I should know better
Lennoxville, Quebec has the world's worst McDonald's.
I succumbed to my craving for a Big Mac on my way back from North Hatley today and stopped there. I knew better than to go to that one, but it was on the way - and going to the next closest required a trip through a nasty construction zone.
I have had several bad experiences at that particular location, mostly related to waits.
It's fast food, and should, by definition, be fast.
It is never fast in Lennoxville.
Once, we went there and waiting for ten minutes in a line that did not move. At McDonalds! I actually gave up (and I was craving a Big Mac - it's my Achilles heel) and wrote a comment card. And I quote: "I have been in McDonald's in five provinces and four states and this location has the absolute worst service of any I have been in."
(It's not the dirtiest: that honour is reserved for the McDonalds in Sussex, NB - you have been warned.)
Today, I tried the drive-thru. Problem #1 - the guy ahead of me pulled away and I pulled up. It took over a minute just to open the window and hand me my drink - with ice. I always order no ice.
Problem #2 - I paid with a card, and I sat there holding the machine in my car for almost five minutes. Hardly an apology even.
Problem #3 - The guy behind me was in a big huge truck and it was loud and smelly, and I was sitting there with the interact terminal, which meant I couldn't roll up my window. And it was COLD outside! And I had a baby in the back!
Problem #4 - Okay, not so much a problem as highly hilarious. It had been so long since the woman (who has worked there as long as I've lived in the area - almost five years, counting the summer of Stanstead) gave me my original drink that she handed me another. Again, with ice. I smirked and took it, with no plans to drink it. Was I going to say no?
My fries were, I must say, very hot and pleasantly salty so I'll give them that. But the last time I went through a drive-thru? They asked if my order was complete and verified it, had the machine ready at the first window and my food waiting for me by the time I pulled up to the second, and my drink was not polluted with ice. And the Big Mac was stacked properly, instead of that haphazard mess I just ate. And it was lunchtime, and there were about a dozen cars behind me and a visible line up inside.
Of course, that was in Sherbrooke, a magical land where the concept of a drive-thru is still to drive through.
I succumbed to my craving for a Big Mac on my way back from North Hatley today and stopped there. I knew better than to go to that one, but it was on the way - and going to the next closest required a trip through a nasty construction zone.
I have had several bad experiences at that particular location, mostly related to waits.
It's fast food, and should, by definition, be fast.
It is never fast in Lennoxville.
Once, we went there and waiting for ten minutes in a line that did not move. At McDonalds! I actually gave up (and I was craving a Big Mac - it's my Achilles heel) and wrote a comment card. And I quote: "I have been in McDonald's in five provinces and four states and this location has the absolute worst service of any I have been in."
(It's not the dirtiest: that honour is reserved for the McDonalds in Sussex, NB - you have been warned.)
Today, I tried the drive-thru. Problem #1 - the guy ahead of me pulled away and I pulled up. It took over a minute just to open the window and hand me my drink - with ice. I always order no ice.
Problem #2 - I paid with a card, and I sat there holding the machine in my car for almost five minutes. Hardly an apology even.
Problem #3 - The guy behind me was in a big huge truck and it was loud and smelly, and I was sitting there with the interact terminal, which meant I couldn't roll up my window. And it was COLD outside! And I had a baby in the back!
Problem #4 - Okay, not so much a problem as highly hilarious. It had been so long since the woman (who has worked there as long as I've lived in the area - almost five years, counting the summer of Stanstead) gave me my original drink that she handed me another. Again, with ice. I smirked and took it, with no plans to drink it. Was I going to say no?
My fries were, I must say, very hot and pleasantly salty so I'll give them that. But the last time I went through a drive-thru? They asked if my order was complete and verified it, had the machine ready at the first window and my food waiting for me by the time I pulled up to the second, and my drink was not polluted with ice. And the Big Mac was stacked properly, instead of that haphazard mess I just ate. And it was lunchtime, and there were about a dozen cars behind me and a visible line up inside.
Of course, that was in Sherbrooke, a magical land where the concept of a drive-thru is still to drive through.