9.25.2007

tales from the drive-thru

Every morning, I get an XL iced tea w/lemon (the lemon, fifty-fifty as it is, should really be in quotes) from my friendly neighborhood McDonalds. If you've known me for any length of time, you know that this McD's and I have a hate-hate relationship, but the strong desire I harbor to stay in my car for the longest period of time possible before arriving at work overrules the hatred; thus, my daily drive thru.

Usually I have some cursory rant about not getting the lemon, or asking twice for the lemon and not getting it, or being asked twice if I want the lemon and still not getting it. Sometimes there's no ice in my iced tea. Once, I ordered saimin and got noodles sitting in clear water. It's always my fault - 1) for going back and 2) for not checking before driving away.

Today I ordered the same damn thing as always, and it did get messed up, but with a twist (no, not a twist of lemon.) I got a large iced tea instead of an XL, so I pointed out the error and passed the cup back through the window. The employee proceeded to dump the contents of the large into an XL cup, add some ice, and pass it back to me. I could only laugh. I mean, what are you going to do? I've spoken at some point with every manager on those premeses; obviously this is the standard of quality we are dealing with.

And of course, there was no lemon.

They are indeed.

4 comments:

Dan said...

you expect too much. yesh! you know, we have the automated drink filling station now. yup, place order, appropriate cup drops onto convoyer belt, fills ice to corporate standards (85% ice/15% drink diluted in water), goes to filler & fills up automatically to appropriate level, cashier hands drink to buyer. no muss, no fuss.
but you! you have to have a lemon! and ice! why don't you just throw a clog in the big machine that is mcdonalds? hehe.

Anonymous said...

I read an article the other day about an automated McD's. I thought of you.
As far as I'm concerned as long as I receive the same sandwich and/or drink as the one I've ordered, everything else is incidental. Lemon, ice, fork, napkins, cheese on my burger, it's all details. It's the price you pay for convenience of the Golden Arches.
I'm sure a fully automated McD's would be cheaper to run than a fully loaded staff of idiots.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone else remember those commercials with the row of sub sandwiches and the voiceover asking if you can tell which one was made by the mentally challenged worker?

damned_cat said...

me and my sky-high expectations. soon i'll be requiring a bun with my burger!

v, every time this place screws up my order i think of you and how your manoa screwups always netted you some free food.

i do not remember that sub sandwich commercial ... was that satire or for real?!