but it was after a lot of head shaking and an exasperated "oh well" kind of attitude. Which ultimately means that the manager made me a promise that was not shared with the staff. Something like this needs to be communicated to not make the customer feel uncomfortable.

What the manager offered did not need to be offered. I'm putting that plainly. But he offered it. The follow-through needs to be as smooth as possible for the customer. I don't want to feel like the staff thinks I'm conning them.

And the food was fine. I just don't feel comfortable going there again. In general, there isn't much to McDonald's these days. Ordering is automated (although at this location that's optional) and the employees can focus on the food side of service. This is nice because it streamlines things.

Except when it doesn't. We rarely dine-in at McDonald's and usually not at this location, but it was on the way home. Despite requesting table service, they provided our food in a bag for takeout and called us up to the counter for it. They didn't give us cups. They didn't give us my kids' Happy Meal drinks. I had to keep going back to the counter. This was subpar service.

Making things just a smidge worse was the fact that an employee callously blamed his female colleague behind the counter. True or not, joking or not, this was disappointing. Teams work together and cover for each other. It just stood out so much that I find myself complaining about it here. It's McDonald's. No one is expecting a grand experience, but we expect some level of professionalism.

But the food itself came out just as we had ordered and tasted as well as the food usually tastes. My quarter pounder was a bit greasier than I remember having, but it was otherwise fine for...

This past Friday, I went to McDonald's with my two daughters and ordered two shakes. Despite using the mobile app to try and speed things up, I ended up waiting nearly 40 minutes in the drive-through. I felt totally trapped because I couldn't pull out of the line. During that time, I noticed a car ahead of me at the intercom that didn't move for 20 minutes while the other line moved. I don't understand why that car was waiting so long. To make things worse, they messed up my order and gave me two McDonaldland shakes instead of one McDonaldland and one strawberry. They offered to fix it, but after that long wait, I just wanted to leave. It's frustrating how long McDonald's takes these days. It's definitely not the fast food place it used to be. I don't understand how all the latest technology, like kiosks and mobile ordering, which are supposed to improve the customer experience, have slowed down service so much. If this is an employee issue, management needs to address it. If it's a staffing issue, that's not fair to the customers. I also placed a mobile order for a frozen beverage at Dunkin' Donuts across the street, and it was ready immediately. By the time I finally got my McDonald's order, my Dunkin' drink had completely melted, which shows just how long...

My wife and I stopped in this location and we actually went in the restaurant because we did not have our dog with us. What a disappointment. Zero help from any employee, we used the kiosk and it literally took us probably 5 times longer than it would have if we could have had an employee take our order. We would rather pay cash for our meal but since you have to use the kiosk you have no choice but to pay with a card. Too loud Walking around looking for a clean table was a joke, every single table was messy, my wife actually pulled out an alcohol cleanse wipe and we cleaned a table for ourselves. An employee was sitting in the corner eating. Crap music playing was too loud. An employee brought out our food and he smelled like pot. The drink area was a total mess, ketchup dispenser was not working, lids all over, napkins almost gone. Food was not even hot. Do yourself a favor, and drive right past this joke of a restaurant. Owners should be...