We Are Never Going To (That) McDonald’s Again

We don’t eat at McDonald’s, except for an occasional ice cream cone or snack-sized McFlurry, no more than 5 or 6 times a week. My wife, Kelly, always asks for an unsweetened iced tea. There wasn’t a McDonald’s near us, if you can believe that, so we were happy when they built one just up the street.

The new store has been very busy, with both drive-thru lanes full most of the time. When we drive through, we always ask for “the biggest unsweet iced tea you have,”and often repeat that part to be sure they get it right. Unsweet iced tea. At the window, as they pass the tea over, I ask if it is unsweet. They always say yes, but Kelly immediately opens a straw and tastes it before we drive away. Wendy’s always gets it right, but other places often don’t, especially McDonald’s.

At this new McDonald’s, they haven’t gotten it right yet. Not once. The first time, I asked the guy at the window, “is this unsweet?” and he said “yes.” It wasn’t. When we drove back through to fix it, they were none too pleased. Two days later, the same thing happened.

The other day, Kelly called screaming, “we are never going there again, we are never going there again….” She had gotten a sweet tea. So she parked the car, went into the store, waited in line, explained her problem, and was treated badly, like it was her fault and she ought to just tough it out. What’s the big deal?

So now, as all these pictures show, we just drive by. Yesterday, at the other nearby McDonalds, as he passed the cup out, the first thing the guy says, “here’s your sweet tea.”

Perhaps the problem is that McDonald's only has Sweet Tea cups like this one, and should consider matching Unsweet Tea cups to avoid confusion.

Perhaps it would be easier if Kelly just gave up tea, or if we moved to a country where customer service still matters.

What would you do?