McDonald's — Restaurant in Madison

The level of incompetence, inconsideration, and total disregard of the staff here is beyond expression. It is difficult for me to even gather my thoughts to find the words necessary to begin approaching the absolute state of chaos and dysfunction that this McDonald's restaurant has on display.

This extends well past the general complaints of "They got my order wrong" or "A crew member was rude to me." Some people make mistakes. Others have bad days. People are allowed to mess up sometimes. What happened today was borderline malicious. It felt as if the entire staff cared so little about their jobs, themselves, or the customers that someone could've set the store on fire and maybe one of them would have made a TikTok about it before nonchalantly allowing themselves to be consumed.

I have rewritten parts of this multiple times over the course of 30 minutes, and it has still taken me less time to type it out on my phone that it took for them to figure out how to make a mango smoothie and a cheeseburger that had less condiments on it than a default cheeseburger. Over the course of nearly an hour, I watched as the lobby filled with customers waiting patiently for their orders, many as long as I had. A handful of them requested their money back. There were easily almost 10 crew members on the floor, and nearly none of them showed any inkling of knowing what they were doing. Those who did preferred taking their time, wrongly prioritizing order after order, seemingly at random.

I watched as my order that I had not received was served off of their screen. I watched as they struggled to find the order they'd served off in the system backlog. I watched as the crew member hitting the button shrugged unsympathetically, as if I had someone inconvenienced her and wasted her time by requesting that she figure out what I had ordered and give it to me. I repeated the special instructions for my cheeseburger, which, I will reiterate, was a regular cheeseburger with less things on it. I did not add something. I did not ask for a specific amount of something. I literally made it easier to create.

You toast the bun. You use only one of the condiment dispensers. You don't put onions on it. You wrap it in the paper it is currently sitting on. Put the sticker on it if you want. You slide it to the person at the end, who will, hopefully, if the stars are aligned and the first testament of the wizard's prophecy has been fulfilled, put it in a bag and give it to the person at the counter who has been waiting 45 minutes and has places to be.

The simplicity of the McDonald's machine is the result of a process perfected across what I assume has been nearly a century. I don't know. I'm not a graduate of Hamburger University. What I do know is that there's a series of instructions over every single station in a McDonald's restaurant, and if you're confused about anything, then all you have to do is follow the instructions. The only thing you need is a competent crew of people who care even a little bit, and the restaurant literally runs itself.

Maybe the incentive to care isn't there. Society has stigmatized quick service food work as undeserving of a living wage, and it's hard to put in even minimal effort if your billion dollar multinational corporation can't be bothered to go above minimum wage. The amount of effort that goes into making things run super smoothly with maximum efficiency far exceeds the returns given by the company. As long as labor percentages are being over-enforced and employee wages and benefits are rock bottom, it's difficult to expect much from the people behind the counter. In so many places, in so many ways, the people who serve us as customers go above and beyond their pay grade. They deserve more. They deserve better.

But not this place. This place was the McDonald's every bad review every Karen has ever left given physical form. It is incomprehensible. It is beyond repair. Just hit the...

Manager tonight was spiteful on Door Dash orders because she wasn't capable of doing her job per standard operating procedure. The first time I picked up tonight I stood there for several minutes with no one in front of house to address customers/couriers. I was able to get the Manager on dutys attention once I saw the order sitting on the counter beyond the cashier. She acted like I inconvenienced her asking for the order when I politely asked for her assistance. A few minutes later I returned for another order. Same circumstances as before but this time the manager comes from the stock room holding Soda Cup Lids. She proceeded to re-stock the cup station at drive through after glancing at me. I again politely asked for the prepared order sitting beyond the cashiers, NOT in the delivery courier accessible pick up area. She said yeah, in a minute and kept stocking. Once she was done she took the three steps over to where the order was on the counter, took two steps and set it on the counter even though I had my hand extended to accept it..... REALLY?????? So, I was wrong for asking for my customers order that's sitting in the incorrect pick up location after I've been ignored twice and I'm clearly a delivery driver not standing there for my health?????? We don't get paid by the hour!!! If you're having issues with stolen orders and decide to deviate from the standard operating procedures established at EVERY OTHER LOCATION NATIONWIDE, maybe you should adjust your staff and account for the new position you just created. This isn't a one off either. She's always rude. The last time I checked this was a customer service based...

if i could give this place 0 stars I WOULD. i had the WORST experience!! at first i ordered my breakfast and was generally every polite to the lady taking my order, saying thank you and driving to the first window ready with my payment. once i get to the first window i handed the lady my card and she ran it through the machine. she opened the window and handed me my card back and i politely and quietly said thank you. the next thing i know the lady is yelling at me with so much anger i was met with confusion. i had previously been extremely polite and thanked her for taking my order and helping me at the window. she said, and i quote, “you have such a nasty attitude! look at you with that nasty attitude! never come back here with that!”. i was so confused and mortified because i felt i did nothing to make this employee so upset. the first thing that popped in my head was “oh another customer must have smarted off to her or something” so i politely tried to calm her down and explain that it wasn’t me who had done that and she had the wrong person, but yet she continued yelling at me and raised her voice to a screaming level for me to drive off. i ended up getting my food and driving away immediately. i was so upset because i couldn’t understand what i did to make the employee so angry that she felt the need to scream at a customer. i will be taking her advice and never coming back. McDonalds, please look into who you are hiring. i don’t really know if it helps or not but i kept my receipt and i think the...