On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I work from the office – but still need to come home at lunchtime to let the dogs out.  I will sometimes stop at McDonald’s on the way and eat lunch with the dogs before heading back to the office. 

This past week, I was lost in thought on the drive and missed my exit.  I had a hurried bit of time with the dogs and decided to pick up lunch on the way back and eat at my desk.  Which I don’t like to do, but was pressed for time.

I pulled into the restaurant and went to the kiosk inside to order.  It’s usually faster than the drive-thru and it’s easier to check on the correctness of the order without holding up the line.  With my order complete and paid for, I moved near the counter to wait for my number to be called.  One of the staff members gave myself and another patron our cups and I went and got my drink while keeping an ear out.

With drink in hand, I went back to the front and waited.  The guy that had ordered when I did got his food and left.  Two more guys ordered and they…both got their food and left. 

One guy apologized.

I’m deeply polite and patient to a fault, but this was getting out of hand.

I managed to get the attention of a harried manager and asked if my food was ready since I’d been waiting a while. I was still very polite.   She asked what I had ordered and I told her and gave her the order number. 

I could see into the kitchen and my number was clearly absent from the pending orders.  I heard her tell another staff member to re-order the food from my order.  The staff member slowly made her way to the counter and asked what I had ordered.  I gave her my receipt – with the date/time and amount paid – and she re-entered the order as a “promo”.  At least they didn’t try to charge me again. 

She gave me the new receipt along with the old one – though I don’t know what I was going to do with that and I waited a bit more.

I then heard the manager tell another employee to go ask me what size fries I had ordered. Which is odd, since they had redone the order and it should be on a screen or ticket somewhere.  They came over and asked me and it had been so long since I ordered I had to look at the receipt to be sure.

They went away and a little while later I heard the manager tell the employee to take me the bag of food.    

The employee brought me the food, handed the bag to me, and walked away.

And that was it.   No, “sorry for the wait,”  No, “sorry for the wait, we gave you more fries or a cookie,”  No, “sorry about the wait, here’s a coupon”

Just…nothing.

I stopped at a table on my way out to check the order.  It would have been icing on the cake to have gotten the wrong order but it was correct. 

As I walked to my car and drove back to the office, I tried to figure out what I had done wrong or where my order had ended up.   

I guess they figured I was going to be a dick about it and the manager wanted as little to do with me as possible.  I get that, I guess, but any kind of acknowledgement would have gone a long way.

The plain hamburger ended up tasting faintly of onion.  

And the fries were cold by the time I got to the office. 

It was the most unhappy of meals.