McDonald's — Restaurant in Lodi

I've been going to this McDonald's for a number of years and while they make mistakes like everyone else does on occasion (we are human after all), the manager of this restaurant has decided to die on a hill that has lost my patronage at this specific McDonalds.

To preface, This was at the beginning of December 2020 during COVID-19. So I tempered my expectations accordingly. I use the app to place my order before I get there. I show up, park, confirm I'm there, and wait over 15 minutes before who I find out is the manager, comes out and brings me my food. I check my food as I usually do, and they had gotten my order wrong. I had ordered a plain double quarter pounder meal. They put EVERYTHING on the burger.

The manager was talking to some other several unmasked customers within arms reach outside so I yelled to get his attention multiple times. He tried to go back inside until one of the customers pointed me out. He came back apologize for getting the order wrong and took the meal back inside after saying he would be right back. 5 to 6 more customers arrive and leave with their meals before he comes out ANOTHER 15 minutes later again and gives me my food. I've now waited over 30 minutes for a McDonald's burger, fries, and a sprite.

I express my frustration to him. I tell him that I should consider myself lucky that I had an hour lunch break, work right down the street, and had the patience to wait as long as I did. I told him there was no excuse for me to have waited over half an hour for my meal all the while several customers had been served well I was still waiting for them to correct their mistake for me. His response was a correct one at first:

"You are absolutely right sir. It is unacceptable. You have my apologies".

Okay, good. He admits they screwed up. I then guess (correctly what she confirms) that COVID-19 has them short staffed, which he acknowledges is the case. I then ask for a refund for my meal because I had to wait half of my lunch break which I would otherwise spend eating it, waiting for it. He declines and says he doesn't have the ability to do so. I asked to speak to the manager to which he says he the manager and that as a manager he doesn't have the ability to refund a meal. Which I find absolutely impossible to believe. So either A) The employee was lying about being the manager and didn't have the ability to refund me it was trying to save some money for the restaurant and face in front of his actual manager, or B) He was in fact the manager (not sure why he would lie about it as there's nothing to gain) and he is refusing to refund me to say the restaurant some money.

Saving $10 and some change to their budget for the day has lost them hundreds or thousands of dollars of revenue from me...

We got there and it was a disaster! I guess they had just installed the screens where you can order yourself so there was only one person at the register. People were beyond confused as to what was happening because we were not told that we HAD to use the touch computers. I asked the girl why we couldn't pay at the register and she said that they had paid a lot for the touch screens so customers were being forced to use them. Ok. There was one person helping if needed but people kept lining up behind me confused. Two people behind me ended up walking out, I almost did as well but the friend that I had gone with had already paid. I asked the girl how I could use the coupon off the McD's app and she told me that their wifi wasn't working and I may not get reception and that all their machines weren'tworking well. I had to send my son outside and far away for it to open up the app. I finally got our meals and tried using the coupon. It wouldn't take it so she took me to the register and it wouldn't take my coupon. Again she said all their machines weren't working well. I asked for the manager and he couldn't make the coupon work so he fixed the price for me (very nice). So after I pay, I ask to go to the bathroom and my friend told me to take wipes because they had no soap, she'd already told them but no one went to put some in. I go to the restroom and they were a MESS. So gross and disgusting. I held it and walked out without using it. There seems to be a lot of homeless people coming in and out of there and even tho they have the bathrooms locked,they still let them in. The bathroom smelled awful. I then go and try and get us soda...the machines weren't working. We sit down to eat finally. I can say that the customer service, altho very polite, looked so confused as to what was going on. I feel they need to welcome people as the come in and tell then them about using the touch screens. Every customer that came in looked very confused and the fact that all their machinery was going wacky...

As a rule of thumb, I rate fast food at a maximum of 4 stars. This McDonald's gets all 4 of those stars easily. It's usually quite quick, and not in the way where your food is suspiciously luke warm.

This location seems to be less busy than the one out by Wallyworld, but I can't be certain so don't take that as fact. What I do know, is their ice cream machine is almost always working.

For the uninitiated, or the people who aren't weird foodies, there is a website that will tell you if the ice cream machine is up and working, and when that information was last reported.

That website is mcbroken.com and it will save you many late night trips when you're, uh, jonesing for something to make that special hunger not really go away, but ignorable for a fleeting moment.

Further, if you are unaware, the ice cream machine at McDonald's is a ubiquitous model made by a company that makes ice cream machines for other fast food chains. The difference here is these machines can only be "repaired" is by a company qualified reapirman. The repair is usually simply resetting some stuff and happens because of a temperature issue during the machine's self-cleaning cycle.

If you're wondering, 'would a company design a sorta-defective machine just so they could make more money on the back end?' The answer is yes. If you're also wondering, 'why would McDonald's do that?' The answer is they had (if I recall correctly) a financial stake in said ice cream machine making company. Again, I could be wrong, so don't take my words as fact or anything admissible in court, but there's a youtube documentary or two on the subject, and maybe some leaked document hinting at what I said.

But do take my words seriously in this sense: the workers don't have control over such issues so yelling at someone on the store level of a fast food chain is not the flex you ever imagine...