McDonald's — Restaurant in Florida

In the best of lights, maybe perhaps they were having a shift change at 7PM that was maybe more chaotic that whatever is 'normal' on a Saturday night, but wow this place was a sight to watch for that solid half hour, from the timestamp on my automated order, to get my two large ice coffees (no food).

There was a whole roomful of people, mostly standing around, looking perplexed or annoyed, but the sheer sight of the chaos behind the counter. I counted at least 18 and could've been as high as 22 during my visit. It is no wonder they have to charge almost 2 bucks for a plain hamburger and packaged deals well into the double digits.

There was a lot of activity in the back. I could see fries actively being tossed and filled, the drive-thru window folks seemed to be doing their thing, and observed the outside concession area being serviced as one would expect (though I did overhear they were out of Coke which has to be a management mistake I would think.

The front was a different matter. There were two it seemed actually handling the physical order taking and the fullfillmennt of those and mobile delivery folks. One lady was at least trying at times to get things done, but she was clearly going with the flow. And about twenty minutes into this oddify, a third young lady started working these roles.

The gentleman, I'm assuming the guy was a manager and did appear to have some authority, as I heard what I think was him saying, paraphrasing, 'I'm going to doc yout time for screwing off on the job' at one point during the apex of chaos, where one of the supporting staff spilt a box full of McNugget sauses all over the floor, he plead out loud facing the staff for everyone to pick it up and get their heads our their you know what. Incidentally, I'm actually not trying to be critical of his behavior and conduct at that time. it's his shop, and he can run it as he sees fit. Just a marvel to watch in real-time.

What I would blame is the owner of that restaurant for either not knowing or not caring about this establishment. While standing around, i literally spoke with several other people, most of them the 'doordash' guys but also a family with three kids, a guy and his girlfriend, and various other patrons during my odyssey this evening. I heard one customer sy she had already been there for a half hour because she needed a plain hamburger with nothing on it. During my time there, most of the guests cycled thru eventually, but nobody in the whole building in any role of the drama looked satisfied..

I did approach the flow lady and asked about my order as it had been a while, and she just apologized for the delay, and they were working on it. To wrap my portion of this tale, after my wife had come in to find out what was going on, and me pleading once more about my order and again staing clearly it is just two large iced coffees, that she went over to the drive-thru area and promptly returned with my drinks, sitting them down on the counter without any acknowledgement of anything one way or the other. I deduced based on the watered-down state my our drinks, that they werel ikely done within a couple minutes and were set down, amongst the chaos,,and nobody back there ever noticed.

The most ironic part of this whole affair is my daughter actually works for the largest coffee shops (you know who) where I could've gotten our coffee made by her for free but we actually think McD's Iced Coffees are a better value generally speaking and ambiance aside.

I've lived in this area for almost twenty years and saw the Big Bend/301 area grow from literally only the 7-11, and that's it. I saw them build the McDonalds and have eaten there many times over the years and I don't take relish in writing this type of review, but this situation was at such a state that I had to document it so that maybe someone who can tries to do something and tighten up the ship over...

Many of the workers, especially on the overnight shift, can't be bothered to wear their masks correctly. Food is seldom hot, usually luke warm at best. Fries are just thrown into the bag. Poor customer service from the employees. Would give 0 stars if that was an option. Only still frequent this location because it is literally a 2 minute drive from my house, and all of the local stores seem to do their "cash only" change over from 3-4am, whereas the store I used to work at did theirs at midnight, and it usually only lasted 20 mins tops while the computers did their daily reset.

Update 6/13/21 Let me start by saying the order taker you have staffed is great at managing the flow of the drive thru. That is the only positive I have to provide at this time regarding my visit.

Initially, another guest had been parked by the door, waiting for some part of their order to be finished. That guest had been in front of me in line. When I to the window, I was handed drinks that were not the right size, and that had ice when I requested not to have ice as I always do. Normally, this wouldn't even be brought up as an issue, because I have worked fast food, and know the overnight shift is usually stressful and short-staffed.

After a couple more minutes of waiting, I was handed a bag. This bag I can only assume was the other guest's order, as just looking at the grill ticket on the top sandwich, I knew the order was not mine. I attempted to flag down an employee, but even after honking my horn at the window, no one responded. I continued to wait at the window, another employee was taking out my order to the parked guest. I managed to flag him down and let him know that I had received the wrong order. He acknowledged me, and came back to the window to clarify what had happened.

At this time, the other guest, also realizing they had a wrong order, had pulled back to the door to get their order fixed as well. I handed my wrong food back to the employee, WHO THEN TOOK IT OUT TO THE GUEST WHO CAME BACK FOR THEIR ORDER!!!!!

Now, I shouldn't even have to say this, but at this point, both orders should have been discarded for having left the building and been returned. But no, the bag that the other guest had been given was then brought back to me, despite me telling the employee not to give me food that had been handed out to someone else. Even without the world dealing with a viral pandemic, handing food back out that was returned to the store is a HUGE health code violation.

Now, the reason I know that the same food was handed back to me is that the grill tickets for the sandwiches I was given at the end of this ordeal matched the timestamp of my original receipt, which could not have happened without the same wrappers/tickets being used from my original order. If the employees had actually remade the food, there either would have been new tickets from the order being re-rang into the computer, or no tickets whatsoever due to being remade off-screen.

I will be contacting corporate about this, and expect contact from either the general manager of this store or the district manager over this store about this egregious breach of...

I sent this complaint Aug 19th to McDonald's Corporate after visiting McDonald's at 13118 S US Hwy 301:

"Could someone please explain to me the purpose of ordering on a Mobile App, and pickup up Curbside. I placed my order from home at approximately 10:05 pm. I arrived at Curbside Pickup location No. 3 and indicated I was there at exactly 10:16 pm. I then saw a white SUV pull into the parking lot behind roughly 20 cars waiting in the Drive Thru line; I can only guess there were probably 10 cars in front of them that hadn't ordered yet, which means my order should have been before 11 other cars. The SUV was literally blocking the exit for the Drive Thru; that's how long the line was. At 10:29 pm I watched that same SUV pull up to the pickup window, in Drive Thru, and pickup their order. WHILE I WAS STILL SITTING IN CURBSIDE SPOT 3 WAITING FOR MINE while 11 cars after me (ordering) left the parking lot. My fries were cold, I tried them immediately, and my cone (that I eat on the drove home) was stuck upside down in a plastic cup. Feel free to check the cameras in case my times are wrong. THEN explain to me; what is the point of ordering on a Mobile App, and choosing Curbside Pickup."

Here was a reply Aug 29th from Jezza:

"Hello Shane:

Thank you for taking the time to share your recent experience at the McDonald's in Riverview, FL with me.

I am sorry that the food, did not live up to our high quality standards and for the slow service you received. I want you to know that we have already taken action on your feedback, by notifying our local franchisee of your experience and requesting he or she follows-up with you directly to address this issue; and I would also let them know about your refund request. However, please know that we may be slow to respond during this difficult time and appreciate your understanding.

As our customer, you should always have a great experience when visiting McDonald’s. Your feedback is very important to us, as it lets us to know how we can improve our service to you. Our regional McDonald’s staff regularly reviews customer feedback as part of our ongoing review of our restaurant’s operations.

Again, Shane, we are sorry we disappointed you. We appreciate your business and thank you for sharing your feedback.

Jezza

McDonald's Customer Contact Center"

As of today Sep 21, I have had nobody answer the question of why any of us would choose using Curbside Pickup and no refund has been issued. I can only assume that there is no good reason because the...