McDonald's — Restaurant in Fultondale

Fast food gets a bad rap more often than not. Though, it is not always warranted. This McDonalds, on the other hand, deserves the reputation that stigmatizes fast food everywhere. We don't frequent McDonalds anymore because this one is so bad, but the kids beg to go anytime they see the golden arches. Tonight, since we were in a hurry, I swung by the drive-thru for what I thought would be a quick visit. There were only 3 cars in the lane in front of us when we arrived. This McDonalds has 2 lanes, supposedly for greater efficiency, and we thought it would move pretty quickly. It did not. To my surprise, when we approached the menu to order we were promptly greeted. I asked the cashier to hold for a moment while I finalized the kids' orders. When I began our order, I informed the cashier I wanted a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal, large sized with a Diet Coke. Yes a Diet Coke. You can laugh. I find the humor in it also. The cashier rang up the meal as I ordered and no sooner than I had gotten it out of my mouth they rudely replied, "is that all?" In case you don't know me, that irritates me to my core. If that was all I wanted, I would have said so. The correct question that should be asked politely is, "what else can I get for you today?" We have a decent sized family (4 kids), and my wife is picky, so it can take some time to get everyone's orders placed. I know they have metrics to meet, similar to an average handle time for a call center, but like in the call center business, you give the appropriate amount of time to the customer, while being as efficient as possible, then focus on making the next interaction shorter to compensate. Before I could continue with the rest of the order, I had to correct the cashier because they rang up a medium sized meal. Once "corrected" I asked if they got the drink large as well. The cashier replied they did. I informed them the screen says otherwise and in order to correct it, they canceled the order and rang it up again. I continued to place the rest of our order, having to repeat myself multiple times because they could not seem to ring it up correctly and when they did not put "add lettuce" on the screen for the McChicken, I had to ask multiple times if they got it. The cashier rudely replied, "it already comes with lettuce." Had they said that in the first place we could have saved some time. We finally got our order placed, repeated, and the total provided and we headed to the window. All the cars in the drive-thru merged together into the service line in what appeared to be the correct order for which we took our turns at the menu, but when we arrived at the payment window they tried to charge us for the wrong order. We paid for our order, then it was off to the service window for pick-up. The first thing they tried to hand me was, you guessed it, a Medium Diet Coke. I informed the attendant it was supposed to be large and they looked at me like I was trying to get something I didn't order (at least that was my perception). They pulled the drink back through the window, looked at the screen of their POS (Point of Sale) system, then exclaimed, "Oh... I see what they did." They can have their look back as well since I definitely paid for a large, but I kept that remark to myself. They gave me the other drinks, then the food, and left me waiting for my Large Diet Coke. While waiting, and after they gave me the drink, I proceeded to check the labels, not the individual sandwiches. After all of the waiting and grief we had to deal with on their side, I just wanted to make sure the labels were at least correct. Then, the original cashier that took my order came and hung halfway out the window to ask me, "Sir, can you please pull up so we can assist these other customers?" To which, I promptly replied, "Sure, just as soon as I make sure I received all of my food." I wasn't about to go through all of that again. We had received all of the food, and I drove away with the cashier still staring at me like a buffoon. How rude. That's...

Over the many years I have been coming to this particular McDonald's I have had experiences ranging from five stars and above to definitely not even deserving one star and unfortunately today was one of those less than one star days. So this is definitely a combination of Staff problem and supposed machine malfunction. I use the app to place my breakfast order of a McChicken biscuit a caramel mocha coffee which is the only real reason why I went there to begin with and also a strawberry pie. I go to the drive-thru they do not tell me at the first window that their mocha machine is down along with any other kind of specialty coffee that you might want, so at the second window I am asked if I want anything else like perhaps an iced coffee which I did not really want that, but I guess I'll give it a try. Not to mention the fact that it was a $1.50 less than what I paid for the caramel mocha and nobody tried to offer me a refund or anything to make up the difference. I didn't really make a fuss because I felt like it would have just confused the employee handling my food more than necessary because they were having a hard time keeping up with the fact that I ordered something that was twice as expensive as what they were trying to give me and so I just dropped it. Luckily before I pulled out of the parking lot I actually tried the coffee. well it was terrible it was so gross I just couldn't even stomach it so I pulled back in to a spot and go inside and ask them if they would just please give me a large Dr Pepper and that's it I wasn't even going to bring up the price difference I just wanted something I could drink that wasn't going to make me gag. So not only did they not have ice to go inside the Dr Pepper which I find strange because they did have ice to go inside the iced coffee that I couldn't drink but I had to stand there at the counter where they give you your food once you have ordered, for about 8 minutes simply waiting on them to give me a Dr Pepper. At which I also heard two of the people working back there mentioned two different times that there's the lady still waiting on her Dr Pepper which did not seem to make anyone move any faster then I received this Dr Pepper with no ice at that point I knew there was really no point in saying anything about it because they were not obviously interested in making anything about this visit good for me. And then it actually got worse. As I'm driving home I finally decided to take a bite of my McChicken biscuit. To then have to spit that out because it was so disgusting it was so chewy and just the worst I have ever tasted in my life so that was a complete waste I am actually scared to even try these strawberry pie. Anyways that said, most of the time when I go through there in the Drive-Thru it is fine in fact I've had some of the best caramel mocha's I've ever had from any McDonald's there. But there is one very obvious problem that I have definitely encountered just about every time I go inside. This particular McDonald's is in a mostly black prominent neighborhood. I am Caucasian. I hate to say or even accuse anybody being racist but it is been a problem ever since I started going there years ago. When they're taking care of everyone else around me and I'm being ignored what else am I supposed to think? Anyway this is in no way shape fashion or form a reflection upon every single person that works there and this is just my experience from today...

Best McDonald's to go to if you routinely want your order to made incorrectly or thrown together as if it were done by a three year old toddler. You can also expect your drink to be handed to you with some of it running down the sides of the cup and this is before you have received your food so you have no napkins to wipe it off with.

For me, visiting this place is more entertainment than for food needs. It's comical how poorly operated it is yet also sad to see so much potential going to waste. I wouldn't go here at all if it were not for the rest of my family liking their food. In fact, half the time I stop there I get them food and then I go to Chic-fil-a to order mine. At least there I can get exactly what I order that is not just thrown together and my drink is no running all over the cup.

One more thing about this place. Forget ever getting any type of milkshake. I've lived in this area since before this place was even built and since it opened their ice cream or milkshake machine has always been out of order.

UPDATE: 1/11/2018 As usual these people can't get an order right to save their own lives. I ordered two chicken biscuit combos and guess what was in the bag...just one. Instead of listening they seemed to have gotten totally distracted by what type of chicken biscuit meal.

I wish my family didn't like this place so I wouldn't have to deal with the nonsense here. OR perhaps the owner could take some action to ensure that it is run properly...somehow your competitor right there by you, Chic-fil-a, get's it done right.

UPDATE: 10/2019 Nothing has improved.

Order still can't be taken or prepared properly. If you're going in then there won't be any salt, pepper, or napkins available. No creamer for coffee. You literally have to ask for everything. You have to ask a group of people who clearly don't want to be there for everything you need ie; ketchup packs or whatever and believe me they aren't interested in hearing your request.

The tables and seats are dirty and despite the kiosk, which those are good, you still have to go stand in line to get your cups because they won't bring the drinks with the food. So, they put in a kiosk to reduce lines then force you back into the line...you can't make this kind...