McDonald's — Restaurant in Walla Walla

Fred R. Barnard in 1921 quoted a Japanese Philosopher who said, "A picture is worth a thousand words." He was talking about the effectiveness of photos in advertising.

Case in point. I ordered a breakfast meal from the drive thru on 7/28/24 and what did I see? A picture of an Orange Juice, Egg McMuffin, and a Hash Brown Pattie staring at me. I ordered the picture, so deliciously appealing. What I got instead was an upcharge! Huh?

To all you regulars, I apologize for my ignorance. I thought that the menu price WAS the price for the items depicted in the tantilizing photo on the display. NOT TRUE. Don't get me wrong, I received the items I ordered, an OJ, HB, and McM. What got my attention was that the price on the receipt did not match the menu price. The menu did not disclose the upcharge for OJ nor did the speaker jockey say anything remotely like, "The meal includes coffee only, OJ is extra," or "Pay no attention to our misleading adds, OJ is not included in the meal deal."

Instead, I ordered the picture at the fixed price listed unaware that that price EXCLUDED the OJ. Silly me. Can you say Class Action?

For you young attorneys out there...take the hint. The receipt has a line item for the upcharge. Full disclosure occured after the transaction was consumated, not before. The menu photo misrepresents the actual price for the product received. It's a TAX plain and simple without regard for federal and state truth in advertising standards.

Remedy? On the one hand, there are compensatory, nominal, and punitive damages, i.e., I lost the enjoyment of my meal because I was misled by a deliciously, tantilizing menu photo, then punished economically for my ignorance.

On the other hand, delete the OJ pic from the meal placard and add-back the coffee. Disclose somewhere on the menu that OJ is more expensive or add that minor detail to the "speaker jocky's" script. Oh, and when asked about the OJ upcharge from a stooge like me, "I dunno" and "That's how we've always dunnit," were the standard answers. Even the shift manager was disrespectful. Just move along is all I heard from staff. Those responses aint workin for me no more, kiddos.

Again, sorry to you regulars who accept dishonest advertising as a cost of doing business today and also for making a big deal over an extra $.90 per 10oz cup of OJ. But can you imagine how many billions of dollars annually retail food chains like McDonalds skim from customers like me at $.90 a cup? C'mon, bro. Give me a break. Be honest up front. Just give me the price so I can decide for myself if the value is there or not. It's way too late once the transaction...

Went through the drive thru & ordered a 6-piece meal. Fries were cold, I thought “fine I’ll just cover them in ketchup... not the end of the world”. Next I open my 6-piece & there were only 5... annoying but nothing to fully complain about. Then I took a drink of my “sprite”... it was just carbonated water without flavoring. I went back through to see if they’d correct their mistakes and although the food came out accurately and warm- I nearly had to twist their arm to actually change their soda bags on their carbonation lines. They were totally okay giving everyone in the line behind me carbonated water instead of their soda. I watched 5 cars leave with soda water. I never received a drink after waiting over 10 minutes at the last window, at which point my food was cold again... I called and asked the manager for a refund and she said she’d be there to give it to me. I came back 2 minutes later and she was nowhere to be found (Celeste)... the next manager had to “help” me which consisted of her trying to short my refund by $2.39. When confronted with it she said “Oh I’ll refund you the medium fry, which actually gives you more money back.” A medium fry is $2.38 with tax added in.... which still left me with less money than I paid. They DO NOT CARE about customers or their “standard of quality”. This took over an hour before I maybe got my money back- I never ate as the food was cold or missing.

Go to the 9th street one or Burger King...

Only reason that it has 1 star is because of the terrible lack of interaction between employees and customers. McDonald's has you order your own food on a touch screen menu board whilst the employee watches you mess up your order time after time and just ignores you. This lack of human interaction is what is wrong with most people these days. McDonald's put in these self order stations because they do not want to pay people to actually do their jobs. Its cheaper to have the customer do the employees job rather than hire competent workers who care about doing their jobs. Oh yeah the consumer does the job of the people that are working there who are supposed to be taking orders. Why don't the customers get a discount for doing someone else's job. Nobody helps you or I do our jobs. Why should we pay for customer service when...