[Cagey]

Okay....Melt the cheese.

[cyphergirl]

Funny this topic should come up .... I ripped McDonalds a nasty email today after getting yet another nasty looking burger.


I used to work at McDonalds... in 1993 - 1994. A GREAT McDonalds. If you were working the grill, and you were making messy burgers, you didn't get to work the grill anymore. The sandwiches had to be NEAT. APPEALING. And above all, they got microwaved for about 10 seconds to melt the cheese before the customer got them. Not making neat burgers with melted cheese would get you FIRED.

Now look at the mess..... I'm sick of ordering a burger, getting back to my office, and having to put the damned thing together. Is it really that much trouble to make sure that the meat is ON the bun... and that the cheese is ON the meat... and that there isn't ketchup smeared all over the top of the bun and squirting out every time you pick up the thing????!!!


Back when I worked at McD's, I learned that if you asked for a burger with extra cheese, they would make you a new one... because since the cheese on burgers was melted, they couldn't just take the bun off and slap a cold slice on. I got in the habit of asking for extra cheese. Last week I ordered a quarter-pounder with extra cheese.. as usual. When I unwrapped the burger, they had put a stack of ** 6 slices ** of cold cheese on top of the cold burger. I just couldn't eat it after seeing that..... it went into the "round file" and I spent the afternoon munching on a salad from my company's cafeteria.

WTF is wrong with these mouth-breathers that they are hiring today!!??

[Station 51]

Flight attendant Phil Perry doesn't like to admit it, but he eats at McDonald's 20 to 25 times a month.

Phil Perry is Phat!

[A. Patriot]

I ate supper at a McDonalds for the first time in about 20 years not too long ago with my 3 year old nephew. Except for the fries which were excellent, the rest of the food was gross!!! The meat didn't taste like meat, the buns didn't taste good, the milkshake was some kind of plastic foam, not real icecream. The Apple pies weren't very good either.

I worked one summer when I was in high school at a Mcdonalds. (circa 1973). Back then, the food was really pretty good.

Today, only a kid would eat that garbage because they don't know any better.

Only the breakfasts are edible to pretty good.

[paulklenk]

My pet peeves: Fix these and I'd be very happy. Most of these relate to service.

1. McD needs one line for all customers so you can step up to the next available cashier [like Wendy's and Burger King], instead of multiple lines where you have to compete for a cashier and then get stuck with a very slow one. It sucks when other people are moving ahead and you're stuck in line.

2. Speed things up! The cashiers are SO SLOW and they don't know how to ring things up. About as much motivation as wilted lettuce. If they could get the lead of out of butts, I'd be way happier. And McDonald's would be richer: more people moving through keeps those cash registers ringing.

3. Listen to the customer when they're placing their order. I don't know how many times I've had to repeat myself and correct

4. Repeat back special orders so I know they got it right. When you tell someone, "No onion" and they stare at you like a cipher, you never know whether they got the order right -- especially if they don't speak English.

5. Don't argue and give the customer what they ask for.

6. Salt those FRIES! Some workers hardly put any salt on the fries; I always have to ask for more. McD's fries are only good when they're well salted.

[EverOnward]

I stopped going to McDonalds years ago for food, but stopped by nearly every day for a medium coke at my local McD's.

The wait to get the coke took longer and longer and longer. The coke got more watery.

And finally, the immigrant help refused to fill the cup up -- just repeatedly poored in the fizz and shoved it through the window with the usual chip on the shoulder.

The manager spoke Spanish and basically didn't understand me when I tried to converse with him. He just pointed to the complaint number hanging on the wall.

Haven't been back since. Gotta stop drinking the coke anyway.

[TankerKC]

Clean up the joint.

I absolutely agree!

With the help of so-called mystery shoppers, McDonald's has recently begun keeping better track of its stores and is trying to put on a better face.

If a manager needs a mystery shopper to report him before he cleans his store, then he should be fired!

[spectre]

McDonald's fries are good only when they are hot. After that, they become hard, and eating them is tough.

I haven't eaten a Burger of theirs in years.

Maybe they should try and sell Hot Dogs? Can't find many fast food chains who sell Hot Dogs..Sonic does.

sw

[Alberta's Child]

Getting sued by someone who claims that McDonald's was bad for his health was a terrible blow, too.

Sure, it's a bullsh!t suit -- but the PR problem is very bad, and not for the reasons (the unhealthy nature of the food) you might think.

That lawsuit offered a confirmation in the eyes of many people that McDonald's is nothing more than a crummy restaurant chain whose business plan is based on hiring sub-standard employees to serve crappy food to 400-pound minorities who are too dumb to think for themselves when it comes to eating.

Many of the comments on this thread are directed at the quality of the food and the quality of the employees, but in my opinion the quality of the clientele is an important indicator as well.

[Hat-Trick]

Hat-Trick's family burger preferences, in order:

Dad's off the backyard grill

The BurgerMeister @ Meister's in Stillwater, MN

Sonic

Culver's

B-K

McD's as a last resort

Hat-Trick

[tom paine 2]

How about using real cheese? How about provolone as an option? How about some tasty bacon or avacado on that burger? How about frying the fries in beef tallow? How about telling PETA and the Sierra Club to shove it? How about getting a pair and telling the corporate attorneys to take a hike?

