Reader Joel and his girlfriend ended up going through a McDonald’s Drive-thru in San Antonio, TX on Christmas, and they must have been naughty because McDonald’s re-gifted their burger. After completing the drive-thru transaction and checking their order, Joel and his girlfriend noticed their burgers were wrong. He’d ordered no pickles, she’d ordered cheese. After the first bite was taken, it became painfully clear the cheese had been forgotten. From Joel’s email:

We turn around, go through the drive thru again, get up to the window and let them know that they forgot the cheese on her burger, and my two burgers (with a sticker and tag saying “double cheeseburger w/o pickles” on them) had pickles.
I inform her that I’ll just pick the pickles off… But we need cheese. A minute passes and she proceeds to hand me a chicken mcnugget box. I seeing it and being confused said, no, we ordered a home style burger with CHEESE. She said, yeah, here’s the cheese.

Yes, they handed Joel some cheese in a box. Joel, being a sane person, refused cheese in a box. “I handed her the box of cheese, and the one bite missing burger, and asked if you could please remake it…Another minute passes, the lady comes back and hands me a very very hot box with a Home style burger in it, I hand it to the girlfriend and …She opened the box and guess what! It’s her exact same burger! With the bite missing. What they did was take the spare piece of cheese, slap it on the burger, and nuke it for about a minute.”

This McDonald’s microwaved her partially eaten burger without removing the lettuce, then gave it back to her. Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew! Joel and his girlfriend are returning to the McDonald’s today to speak to a manager. Ew!—MEGHANN MARCO

Joel’s full email inside.

Joel writes:

Hello,

This all happened on Christmas. My girlfriend, and I were leaving her house to go see more family for the holiday. It was around 4pm, and we were a bit hungry. So on the way we figured we would stop by the McDonald’s at 25200 W IH 10 San Antonio TX, 78257. Christmas morning was pretty good, but the afternoon was starting to go downhill. Her dad had to go to the ER because he was ill (He’s better now, no worries), Christmas dinner was canceled (The turkey was still frozen), Grandma was sick. Just not good.

Well we pull into the drive thru, get to the box and place our order. A home style burger meal, with CHEESE, large size, with a coke to drink. And two double cheeseburgers, with no pickles. Our order is taken, repeated back correctly, and we drive forward to the last window.

We get there, my girlfriend has the exact change out and ready, and we wait. As I pulled up I watched the lady who was manning the drive through cove window box thingy walk over to another co-worker, chit chat for a few seconds, and wonder off somewhere in the dining area (which was closed for the Holiday) About 5 minutes later she returns, messes around with the drink order for a good minute, then does the first annoying thing. As she opens the window she can see my window is open, and I have money being held out for her. She then proceeds to hand me the drink. This is minor, but still annoying. We do the exchange without dropping anything luckily. She hands us our bag of food, and off we go.

I slowly pull away as my girlfriend checks the bag to make sure items are accounted for. They are all there so we continue off the property. We get less than 500 feet away when I have one of my double cheeseburgers open and realize that it has pickles. Then thats when my girlfriend takes a bite of hers and realizes there is no cheese. We turn around, go through the drive thru again, get up to the window and let them know that they forgot the cheese on her burger, and my two burgers (with a sticker and tag saying “double cheeseburger w/o pickles” on them) had pickles.

I inform her that I’ll just pick the pickles off. That’s why I order it that way, so not to waste pickles, and so I don’t have to get messy taking them off, but no biggie. But we need cheese. A minute passes and she proceeds to hand me a chicken mcnugget box. I seeing it and being confused said, no, we ordered a home style burger with CHEESE. She said, yeah, here’s the cheese.

They wanted to hand us a piece of cheese in a box? The lady said that thats what she was told to give us. Seemed to me like the manager on duty was the one who said it and she was following orders. Poor girl.

The point of going to a resturaunt of any kind is so you don’t have to make your own food. So this was very stupid to me. I handed her the box of cheese, and the one bite missing burger, and asked if you could please remake it. And my girlfriend asked as well to make it so the cheese would be on it and melt properly on the burger like if you ordered fresh, you know?

Another minute passes, the lady comes back and hands me a very very hot box with a Home style burger in it, I hand it to the girlfriend and pull forward so we can get going (by this time we were running late to a previous engagement)

She opened the box and guess what! It’s her exact same burger! With the bite missing. What they did was take the spare piece of cheese, slap it on the burger, and nuke it for about a minute to the point where it was piping hot and to hot to eat. Also without removing the lettuce, or tomato, or pickles, so the lettuce was wilted, everything was just crap.

But being late and not having time to go through a third time we had to speed off unhappy and quite annoyed. Tomorrow we will be calling there or stopping by to speak to a manager.

Anyways, thanks McDonald’s for re gifting our burger.

Thanks Consumerist for being awesome.

Happy Holidays!