In the past, I have written about McDonald’s and a general decline in their service offering here in the UK (read our previous McDonalds pricing article and then our 2023 review). For a number of reasons, varying from a decline in quality to increased expense, I have avoided McDonald’s since last year. I don’t actually rate them much anymore in recent years and also generally avoid them to help with weight management. Have they improved?
This week my wife fancied a treat and decided to opt for a McDonald’s tea. I hadn’t had a McD since last year. She drove to our local McDonald’s and returned shortly after.
Starting with a positive, the food quality has improved. We opted for McDonald’s Big Arch meals here in the UK, which is a relatively new burger. The Rugby branch (town centre) was polite and quick. The quality of the food was also much better, and the burger felt substantial for the money. Another shocker was also decent hot fries. Not the cold, limp fries that have become a common offering more recently. So while still no longer a cheap affair, with the meal coming in around £12 per head as some extras, we did opt for a more premium burger offering.
So what went wrong? Yet again from a McDonald’s, I have lost count of how often ordered items are missing. I remember a time when it was always KFC that left items out of your order bag, and now McDonald’s is much worse.
In the past, we have had delivery and then it’s difficult to report missing items, which leaves you out of pocket. In this instance, we had a Big Arch Burger missing (£10.79 for a large meal), and to put it mildly, we weren’t impressed. After my wife especially visited the branch, I could not eat with my family. I needed to go back to McDonald’s to get the burger and sort the issue. Our reaction at the time was “surely not again!”.
On arrival at the branch, I have some observations. They were busy with lots of staff who were pleasant. No issues at all with how the issue was dealt with. A young man listened, apologised, and sorted the issue. Knowing my fries would be cold when I got home, I asked for fresh fries. A supervisor immediately nearby understood my reasoning and okayed the request as notices the team member needed a nod to proceed. The server then personally handed the item to me, where I was waiting in the restaurant. So while frustrating, they addressed the issue.
My concern is more about the packing experience. With a history of my family experiencing issues with missing items, something is not right at McDonalds. Maybe more quality checks to make sure orders are correct are necessary and I do appreciate speed is of the essence. While monitors are on display to staff with order information, is there over-reliance on the receipts that are printed and placed on the tray? Certainly, if used for packing, the writing is small and quantities hard to read as the print is just a feint thermal printer. Then if the order number is referenced against the monitors, something is going wrong.
Overall, good staff, improved food quality, but the process of packing orders is still flawed. I’m not convinced, though, that this is necessarily the staff’s fault but perhaps a weak process McDonald’s needs to address. Mistakes, of course happen, but the error rate in our experience is very poor. You shouldn’t have to check your orders before departing and recommend you do to avoid having to make inconvenient return journeys.
Food Quality
4 out of 5 stars
Customer Service
5 out of 5 stars
Pick and pack process
1 out of 5
Overall
3.3 out of 5
And lastly, for anyone who knows I am on a health kick, this was a first McD in eight months. Cost, diet, and missing items will definitely prevent me from ordering again any time soon. To maintain a calorie deficit I immediately carried out an extended daily walk for 5 miles.
