Mc Donald's: I'm NOT lovin it!

It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving and I was on the way to meet my friend's boyfriend at the mall. (Having just endured "Black Friday" shopping with his girlfriend, Frank thought I was the perfect person to help him pick out a gift.) As I was running a little late, I decided to stop at a Mc Donald's for a quick bite. I stopped at the Mc Donald's at 401 Main St. in the Billings, MT heights. I pull up to the speaker and after hearing the requisite spiel welcoming me and offering assistance, I said, "I just need a double cheese burger and."

The girl through the speaker interrupted, "That will be $1.25 at the first window."

"Um, I wasn't done yet." I hesitatingly replied.

"You just said, 'I just need'!" came out of the speaker in a rather petulant voice.

"Yes, I just need a double cheeseburger and a small diet coke."

"Ugh, that will be at the first window."

While I wasn't completely satisfied with this exchange, I still prepared to follow her directions, after all, I don't expect steller service from a fast food restaurant. Suddenly, from the speaker I hear, "Oh my God, are you fucking kidding me?"

I looked at this offending piece of drive through technology and said, "I heard that."

I pulled forward and there were two pusillanimous teenagers gaping at me through the window. I sat there and waited for one of the miscreants to have the courage to approach me and assist me in paying for and then receiving my double cheese burger and diet coke. After a tedious, what felt like, 5 minutes, I told them through the window to get a manager.

Eventually, an assistant manager came to the window. She, like the girl at the speaker, asked if she could help me. I asked, "Is that the girl taking orders? If she is, she should probably be making food instead of talking to customers," and then I told the manager what was said through the malevolent speaker.

"Ugh, she is only 15!" Was all the reply I was to receive. (I believe that you have to be 16 to work in the kitchen, but that is besides the point.)

At this point I did loose my temper a bit and, for the only time in this incident, raised my voice and said, "I don't give a flying fuck if she is 50! Do you really think that talking that way to a customer is appropriate?"

"If you are just going to be mad, there is nothing I can do to help you!" She yelled and then slammed the window shut so hard that it bounced back open.

"Fine, now I want to see your manager."

I waited a few more minutes, and by this time there were now cars behind me. Finally, a large man, who I can only assume was the manager, comes to the window. The first words out of his mouth were, "You need to move your damned car." I stared at him, incredulous that he didn't even ask me what my problem was. Or at least, to ask me to pull around so that we could discuss my issue.

I told him, "I don't want my food, I don't want a coupon, I don't want a discount, I just want an apology."

"No one here is going to apologize to you, and if you don't move your car, I am going to call the cops." He then proceeded to slam the window shut on me as well. I sat there long enough to make up my mind that I would call their corporate customer service when I got home when I saw him go to the office and pick up the phone. So, I left.

Just as a side note, I used to manage a fast food restaurant when I was in college and I had to deal with angry customer's all the time. I was no longer even upset at the girl who cursed me through the speaker. My anger was all for the supervisors at this point. If at any time the assistant manager, or the large man who might have been a manager, had said those magic words, "I'm sorry, I will make sure that it doesn't happen again," the situation would not have escalated, I would have still paid for and received my food, and would still patronize their business. Even if they had never done anything to that girl, I, the customer would have been happy. Although, they should have said something to her as she is young and needs to learn about customer service so that she won't have to work there for the rest of her life.

Anyhow, to continue, not five minutes after leaving, I was pulled over by the police. I pulled into the nearest parking lot and noticed that not only was there one police car, there were two. The first one pulled in at an angle behind the car and the other pulled up along side, effectively blocking me in. While the first one was approaching my driver's side window, the second got out of his car, stood behind mine and put his hand on his holster. The first policeman asked me how my day was going and I told him that it had been fine until Mc Donald's. He asked me to explain and so I did. After finishing my narrative, he said, "Wow, I'm sorry." While I appreciated the apology, I didn't need one from the Billings Police Department. I needed it from Mc Donald's. He then told me that since he had pulled me over he needed to run my information so, I handed over my license, he walked behind my car and told the vigilante cop that he could leave. As I saw the second car leave, the first officer came back to my window grinning and told me that he had never pulled over anyone as clean as me. They didn't even have a speeding ticket on me. Since he needed some more information on me, I gave him my phone number and other information not on my license. As he was writing, I looked and noticed that under race it said, "NA". I automatically thought, "non-applicable" and then it hit me.

"I'm not Native American."

He looked up and said, "No, you're not. I just wrote down what they called in." When I asked him what exactly they had called in, I was told that they had called in a highly aggressive, belligerent, possibly drunk native american woman.

Technically, I am native american, I was born here. But, I live in Montana and I know the stereotype that most native american indians here are labeled with. Being mistaken for a native american doesn't bother me as I have good friends that are native american. Being judged on my race, whether it was the correct one or not, is what bothers me. Only in Montana would they assume that a woman with black hair who is angry at 2:00 in the after noon would be a drunk indian.

The officer told me where he thought Mc Donald's corporate was and then told me to have a good day. I did call corporate, but refused to give them any personal information as the lady on the phone could not verify who would have access to that information. She was apologetic after hearing what happened in the drive through, but was completely speechless when I told her about being pulled over. I think she knew better then to try to offer me a free meal or some other paltry compensation. At the time, I wasn't even sure what I was going to do about this situation. As you can tell, I have decided. I will post this as many places that I can and hope that as many people read it as possible. While I have not boycotted all Mc Donald's, I have most decidedly black balled the one at 401 Main St.

If you live in Billings, plan on visiting here, or know someone who does live here. Please make sure that they read this and know which Mc Donald's NOT to go to.