Reader Says McDonald's Up-Sized Her Meal Without Asking
An anonymous reader we'll call Redacted was upsold to a large-sized value meal without his permission. She wrote this letter of complaint to the offending store and corporate:
I am writing today to address a concern I had while visiting the McDonald's Store drive-thru in (redacted), Massachusetts. I arrived at this location at just about midnight on Monday night (My receipt is marked August 25, 2009 (Tue) 00:01). I had a coupon for free fries and a medium soda when purchasing an Angus burger, and I also wanted a chicken nuggets meal and a cheeseburger.
I explained first that I had a coupon, and was told that "Angus burgers aren't served after midnight." As it was just barely midnight I was a little surprised, but changed my order to a quarter-pounder meal. I ordered my chicken nuggets meal and asked for a cheeseburger, and was told cheeseburgers aren't served late-night either, "only large sandwiches." This didn't make any sense since I was already told I couldn't get an Angus burger, which would seem to be a large sandwich, but I left the order with just the two value meals.
I paid and got my food, and when I was handed my drinks I noticed they were bigger than normal. I thought we may have gotten a courtsey upsize due to the issue with the food being unavailable, but when looking at my receipt I saw that we were in fact charged for large value meals. I drove back around to the window again, thinking it was just a mistake, and was told "Late night value meals come large standard. It says it on the menu." I stated "It also says on the menu that you have Angus burgers." The employee said "Well, it says it up high." At no time was it offered to give me medium fries and drink and refund the difference. I did not ask for him to do this because he spoke to me so condescendingly that I was concerned he might do something to our food. Instead, I asked for the customer service telephone number and was told "It's on the receipt." The only phone number on the receipt is (redacted). I read that number out loud to him and asked "Isn't that just the phone number here at the store?" He said yes and smirked at me. I was through with being patronized, so I left at that point.
This whole experience is disturbing for several reasons, but the one I am most concerned with is this automatic upsizing without informing the customer. If it in fact says anything about this on the menu board, it certainly is not in a place that is easy to see from a car, particularly at night. Further, I expect at a well-known place like McDonald's to be able to get the same thing at any time of the day without having to change the way I ask for it. If I ask for a "# 2" during the day and that would give me a medium, I expect to get the same thing at night. I can't understand the reasoning for providing a different default size in the "late-night" hours.
I am also fairly disturbed by the attitude of the employee. He did not have a nametag on, but was an older male and wore a blue and white striped button-down short sleeve shirt, which was partially untucked in the front. On the receipt it says "KS#15" and "MFY side 1 KVS order 780/0". I am sure he has to deal with these issues every night; in fact, while waiting for my food, I heard him tell two other customers in the drive-thru that they couldn't order certain items because they weren't on the late-night menu, so it is obvious that this information is not properly displayed in a way that is obvious to customers. But the smug, condescending attitude was completely uncalled for and unappreciated.
I would have been content at the time to receive the medium fries and drinks I expected and get a refund of the small difference and would have written the entire issue off. But after the attitude I received at what I assumed was a simple issue, I felt it necessary to inform both the store directly and the corporate office. I am also forwarding a copy of this email to Consumerist.com so that other customers will not have to find this information out the hard way. Financial issues are a hot topic in today's economy, and my goal is to see as few people essentially scammed out of money, however small an amount, as possible.
If I were McDonald's, I'd give Redacted her money back. And I'd also tell employees to coax as many customers as possible into up-sizing their meals, but only with their permission. And I'd eat free McDonald's apple pies constantly and get extremely fat.
(Photo: Paxton Holley)
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Comments:
I have done some late night McDonald's runs and have never been told that something wasn't served late night, or at any certain time of day (besides breakfast, grrr). That's odd. I feel sorry for the guy, even though it's a little mix-up. The way he was treated is more concerning. It's kind of amazing a FAST FOOD EMPLOYEE was condescending to him.
uhh.. don't buy crap and you won't be treated like crap?
Hmmm, my take on this is funny, on one hand I would be thrilled (if I ate McDonalds) to get a larger soda and fries (because honestly there is no real good reason for me to be at a drive thru at midnight :-) ) but on the other hand I would be pissed that I was charged more. If the difference is small (maybe a dollar and change) I wouldn't sweat it. I would however expect this McDonalds to put up big noticeable signs telling me what items I can order and what size they come in. If that seems to hard at least train your employees to let me know when I am ordering that meals only come in a certain size after a certain time.
As far as this drive thru employee being a jerk I would have raised all holy hell until he refunded my money. I would do it on principal alone, not because of the price difference.
I can't tell you how many times I go to McDonalds late (not that many), and everything that I want to order "isn't available after midnight". There aren't ANY signs saying what's available when, so it's always a guessing game.
