I’m a fan of McDonald’s buttermilk crispy chicken sandwich. Freshly made, it is everything the packaging promises. Let it sit awhile under the heat lamp, and it is, in the euphemism of the Internet, a POS. This morning, I got the POS version.
I like this sandwich…when it’s fresh!
It probably isn’t a good idea to charge someone $6.05 for a dead sandwich, especially someone who blogs and has a work history as a quality assurance fellow. I have my standards, and I am reasonably articulate about them!
I barely managed to bite two chunks off this sandwich, but they were inedible. I had to spit them out.
I tried to eat this monstrosity, and managed to get a couple chunks off it. But I couldn’t chew them! The idea of wasting the sandwich goes contrary to my quality training. On the other hand, that sandwich was dead before I got it. It shouldn’t have ended up in a customer’s hands.
“I should take this back to the restaurant and complain,” I thought. Yeah, get in my car and drive completely across town and have the hassle of getting in line to complain. “I mean, this is the first time this has happened to me…wait, no it isn’t!”
Dried-out bun, wilted lettuce, soggy tomato, leather-like breaded chicken cutlet. Of course I want to pay $6.05 for it! Make me another one just like it!
Time of day may be a factor. I bought the sandwich just before the changeover to breakfast menu. I can imagine someone saying, “Don’t throw that chicken sandwich out. Someone might buy it, but we won’t want to make one fresh when it’s this close to changeover.”
Yeah, you don’t expect 5-star quality from a fast food outlet, but you can expect a specific consistent level of acceptable quality from a McDonald’s outlet.
That’s been the McDonald’s promise and the measure of it’s success: Reasonably tasty meals that are the same no matter when or where you buy them from a McDonald’s outlet.
The local one failed today. Big time.
This kind of stuff happens to me sometimes too and I simply take the offending product back up to the register and show it to the manager and ask for a hot, fresh new one. They are usually more than happy to comply.
I should do that or complain through their 800 telephone number. This happens from time to time, and I finally got something that was beyond edible. There won’t be a “next time”.
When it happens to me I just make them give me another one and I tell them, “Make sure it is hot and fresh.” It works every time.
I’m boycotting this particular restaurant just now. If I decided to try them again, I may try that, though I frankly feel they aren’t likely to do much better.
Looks awful. We do not go to McDonalds here as their food leaves a lot to desire.
I usually will just pay and walk out without complaining but oldest son and I went to denny for breakfast the other day at 5 am. The Bald Dude was with caregiver.
I ordered some grand slam breakfast that looked good on the ad in the menu.
I got two shrived up pork links, and one shrunken pice of bacon sitting in a pool of grease.
The chedder cheese eggs were rubber and the hash browns were still half frozen.
My sons breakfast was not much better.
We got up and started to walk to the register when the waitress comments on the fact we had not touch dour meals and was very snotty about it.’
I told the cashier and the waitress the food was slop and why, and she called the manager who offered us another meal and we said no and we were not charged for it.
We didn’t go back.
I put up with occasional lapses, but the problem noted in the post has become more of a regular thing. If I had been at the restaurant eating instead of a drive through customer, I would have sent it back.
Next time I’m in the neighborhood
I’ll stop by and make you one
As always Sheldon
I’d take you up on it, Sheldon! Prepared well, it’s a tasty sandwich.
Next time you are there, ask to talk to a manager. Explain calmly what happened and how disappointed you were by this lack of consistency. There is a good chance that you will get a free replacement sandwich for your trouble and the manager will get some much needed feedback. Get the manager’s name and make sure you send him your regards every time you stop by.
There’s a telephone number posted on the take out window for complaints. It’s an 800 number, so I’;m sure it is very “personal”. I don’t know if I’d want a replacement sandwich so much as money back.
I can understand you not taking it back but McD’s will get a whipping from you because you will tell folk and they will tell folk until the real story is all jumbled up and comes out…not to ever get the buttermilk chicken sandwich. I don’t care for beef all that much so don’t go to McDonald’s. However, I have tasted their fries and like them. Sadly, that’s not enough to make me go to McDonalds. I make great fries in the oven and my hamburgers are the best. You guessed it…I eat here at home unless its a special occasion.
Jean
I oftentimes get something at this restaurant or other fast food place when I get to the point where I need to get groceries but don’t feel up to it. (Physically, I have days where standing for any length of time, such as going for groceries, leaves me laid up and in physical distress. It’s just one of those things I deal with as a person with Wegener’s granulomatosis and its effects.
Sometimes if you call and complain they put your name in this special book and you get a free one next time, even if you dont bring it back. I’ve dine it at arbys and we use to do it when I worked at burger king.
I put my experience out there for the blogosphere to see. I am curious to find out if it serves a purpose or just helped me express my dismay at lousy product.
I only buy breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds and they always manage to burn my bagel. Burger King and Wendys have better quality meats so if you have one of those near you, you should try them.
I’ve had bad luck with breakfast meals from this same restaurant — bacon-egg-and cheeese biscuits so dried out I couldn’t bite a piece off the biscuit! Same problem as with the sandwich documents in this post: damn thing sat under the heat lamp too long and died of over-exposure. I’m tired of it.
Yep. You shoulda gone back.
One thing business people need to realize is the customer who complains directly to you is rare. The customer who tells ten or more of his friends about how bad your product/service/ whatever was is the norm. If this had been a first time, I would have taken it back. It is, however, not. I’ve ordered this particular sandwich several times. Most times, it is tender, tasty, really surprisingly good for a fast food product. About three times in 10, though, it is on the verge of inedible. Today, one time in ten, it was inedible. I can tolerate a little lapse in quality, but I do expect edible food. I’m not that difficult to please: food is good! I have told other people how much I thought this particular sandwich was a good move by McDonald’s, and how I’ve ordered it many times since its introduction. I have been disappointed with it the last two times, especially today.
I am sorry to hear that, Doug, as I know you are not exactly a rich person and have mobility difficulties and now have to find something else to eat in your home – or order something from a delivery service – or even go hungry. They should not do it to any customer, but particularly not to a senior citizen who served your country in the army and in general is such a nice person! Stuff like this makes me very angry.
I tried to find an email-adress with McDonald’s.com – they did not have one on their contact us page, but they have a 7 days/week phone number and maybe you should let them know you were non surplussed at their Alliance/Nebraska outlet with your chicken sandwich!
1-800-244-6227
7 days a week
7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. CST
I’m still not convinced I want to contact them with the idea they might make things right. I’ve noticed a consistent problem with crap like this coming out at certain times of day. If they can’t figure it out, then, maybe they deserve to have a business failure. I don’t support businesses that are run by people who don’t understand basic things like heat lamps kill the quality of their product after a point, so it’s better to not sell something that’s been sitting around drying out. I will consider calling them, but I don’t know if I can be calm about it considering this isn’t a first time thing. .
Itr makes me very angry, too. I do have options and do use them as needed. On the other hand, there are times I feel like a little change of pace from the usual things I fix to eat. The sandwich is typical of something I wouldn’t fix for myself because of the mess to make just one serving. (Some things aren’t as good reheated – cutlets are one!) I know I’m being stubborn on the point and could probably get a replacement sandwich if I complained, but I just don’t think it would change the way this company builds up excess product in anticipation of future sales, then kills it under heat lamps till it sells or ends up in the garbage, whether at the restaurant or the customer’s home.
That stated, I do thank you for taking the effort to help find me a solution within the system, as it were.