McDonalds Rip Off

Mike Amos · McDonalds Rip Off

I always wondered about these fast muck chains but this (if true) may prove my scepticism.

Humphrey The Pug

It's too small can you enlarge it, I bet all the girls say that to you!!?

woof woof

It might just be me...but I find that too small to read.

SpecB

That's outrageous. That MD should be hung.

(I managed to zoom in on the page enough to read it and basically it boils down to the Aussie MacDonald's MD trying to pass a directive to deliberately miss items out of orders people have paid for to save money.)

simonp

I'm reading it on a mobile phone screen and can make it out. Says something along the lines of how much money they'd make if they leave one item out of every third drivethrough order. They wanted to make it standard practise without anyone finding out (which obviously didn't happen!)

Dr. Hfuhruhurr

You need to look even closer to see that the signatory isn't Robert Mugabe!

garry

That's made up. Who in their right mind writes that in a letter.

Nice Guy Eddie

One thing the MD of Maccy D's would be is shit hot on Customer service. You also don't get to be in his position and write some old rubbish about didling people at the drive through.

SpecB

"him"

simonp

In a very similar scenario I've bought takeaway pizzas from a nearby Pizza Hut in the past and when I've got home have found that the pizza has fuck all topping on it. I'm sure it's done on purpose, as you're not likely to open the box and check when collecting it!

Gooner

It's the old percentage game. Of all those they rip off, maybe 50% will notice. Of them, very few will notice at the drive-thru the rest won't notice until they get home and of them, only a few will live close enough to the restaurant to bother coming back to complain and even then most of those customers will probably be too lazy. Therefore in most instances they'll get away with it.

Sadly it's true that most of us are too lazy or not too fussed about going back. Especially when you've just been shopping. The amount of food I've not been happy with from Tesco that I've never returned is unreal. Still it's made up for by all the random obscure vegetables I can never be bothered to look up on the self-service till so just put through as bananas!

woof woof

The only experience I've had that comes close to this was the one day I spent driving an ice cream van in something like 1980 or 81. Everything was priced up but pretty much no one got the right change and as few checked they never knew they'd been ripped off. I can't remember the figures now but at the time I was amazed at both how much an ice cream van legitimately took on it's route and how much was scammed too. I was told that all the companies did it and you'd get the sack if you didn't. The scamming might explain the ice cream wars at the time, people got beaten up and ice cream vans got burnt in turf wars. Needless to say I went home and never went back. The van I drove was burnt within a week.

Apex clipper

woof woof

I like their vegi burgers, chips and Mc Flurries.

garry

Grampa

So I guess everyone's believing the MacDonalds letter is genuine? I'd say it's far more likely to be a scam put up on the internet by a disgruntled employee - MacDonalds would lose loads more than they'd save by people not going back. As the saying goes, "you can rip anyone off...

...once."

- Any business that relies massively on repeat business (as MacDonalds do) wouldn't be dumb enough to have a policy like this.

It'd be like car makers deliberately making cars that rust so they'd have to buy more - a policy that clearly worked brilliantly in the UK for Lancia.

woof woof

I don't know why people pick on McD. It seems to have been singled out as the embodiment of everything bad about the West and America in particular.

PS. If David Thorne tried to pay me for something with a drawing of a spider I'd shove it up his arse.

He sounds like someone I'd hate on sight.

Big TC

I've been on the receiving end of one of these 'mistakes' at a drive-through in the past, and I called from my mobile creating merry hell. I was told that if I care to return to the drive-through, not only would I receive the missing item, but a complimentary burger too. So that 'mistake' cost them more in the long run!

Gooner

Grampa

But if you did notice but couldn't be arsed to go back, you'd still not go there again would you?

Sorry but I don't buy the idea that MacDonalds would deliberately leave items out of meals - the food might not be good, but they do know how to run a business and such tactics would be of the level of a numpty middle manager who couldn't see beyond the end of his nose, not those of MD of a business that has such a successful formula they can make a mint out peddling mediocrity.

woof woof

Dunno about mediocrity. The actual food may arguably be mediocre but compared to other fast food or even non fast food outlets? Compare McD to your average pub lunch or fast food outlet (your average fish and chip shop maybe??) and I think they'll shine. I find the standard of service and product presentation to be good and the standard of cleanliness good too out front, what we can see over the counter and the toilets too which are amazingly well kept compared to other establishments which frankly cause worry.

Like I said, I don't know why people single McD out for criticism.

Matt

McDonalds have listed amongst the Times 100 top Graduate Employers for the last decade. As an organisation, it may be selling a product frowned upon by many, but I find the odd one here and there to be quite tasty and to be bucking the trend in the downturn shows it is a sensibly run company. The odd one here and there is likely no more ruinous than the kebabs or ratburgers people eat when drunk, either and they don't have healthy options on their menus.

More so, our local drive-thru has been renovated inside and it's quite a nice place to eat (when it's not too busy with chavs).

Apex clipper

Well you lot haven't sampled the shyte that's on offer around here!