Also, why are so many fast food workers fucking pricks? I wish that Jack in the Box guy worked EVERYWHERE. :(
Its' possible this mcdonalds is trying to pull off what Burger King and other joints have done. Changed the names of their sodas so when you order a "medium" you're actually getting a larger cup then you had before.
They've unilaterally removed their "super" sizes (biggie, king size) and moved up large to their place so customers are ordering large and getting ginormous. Customer thinks "oh hey I get more" without realizing that they've paid more also.
@bkdlays:
Wow, and only the the 3rd comment! We have our winner! "buy something I don't approve of and you deserve to be treated like shit."
winner!
I thought McDonalds made it a point over the last few years to stop asking customers if they want to upsize to help fight obesity in our fine fat country? It should be at the customers request only.
@friendlynerd: The third comment in the first article i read today. And an article about McDonalds no less. This is going to be a good day for by bingo board.
*|CONDESCENDING STATEMENT ABOUT THE OP'S CHOICE OF EATING ESTABLISHMENTS|* *|SIMILARLY CONDESCENDING STATEMENT ABOUT THE SUPERIORITY OF MY CHOICE OF EATING ESTABLISHMENTS|*
Just had to.
Is this on the MassPike? I went to a McDonald's MassPike rest stop once late and night and they had changed the menu to have, like, six items. I asked the employee why, and he said it was the late-night menu. What's the purpose of being open 24-7 if you only serve a very small portion of your menu during some hours?
@Face Imploder: I wonder if the only available items are the ones that have been sitting there a while. Meaning they don't want to have to actually cook your order, they want stuff pre-made and sitting under heat lamps. Mmmmm mmmmmm!
Since when did they stop serving burgers after midnight? Is that when they start breakfast?
they should send him a bill wanting the money for the upsize.
I've found McDonalds that are located near casinos have all sorts of wild and wonderful 'rules' to survive the late-night wave of customers with little or no money left after visiting the casino (at least in Atlantic City). I know there are franchises, but this specialized menu/pricing/rule situation is getting way out of hand (especially in these economic times). It should not be a prerequisite of placing an order at a McDonalds that you know what time it is, or what the local menu includes/excludes, at least not without a large re-branding effort on the part of this famous multi-national corporation intended to present itself as individual mom-n-pop style restaurants. McDonalds needs to tighten their franchise rules to stop this kind of practice, or they're bound to start loosing customers, and if a franchise can't survive without these practices, then they have no business running a McDonalds, and should close down.
The McDonald's closest to my house has exactly this menu policy for "late night." The difference? there is a very prominent sign explaining it.
Moreover, the first time I accidentally ordered a non-late night item, they graciously made it anyway, even though I offered to change my order. The op just ran into a jerk of an employee; there are many.
@Face Imploder: Probably because they're stuck working the drive-through at a fast food restaurant. It isn't exactly a high-status job, no?
I have never in all my life had such a difficult time at a McDonald's, even at night! One time my local McDonald's forgot to include hashbrowns, and they gave me a free meal the next day.
@bkdlays: Early morning smugness on the internet...how refreshingly original! Looks like someone has obtained his daily dose of superiority for the day.
@MostlyHarmless: I've still yet to print off the bingo boards, and now I'm having trouble with it. Grr. Also, why isn't Consumerist bingo an official game yet? We need to have rules governing which board to use at which post.
Make it so, Chris/Ben/Meg/Phil/Laura/Whomever!
Every McD's I know of around Boston and the 'burbs (those that are open late-night) has a limited menu. It's safe to say that if it's midnight or later...you aren't going to get the dollar menu. Shoot man, that McD's in Faneuil Hall only has two sandwiches on the late night menu, and one of them is the all-time disgusting Double Quarter Pounder. Then again, when your late-night clientele consists of fat people or drunk/stoned people, they WILL eat whatever you have available.
This happened to me many times at the local Burger King...I noticed that the drinks I was getting were HUGE, and couldn't figure out why, then I started checking the receipts and saw that they were charging me for large value meals when the price listed on the menu were all for medium sizes, and they never ask you if you want to upsize.
@italianscallion33: The only thing that happens to me is the ice cream machine is turned off/cleaned and I get sad. But that's understandable. Besides, who needs a sundae at midnight?!
@Oranges w/ Cheese misses her boyfriend who's in michigan: Yeah, I noticed a couple weeks ago that now they added a "Value Size" which is the old "small" size, and everything got bumped up a size reference. Small is the new medium and medium is the new large I guess. Even more frustrating is consumers are paying extra for the larger drinks, but I believe most of these restaurants serving fountain sodas get around 100% of the profits, since the soda companies provides free soda mix in exchange for the product placement advertising in their restaurants.
@italianscallion33: I have run into a few restaurants that state only certain items are served after a certain hour HOWEVER I have never heard of this automatic upsizing. And to have the employee be such a jerk to the op is definitely not a nice touch.
