McDonald's — Restaurant in Havre

Good help is hard to find. $13.00 an hour should be a good incentive to work hard, but when it’s your minimum starting wage people tend to do the minimum. It was 2:15pm when my receipt spit out of the automated ordering kiosk. I was forced to use it because I stood at the “old fashioned” counter while several employees made eye contact with me, off and on for over 5 minutes. #635 was my order. I was hungry for that greasy bad for you food I’ll admit, and boy was I gonna work for it. Earn it. My wife and children remained in the car, for I was the man of the house and I was gonna go get their food for them. 35 minutes later my number finally rang out into the foyer, where many other hungry frustrated patrons stood. To me it was an angelic song to hear I would be released of my burdens of standing and waiting. The nice custodian lady had mopped the floor around all of us and it had all but dried when I walked victoriously towards the counter where the employee had already walked away, to retrieve my spoils. I had watched the progression of my order from their screens and had hopes to have all my items in the bag and I could ascend away. Unfortunately I was missing 7 items. So now I’m standing at a vacant counter once again trying to be polite, thinking they will come back to me and check on me. No. After a minute my wrestling coach brain kicked in and I kindly bellowed to the closest employee for help. He came to me and I told him what was missing. With no apology, because I’m sure their corporate manual tells them not to t apologize because that admits guilt, he turned away and disappeared behind the wall. I think at this point he heard me and will be right back, no. 4 minutes later he reappears and drops the 7 items in my bag and says have a nice day. Fries had sat in the bag so long they were cold, nuggets were not hot, burgers were thrown into the boxes, not even stacked, cold. Very messy. Sloppy, no quality. I know it’s McDonald’s, I’m not expecting fancy, but for the giant price increase that McDonalds did during a pandemic, and then keeping said prices after. Then raising the minimum wage, to dropping their service all together, by forcing people to go drive through or use a kiosk that everybody touches. I was there almost 45 minutes and the floor got mopped but 20 people used the kiosk and it wasn’t wiped once. My order was touched by 3 different employees and one trainer and it was still wrong. They can do better. I worked in food service and retail for 20 years. My customers would have lit me up for this treatment. Nowadays if you have an expectation of a level of service, drop it a few notches. If you complain you’re a “Karen”! New Owners… Do better. That money rolling in, use some to train your employees. Teach them. I’ll be back, I’m a fat guy that likes greasy not good for you food. Just do...

I walked in around 12:05 PM during the lunch rush and was first in line at the counter, ready to order. Within minutes, a line formed behind me and people started murmuring about how long we’d been standing there.

The manager, an older lady in a gray overcoat with a permanent scowl on her face, looked over at us at least ten times. Finally, she asked one of her coworkers, “Are you just not taking new orders?” The reply: “No, we’re trying to get caught up.”

Meanwhile, drive-through orders kept rolling in and getting filled like clockwork. The “manager” kept glancing our way while avoiding eye contact, clearly aware of how bad it looked. Several people were waiting to speak with staff about missing items, mainly drink cups, and eventually just grabbed the cups themselves or had to shout to get someone’s attention.

The lady behind me and I even joked that we could probably leave, go through the drive-through, and get served faster, and I think she actually did.

After nearly 20 minutes, I was the only one still standing in line. A worker who clearly wasn’t a regular cashier finally stepped up to take my order around 12:25 PM, and honestly, he was the only bright spot in the whole experience. Our order number was 248, and table placard 39.

Then came another 20-minute wait for food. Our order finally came out around 12:45 PM. Forty minutes for fast food. If I wanted to wait that long for lunch, I’d go to a steakhouse.

The problem here is obvious. Only the drive-through gets attention because it’s timed and tracked by corporate. Walk-in guests are an afterthought. There’s no timer for us, no accountability, just a long wait and a “manager” pretending not to see it.

If McDonald’s didn’t have a monopoly on fast food in Havre, I wouldn’t set foot in...

My first mistake was ordering food on the app. I chose curbside pickup and when i got there the app told me no lane selected and directed me to the inside counter or drive thru. I tried the counter first and after waiting a few minutes and watching at least 6 different employees pass by the counter without saying a word, I tried my luck at the drive thru. There i gave my order number for the person operating the drive thru to tell me the order number doesn't work. I offered to read what was on the order and suddenly they found the order and directed me to a curbside lane. when the food arrived i could see one of the drinks was basically water with a splash of fountain drink flavoring (more than one option was marked unavailable on the app already, I guess the app that restocks their materials must be down as often as the ice cream machine lol) so i dumped it and called it good enough. If this was the first time something like this had happened, I wouldn't be taking the time to leave a review. By my count it's been the last 6 times I've attempted to patronize this establishment that there has been some issue. I don't know if its mismanagement or over-reliance on the mobile app to do all the work for them but customer service has become borderline non-existent and the staff has become borderline hostile. I suppose they can get away with it though because, hey, it's not like there are other options in town. Havre MT McDonald's, where you can expect nothing and still be disappointed. Proactively filling out the survey that the owner links every other review to, hopefully saving them the time of replying so they can spend it ordering much...