Last Sunday, close to high noon, I was lining up to order food at McDonald’s Greenhills when a customer came barging back to the counter to complain. He was holding up his Quarter Pounder order and telling the counter staff that the kitchen had given him the smaller patty used for regular burgers.
He was clearly furious at the staff, though he remained apologetic to the people waiting in line.
The counter staff examined the burger, and from where I was standing; there was just one person ahead of me in my queue; the complaint looked valid. The patty was visibly small. It did not look like the Quarter Pounder he had ordered. After a few minutes, the issue was corrected, and he was given the right patty for his sandwich.
As it happened, I was planning to order a Quarter Pounder myself. So after giving my order, I added a small reminder to the cashier: “Please make sure your kitchen people give me the right patty for my burger.”
The staff chuckled and replied, “Yes, sir!”
When my order arrived, I watched as they assembled it on the countertop. I noticed that the person who took my order made sure that I was getting the correct beef patty. Kudos to him! And from where I was standing, I could see that the kitchen got it right.
That made me wonder: was the earlier mistake really just a mistake?
How does someone miss the patty size when the order is right there before assembly? How does the staff correctly pick the box labeled “Quarter Pounder,” place the sandwich inside it, and still fail to notice that the burger itself has the wrong patty?
Maybe it was carelessness. Maybe it was a lapse during a busy lunch hour. But from a customer’s point of view, it is hard not to wonder how such an obvious mismatch made it all the way to the counter.