'If I ask for a "# 2" '
sorry, that just made me laugh.
Seriously, I understand that people need jobs in this time of economic downturn, but why do you have to be such an unwieldy prick because you are behind the counter? You're not helping the business and, in the long term, you're not helping yourself.
@TCama: The reason for this is probably that late night, they aren't properly staffed and with all the drunks driving thru with the minchies, they pre-cook all the food on the limited menu.
The sandwiches are basically sitting in the heat lamp waiting for you and the cashier is probably the only employee there.
@Face Imploder: "Also, why are so many fast food workers fucking pricks?"
Because fast food workers are hard to find. Managers will hire just about any shlub who walks through the door because turnover is so high.
Staff are not properly trained to be courteous because if they get upset they'll walk and the manager has to find more staff. Besides, you can't correct the staff member because you'll insult their individuality.
However, the way the OP described his worker, it sounds like they were part of the "management team." In that case, they can treat people however they want since good managers are even harder to find and they have the upper hand.
@Oranges w/ Cheese misses her boyfriend who's in michigan: I noticed the medium at burger king is more like a large!
@TCama: I've run into this issue before too (not on MassPike though as I live in MD); it probably is somehow cheaper to only keep certain fryers going or to have only certain foods prepared. However, I agree that if you're open 24 hours but only serve 1/10th of your menu from 12:00-5:00 something seems wrong...
Simple to remedy. Don't go to McDonald's. Been working for me for the last 3 or 4 years. They've never dissapointed me in that whole time frame.
when i worked at taco bell we always stopped serving chicken and steak items at 2 am when we closed at 4 am [which was weekends only] because the demand for those products was so low at those times that we'd end up opening a bag of chicken for one order and then have the rest of the product expire.
because it only affected 2 nights a week between 2 and 4 am, and therefore 4 hours a week, it wasn't on the menu. but we did manage to explain it to people without being jerks and it was standard to offer anyone who complained a free beverage for the inconvenience.
i'm not sure i understand the challenge this mcdonalds had with being able to serve the varied sizes of sodas and fries though because those are items that are easy to create in any size at any time.
or products that are created out of popular ingredients.
i don't know about the angus burgers but i am guessing they are not the usual beef patties? [i'd hope not since they are being advertised as being angus beef]
@Face Imploder: they're pricks because they have to deal with people like Redacted (who, speaking of smug and condescending attitudes, has so much of both in that little missive that he could probably resell what he doesn't use to McDonald's employees).
But yeah, just print up a big tarp with what's available, throw it over the drive-thru menu every night, and let people sit there and read for ten minutes before ordering.
I hate to say it, but stuff like this almost makes you realize why that woman called 911 about her McNuggets.
Sometimes fast food people can be such pricks that you feel like you need police protection to hold you back.
I did a drive-through once in mid-evening after there had been a tornado warning---- 1 hour ago- no power outages, sky was clear now- and the drive-through kids said "we're closed due to inclement weather" and I heard giggling- basically, the 15 year olds on duty decided to take the rest of the night off.
I have a feeling that's what happened at this McDonalds.
The 24/7 McDonald's in my area had the same sort of restriction a couple of years ago. They pulled the restriction, and now it seems like they have the same amount of customers as they do during the day.
@umbriago: Why would they take longer to read a shorter menu? And wouldn't it be more advantageous to McDonald's for people to spend more time reading and less time sitting at the window asking for stuff only to be told it's not available?
@pecan 3.14159265: That does sound like an interesting weekend project. But today being Tuesday and the weekend being 3 more days away, I will probably forget. I should set a reminder.
And arent bingo cards supposed to be drawn randomly? (It would defeat the purpose if everyone had the same cards, no?)
On a side note, did you know that if you order a burger at BK and specify "no onions," you must ALSO specify "no CRISPY onions?" Otherwise you will indeed get onions, and they will be very rude and refuse a refund because it was "your mistake."
@JGKojak: Can't say a blame them, prick of a boss running for shelter while leaving the underlings to run the store and continue making money. A boss willing to get down and dirty with employees during emergencies and such wins my respect for sure.
@umbriago: I didn't think the submitter was smug or condescending at all. Far from it.
You can't add up-sells to an order without permission, period.
Did the OP try contacting the owner of the individual store first? I would think that would be more productive than going right to Corporate.
@italianscallion33: When I stopped at a McDonalds at 2 AM (on Broad street in Philly by Temple U.), the only thing available was fountain sodas and quarter pounders. Too bad I tried ordering everything else on the menu before they told me that's all I could get.
@MostlyHarmless: True, but some things fall under the same categories, which may get confusing. This post would fall pretty much only on the side of restaurants, but what about the Sports Illustrated/Madden game post? Is that under retail bingo or generic bingo?
Yeah, just one more reason not to buy fast food.