McDonald’s mobile app misery

Usually these days I order via the McDonald’s mobile app, which can be handy when their system works. Sometimes, though, the wait for food can be longer than expected — and the catch is that they have your money once you click the button to place the order.

You cannot un-pay.

Ten days ago, I was on my way from my Mom’s in Kenosha to pick up Amy in Racine. It was almost 8 a.m. and there had been no time for breakfast, so I placed an order on the McDonald’s mobile app for their 4707 Taylor Ave. location — 2 Egg Cheese Biscuits, 2 Hash Browns, 1 Large Premium Roast Coffee with 2 creams — for a total of $10.66.

And I waited.

The sign on the parking space warned that it was for 10-minute parking only. I waited for thirteen minutes, then gave up. There was no more time to go into the restaurant, find the appropriate person, and provide documentation. I had other things to do that morning, and I would just have to do them hungry.

Later in the day I wandered through the McDonald’s App Help Center on my iPhone, filled out a detailed feedback form with the exact time and store number of my order, and requested a $10.66 refund.

The next day, I got an email from “Andrea” at McDonald’s Customer Care telling me that I would have to deal instead with the local restaurant’s management.

Instead, I wrote back repeating my request for a refund.

If I wanted to, I could start all over again with the Contact Us Form.

It’s been a week now, and no refund has been charged back to my bank account.

February 27: McDonald’s order lost in cyberspace

Meanwhile, there’s been more driving to Mom’s in Kenosha and back, and today (foolishly, I know) I decided to place a lunch order at this very same McDonald’s, again using their mobile app.

I added two McChicken sandwiches to my bag, and then a large French Fries. But prior to completing the order, the app listed only one item in my bag — the fries. So I again added two McChicken sandwiches, and saw it was now correct. Then I clicked the button to submit my order.

Delightful animated cartoon French Fries danced on my screen.

And danced.

And danced.

I showed him. It was dancing fries.

He told me to quit the app and relaunch it to see what happens. Meanwhile, I received an email receipt thanking me for my mobile order of four McChicken sandwiches and a large fries. The total was $9.75.

I showed the email to him. He looked at it, then closed the drive-thru window.

When it opened again, a woman asked me what the matter was, and I explained all over again about the two McChicken sandwiches and the large fries. She checked and checked and could find no record of my order.

As is typical of customer service everywhere, the McDonald’s system not registering my purchase was not their problem, but perhaps the result of something I had done wrong.

Meanwhile, I checked my bank account. McDonald’s had taken $9.75 from it.

As the line of cars behind me in the drive-thru grew, the woman in the window said she would “promo” me the two McChickens and the fries, but she could not refund anything unless I returned with a printed bank statement.

She gave me a promo receipt for two McChickens and one large fries — a $6.87 value.

The promo recept encouraged me to fill out an online survey and give them a “Highly Satisfied” rating.

“No,” I answered — and handed him my promo receipt.

He studied it, disappeared, returned, handed me a bag, and wished me a good day.

The thing is, I don’t eat beef.

The bag also contained two small orders of fries.

That’s all I would have for lunch today.

So the moral of this story is that fast food isn’t always fast — and even the food itself is not a given.

McDonald’s refund issued same afternoon

Not ten minutes after putting this post online and emailing a link to Steren Management, I received my McDonald’s refund for today’s mixup.

But if they eventually do read this, I still want my $10.66 from ten days ago.

Refund check finally mailed for first McDonald’s mobile order

Responding to my email and this post on my “fancy blog,” Karen left me a voicemail, and I called her back the next day.

We discussed how the McDonald’s mobile app is what it is, and agreed that individual restaurants don’t control how it works or doesn’t.

I get that — but someone needs to refund my $10.66, and corporate tells me it’s up to the local restaurant.

So this time Karen asked for the exact transaction date and time, plus the last four of my card number. After doing “research” on my case for a few minutes, she called me back and asked for my mailing address, in order to to send me a physical check for $10.66.

I’m grateful to her for getting this resolved — but the McDonald’s Corporation’s headquarters in Chicago should think about adding a simple “refund” or “chargeback’ button that their restaurants can click to void a transaction.

This current system is pure misery.

October 8: McDonald’s app pushes my order to a different location

My wife Amy has cancer, and this particular Sunday was spent getting her in the car, driving her up to Froedtert Hospital, and then sitting with her through a bunch of tests and treatments and so on as she was admitted by the outstanding personnel up there.

I had no breakfast, no coffee, no lunch, and no dinner — so on my way back home alone after 6 p.m., I decided to place a mobile order at the McDonald’s closest to my house, hoping the sandwich and fries might still be warm when I got home.

I specifically chose 2100 Lathrop Ave. in Racine instead of the Milwaukee-area McDonald’s that the mobile app initially suggested. I selected a Spicy Deluxe McCrispy Chicken Sandwich and a large fries, hitting the button to place the order and pay when I was still a couple of miles away.Then, pulling into the parking lot, I hit the “I’m Already Here” button and eased into one of the mobile order parking spots.But — sonofabitch! — the app told me I was at the wrong location.

I went inside and showed my screen to a woman who seemed like she was the manager on duty.

Of course, she repeatedly explained to me that I was in error — that she didn’t take my money, it was an app. The app apparently pushed the order to the other restaurant, and all I had to do was waste another 18 minutes backtracking to the other restaurant get my food.

I got louder and louder, reminding her that she was wearing a McDonald’s shirt and representing McDonald’s and that this restaurant sold food through this very same app, which took my money, then made an error. McDonald’s was in error, not me. I demanded that she — as a representative of McDonald’s — make things right, here and now.

It took about 10 minutes of semi-yelling, but she finally ordered up my sandwich and fries like she was doing me some sort of special favor. I went home and choked it down.

Ba Da Ba Ba Bah.