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

Hickok, who has four kids from 6 to 14, says one of his best barometers on McDonald's is through his kids. They've all have stopped asking him to go to McDonald's. "They prefer restaurants like Applebee's,"

Mr Hickok...your kids are dorks and Applebes sucks ass.

As for McDonalds, you can start by firing your rude, lazy, stupid, uneducated workers that probably make up 50-70% of your work force. I love the quarter pounder and the big mac (which will be .99 in januruary for 1 month only to compete with the .99 whopper) but I cant stand some rude punk acting like he has the worst job ever and sighs and sometimes dosent even speak english.

[Paulus Invictus]

Micky D could do us all a favor and close down permanently. Their food is awful, full of fat and cholesterol and their drinks are full of sugar. Of course, this could be said of all fast food suppliers, but MD wins the All Time Bad Food Award. My cardiologist said he and his colleagues love all fast food guys--- "MD et al have me me rich," he claims.

[SamAdams76]

I would like to see beer served at McDonalds. Not just watered down Bud either, but good, strong beer on draft.

[yendu bwam]

The last ten times we've been to McDonalds, they messed up our order. That's 10 for 10. And then there was no clean place to sit.

[DCPatriot]

When's the last time you walked in a actually witnessed hamburgers cooking on the grill?

The moral of the story is give a TASTEY product. Their food tastes like crap, and looks like crap.

One can understand what made Michael Douglas' character in Falling Down go berserk when he compared his sandwich to the picture of that obviously delicious burger above the cash register.

It hasn't changed boys and girls. Service and a GOOD product equals success.

[Fintan]

One word: Hooters.

[BearCub]

McDonald's sucks, plain and simple - and their managers are brainless. ...which is what you should expect I guess when you are paying them ten bucks an hour.

I worked there for a summer when I was 14 or 15. We got a large sandwich and fries during each shift we worked. So, not wanting the normal bland burger, I always sauteed onions to put on a quarter-pounder w/cheese. My manager saw me doing it once & I got reamed for it. Not because of any health or quality issues that would affect customers - but because if it wasn't on the menu, the corporation prohibited making it. Idiots. I hope they go out of business.

[Trajan88]

I hated McD when I was a kid (I'm 37 years old now).

For some reason I cannot stand onions. McD always put oninons on their burgers. Even when I asked for a burger without onions, all the cooks did was scrape them off (often bits of onion were always left on the bun mixed with the condiments; even if all the onions were scraped off, the taste was still there). Yuk!

McD came up with a brilliant idea when I was in college ('84 through '89)... the McDLT. This hamburger ROCKED. The packaging kept the cold side cold and the hot side hot. The condiments were never gooped on in buckets like they are now.

Where did the McDLT go?

And another thing... the ice tea that comes from the fountain dispenser is pre-mixed. It doesn't taste like real ice tea. What garbage barrel is this swill made in?

Currently, I go to a couple of good burger joints here in N. Texas... Country Burger and the Feed Bag (both in Plano, TX). These establishments produce excellent food; I'll drive out of my way, past many McDs, to dine at either.

McD is very broken. If I'm out of town and need a burger fix, I go to Whataburger or Wendy's.

R.I.P. McD until you get your act together.

Trajan88; TAMU Class of '88

[jjm2111]

McDonald's sucks!

I only eat there when it's the last thing between me and starvation. (And that's iffy.)

Here's why:

1. Most McD's employees have a hard time w/ the concept of breathing. They have to push PICTURES of the damn food for the love of God!. It's not that tough to push "Big Mac". Stupid and rude for the help is not a winning combination.

2. I got a burger w/out the meat once. I got a burger w/out the bun once. This is basic stuff.

3. Slow. Slow. Slow. It's supposed to be FAST food. Why pay $7.50 to stand in line when I can do the same and be SERVED? (even in NYC).

4. The food is crap. Do they even use real potatoes in the fries anymore? I know BK doesn't. The meat is garbage.

5. No one wants healthfood from a fast food joint. If I want health food I'll eat sushi. If I go to a fast food joint I want meat and grease, and not necessarily in that order.

Final hint for McDonald's execs: The burgers should at least APPROACH the pictures in the commericals. If it looked like a homeless person sat on it, people will not come back.

Someone should email this thread to the CEO of McDonalds.

[PJ-Comix]

11. Make it easier for accepting menu suggestions from the public. A couple of years ago I tried to contact the bigwigs of McDonalds with a great menu item idea but found it impossible to break through the McDonald's bureaucracy to make my suggestion. The menu idea I have is still a good one and they can contact me about it at my e-mail address below. BTW, in case any of you McDonalds folks lurking here think I'm just some nutcase, I might remind you that PayPal took my idea for auction banners in January, 2000 and it worked beautifully. Fortunately at that time PayPal was still small enough to accept outside ideas from the blue which mine was when I called them.

pjglad@gate.net