McDonald's — Restaurant in Chattanooga

Buckle up, kids. Let’s discuss the mental breakdown this location led me to have this morning. My children and I were running a little behind this morning, so I opted to swing through McDonald’s to grab them breakfast since they were not going to have enough time for breakfast at school. I live just a minute away and placed/paid for a mobile order. I arrived to McDonalds at roughly 7:50.

When I got there, there was a car at the order screen and several cars behind it. Thinking the line would progress in a normal fashion, I joined in the line to wait for my order. After 10 minutes, the car at the order screen was still waiting to have their order taken. Worrying about my kids being late to school, I changed my pickup method to curbside so I didn’t have to get 2 school age children and a toddler in and out of the car when in a hurry. So we parked and waited.

I noticed that when I pulled around to park, there were no cars ahead of the car at the order screen in line. Nor were there any other cars in curbside. There were only a couple cars parked that appeared to indicate people in the dining area. So basically, it wasn’t busy. Except for the line of cars out to the road waiting to have orders taken. After 10-15 more minutes of waiting, and officially being late for school, and no option to get help on the app, and no answers when I called the store, I was fed up. At this point, they had finally taken some orders and there were 2 or 3 cars in the line at the windows. The car that was originally at the order screen when I first arrived at 7:50 was just now to the second window at 8:15. So, being fed up, I backed my car from curbside and into the line, putting me right at the first window. When the young woman came to window, I explained that I had been there 25 minutes waiting on my order and my kids were now late for school, but wouldn’t have been. She said my order was ready but that there was just her and one person up front so they hadn’t been able to bring me my order. I explained that I noticed the line hadn’t moved for a majority of that time, and asked where the manager was. The woman said “she’s off doing other stuff and is about to leave, but the GM will be here at 9”. I said that she needed to tell her manager to do her job because this is getting ridiculous. She said “I don’t know what to tell you, I have nothing to do with that”. Frustrated, I left the line to go back to curbside and call the store. The manager answered and basically said they were short staffed and if I didn’t like it to call corporate and she’s not bringing out my food.

I had no option to cancel it because the order was ready, and my 2 year old (who was supposed to just be riding along to drop off his sisters) was in a diaper and no shorts. Like I said, we were in a rush this morning. And I wasn’t about to leave them in the car. Feeling defeated and sorry for my children, who were late and hungry and worried about their frustrated mama, we left and went across the street to Burger King. I placed our order, paid, received our food, and was back on the road after a grand total of TWO minutes.

I called corporate and explained the situation and was issued a refund. He apologized and said this never should have happened. He let me know it would be immediately escalated to the Franchise Owner for review. I let him know that these problems occur regardless of what shift/time you go, and that this location only minutes from my home has permanently lost my business. My family will be driving to the Lee Highway location from now on. It’s such a dumb thing to have to be upset about considering it’s fast food. I am aware that it’s just food from a place I really shouldn’t feed my kids anyway, but I digress. Regardless, I paid for food and left without it, wasting 25 minutes of my time and by the time I got my kids to school, they were 30 minutes late. The staff there said they were understaffed, but if they’re so understaffed that it takes 30 minutes to get a friggin breakfast item, they shouldn’t be open. Beyond that,...

I never leave bad reviews. I work in customer service and understand that often times things are out of our control, are short staffed, system errors, etc. But this Mcdonald's is the only one I have had so many issues at. The past several visits (which were months apart because of previous bad expierences and I figured I'd try them again) have been horrible. Every time I have gone through the drive through, I have had to sit in line for over 20 minutes with just a car in front of me. I know the car in front of me was waiting for the person at the speaker too because I pull up and they ask me to wait a minute before they take my order. Here's the thing, I don't mind waiting for you to finish up what you were doing before you take my order. I understand staffing issues, etc. But when I'm asked to wait and then I sit there for another 10 minutes with cars lining up behind me I get a little irritated. This most recent visit I had was the worst experience yet. I sat in the drive through line for 20 minutes. When I finally got to the speaker I was asked to wait. I waited another 6 minutes before someone came on the speaker and told me they weren't taking orders. No explanation. No "our system is down and we can't take orders at the moment." No "we're closed and have stopped taking orders for the night." Nothing. I was told to wait to have my order taken after sitting in line for 26 minutes only for the person at the speaker to tell me, "We're not taking orders." I asked if that meant I wouldn't be able to get food tonight and was told, "NO." In a very harsh tone. I bit my tongue and drove off. Massive waste of my time and evening. I was more upset by the fact that the car in front of me was allowed to get food, as they were able to pull up to the window to pay. I had free fries on my app that are now useless. I wasted about 30 minutes of my life there tonight and will not be going back. Absolute worst service I've had with the company at any location. Something needs to...

Horribly disorganized, major staffing issues and what you want to order is likely not available today.

I try to remember worse at a McDonald's and nothing comes to my memory. I will enumerate issues I witnessed on my visit.

1. Disorganized: Someone fails to show up for their shift, likely due to not wanting to go out in rain. The staff is so disorganized, they were literally arguing with one another in front of us customers.

2. Major Staffing issues: In addition to the above, a member of the crew was swearing at a manager. Again all this right in front of is customers. I feel like maybe I was the one who made an error, by not immediately leaving.

3. Lack of stock:. After you order and wait several minutes for your food. You are told what you ordered is not available. Pick something else and so you have to wait longer for that to be prepared. Pretty much every person who ordered could not have what they initially requested. And even if you want fountain water, they only water on their drink machine is carbonated!

4. Staff knowledge is poor. When asking what types of some things they have. The staff is not aware of their own menu.

5. Unsanitary: Just dirty. And the hand dryer in the men's rest room does not work! No hand towels available either.

I could go on. But I would rather end thinking...