McDonald's — Restaurant in Apache Junction

October 31, 2023

We ordered several sandwiches ahead of time on the app, waited 15 minutes, and then drove over to the nearby location. When I walked in, I looked at the "In progress/Now serving" screen and immediately noticed a discrepancy: our order was not in either section.

It took about 10 minutes for someone to pry themselves away from the drive-thru orders to finally come to the front. At that point, I showed him my digital receipt and discovered the order wasn't even in their system and, thus, had not been made. The individual, clad in his Day of the Dead Halloween-themed attire, had to put in the order manually.

This rather defeated the whole point of ordering through the app to have the order ready by the time we arrived. In fact, right behind what remains of the front counter is a very large sign that says, laughably, "Next time, skip the line. Mobile order & pay", yet there I was, having to notify them of the phantom order and forced to wait for it's creation.

While waiting, I happened to speak to another customer who ALSO ordered through the app only to have it input manually because their app order somehow didn't go through. He also had some very unflattering things to say, at a fairly high volume, about the... hmmm... accuracy of the order preparation the location had and recommended another that was only a couple miles away, instead. To put it bluntly and far more politely, he said the location had a habit of getting the order made incorrectly. As I have also had gaffes occur there in the past, I couldn't dismiss his claim outright, even if they didn't occur at the same frequency he seemed to experience.

In regards to OUR order, though, I do not know whether to be irritated at that location, when it might not be their fault, or McDonald's itself. They have a mobile app system that seems to be malfunctioning, as the only function it seemed to serve was to waste our time. This concept was reinforced when, while entering the order, I asked the staff member if they could include some sauce packets, to which he readily agreed, since it was such a minor detail. This minor detail was likely the reason the sauces were also forgotten because, after verifying the order was made correctly, I had to wait some more for a staff member to fulfill this minor request.

There was a REASON we ordered AHEAD of time, but apparently, that reason was to waste our time and patience. What was supposed to be a 5-minute visit turned into a 30-minute wait between waiting for a staff member, the food preparation, and the sauces.

Now, I get it. It's "fast" food, not end-of-the-world stuff, but it's enough to discourage us from ordering anything else in the near future. There will be no tears, no dramatic Kevin/Karen behavior, and no sleep lost, but there was also no customer satisfaction. 1-star service all around.

December 11, 2023

I can't seem to leave a second review, so I suppose I'll have to leave it here at the end of my other. Again, I placed a simple app order for a ¼lb w/cheese and a Big Mac. And, like last time, when I showed up, the order had not been made. However, unlike my previous visit, they were able to prepare it very quickly, so there wasn't much time lost. I did perform a quick experiment while I was there in the form of placing a second order for some sandwiches. What I saw confused me. The first order I created, 15 minutes prior, wasn't made and had not shown up on their order screen, but my second one, which I made right then and there, did. Why? What is going on with this app that one order can be invisible and another shows up without an issue? I don't know, but I think I'm more likely to order from a different location, which is only a slightly longer distance from our home, and see if they have the same issue. If not, I'll...

2 pickups for an app around dinner time on April 11th, both orders were messed up. For the first order, they didn't even bother to make one of the meals, so I had to pull around and wait 10+ minutes for them to complete something that they should have had done by the time I made it to the drive up window because the lobby was closed.

The second pickup was 5 meals with 5 drinks. I get up to the drive through window (after waiting 10-15 minutes because 10 cars were in front of me). The girl at the window hands me a large single sealed bag. I point out the order is 5 meals with 5 drinks, and ask if she is sure that she gave me everything and I point out there is another sealed bag sitting on the counter inside. She says I have everything. I again point out that the order was for 5 meals and 5 drinks and she only gave me a single bag, I point out that I'm not really sure how it could all be there. Again, she insists that I have everything I need, so not wanting to argue with her in a very busy drive through line, I leave...

Arrive at customer's, they immediately wonder why I am giving them only one bag. I explain how I kept telling the girl she wasn't giving me enough stuff but the employee wouldn't budge. Customers were understanding, but upset. I am extremely angry that it makes me look unprofessional despite the fact I repeatedly tried to get the employee to catch her mistake.

Again, on the first pick up, they left out an entire meal and kept insisting it never came up on their screen, took them 10 extra minutes (that I don't get paid for) for them to make that meal while the frozen drink they put in the first bag with chicken nuggets gets hot (and the nuggets get cold). Second pick up, 5 meals with 5 drinks, I was only given 3 meals with 2 drinks while the rest sat on the counter and the girl at the window refused to listen to me very clearly explain that something was wrong.

VERY BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE. TRAIN YOUR EMPLOYEES HOW TO FILL DELIVERY APP ORDERS CORRECTLY THE FIRST TIME OR STOP TAKING APP-BASED ORDERS AT THIS LOCATION. YOU WASTED MY TIME, THE CUSTOMER'S TIME, THE CUSTOMER (AND ME) HAD BAD EXPERIENCES, AND I WON'T BE RETURNING TO PICK UP FROM THIS POORLY RUN STORE. The rude girl at the window needs to actually listen to customers instead of just shooing us away and the employees need better training on how to read the screen for app-based orders, and how to make sure they are giving EVERYTHING to the food courier, and actively listening if the courier tries to point out something might be...

May 2022: I had a negative 1/5 detailed review from a year ago. It no longer applies. I’ve been here frequently the past few months and you can tell Management and the team have worked hard this year to improve the customer experience. Better food and better service. Not perfect, still some negative nancies and smudges to buff out, but better. So much better. Thanks for the changes.

May 2021: The line has no structure (cones) to prevent poor traffic conditions after just three cars behind the ordering box. Not a safe place to go through drive through and currently that’s all they’re offering. Unless they set up an entrance only sort of access with cones to make this a safer place to pull into and wait for drive through, I do not recommend even trying this place. Their food wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t very good either. Like when the food was clearly staged on the heater too long, but not completely inedible. Definitely room for improvement with food quality and quality of customer service. It seemed that regular employees wanted nothing to do with customer (I wished the girl a nice day and she just silently, emotionlessly handed me food). What can you expect if the managers are terrible!? The manager, Asian man in a red button-up, was extremely rude —unprovoked- to the customer (me). Which means he was probably rude to his employees too. He seemed to be in this crazy rush (no cars in line, not a busy time) and like every single sentence from customers were just this massive inconvenience. He didn’t even fully repeat my order to me before taking my money. He just shouted one of the items and held out his hand for my method of payment. Nobody is going to be kind in a toxic environment. No smile. No kindness. No customer service. Bummer for me and my nephews. We’ll have to find another location for our monthly spoil spot. Bummer for the employees there too. They may work in quick service food, but that doesn’t mean they deserve to be in such a toxic environment working for a man who can’t even save face...