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The other day I went through the drive-thru at the McDonald’s at Kettleman and Highway 99 in Lodi, CA, where I was going to order a Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal. The voice on the intercom suggested their new Double Bacon Burger special meal instead, so I decided to try that but ordered it without pickles. I paid, got my order and before I got on the freeway I discovered that my container of fries was only ¼ full. . . and stale and cold! I drove back to the McDonald’s and got out and went in and told the girl behind the counter what I had found when I opened my bag. I showed the girl behind the counter the quarter full container. Obviously annoyed, she asked “Well, what do you want me to do? Fill it up?”

I said, “I want what I paid for, so yes.”

She sullenly did... overfilling it, and handed it to me. I left.

I got on Highway 99 headed toward Sacramento. When I bit into my burger, which had a paper taped to the wrapper indicating it was “special order: no pickle,” it was loaded with pickles! Only pickles. No ketchup, no mustard, no cheese, no bacon, just pickles. I tossed it down in disgust.

I had to throw the burger out! At least I had the fries. The fries were unsalted. And cold.

The only thing they got right was the Diet Coke. Oh, there were two napkins in the bag.

I was hungry, having worked through my normal lunch hour (it was after four and I had an appointment in Sacramento) and I had no time to wait in line at another drive-thru for another meal. I was pissed enough to call the McDonald’s to complain to the manager.

The manager apologized and said if I brought the burger back, he would “replace it!” I was, by this time, already 25 miles north of Lodi. He then told me that no one at “my restaurant would put a quarter full fry in a drive-thru bag.” I said mine was only a quarter full. He said after I had come back with my “almost full fry demanding it be filled up,” he had reviewed the security videos and he had a video proving that it was not only a quarter full. I asked if he was calling me a liar. He said “No sir, I am not calling you a liar, but I have a video showing the fry put in your bag was full.” He was quite rude. I responded that he was calling me a liar. He then said that he was willing to replace the food if I brought it back to his restaurant.

I told him to forget it. . . I had thrown the food out. . . but I would be complaining to corporate. He said go ahead.

Given that someone thinks the inclusion of only one napkin in his happy meal is worth $1.5 million, how much is MY screwed up meal and treatment at the hands of this McDonald’s staff and manager worth???

I have noticed over the years that every time I have gotten fries from McDonald’s at the drive-thru window, it is NEVER as full as when you get them inside and eat in the restaurant. I have come to the conclusion that it is a policy to short the fries of the drive-thru customers because they cannot come back and complain. How about it? They say that 10% of every worker in the US has at sometime worked at McDonald’s. Is that the policy? I think it is... because it would make them more money on every drive-thru order.

I recall that United Airlines found that they could save almost a million dollars a year by merely leaving ONE PEANUT out of each package of free peanuts they distributed to their passengers.