I wouldn't feed my dog a maccy d's..and I haven't a dog. You've been brainwashed over the years with the notion that it's good easy grub, roll up, fill yer face. It wasn't that good years ago and it's been going downhill with it's quality ever since.

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Apex clipper

BeN

It's unhealthy, but I'm sure it's not much worse than your typical British fish n' chips. (I don't know for sure of course)

I think the reason McD's are targeted is because of what it symbolises. Lazy Americans who demand instant gratification, instead of doing things "properly".

Apex clipper

Bob Sacramento

Dr. Hfuhruhurr

Whenever I go to BK or McD, I only have the burger, as their skinny fries go cold before you can eat them. McD in Germany have opened up what they call McCafé, which serves proper coffee, smoothies and quite nice cakes.

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Dr. Hfuhruhurr

Humphrey The Pug

Burger King is a fair bit more expensive than McDonalds, though I agree that BK is nicer.

Scouse

BK over Ronnie Mac's for me, but KFC over both of them.

I'm another that sits there wondering if those people who 'protest' the likes of McDonalds have anything better to do with their time. To me it just appears to be more anti-americanism which I find utterly distasteful.

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DetmoldDick

TimR

I rarely go to any of these places but prefer McD chips to BK ones.

The BK burgers are far superior though.

Do they still do 'Whoppers'?
I always got a childish enjoyment asking for 2 whoppers

BeN

woof woof

"Fat???!! Didn't the guy almost die?"

Ah, the bloke willing to risk his life for his political agenda and axe grinding. Can I suggests that he fecks off to Africa to confront pirates, murderous Muslim fundamentalists and fascist tribal dictators if he wants to do some good?

Fish and chips and other outlets...there's more to this than fat and calories. The preparation and cleanliness is more important to me as being a skinny sod I'm far more worried about sam and ella and the like than a little salt or fat.

A vegi burger, fries and a Mc Flurry would be very nice this afti.

DradusContact

The promotional mcflurrys are usually pretty good too. Though they never swirl them enough!

woof woof

A general food rant.

I don't care about fat, sugar, salt or calories I just want food that tastes good. Everything these days is "light" and "low in" but it tastes like crap. Wandering around ASDA yesterday I couldn't buy the butter I usually get as all they had was low salt and the vegi section was full of light stuff.

I don't normally complain but some spicy bean burgers I used to like changed to low fat and they were horrible, they had no taste, no spice and they just seemed to be full of bits of wood so I zapped of an email to complain and they sent me a nice reply and a bundle of free vouchers. They'd redone their range to reduce fat but due to "adverse customer reaction" they'd had to withdraw it all and re do the recipes. Guess what? The new recipe is crap too!

Why do we have to have bland food just because some people have no self control and don't exercise and end up fat? Fook 'em!

Bob Sacramento

At your age Alan I most definitely would worry about fat, sugar, salt and calories. Skinny people keel over all the time as well. *

* Not wanting to put a downer on your day or anything.

woof woof

I'm not worried, apparently I am the idea human. I might have mentioned that I've been told that at pretty much every medical I've ever had

I only look skinny next to all the fat bastards about these days.

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ALF

Being on the road a lot means I use fast food places quite regularly - I balance that with plenty of exercise and healthy food the rest of the time. Besides, comparing calories/salt/sugar/fat of a McD's mean to a sarnie, crips etc that I buy from a supermarket reveals similar levels!

Anyway, I generally favour McDonalds as they are distinctly better managed than the other brands - far more likely to be quick, consistent, clean, etc in my experience.

Humphrey The Pug

888 calories in a Big Mac meal, it sounds alot but if you add up all of the calories that a male adult is recommended to have in a day, I'll base this on my daily intake substituting my sarnies and fruit etc at lunch for a Big Mac meal and Coke, you are looking at:

Breakfast:

2 Weetabix and Milk 192 cal
Cup of tea, skimmed milk and no sugar 2 cal

Snack before lunch:

Banana 172 cal (thats alot!!)

Lunch:

Med Big Mac Meal including a Coke 990cal

Evening Meal:

Tonight I'm making a sausage ragu pasta thing 765cal

Well the above totals 2121 calories and a male adult is reccommended to consume on average 2500 calories per day, leaving 379 calories spare.

As for salt, the daily recommended amount is no more than 6g, the above totals 6.19, so a tiny bit over your daily allowance but not a great deal.

Back to the calorie thing, I actually consume less calories than the total in a day and I excercise, so why the fuck can I not get rid of my belly!!?

Apex clipper

Humphrey The Pug

I didn't really see the point in Super Size me, I think the outcome was pretty obvious before he started, like most questionable foods, in moderation a Maccy D's is fine.

Apex clipper

DarthBalls

It was established back in the 80s that 'they always fuck you at the drive through':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh3s5Mp8-Nw

If you eat at MacDonalds you deserve all you get (which is usually a flattend dog turd in something that once resembled bread in a former life).

Boxer6

woof woof

"Care to point out the axe grinding?"

He was making more of a political point than a health one. All it was was more thinly disguised bash the American imperialists crap.

TimR

Roadsterstu

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