Visited IKEA today and stopped into McDonalds for a bite to eat afterwards only to have my order refused. Coming from the London - Windsor area, a very popular order is a Double Cheeseburger dressed like a Mac, in London and Windsor they have special wrapping and a register button devoted to this order. When I attemtped to order this very item in Burlington both the clerk and the manager looked at me like I had asked for the world on a gold platter.
It was explained to me that not a single restuarant in Burlington would serve me this order since I would be "ripping off the restaurant" and that I need to order a full Big Mac meal and that there was no difference other then an extra piece of bread. When I calmly responded that it is that very piece of bread I do not want and this order is very common since my college days back to 2003 and that I was willing to pay the extra 39 cents to have my cheeseburger dressed differently; I received no apology when I was told "I can't do that for you, I'll give you a package of Mac sauce." Instead of offering another meal or product or accepting my offer to pay extra for this simple service, the manager reiterated that she can not allow her customers to rip off and steal from her restuarant.
Frankly, since we were a group of 4, she lost 4 potential customers over something so simple like ketchup vs thousand island dressing. We all left without ordering and felt very displaced. In today's economy if you have customers walking into your place of business ready to hand money over to get something they want, you should be willing to accomodate your customer in any way, thanking them for spending their hard earned money with you during these tough times. We and our money were flatly turned away and we went down the road to Wendy's who was happy to tailor any order for any one; and took our money with a smile and a thank you.
When I attempted to tell McDonalds about this service refusal and the annoyance of inconsistent restuarant offering, I was further surprised to see that McDonald's Canada doesn't want to hear from their customers, offering no email address or contact form for their customers. As a multi billion dollar company, wouldn't you want to hear from your customers in real time, at their convienence. In this economy, aren't your customers everything, their loyalty and the value they see in your product - I'm pretty sure thats all thats going to get a business through this economic turndown - but hey, since a little bit of Mac sauce is going to make the company tight this fiscal, I guess I"ll continue eating elsewhere until McDonalds changes their tune about wanting my money.
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