By Krayola
Letter I sent to McDonalds Customer Service:
Dear Sir/Madam,
I have recently had some poor experiences with your restaurant and I want to share them with you. I have visited two separate locations in Windsor, Ontario, and both locations have left a bad taste in my mouth.Â
The first location I visited was on Pillette and Wyandotte. This visit was sometime early September. It was approximately 9:30pm. The restaurant was moderately busy, but there was plenty of staff working, all behind the counter. The lobby was a complete mess. Every table needed to be cleaned, the self serve beverage station was a gross sticky mess. Even the floors were sticky and dirty, and there were flies buzzing around the dirty tables. The food and service were okay, but the state of the restaurant was unacceptable.
The second location I visited last evening with my two nieces and my daughter. It was approximately 7pm. All three girls were very excited to visit the Play Place at the Tecumseh and Lauzon location. When we arrived, the girls wanted Happy Meals because of the Halloween pails they come in. My mother took the girls to the Play Place and I went to the counter to order. There were a lot of people waiting to be served, probably 15 people, although there was only 1 cashier working. There were other staff behind the counter, one girl was carefully positioning Sweet and Sour sauce in a container, another was chatting with the kitchen staff about her weekend. I ordered the Happy meals and some coffee. I thought it was strange that she did not ask if I preferred a girl or boy toy, but I did see that she put girl on the receipts. When my order was brought to the tray, the girl serving said, Oh sorry, we don’t have any pails left. We served a lot of Happy meals today. I was annoyed, as I would not have ordered 3 Happy meals if not for the pails. Then I notice there are no toys. The girl said, Oh yeah, we don’t have any toys either, just cookies.ÂI would have preferred to be told that when I ordered, as I now know that the cashier knew about the toy shortage and that’s why she didn’t ask me which type of toys I wanted.
As with the Pillette location, this restaurant was a filthy mess as well. All tables were dirty, covered in food and trays. The floors were sticky and the self serve drink station was a disaster. Oh, yeah, and the Play Place was closed. A sign read that it was closed due to a special party, but then another customer told us that it was broken. We could see that there were no children in the Play Place and the door was locked. No Play Place at McDonalds on a Saturday night? What special party?Â
What is the point of updating the decor in these locations if no one is going to clean them?
Please contact me regarding a solution to these issues, I cannot believe that this is standard operating, or that this is the image McDonalds wishes to portray, of a filthy, dirty place to eat. I am also disappointed that I have to mail a letter regarding these issues. I cannot believe that such a large corporation does not have an email contact for customers. This makes the response time, and therefore resolution, much longer.
After three weeks, they sent me a letter, apologizing, and promising to forward my concerns to the stores I mentioned. Also sent me coupons for two free value meals and three Happy Meals.
Not bad, we shall see if they bother to clean up the restaurants…
xXtiggerXx says...
I would use those free meal coupons at another location. I’ve had food poisoning from a McDonald’s that looked like this and I wasn’t smart enough to leave and eat elsewhere. If the seating area looks like that just imagine where the food is being made. Yuck. IF they won’t clean their restaurant then they don’t get your business.
Stahr says...
xXtiggerXx said it spot on.
Theresa says...
I agree with the above comment. If what you could see was that gross, can’t even imagine what the food prep area was like. Hopefully you were not the only one who took the time to write.
Casey says...
The Pillette and Wyandotte location is right in downtown so it’s bound to be messy most of the time. And you also went there late at night so it was probably extra busy. They’ve always kept it clean and the customer service was amazing whenever I go there. But I do agree that the Tecumseh and Lauzon location’s customer service was just downright terrible! You should use your voucher somewhere else.
2jk19 says...
Good for you for taking the time to write a letter! I totally agree that they should use email! It is eco-friendly and increases response time and reduces consumer hassle greatly. You could also call their customer service, I have done that before and they were helpful. So glad you at least got some good coupons out of that disaster! ENJOY (at a different restaurant
)
Krysta says...
there is no way i would have eaten there especially with my kids. you should have just walked out. and then wrote the strongly worded letter to head office.
it is unacceptable for it to have been so dirty.
Mario Charron says...
As for these peoples complaining about McDonalds restaurant. I think it’s a formality with McDonalds as I’m from the Ottawa area (on the Quebec side) and it’s just uncredable how filty the sores are and apparently there inspected by Health dept. Yeah sure, they probably pay the inspecter not to stop at the restaurant. Staff prefer playing and fooling around than working. It’s the worst place to go to eat as they’ve call themself “fastfood” but it take just as long then to go to french cuisine restaurant. McDonalds “SUCKS”
Annie says...
Mario, you’re absolutely right about the McDonalds in Gatineau. They are terrible. I’ve wondered too, how they get away with this. I know they would not pass a health inspection. As Krayola points out, it’s difficult to contact McDonalds Head Office since there isn’t an email provided on their website. I’ve taken to eating at home more now, because I simply do not feel that the food sold at McDonalds is safe. How can it be safe with the dirty lobby so often seen there? Not safe enough for my kids, I’ll tell you that.
Kevlar says...
I’ve called McD’s about their coupons, which we DO NOT get in the mail. We live in Ontario and I assumed that McDs arranged to have all households receive them but after contacting them, it turns out, they simply send the coupons to Canada Post and then Canada Post distributes them to communities as they see fit. Personally, leaving the decision up to CP means that they either won’t get distributed, or CP will just limit where they deliver them which means, if you want them, you’ll have to drive to your local post office to get them and you have to get there within a day or two of them doing so because otherwise they’re gone.
Michi says...
In my opinion McDonalds hires a lot of lazy people that they shouldn’t be hiring in the first place. Im in Toronto and the 2 Mcdonalds closest to me are dirty, but not as dirty as your experience :o, the workers are rude, the prices are always different, the burgers are always dry and gross, or super greasy all over the bun.. and the service is sometimes incredibly slow..
Paz Donath says...
Hi I recieved an email about a $100.00 gift card I was just wondering how I would receive this
Please let me know
Paz D.
seriously? says...
grow up. You’re going to McDonald, what do you expect?
Thomas Liu says...
I have purchased 2 Bistro chicken sandwich with mushroom this afternoon and I ate it in the restaurant. I found that there was no chicken piece in my sandwich after I have finished 2/3 of the sandwich.I felt strange and I asked my wife if her Bistro Chicken Sandwich was OK with the chicken piece. She said OK,and she said that she could not see any chicken piece in my sandwich.I thought that the chicken piece was cut into mini pieces and mixed together with the mushroom.But,it was not. So, I went up to explain to the manager in charge. His explanation to me : 1) it was impossible that the kitchen staff forgot to put the chicken piece in the sandwich,although he did not want to check with kitchen staff ; 2) some chicken pieces were smaller than the others, and might be I did not find the chicken piece there.(Is it true, that McDonald’s B.C.S. has different sizes with the same price ?)He did not want to do anything or say any more thing .Finally, I said to him that I felt very bad and sorry that it seemed to me that I was lying to him , and I left that restaurant.
mike says...
we ordered food at your resturaunt missing toppings a burger and the fries were ice cold! i was very unpleased and you never get the orders right!